By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 10 November 2016, street-level drug dealer Hayden O’Neill introduced his drug supplier Michael O’Neile to a man who was interested in buying some methamphetamine. Unbeknownst to both dealers, the interested buyer was an undercover police operative. Mr O’Neile supplied the police officer with 13.88 grams of ice with… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 12 May 2014, Huang Enhua negotiated a deal to supply 15 kilograms of ephedrine for a price of $80,000 a kilogram. Unbeknownst to Mr Huang, he’d arranged to supply the $1.2 million worth of the methamphetamine precursor to an undercover police officer. The two men met in a… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 20 October 2012, three boxes containing 5,939 grams of methamphetamine arrived in Sydney from the United States. Said to contain clothing, the consignment was received by FedEx International Security and was addressed to a Mr Peter Suca, the operations manager at Esprit Toll in Lidcombe. Two days later… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In the early afternoon of 12 May 2014, a number of Kings Cross police officers noticed a car being driven erratically. The officers stopped the vehicle and spoke to the driver, Ramy El-Sayed, whose demeanour raised their suspicion. The officers told the driver they were going to search him… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The medicinal benefits of cannabis have become widely accepted in Australia. Indeed, the Turnbull government passed legislation in February 2016, which set up a licensing scheme for “the cultivation and production of cannabis and cannabis resin for medicinal and scientific purposes.” However, the establishment of legalised medicinal cannabis has been… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On the evening of 26 May 2016, NSW police executed a search warrant at the Westmead home of Shahab Jawosh. During the search, officers seized a range of drugs, including 286 grams of opium, 30 grams of methamphetamine, 0.44 grams of MDMA and 173 grams of cannabis. Police located… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim After receiving information that one Aaron Edward Hutchinson was involved in the supply of prohibited drugs in the Penrith local area command, police began an investigation in early 2010. An undercover operation was arranged and, in April, Mr Hutchinson supplied an undercover officer with cocaine on three separate occasions…. Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim At around 9.30 one morning, NSW police officers were at a flat on Murray Street in Port Macquarie investigating an incident, when the phone rang. An officer answered and told the caller the occupant wasn’t home. The caller rang again two minutes later. This time, the officer recognised the… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim NSW police don’t have the power to randomly search people’s vehicles. If an officer does search a vehicle, they must have a suspicion on reasonable grounds for doing so. The police powers to stop and search people and their vehicles without a warrant are contained in the Law Enforcement… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Last week, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (NSWCCA) determined that a precedent followed by the state’s courts had become a “judicially imposed constraint”. That rule stated that a person convicted of a substantial drug supply must be sentenced to full time imprisonment unless there were ‘exceptional circumstances’. Over… Read more »