Sydney dad and son charged over $24m cocaine bust in Perth
A Sydney father and son with alleged links to organised crime have been charged after a $24 million cocaine bust in Western Australia.
Brendon Khalil, 53, and his son Simon, 25, have been charged with importing 66 kilograms of cocaine discovered in car tyres in Perth.
Police allege the duo has links to the notorious Hamzy and Alameddine crime families in Sydney.
The men were arrested last Friday after they went to a home in Nollamara and allegedly collected dozens of packages of what were supposed to be cocaine but instead were a harmless substance planted by police.
Khalil had flown in from Sydney earlier that day while his son had arrived the night before.
Police allege four West Australians also charged over the drug importation plot had already cut apart the tyres to access the 56 packages of cocaine concealed inside.
The Sydney pair allegedly collected the packages, which had been placed inside bags and a cardboard box, and briefly stopped at a hotel before driving to a shopping centre.
Police will also allege the Khalil pair opened at least one of the plastic-wrapped blocks to test the contents before dumping all of them in a skip bin outside the shopping centre.
Australian Federal Police swooped on the pair soon after and arrested them before retrieving the discarded packages.
Both men have been charged with significant drug importation charges which can carry a sentence of life in jail.
They will face court today.
AFP Superintendent Graeme Marshall said police suspect the men were going to take the cocaine back to NSW to be distributed.
“The cost of this greed is paid by the Australian community.
Some of these costs can’t be measured – such as the impact on every frontline paramedic, doctor, nurse or police officer who gets assaulted by drug-affected persons;
people living in fear of gang-related violence resulting in a stray bullet in their child’s bedroom; or someone whose parent, child, partner or friend doesn’t make it home because of a car accident with a drug-affected driver,” Marshall said.
