An Islamic extremist being held in Australia’s most secure prison was allegedly able to run a meth ring through three-way calls with his solicitor using code words.
Convicted killer Bassam Hamzy, 40, was charged on Wednesday with leading a crime syndicate that helped distribute methamphetamine through the Illawarra and Riverina regions of NSW.
Police allege the Goulburn SuperMax inmate had been pulling the strings of the drug syndicate through his solicitor, Martin Churchill, who took questions from drug suppliers to ask Hamzy and passed on directions from the inmate to his associates.
Churchill would allegedly already be on the phone to major drug suppliers when he added Hamzy into a three-way call, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Police allege they would use the words ‘lawyers’ and ‘barristers’ when talking about suppliers and the movement of money.
Bassam Hamzy (pictured) was arrested on Wednesday morning for allegedly running a drug syndicate from his jail cell at Goulburn’s SuperMax prison
Hamzy’s solicitor, Martin Churchill (pictured), is accused of calling Hamzy at Goulburn SuperMax prison with major drug suppliers already on the phone, and connecting the two via a privileged client-lawyer phone call, which correctional officers cannot listen in to
Police allege Churchill also directed the supply of 452.8g of meth between October 2017 and February 2018.
Reports claim one of the suppliers on the three-way calls was an alleged supplier for the Illawarra chapter of Brothers 4 Life, a criminal group founded by Hamzy.
Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Henney told media their investigation into the drug syndicate uncovered ‘the abuse of client-solicitor communications in order to organise criminal activities, in particular, the supply of drugs outside of the jail complex’.
Both Hamzy and Churchill were arrested on Wednesday and both are facing a series of charges.
Hamzy has been charged with running a drug syndicate out of his jail cell before. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to using a smuggled phone to direct the movement of illicit drugs from his cell at Lithgow
Churchill was arrested at his apartment in Glebe on Wednesday morning (pictured) and now faces a series of charges
Hamzy has been charged with knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group, supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime and hindering the apprehension of a person who committed a serious offence.
Churchill was charged with knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group, participating in a criminal group, contributing to criminal activity, taking part in the supply of a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime, hindering the apprehension of a person who committed a serious offence and hindering the discovery of evidence relating to a serious indictable offence.
Police uncovered Hamzy’s alleged role in the syndicate while investigating the execution-style murder of 15-year-old Brayden Dillon, who was fatally shot while sleeping in his bed on Good Friday 2017.
Mr Dillon is believed to have been killed in an act of revenge after his older brother Joshua was charged with the stabbing murder of 18-year-old Adam Abu-Mahmoud during a brawl, a crime he has pleaded not guilty to.
Officers allegedly uncovered the ring during an investigation into the execution-style killing of Brayden Dillion (pictured) on Good Friday in 2017
A paralegal who once worked for Churchill and who dated Hamzy in 2016 had links to the 2013 shooting of Adam Abu-Mahmoud’s uncle, Abul, who survived gunshot wounds to the shoulder, back, scalp, neck and hand, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The woman, referred to as Witness M, identified Abu-Mahmoud to the gunman who shot him at the Chokolatta cafe in Bankstown.
She pleaded guilty in 2016 to being an accessory before the fact of murder and being an accessory before the fact to discharging a firearm with the intent to cause grevious bodily harm.
Abu-Mahmoud has been charged with allegedly orchestrating the hit on Mr Dillon.
Hamzy has been charged with running a drug syndicate out of his jail cell before.
In 2011, Hamzy pleaded guilty to supplying a large quantity of methamphetamine from his jail cell, after prison officers at Lithgow uncovered a mobile phone he had smuggled in.
He used the phone to recruit and direct associates in the trafficking of millions of dollars worth of illicit drugs, including meth, ecstasy and cannabis.
Hamzy is the founder of notorious western Sydney crime gang ‘Brothers for Life’
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