Inside the drug gang that sold Dior-plated bricks of cocaine to Sydney’s wealthy

They had gang nicknames like Alien and Airforce1 that they used to communicate via encrypted cyber group chats while dealing drugs, including Dior-plated bricks of cocaine.

They sold mountains of cocaine, including vacuum-sealed blocks of cocaine with the French designer’s brand stamped on the surface, along with methamphetamine and MDMA, hidden in frozen bags and sold to customers in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

The gang members, some of whom had ties to the motorcycles, exchanged cash for drugs hidden in Coles shopping bags in parking lots, unaware that in late 2020 they had been infiltrated by detectives from New York’s drug and gang squads. South Wales.

Gang members kept bags and bags of the drug inside their suburban apartments, as well as firearms, scales, a vacuum-sealing machine, an electronic money counter and huge wads of cash.

But after an undercover police officer posed as a buyer and joined the gang, it took just 21 days to bring them down.

Details of the ‘Dior cocaine gang’, who were also obsessed with designer clothes, who were arrested in a stunning police operation nearly two years ago, emerged during the sentencing of two of them on Friday.

The bosses, Jake Davies and Abbas Hijazi, who are believed to have used the code names Cleo and Military Mind in their encrypted cyber chats that were monitored by undercover police, have already pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later this year.

On Friday, NSW District Court Judge Pauline David sentenced two gang members, Alfredo San Giorgio and David Anthony Coleman, whose duties she described as storing, packing and selling the gang’s drugs.

The raid in April 2021 made international headlines when police opened up the gang that was spread across Sydney and Wollongong, uncovering evidence of the gang’s illicit activity and designer hit bought with ill-gotten gains.

Police seized 12.5 kg of illicit drugs with a combined street value of $12 million, $1.2 million in cash, Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton sunglasses and Christian Dior-plated bricks of cocaine.

Six men were arrested in the raids, one of whom was led out in Gucci sandals while another was handcuffed in his underwear.

San Giorgio, 49, pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of prohibited drugs and to supplying a commercial large quantity.

The court heard on Friday that San Giorgio had the gang’s code name Airforce1 and had supplied 1.33 kg of methamphetamine, 2.5 kg of cocaine and 1.8 kg of the drug MDMA.

Coleman, 38, whose gang name was Alien, pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, supplying a large commercial quantity, knowingly handling the proceeds of crime and possessing an unregistered firearm.

The court heard that Coleman supplied 834g of MDMA, 2.46kg of methamphetamine and 1.18kg of cocaine and was found in possession of an unlicensed Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol.

Judge David relayed the running of the drug gang, saying that directors Davies and Hijazi first had the police intervene in the drug operation in October 2020, and then placed an undercover operative (UCO) on the gang by January 2020. 2021.

The pattern of dealing with Coleman, San Giorgio and the UCO saw Giorgio obtain the drugs and deliver them to Coleman inside a Coles plastic bag in the car park of his apartment in the inner Sydney suburb of Zetland.

Coleman then sold the drugs to the UCO near his home in Sydney’s southern suburbs, which included a $21,000 trade from police for Coleman’s Coles bag containing a frozen bag of 277.7 grams of 42-percent MDMA. percent purity.

In another drug exchange, on April 20, 2021, Coleman picked up Giorgio’s bag of drugs in Zetland, met with the UCO, and took $37,000 in exchange for a shopping bag containing 277.2 g of 49 MDMA. % purity and 139.4 g of methamphetamine of 79% purity. .

The court heard that the UCO had discussions with gang director Jake Davies about the encrypted cyber chats in which Davies offered the ice and cocaine which he refused, and Davies admitted with regard to his MDMA ‘brother, my prices have up a bit’.

On Friday, David Coleman and Alfredo Giorgio appeared on the prison grounds via AVL of the Parklea Maximum Prison and John Morony Correctional Facility.

Both men faced life in prison for their drug offences, but Judge David handed them greatly reduced sentences due to their early guilty pleas, history of trauma, and drug addiction, which included bodybuilder Coleman’s cocaine and steroid addiction. .

It sentenced Coleman to a maximum of six years and seven months, with a non-parole period that could see his release in March 2025, and San Giorgio to six years and three months with an earlier release date of October 2024.

Another member of the drug gang, Ibrahim Kansou, has already been sentenced to three years in prison to serve an intensive correctional order for supplying a prohibited drug.

In July, Davies will be sentenced on several counts of supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, and Hijazi will be sentenced for involvement in supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.