Coke dealers go to dogs

RIVAL Sydney crime gangs stole cocaine stockpiles from each other using GPS dog trackers when supplies of the drug dried up in the pandemic.

Sold for about $79 at shops like retail giant JB Hi-fi, the devices were a cost effective alternative to a real tracking device – and also an ingenious way to reveal where stockpiles of cocaine were being hidden.

To set the trap, one criminal gang would make a deal to buy a small amount of cocaine from a competing crime syndicate. At some point during the deal, one of their members would secretly attach the device to the drug seller’s vehicle.

The thrifty criminals would then watch on their smartphones – using the app that comes with the pet tracking device – a map that showed where the seller’s vehicle drove to after the sale. The end goal was to uncover where the rival gang was hiding their larger stockpile of cocaine.

Once the location was known, they would steal the stockpile of cocaine.

The details of the plot were revealed on a secret police recording during an investigation into one of Sydney’s biggest cocaine smugglers.

The alleged smuggler cannot legally be named because of a pending court case.

He has been charged over a plot to smuggle almost one tonne of cocaine into Australia from South America. The man was also well informed on the international drug trade.

On April 21, 2021, police secretly recorded the man and associate helping him with the one tonne smuggling plot discussing the cheeky technique.

Police allege the man was telling the associate that his superiors in the smuggling operation were now taking after rival crime gangs who started “ripping off” the cocaine supplies of rival gangs when access to the drug became difficult for wholesalers during the 2020 Covid crisis.

The man allegedly said there had been a spate of incidents where crime gangs had followed competing syndicates around “for a whole f..king month” using their cars in an attempt to find where they were hiding their drugs.

But he also said some clever crooks just bought the pet tracking device and attached it to their cars.

The man told the associate the use of the pet tracking app to steal cocaine was a method employed by Lebanese gangs.

“Yeah, now but lately the last two years specially with the Covid because there is no (cocaine available) at all,” the man allegedly said. “It is very hard to get some, you know what they will be doing?

“They will buy (cocaine) off (a dealer) and then they f..kin’ follow you for a f..king whole month, see where you going, where you’re keeping it and then bang,” he said.

“Or they put (a) tracker on your car or anything, these days brother the tracker or anything …”

The associate was already aware of the tracking technique and said: “Yeah you can buy (from) f..king JB Hi-fi.

The other benefit was the devices were easy to use.

“You don’t even need to install them, the man said.

“And just before it runs out, they put another f..king . . . ahh tag ahh on your car and once they see where you’re going. They come to buy some or tomorrow and then they follow you … And they say oh, bring some tomorrow and then bang.”