Former Canterbury and Wests Tigers playmaker Brandon Wakeham has been charged with drug supply offences as part of a wider sting in which police say they seized one kilogram of MDMA.
Wakeham, 25, who now plays for Manly’s feeder club Blacktown, was arrested in the Brookvale Oval car park about 1.20pm on Wednesday after an eight-month investigation into the supply of illicit drugs.
The Fijian international’s Bexley apartment was also raided and he was taken to Manly police station, where he was charged with taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug, greater than a large commercial quantity; taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug, greater than an indictable and less than a commercial quantity; and participating in a criminal group.
On Thursday, he was granted bail in Manly Local Court. Magistrate Robyn Denes said his role was that of a mid- or lower-tier member of the alleged syndicate.
Wakeham, who has played 40 NRL games, was allegedly in the passenger’s seat of a car during two instances of alleged drug supply, the court heard. On neither occasion did he “have any knowledge” of what was going on, his high-profile lawyer Elias Tabchouri said.
“He’s not organising any of this, he’s not said to be the genesis. He’s said to be a passenger in the car of the people who have done it,” Tabchouri said.
It’s a difficult time for him,” he said, adding that Wakeham would be defending the charges.
Alleged kingpin, San Souci businessman Sam Amine, 47, and his nephew Nabil Allouche, 24, were also picked up in raids on Wednesday.
Amine was charged with 10 offences, including directing the activities of a criminal group, dealing with the proceeds of crime, supplying an unregistered pistol, and seven offences relating to commercial drug supply.
The NSW Crime Commission has frozen $10 million of Amine’s assets as part of the operation. Police also say they seized cash, phones and drugs from his home.
This is not the first time that Amine has made headlines – he was allegedly kidnapped and beaten in Sydney in 2021 as part of a reported $3 million extortion attempt.
He was at home with his wife in Sans Souci on June 9, 2021, when it’s alleged four armed men broke into the house, pulled him into a stolen BMW and took him to a premises in Padstow where he was assaulted. Police say he escaped just before midnight by climbing out of a window. Three men were charged over the incident.
Charges levelled against Amine in 2019 for steroid possession in Fiji, where he owns several gyms, were subsequently dropped.
