Casino big fish in drug arrests

The Australian Crime Commission and Victoria Police operation, code-named Sethra, seized an estimated $3 million of heroin and about $20 million in houses and assets a Victorian record.

Police are expected to seize up to $20 million more in assets after raiding properties in Melbourne's western and inner-northern suburbs, including Fitzroy's commission flats, early yesterday.

Police arrested 21 people, charging 12 with drug offences.

Eight were last night waiting to appear at an out-of-sessions court hearing in which police hoped to remand them.

Four were bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court today, including a 34-year-old Braybrook woman, a 39-year-old Collingwood woman and a Sunshine woman, 46, who were charged with offences including trafficking a drug of dependence and possessing a drug of dependence.

Five others were still helping police, while the remaining four were released and expected to be charged on summons.

The senior members of the syndicate are alleged to have operated for up to a decade in Melbourne, building a business empire that includes a Chinatown restaurant, a western suburbs petrol station and an impressive property portfolio.

The syndicate's key players are alleged to be Thi Nho Le and restaurant owner and businessman Kai Sin Mong. Thi Nho Le was a regular at Crown Casino's exclusive Mahogany Room and often loaned gamblers large sums.

The alleged syndicate is only one of many loosely connected multimillion-dollar crime cells targeted by the ACC and police agencies in Melbourne and Sydney in the past seven years.

ACC national manager Richard Grant alleged that "this is a group that, not that long ago, we seized five blocks of heroin and $645,000 cash and this group didn't miss a heartbeat".

Victoria Police sources said the operation was successful due to the powers and reach of the small but powerful ACC, which targets Australia's most senior crime figures.

The $40 million in assets expected to be seized in Operation Sethra equates to almost half the ACC's yearly budget.

The operation flowed from an earlier ACC inquiry into the movement of suspected drug money offshore via money remitters, international airline staff and bank transfers.

The 2005 inquiry, code-named Gordian-Katakan, confirmed that most illicit drug shipments enter Australia undetected and are distributed for huge profits, often sent offshore. The inquiry uncovered more than a dozen drug-trafficking cells operating down the east coast, making hundreds of millions of dollars.

Earlier this year, the owners of money-remitting services in Footscray, and Cabramatta and Bankstown in Sydney, were convicted after being charged with smuggling more than $90 million in drug money to south-east Asia for these syndicates.

Two Vietnam Airlines pilots were also convicted of smuggling drug money offshore.

Victoria Police Detective Inspector Doug Potter said further arrests would be made.

"The syndicate that has been operating in Melbourne has international links and we will be following up a number of inquiries in regards to those links."With REID SEXTON