A DUTCH organised crime syndicate that allegedly planned to sell $120 million in drugs to the former NSW Crime Commission deputy director Mark Standen was linked yesterday to a Sydney drug gang that planned to manufacture $52.5 million worth of the methamphetamine ice.
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Four alleged principals in the Dutch crime syndicate were named in a statement presented by federal police to the Central Local Court yesterday when two members of the alleged Sydney connection - the former Australian champion kickboxer turned television boxing promoter Adam Keith Watt, 40, and Radislov Spadina, 43, faced drug conspiracy charges.
Watt and Spadina, both from Manly, were arrested in morning raids by police on their homes after a 2½-year covert operation involving police in the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Britain, Belgium, France and the United Arab Emirates.
The arrests came after the arrest of 15 Dutch members of the accused Amsterdam-based gang in an operation in which the Australian Federal Police arrested Standen, 51, and the Blacktown food wholesaler Bakhos "Bill" Jalalaty, 45. A Briton, James Kinch, 49, was arrested in Thailand.
The court was told that Kinch, who is charged with Standen and Jalalaty with conspiring to import ephedrine in rice packets from Pakistan that was to be used in the manufacture of $120 million worth of ice, was the British go-between for Standen with the Dutch gang.
Four of the alleged Dutch gang members - Louis Aloysius Cornelis Weerden, 43, Jan Plas, 53, Michael Clemm Von Hohenberg, 43, and Thomas van den Berg, 46 - allegedly linked to the Standen drug conspiracy - were again named yesterday in court documents which alleged they had planned another big drug shipment to Sydney last year in a deal with a separate northern beaches drug syndicate.
Spadina was named by the federal police - in documents presented in evidence to the magistrate, Allan Moore - as the alleged head of the Manly drug syndicate.
Watt was named a principal with him in a conspiracy to import 210 kilograms of ephedrine, a precursor drug, into Australia last year that was to be used to make $52.5 million worth of ice.
Both Watt and Spadina appeared briefly and made no plea as their lawyers asked for adjournments to prepare bail applications.
The arrest of Watt, a former Commonwealth and world champion kickboxer who fought under the name "Aussie Sniper", came after Channel Ten announced on Monday that he would promote and host free-to-air boxing fights on Ten's new high-definition channel.
Watt was formerly trained by the boxer Jeff Fenech.
Watt and Spadina were formally refused bail and are expected to reappear next week.
