A Victorian man accused of masterminding an alleged drug-smuggling operation worth almost $50 million is on trial in Perth after police linked him to a motorhome carrying methamphetamine across Australia.
Mohammed Charif Oueida, 50, denies trafficking methamphetamine with the intention of selling it. Prosecutors allege he travelled in a black Hummer while maintaining contact with the motorhome and its occupants during the journey from Melbourne to Western Australia in April 2021.
Police stopped the rental motorhome in a rural West Australian town and allegedly found the drugs concealed beneath its bed. The man and woman inside were so distressed after being pulled over that they required hospital treatment, the court was told.
Prosecutors allege Oueida was travelling in convoy with the vehicle, keeping about 30 minutes behind it and communicating with its driver, Khaled El-Moustafa, through an encrypted application. Oueida allegedly used the code name “Air Force”, while El-Moustafa identified himself as “Trouble”.
El-Moustafa later admitted his role in the alleged operation and is now serving a prison sentence, prosecutors told the jury.
A third participant, known as “Infinite”, is alleged to have been Oueida’s brother. Prosecutors claim he owned storage units and a panelbeating business in Campbellfield, north of Melbourne, where CCTV showed drugs allegedly being loaded into the van before it travelled west.
The jury was shown footage of Oueida’s cross-country journey after police placed a tracker on his Hummer about a month before his arrest. Witnesses recalled the vehicle, which carried the number plate “HUMR2”, stopping at service stations and roadhouses along the route.
A manager at a roadhouse in Ceduna said the black Hummer was memorable because it was “really impressive”. Describing its driver, she said: “He was a big bloke. He looked like a Hollywood star – tough. He was nice, but very standoffish.”
Messages exchanged between the three alleged conspirators referred to avoiding detection. They included warnings that highway patrol officers were nearby, instructions to find “the best hiding spot” for the motorhome and a message stating: “I’m at Norseman … at the back of the BP, hotel room 26. See you soon.”
Prosecutors said hotel records showed Oueida checked into room 26 at the remote Western Australian town on that date. Other messages referred to meeting at an Airbnb in Coolbellup, in Perth’s south, where police later arrested him.
During a recorded police interview played to the jury, officers questioned Oueida about the multiple mobile phones he possessed. He said he sold encrypted phones for about $1,800 and explained that customers wanted privacy, including “a lady who wears a scarf” who sent him photographs.
Oueida’s lawyer told the jury police had spent “considerable time and expense” trying to attribute a crime to the Victorian man. The defence argued officers were now attempting to connect him to an offence he did not commit.
The reason police had placed the tracker on Oueida’s vehicle has not been made clear to the jury. The trial continues.
