(LAWFUEL) – Two men have been charged after high-grade heroin with an estimated potential street value of $4.5 million was seized in Haymarket, Sydney.

About 9.50am yesterday, operatives from the Joint Asian Crime Group (JACG) arrested two Singaporean Nationals, aged 41 and 34, after officers stopped a taxi in George Street.

Officers searched the taxi and uncovered a suitcase, which had a large quantity of a white powder in plastic resealable bags.

The two men were taken to Surry Hills Police Station where they were interviewed by police. Both have been charged with possessing and supplying a prohibited drug. They have been refused bail and are expected to appear in Parramatta Bail Court later today.

Joint Asian Crime Group detectives also executed a search warrant at serviced apartments in Brown Street, Chatswood, yesterday afternoon.
The JACG is a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary unit comprising the AFP, NSW Police Force, Australian Customs Service, the Australian Crime Commission and the NSW Crime Commission.

The specialist expertise of its member agencies is used to target major organised criminal activity of Asian syndicates in NSW.

DENVER (LAWFUEL) – Hashim Ubay Hasan, age 36, of Los Angeles, California, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge John L. Kane to serve 151 months (12.5 years) in federal prison for bank robbery, Acting United States Attorney David Gaouette and FBI Special Agent in Charge James Davis announced. Hasan was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $189.00, which represents the money not recovered from the bank robbery. He is in custody, being held without bond, and was remanded.

Hashim Ubay Hasan, along with two other co-defendants, where charged by Criminal Complaint on June 16, 2008. The three were indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on July 7, 2008. Co-defendant Kevin Lamont Brown pled guilty before Judge Kane on October 1, 2008. On December 19, 2008, Brown was sentenced to serve 41 months in federal prison, and was ordered to pay $189 in restitution joint and several with the other defendants. On November 12, 2008, co-defendant Jeanine Marguerite Daniels pled guilty before Judge Kane. She is scheduled to be sentenced on February 12, 2009.

On June 13, 2008, the Key Bank located at 2305 South Colorado Boulevard in Denver, was robbed by two masked black males who were later identified as Kevin Lamont Brown and Hashim Ubay Hasan. During the bank robbery the defendants jumped over the counter and took money from the teller drawers. Both men shouted for people in the bank to get down. After robbing the bank, Hasan and Brown were driven away by a “get away driver.” The three drove to an apartment in Thornton, Colorado, where they abandoned the get away vehicle. Law enforcement later attempted to conduct a traffic stop of Brown and Daniels, but they continued to flee. Eventually the two were stopped and arrested. Law enforcement later found Hasan at the Thornton apartment.

“This is just another great example of the partnership that exists between law enforcement and the prosecutors in our office to reinforce the old saying that crime doesn’t pay,” said Acting U.S. Attorney David Gaouette.

“Crime does not pay,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge James Davis. “Thanks to the excellent law enforcement cooperation and coordination experienced in the Denver Metro Area through the Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force, the odds are against bank robbers.”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Sibert.