The brother of an accused drug kingpin has been denied bail over an alleged brazen conspiracy to gun down a rival gang member outside a major metropolitan police station.
Police allege that in December 2023, associates of the Haouchar crime network used the encrypted app Threema to discuss murdering 30-year-old Andre Kallita outside Day St police station in the Sydney city centre.
Among group members on the chat, titled "URGENT", was someone using the handle "Invisible", which prosecutors claimed was syndicate leader Bilal Haouchar's brother Omar.
The plan involved having a lookout near the police station, who would notify two shooters waiting close by when Kallita left after having to report there for bail, according to a police statement filed with the NSW Supreme Court.
There were also allegedly discussions of having a getaway car waiting to take the shooters from the scene.
Omar Haouchar was arrested over the conspiracy on January 9 and is the sixth person charged over the alleged plot.
Appearing by video link from a maximum-security prison near Goulburn, the 32-year-old watched as a judge rejected his bid to be bailed over the serious criminal charge on Monday.
Justice Desmond Fagan noted Haouchar had a "very bad record of violent offending".
That included being jailed for nine years and three months for a slew of offences, including reckless wounding, aggravated break and enter and directing the activities of a criminal group.
At a hearing on Friday, Haouchar's barrister Ertunc Ozen SC argued there was no evidence linking his client with the handle Invisible.
He said the unique cipher-identification number attached to Invisible in the URGENT chat was not one used by his client.
There were also no encrypted devices found in the 32-year-old's home that were capable of using Threema, Mr Ozen argued.
Furthermore, a separate identification number connected with the Invisible username did not match the one used in the URGENT messages, he said.
That suggested a different user could have been using the same handle in the chat when discussing the alleged plot, Mr Ozen added.
But Justice Fagan on Monday said the prosecution case was not so weak as to allow Haouchar to be released on bail given his "strong record of violence".
The manner in which other alleged associates discussed Invisible in other chats provided a "compelling" inference that it indeed was the 32-year-old, Justice Fagan added.
The Haouchar syndicate, largely operated by leaders based in Lebanon, has been tied to $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency transactions and various firearm, drug, tobacco and money-laundering offences, police said previously.
A NSW warrant has been out for the arrest of alleged kingpin Bilal Haouchar since 2018 and he was arrested in November 2023 in Beirut.
Australia does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon.
