Gao 'questioned by crime commission'

Sydney murder victim Jamie Gao gave evidence at a secret hearing before the Australian Crime Commission in the weeks before his death, according to a report.

Gao, 20, was shot dead allegedly over a drug deal gone wrong and then dumped in waters off Cronulla, in Sydney's south, where his body was found bound in a blue tarpaulin last Monday morning.

Former NSW detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara were arrested soon after and charged with the student's murder as well as supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs.

Reports that federal police had been watching Gao, a suspected drug importer, since 2011 had fuelled media speculation that police were able to swoop on Rogerson and McNamara so quickly because Gao was under surveillance.

But last week the Crime Commission issued a statement denying Gao had been acting as one of its informants when he allegedly delivered $3 million of methamphetamine to the two former detectives.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Gao, however, did tell friends that he had recently been questioned by the commission at its Sydney headquarters.

The commission, which holds hearings in secret, focuses on gathering intelligence on organised crime.

Gao is suspected of being a high-ranking member of an Asian drug syndicate based in Hong Kong.

Tests have shown he was most likely sitting down when he was shot twice at point-blank range in the chest in a storage unit.

Rogerson, 73, and McNamara, 55, face court next on July 22.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Author: Erin Tennant, Approving editor: Jack Hawke