NSW police claim that Jamie Gao was shot after $3m drug deal in Sydney’s south-west went wrong

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Jamie Gao, a 20-year-old Sydney university student, was taken to a rental storage unit and shot twice in the chest by former detectives Glen McNamara and Roger Rogerson, New South Wales police allege.

Results of a post-mortem examination on Gao’s body have yet to be officially announced, but Nine News reported on Tuesday that Gao died of two gunshot wounds.

CCTV footage from a storage shed in Padstow, in Sydney’s south-west, allegedly shows Gao entering the bare brick unit with former New South Wales detectives Glen McNamara and Roger Rogerson, but never emerging.

The police further allege that the next day, the two former detectives returned to the unit and spent around 40 minutes cleaning it, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Gao’s body, wrapped in blue tarpaulin and weighed down by chains, was found by fisherman off Cronulla on Monday morning, and identified by police the following day.

Police will allege that Gao was murdered when a $3m amphetamine deal went wrong.

Rogerson and McNamara have been charged with his murder. They also face charges of commercial drug supply.



Rogerson was arrested on Tuesday when around 12 officers raided his Padstow home, in Sydney's south-west, and emerged holding the 73-year-old in handcuffs. “We’re back to the Gestapo days now,” the disgraced former detective said as he was led away.

His lawyer, Paul Kenny, told reporters that Rogerson had made an “honourable” agreement with police to hand himself in and the arrest, in front of a media scrum, was a spectacle and a “complete disgrace”. His client had been “treated like a dog”, he said.

McNamara was charged with Gao’s murder on Monday. Both men were refused bail and scheduled to appear before court in July.

Kenny warned the media earlier against creating an “American-type hysteria situation”.

“If things aren’t calm you’ll see a total lack of cooperation with the media,” he said. “There will be no OJ Simpson situation.”

He denied that Rogerson had ever been “on the run” from police, saying his client had returned from Queensland early to assist with the matter, which was “as serious as it gets”. “He’s never dodged the police, that’s completely incorrect,” he said.

Gao was reported missing last Wednesday after he met two men, allegedly McNamara and Rogerson, in a car in Padstow near the rental storage unit.

Detective Superintendent Luke Moore said police “strongly believe” the student was involved in a drug transaction, and that he had known one of the men he met “for some time”.