Stuart MacGill told his drug dealer “I’m out of time” hours before the ex-Test spinner was kidnapped over a $660,000 drug deal that went sour, a jury has heard.
The 54-year-old faced a jury trial today after pleading not guilty to knowingly participating in the supply of the prohibited drug in April 2021.
A jury heard the illicit exchange had been struck between MacGill’s brother-in-law Marino Sotiropoulos and the former cricketer’s drug dealer, who can legally only be referred to as “Person A”.
While an initial deal went off without a hitch, Person A decide to rip Sotiropoulos’s associates off days later, fleeing with $660,000 worth of cocaine, crown prosecutor Gabrielle Steedman told Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court.
Stuart MacGill has denied any involvement in the drug deal.
The dealer exchanged the drugs for a vacuum-sealed bag of A4 paper concealed by $50 notes, before turning off his phone and deleting the encrypted app he was using.
Threats started to come in demanding either the location of Person A or the return of the money, leading to MacGill’s kidnapping later in April, the jury heard.
“I’m out of time, mate,” MacGill allegedly messaged his dealer hours before he was abducted.
“I don’t understand why you would deliberately do this to me, I was just trying to help.”
The former Test bowler was bundled into the back of a car by several males and taken to an abandoned shed at Bringelly, in Sydney’s west, where he was assaulted, threatened and then released, the jury heard.
Six days later he went to the police and denied any involvement in the drug supply, Steedman said, although he admitted introducing Person A to Sotiropoulos.
The ex-cricketer was a regular user of cocaine and bought the drug from Person A for years, usually in half-gram quantities for $200, Steedman said.
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He was a trusted buyer, allowed to rack up $1000 in drug debts and receiving expensive bottles of alcohol for his patronage, the jury heard.
MacGill was kidnapped, assaulted and threatened in April 2021.
In April 2021, MacGill was in a de facto relationship with Sotiropoulos’s sister, Maria O’Meagher, with whom the ex-cricketer ran restaurant Aristotle’s at Neutral Bay, on Sydney’s north shore.
After complaining about the quality of cocaine sold by Person A, MacGill said he could hook the dealer up with Sotiropoulos, who sold “good gear”, Steedman said.
Person A later brought $330,000 and Sotiropoulos brought a one-kilo brick of cocaine and a money counter to an arranged meeting in the underground car park at Aristotle’s, the jury heard.
MacGill has only been accused of setting up the meeting and he remained at the restaurant while the duo travelled across the city to Ashfield to complete the deal.
“You’re a man of your word,” Person A texted the ex-spin bowler afterwards.
The dealer offered MacGill a gift but eventually wiped $1000 from his drug debts, prosecutors allege.
But defence barrister Thos Hodgson denied the 54-year-old was involved in the deal “in any shape, manner or form”.
He said Macgill had not sought nor received any benefit by arranging for Sotiropoulos to meet Person A.
The credibility of Person A, the key crown witness in the case, would be of central importance in the trial and jurors should be very careful when considering their evidence, Hodgson said.
