Date: February 15 2013
A people-smuggling syndicate is believed to have an agent working out of Sydney through whom asylum seekers make payments and book their passage to Australia.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has refused to say whether they are aware of the man, known by the name Sayed Mustofa, telling AAP that as a matter of policy, it "does not confirm or deny who it may, or may not be investigating".
However, a senior source from the Indonesian National Police has confirmed that details about Sayed Mustofa had been passed on to the AFP.
Details of the operation and the Sydney-based agent were revealed to AAP by an Afghan man, Dawood Amiri, who is facing people-smuggling charges in Indonesia over a boat which sank last year on the way to Christmas Island.
Ninety asylum seekers perished when the overloaded vessel foundered in the Sunda Strait on June 21, while another 110 people were rescued.
Amiri, who has admitted to sending several asylum-seeker boats to Australia, was responsible for facilitating the collection of payments in Indonesia for a major smuggling syndicate.
He claims Mustofa fulfils a similar role in Australia and is still operating.
"Mustofa is the agent in Australia collecting payment for people smuggling," he told AAP this week from his cell at the East Jakarta District Court ahead of his hearing on Wednesday.
When contacted again on Thursday, he told AAP that Mustofa was based in Sydney.
The Indonesian police source who confirmed that details about Mustofa had been passed on to the AFP also said it was thought that he had entered Australia by posing as an asylum seeker.
There are conflicting reports about how Mustofa was able to enter Australia, with one source saying he may have travelled to Christmas Island on a boat.
But Amiri, who claims he has been interviewed by Australian police, insisted that Mustofa was able to enter Australia legally some years ago under the refugee reunion program after his pregnant wife was granted asylum while living in Malaysia.
The indictment against Amiri presented in court suggests Mustofa is connected to another people smuggler, a Pakistani named Mohammad Ali Chotay, alias Reza Wakili.
Indonesian prosecutors allege the pair had links to people-smuggling kingpin Sayed Abbas, who is currently in detention in Jakarta.
Australia has been seeking the extradition of Abbas since 2009.
The Afghan-born Abbas is suspected of sending dozens of asylum-seeker boats to Australia and is believed to have been behind a vessel which sank in December 2011, killing 200 people.
Indonesian Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin confirmed following a meeting with Australian Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare in Jakarta last September that Abbas would be extradited to Australia in 2013.
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