Former NRL Player Jailed For Attempting To Deliver Cocaine Into Sydney

Former NRL player Jamil Hopoate has been sentenced to more than three years in jail for his involvement in a 150-million-dollar cocaine ring. 

The former Brisbane Broncos lock was arrested in May 2021 after police intercepted a consignment of drugs sent to Sydney from London.

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Hopoate has been given a non-parole period of just over two years and will be eligible for release in July 2024. 

The court heard Hopoate was suffering from long-term drug, alcohol and gambling addictions and was paid $10,000 for his role in retrieving part of the drug shipment.

Hopoate was arrested after police switched the drugs for a white-powdered substance that replicated the look of cocaine and installed surveillance devices.

The entire cocaine haul was over 500 kilograms which police estimated to have a street value of $154 million.

Hopoate pleaded guilty to one count of supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.

It is not the first time the former NRL player has been placed in jail; back in 2014 he was jailed for at least a year for an unprovoked attack at Manly.

Meanwhile last year, narrowly avoided jail time for domestic violence offences against his wife.

He was instead sentenced to serve in the community for 12 months in the wat of an intensive corrections order.

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