While an initial deal went off without a hitch, Person A decided to rip Sotiropoulos’s associates off days later, fleeing with cocaine worth $660,000, crown prosecutor Gabrielle Steedman told the jury.
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 the location of Person A or the return of the money, leading to MacGill’s kidnapping later in April.
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 released, the jury heard.
Six days later he went to police and denied involvement in the drug supply, Steedman said, although he admitted introducing Person A to Sotiropoulos.
While the cricketer denied knowing the one-kilogram deal was to take place, Steedman argued the deal could not have occurred without the prior involvement of MacGill, who she attacked as not an impressive witness.
MacGill had allegedly complained about the quality of the cocaine Person A was selling him and said his brother-in-law could get him “good gear” in a large quantity.
She also pointed to the dealer’s assertions MacGill was in the car park under the Sydney restaurant until the dealer and Sotiropoulos drove off in one car.
The exchange took place in the car as it drove across town.
MacGill was arrested in 2023.
Defence barrister Thos Hodgson attacked Person A as prone to dishonesty and motivated to get a lower sentence for his own drug supply conviction by implicating MacGill.
MacGill’s prior sharing of his dealer’s number with other users – which the Crown claimed showed a tendency to get involved in a larger deal – was also dismissed.
“It would not be unusual for people who consume cocaine together … to say ‘where do you get your cocaine?’” Hodgson said in his closing address.
MacGill, who retired in 2008 after claiming 208 Test scalps at an average of 29.02, remains on bail until a sentence hearing on May 9.
He has flagged he will seek legal costs.
