Australian murder trial with Hong Kong links postponed over 'legal issue'

A high-profile murder trial in Sydney - involving a slain student with alleged ties to Hong Kong triads - has been postponed after the shock dismissal of the jury over an undisclosed "legal issue".

Former Australian detectives Roger Rogerson, 74, and Glen McNamara, 56, are facing trial over the grisly murder of Jamie Gao, 20, at a storage shed in Padstow, in south-west Sydney last May. He was killed and dumped in the ocean in a HK$17 million drug deal gone wrong.

Both have been accused of involvement in a "joint criminal enterprise" to kill Gao and steal 2.78kg of methamphetamine, with a street value of AU$3 million (HK$17 million), that Gao was going to sell to them.

The case highlights the increasingly central role Hong Kong plays in the global drug trade, with UN data showing most major shipments of methamphetamine, also known as Ice, to Australia originate in Guangdong, where mainland and Hong Kong organised crime groups dominate the illicit drugs market.

Gao, a business student at the University of Technology, Sydney, lived with his mother and grandmother in Hurstville, Sydney. It was earlier reported that Gao's mother was in Hong Kong at the time of her son's murder.

Australian media previously reported on Gao's alleged links with Hong Kong triads.