DRUG POLICE SHOOT MAN ON M2

A man was shot in the face when Australian Federal Police narcotics agents
swooped on a car at a toll gate on the M2 motorway yesterday.

The shooting, at North Ryde, came amid an investigation by Federal police
into alleged drug dealing connected to bike gangs.

But as the man underwent surgery last night at Royal North Shore Hospital,
the AFP ordered NSW Police not to release details of the investigation,
including the circumstances of how the man was critically wounded.

Citing "operational reasons", the AFP ban also extended to the identity and
age of the wounded man, whether drugs were found or he was armed.

The wounded man was one of two men in a northbound white Jaguar that stopped
at noon at a toll booth to pay a cashier.

Federal agents in an unmarked car in front blocked the Jaguar's path. Those
agents, and others from two tailing cars, surrounded the Jaguar with pistols
drawn.

As they neared the vehicle, calling on the occupants to get out, one suspect
was shot at close range.

The police would not say how many shots were fired.

When NSW police received urgent calls from the AFP to attend the shooting
with an ambulance, those who rushed to the scene were told the wounded man
was one of two suspects in the car who had allegedly produced a firearm.

The wounded man, in his 30s, was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, where
a spokesman said he had a gunshot wound to his face. The bullet hit him in
the left cheek before severing an artery and lodging in his neck.

AFP officers took the second suspect to Eastwood police station for questioning.

Federal police involved were taken to the same station late yesterday for
questioning by NSW detectives.

At the same time Federal police in Sydney issued a brief statement
announcing their own internal affairs investigation into how the man came to
be shot.

The statement said the vehicle "was stopped and approached by Federal agents
in relation to a narcotics investigation".