Photo credit: AFP
A member of an Australian-based criminal syndicate has been sentenced to a total of 14 years and 10 months behind bars for his role in a major drug-trafficking ring in Melbourne that was broken up by an Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation in 2018.
The man is the fifth syndicate member to be convicted in connection with this investigation.
Members of this syndicate have so far been sentenced to a combined 68 years and eight months imprisonment.
The court heard the syndicate had conspired to traffick a commercial quantity of methamphetamine and heroin into and within Australia between 31 May 2018 and 21 September 2018.
The 35-year-old man was arrested in December 2018 and charged with one count of trafficking in a commercial quantity of methamphetamine, three counts of trafficking cocaine, one count of trafficking methamphetamine, and one count of dealing in proceeds of crime totalling $10,000 or more.
He was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court this week to a maximum sentence of 14 years and 10 months jail, with a non-parole period of 9 years and four months.
AFP investigators launched an investigation into the criminal syndicate operating in Melbourne’s western suburbs in May 2018.
Five men were initially arrested, not including the man sentenced this week. As part of the search warrants police uncovered a cannabis grow house operated by the syndicate and seized more than 4 kilograms of methamphetamine and 2.5 kilograms of heroin.
Investigators also seized more than $200,000 in cash, encrypted mobile phones, firearms and a Lamborghini sports car during the search warrants.
The 35-year-old was arrested on 4 December 2018 at his residence in the Melbourne suburb of Chadstone. AFP members seized two ‘ciphr’ encrypted mobile phones, a quantity of methamphetamine and $43,000 in cash.