A former Muslim youth leader once praised for his work deterring young people from drugs and gang culture has been jailed for cocaine supply.
Fadi Abdul-Rahman was sentenced to four years non-parole in the Supreme Court after being found guilty last year of supplying up to $2 million of cocaine.
The 39-year-old Sydney student, who participated in the 2020 Summit with Kevin Rudd in 2008 to help reform prisoners, was given a lighter sentence due to favourable character witness testimonials, his clean record in terms of serious offences, as well as his years of work within the Muslim community.
Abdul-Rahman, along with Ahmad Khodr, who was sentenced to seven years, smuggled in the cocaine from the United States inside a chess board, the court heard.
The box containing the chess board was intercepted by Australian custom officials and inspected due to its suspicious weight.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) subsequently drilled through the box to find white powder concealed within it.
The powder was tested and five kilograms of cocaine at 60 per cent purity was revealed inside the box.
The AFP then confiscated the cocaine, replaced it with a white substance of the same aesthetic and texture in identical vacuum sealed bags and planted a recording and tracking device. They then delivered the box to the intended recipients.
The box was received by a young man, whose father delivered it to Abdul-Rahman and Khodr.
Police originally arrested the young man and his father with Abdul-Rahman and Khodr but they were found not guilty and released.
Audio recording of Abdul-Rahman and Khodr finding the tracking device inside was a key part of the Crown’s case. –Photo and report by Lily Mayers
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