The younger brother of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim is seeking to have years shaved off his prison sentence because he argues he was induced into a drug importation plot by an undercover police officer.
Moustafa “Michael” Ibrahim on Friday appeared in the Court of Appeal where he is seeking to have his jail term reduced after he was sentenced to up to 30 years in prison over his role in an attempt to smuggle over 1.9 tonnes of drugs into Australia.
After being arrested alongside co-conspirators in Dubai, he was sentenced over his role in two syndicates which between 2016 and 2017 attempted to import 1797kg of MDMA, 136kg of cocaine and 15kg of ice.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and was facing a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.
Judge Dina Yehia in May 2020 sentenced Ibrahim to a non-parole period of 18 years and he will first be eligible for release in August 2035.
The syndicates were targeted by the AFP when an undercover operative offered Ibrahim’s co-conspirator, Ryan Watsford, a “door” to import illegal drugs into Australia.
Judge Yehia found Ibrahim was not involved in the drug trade until he and his conspirators were offered the means to smuggle them into the country by the undercover officer.
She said “once the opportunity was presented, the offender immediately embraced it” and he was a “willing participant” in the conspiracies “motivated by the desire to make the potential financial gain”.
Watsford was sentenced to a maximum of eight years and six months in prison for his role.
Wearing prison greens and sporting a thick, grey beard, Ibrahim watched on via videolink from Junee Correctional Centre on Friday morning as his barrister Tim Game argued his sentence was excessive because of the role of the undercover operative.
“What you are sentencing is a person who was quite willing to behave very, very badly,” Mr Game said.
“But he wasn’t going to be behaving very, very badly until somebody, namely the state, got him involved in them.
“They have proved that my client is quite capable, if encouraged to do so, of doing these things.”
Mr Game said Ibrahim was “gullible” and was “seeing dollar signs”.
But he said the conspiracy only came about when the undercover operative offered the means to import illegal goods through the “door” which was distinct from an existing drug ring infiltrated by police.
“It’s different to someone who is a drug dealer, who is being sought to be accessed by a controlled (police) operation so the operation can be stopped, not so that it can be created,” Mr Game said.
Crown prosecutor Lincoln Crowley pointed to pieces of evidence in which Ibrahim raised the prospects of importing drugs when he told the undercover officer: “Why don’t youse bring in rack (cocaine) and s*** like that?”
During the same conversation, in November 2016, Ibrahim further told the officer: “anything you get, you want to bring in just let me know, I’ll move anything you want” and that he would be “your f***ing right-hand man, you know no one’s going to want to rob me”.
“Her honour stepped through what led to the findings about the applicant being a ‘willing and enthusiastic participant’ and not a reluctant one in the two drug conspiracies,” Mr Crowley said.
Justices Ian Harrison, David Davies and Philip Hallen will hand down their decision on Ibrahim’s appeal at a later date.
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