A member of a western suburbs crime family has lost a bid to have his two-year jail term for “ice” trafficking reduced.
Ziad Haddara lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal arguing that his sentence was excessive, he was less blameworthy due to post traumatic stress disorder and the sentencing judge had failed to consider whether methlyamphetamine or ice was more or less harmful than another drug of dependence.
Last September, he was sentenced to two years with a non-parole period of 14 months for trafficking ice and cannabis, possessing a prohibited weapon, dealing with property suspected of being proceeds of crime and obtaining property by deception.
Ziad Haddara is the cousin of Fadi Haddara, who was named in court as the ringleader of an organised crime syndicate trafficking ice and firearms in the western suburbs.
They were both arrested as part of Skyborne, an anti-gangland operation in which police concealed listening devises and cameras at Fadi Haddara’s panelbeating shop in Orange Street, Williamstown North.
Covert operatives purchased from the crime syndicate a total of 395 grams of ice, two handguns and a sawn-off rifle to a total value of $155,250.
Telephone intercepts showed Ziad Haddara was selling ice on a daily basis.
Nine times he met with an operative, selling up to an ounce of ice for $10,000 each time.
They mostly met in McDonald’s carparks at Truganina or Altona North, but also at Haddara’s home in Truganina.
The court heard Haddara also took $10,000 from the operative in exchange for supplying a new revolver he had no intention of supplying.
On one occasion, Haddara told the operative he was willing to pay $20,000 for three litres of “liquid pseudo” so he could make as much ice as wanted.
In refusing Ziad Haddara’s appeal, the judges said his sentence had been too lenient.
Fadi Haddara was last year sentenced to just under two years’ jail with no minimum and three years on a community corrections order.
