A drug trafficker involved in a crime syndicate in Williamstown North headed by Fadi Haddara has been sentenced to a minimum of 16 months behind bars.
Mohammed El Achkar, 32, was sentenced in the County Court to a maximum of two years and eight months’ jail after pleading guilty to one charge of drug trafficking and being found guilty by a jury of another instance of that offence.
El Achkar was caught as part of Skyborne, a Santiago taskforce operation in which police concealed listening devises and cameras at Haddara’s panelbeating shop in Orange Street, Williamstown North.
Between May, 2013, and March, 2014, undercover police conducted 39 transactions with 13 accused, including El Achkar.
Covert operatives purchased from the crime syndicate a total of 395 grams of methylamphetamine (ice), two handguns and a sawn-off rifle to a total value of $155,250.
On January 16, 2014, El Achkar, of Doncaster, visited Haddara’s shop and sold him more than two ounces of ice for $13,200, a charge to which he pleaded guilty.
The second charge related to January 23, 2014, when El Achkar supplied Haddara with 27.8 grams of ice with a purity of 70 per cent.
The Santiago taskforce was established after a spate of shootings in Melbourne’s north-west linked to rival Middle Eastern families, including the Haddaras and Chaouks.
In sentencing El Achkar, Judge Howard Mason said ice was a pernicious drug that impacted markedly on the community.
“Those who wish to peddle in this mind- altering poison need to be aware that serious penalties will apply,” he said.
“Whilst your addiction to ice can be taken into account in some way in mitigation, it does not excuse your conduct.”
Haddara was last year sentenced to just under two years’ jail with no non-parole period and three years on a community corrections order.
