Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
The younger brother of Comanchero boss Tarek Zahed has failed to win a reduced sentence on drug supply charges after police found him with heroin stuffed down his undies.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Abdul Zahed was sentenced to two-and-a-half-years jail in Bankstown Local Court on August 4 after pleading guilty to drug supply, proceeds of crime and ammunition possession charges stemming from a police operation in January this year.
Abdul was handed a 20-month non-parole period, but lodged an appeal against the severity of the sentence just days later, claiming he’d been dealt with too harshly.
Facing Parramatta District Court last week, Abdul’s legal team asked Judge Stephen Hanley SC to consider reducing his prison sentence for the drug dealing offences.
But Judge Hanley dismissed the appeal, saying if he had sentenced Abdul the 37-year-old would have received a harsher penalty than the one imposed in the Local Court.
A set of agreed facts tendered to the court reveal Abdul was wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant when officers track him down at the Mercure Hotel in Liverpool on the morning of January 20.
The court heard Abdul and a female friend were seen to enter one of the hotel rooms at 5.35am and exit at 3.30 that afternoon.
The pair caught the lift to the carpark, where Abdul got into a Volkswagen Golf and the woman an Audi A4 sedan. They drove in convoy to Prestons before splitting up.
Detectives followed Abdul to a street in Bankstown, where he parked the car and headed into a nearby house.
Tactical police subsequently surrounded the property and approached the front door, prompting Abdul to run out of the house and try to jump the rear courtyard fence but was grabbed by police. The court heard as officers were grappling with him, Abdul shoved his hands down his underwear and tried to tear open a plastic bag containing 37.45 grams of heroin, but failed. The bag was confiscated by police.
Officers also discovered a $22,125 wad of cash on the ground where Abdul had tried to scale the fence, along with 95 rounds of .22 calibre ammunition in a white Woolworths bag Abdul was seen carrying into the unit when he arrived.
