Ex-cafe owner Misagh Habibi jailed over his role in $18m Breaking Bad-style drug lab that produced ‘highly pure’ meth

A former Adelaide cafe owner has been jailed for producing illicit drugs of record purity in an SA version of the TV show Breaking Bad.

Aaron Paul, left, and Bryan Cranston, right, in a scene from Breaking Bad about a family man turned drug producer.

A former cafe owner has been jailed for his role in a hidden, Breaking Bad-style drug lab that produced $18.3m of pure crystal meth.

Misagh Habibi appeared visibly emotional as, on Monday, the District Court sentenced him to eight years and nine months’ jail, with a three-year, nine-month non-parole period.

Defence counsel had urged the court to show mercy, saying Habibi was neither the principal player nor the main beneficiary of the sophisticated Morphett Vale drug lab.

They had argued his family and business situation were “exceptional circumstances” that overruled legislation banning suspended sentences for organised crime offences.

In sentencing, however, Judge Jane Schammer said neither those factors, nor Habibi’s good prospects for rehabilitation, made his case out of the ordinary.

“I’ve no doubt that without your physical, financial and emotional support, your family will struggle,” she said.

“Unfortunately, your decision to engage in this criminal enterprise has placed them in this position – you were prepared to offend and take that risk.”

Habibi, 34, of Plympton Park, is the second person to be sentenced over the lab found, by SA Police’s STAR Group, on Martson Drive in October 2018.

At that time, police dubbed the lab – located less than 900m from a primary school – one of the biggest in SA history.

It produced 40kg of methylamphetamine at a record 79 per cent purity – the highest purity scientifically possible is 80 per cent – worth $18.3m on the street.

The drug was produced by a skilled drug chemist who had been flown in from overseas – Habibi’s co-offender, Houshang Naroie, ran errands for that man.

Last year, Naroie claimed he was merely the fall guy for “the real criminals” but was jailed for seven years, with a four-year non-parole period.

On Monday, Judge Schammer said Habibi’s involvement was similar to that of Naroie, adding his DNA and fingerprints were found throughout the lab.

He had also been caught on telephone intercept discussing drugs, and been seen in public with Naroie buying essential supplies.

Judge Schammer said a hardware store employee remembered Habibi complaining about a ring burner producing yellow flames that “blackened his glassware”.

“You were motivated purely by profit … you had just started a new business and were conducting home renovations,” she said.

“I accept you played an ancillary, rather than leading, role and were acting under the direction of a person who was far higher up the (criminal) chain.”