Drug trafficker ‘caught in the act’ with 2kg meth shipment

A convicted fraudster working for a wholesale drug trafficking operation was “caught in the act” with his hand still inside a bag of meth when police tracked a large drug shipment to his apartment.

A convicted fraudster working for a wholesale drug trafficking operation was “caught in the act”.

A convicted fraudster working for a wholesale drug trafficking operation was “caught in the act” with his hand still inside a bag of meth when police tracked a large drug shipment to his apartment.

A court has heard how Awais Ibad Ali, 37, turned to trafficking drugs for a large-scale operation when he struggled to find a job on parole.

Ali fronted Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday, where he pleaded guilty to a number of offences including drug trafficking and two counts of possessing schedule 1 dangerous drugs in excess of 200g.

The court heard Ali had worked for alleged drug boss Ben Thornton for a six-and-a-half month period from October 2020 to May 2021.

Throughout that period, Ali and others had supplied wholesale quantities of drugs including methamphetamine, MDMA, and cocaine, the court heard.

Crown prosecutor Harriet Malcomson said Ali had used encrypted messaging and had been employed in a general capacity facilitating the importation of product, leasing storage units, and performing dead drops.

The court heard Ali had been instructed to supply half a kilo of meth for $55,0000 on one occasion, and was being paid a wage around $3500 every couple of weeks.

Justice Lincoln Crowley noted Ali had been on parole at the time for dishonesty offending, for which he had received a seven-year sentence and served some actual time in custody.

He said Ali used his prior fraud skills to assist in Thornton’s enterprise, using false IDs to avoid detection.

The court heard Ali was arrested in May 2021 after police became aware of two packages addressed to a Woolloongabba apartment – which was across the hallway from an apartment Ali had leased under a false identity.

The packages were intercepted by Border Force and found to contain 2.27kg pure methamphetamine hidden inside computer hard drives.

Ms Malcomson said the authorities swapped out the methamphetamine with an inert substance and tracked the packages to Ali’s apartment.

The court heard police caught Ali “in the act”, standing at the kitchen counter with his gloved hand inside a bag of methamphetamine, when they executed a search warrant on May 17.

In addition to the two packages containing the inert substance, Ms Malcomson said Ali was found in possession of 1.263kg of pure crystal methamphetamine, 1.61g of liquid methamphetamine, and false IDs.

The court heard police also searched a shed in Underwood, which had been leased by Ali under another false identity, and found $300,000 in cash and a shortened firearm.

Since his arrest, Ali had spent a total of 1369 days in pre-sentence custody – which the court heard couldn’t be declared time-served because he was still serving out the rest of his seven-year fraud sentence.

Ms Malcomson submitted that Ali should receive a 10-year jail sentence for the drug offending, which would incur an automatic serious violent offence declaration and force him to spend 80 per cent of that time in custody before becoming eligible for parole.

Defence barrister Matthew Hynes said 10-years was too high a sentence, and that Ali’s sentence should be moderated down to seven to seven-and-a-half years.

He submitted Justice Crowley should take into account that lengthy period of pre-sentence custody that could not be declared, and the fact his client had spent a large part of the last decade behind bars.

The court heard Ali’s criminal history commenced after he started using methamphetamine in his 20s, but he had since stopped using the drug.

Mr Hynes said Ali had struggled to find employment after being released on parole and had turned his old drug connections for work when he was struggling with a “feeling of hopelessness”.

He said that while in custody Ali had engaged in a number of rehabilitation courses, dedicated himself to his religion, and had assisted police in locating guns and their efforts to take the “dangerous weapons off the streets”.

“He is absolutely over the life he once led, which saw him spend nearly all of the last ten years in jail,” Mr Hynes said.

Justice Crowley pointed out that it “wasn’t uncommon” for someone in Ali’s shoes to “offer up” information that didn’t implicate anyone to show their co-operation.

He accepted that Ali wasn’t aware of the full scale of the operation he was involved in, but that he “knew it was serious criminality at a high level”.

Justice Crowley said he didn’t accept Mr Hynes submission that Ali could be given a parole eligibility date as early as May this year, saying that would be a “wholly inadequate sentence”.

But he said the prosecution’s submission for a ten year sentence was too high.

Ali was sentenced to eight years in jail, with parole eligibility on August 14, 2026.