Birthday present that led to arrest of Michael and Fadi Ibrahim
IT was the off-the-cuff comment about having no plans for his birthday that helped lead undercover cops to the inner sanctum of the Ibrahim family. Brenden Hills details the extraordinary sting.
NSW
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IT was the birthday present that wrapped up two Ibrahim brothers and delivered them to police.
But it took some fast talking and even quicker thinking from an undercover police officer to make it happen.
It was a meeting at Sydney’s exclusive Sheraton On The Park Hotel where the undercover saw his chance with his target, Ibrahim family associate Ryan Watsford.
Watsford, a former real estate agent and private schoolboy from the eastern suburbs, thought the cop was an international money launderer.
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The existence of the meeting on October 12, 2016, and the fact that the undercover gave Watsford the gift were revealed in police documents tendered to court.
But this is the first time details of what happened that day can be disclosed.
Watsford, according to sources, was complaining about a failed money-laundering deal when he further lamented that it was his birthday on Saturday and he had no plans.
Sources said the undercover joked he would have brought a bottle of scotch had he known — then used the moment to set a trap for Watsford.
A source said: “The undercover told Watsford: ‘I’ve got something for you. Something small. It’s in the back of my car. You’ll love it’.”
At the car, sources said the undercover revealed a stash of cigarettes and claimed they had been smuggled into Australia using what he described as “a door” service, which meant they would slip past the law.
The undercover gave two cartons to Watsford as a birthday gift, casually dropping into the conversation the enormous profit margins he made per pack, the sources said.
Watsford initially told the undercover he did not want to get involved in anything illegal.
But the gift got the better of him.
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“I’ve got some boys that will buy some,” Watsford said, according to tendered court documents.
Ten months later this moment led to the arrests of more than 20 people across three continents in what is alleged to be one of Australia’s biggest organised crime stings.
Prosecutors allege that what began as a plan to import illegal cigarettes escalated into an audacious plot to smuggle two massive shipments of drugs into Australia, using the undercover’s “door” service.
Prosecutors allege Watsford put the undercover in contact with Michael Ibrahim to allegedly import 900,000 packets of cigarettes and 1.9 tonnes of MDMA, 136kg of cocaine and 15kg of ice.
Michael Ibrahim has been refused bail but is preparing to fight the charges.
His older brother Fadi, who survived being shot in 2009, is accused of allegedly financing one of the tobacco imports and is charged with dealing with an instrument of crime.
He is also preparing to fight the charges and is on conditional bail.
The brothers were arrested at a luxury high-rise in Dubai on August 8, 2017, alongside Steven Elmir and Mustapha “Fairy” Dib.
Brother John Ibrahim’s Dover Heights mansion was raided on the same day. John Ibrahim has not been charged and there is no suggestion he was involved in any criminal offence.
After the birthday gift meeting, Watsford contacted the undercover via an encrypted BlackBerry to arrange the purchase of smuggled cigarettes, court documents said.
On November 7, Watsford met the operative and court documents said he was handed two cartons of Marlboro cigarettes as a sample of what could be supplied.
Three days later, the documents said Watsford brought Michael Ibrahim to another meeting at the Sheraton On The Park where he was introduced to the undercover.
In Central Local Court on September 5, Watsford pleaded guilty to attempted commercial drug importation, dealing with more than $1 million that is the instrument of crime, drug possession and possessing the suspected proceeds of crime.
He is due back in court on December 7.