Ibrahims in Dubai: Sky-high cost of flying brothers and other alleged drug smugglers home
EXCLUSIVE: The six men being held in Dubai after massive police raids spanning the globe could be flown back to Sydney on luxurious private jets at a cost of more than $1 million to taxpayers.
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THE six men being held in Dubai after massive police raids spanning the globe could be flown back to Sydney on luxurious private jets at a cost of more than $1 million to taxpayers.
Several sources have revealed “secret plans” are being drafted to ferry the high-profile alleged criminals on separate 12,000km flights in what would be one of the biggest mass extraditions in Australian criminal history.
The arrest warrants under which the men were detained run out today and an extension will have to be sought.
The “Dubai Six” — King Cross identities Fadi Ibrahim, his brother Michael, Mustapha Dib, Stephen Elmir and Commanchero bikie Hakan Arif and Koder Jomaa — have been held in separate police cells in Dubai since their arrests on August 8.
They were taken in when Dubai CID, Australian Federal Police and officers from NSW swooped to smash an alleged long-running, organised crime syndicate in Sydney, the Netherlands and Dubai.
The news of the plan to fly the wanted men out comes as a senior police officer revealed some of the men — five of whom are of Lebanese descent — are applying for dual Lebanese citizenship in a bid to escape extradition to Australia where they could face life if found guilty of drug smuggling.
Police are drawing up a raft of plans to bring back the men which will never be released, amid high risks involved for their safety and the public’s.
But the option of hiring several 15-seat Global Express jets to fly the most dangerous of the men separately, as well using commercial planes, is considered “the safest” option.
The precedent for a private jet was set nine years ago with the extradition of drug kingpin Tony Mokbel from Greece at a cost of more than $500,000.
Each Global Express jet costs $250,000 to charter and will ferry one prisoner, a nurse, doctor, up to four police escorts and a government official to Sydney via Singapore or Colombo, Sri Lanka.
“There are various options on the table and private jets are one of them,” a police source said.
“That would be the safest option all around — for them, passengers and police officers.
“It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that there are contracts on their heads, although there is no specific intelligence.”
If the men are granted Lebanese citizenship, they can contest extradition and potentially move to Lebanon where there is no deal in place between the countries to force them back to Australia.
George Lombard, of George Lombard Consultancy, a fellow of Migration Institute of Australia, said it was a logical move.
“It’s a no-brainer, they want to go to Lebanon where there is no extradition treaty with Australia,” Mr Lombard said.
“Theoretically they could be declared Lebanese citizens, kicked out of Dubai and live anywhere in the world where there is no extradition agreement with Australia or Lebanon to bring them back home.”
No date has yet been set for the extradition hearing.
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