Video exclusive: Fadi and Michael Ibrahim’s Thailand holiday days before arrest
In July 2017 Fadi and Michael Ibrahim were living it large as they took video of themselves on a boys’ trip to Thailand. Their world turned upside down days later and the video has emerged as evidence in a number of criminal cases. WATCH THE VIDEOS
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Fadi Ibrahim yells a message before he pulls the trigger: “Say hello to my little friend.”
It’s the line Al Pacino delivered in 1983 movie Scarface while dressed in an impeccable suit as he fired a grenade launcher mounted on a machine gun.
In 2017, when it was Fadi’s turn, he wore black Speedos, little white slippers, and a headband that fit on the fashion spectrum somewhere between Rambo and Prince.
Fadi’s mates cackled as they filmed his performance.
“Mimmo, motherf***ker, say hello to my little friend,” Fadi shouted.
Fadi’s ‘target’ was family friend Mim Salvato, who was hiding behind a pillar and armed with a less powerful pellet gun that was shaped like a pistol.
The video was one of a large number filmed on a boys-only holiday that showed confident, carefree men in late July 2017.
Little did they know, police had spent 18 months laying a trap.
Fadi, Michael and others would be arrested in a billion-dollar undercover sting just days later. The videos have now emerged as evidence in a number of criminal cases and have been tendered in court hearings relating to several co-accused.
Mr Salvato was not charged and there is no suggestion he was involved in illegal activity. The videos give a rare insight into life inside the Ibrahim clan.
They also show that despite barely surviving a shooting in 2009 and being the subject of several high profile court cases, Fadi Ibrahim still knows how to party.
On the holiday Fadi, his younger brother Michael and their friends were preparing to fly to a business meeting in Dubai, where police were waiting and Fadi and Michael were both to be arrested.
In May, Michael was jailed for 30 years after pleading guilty to smuggling almost two tonnes of drugs and millions of cigarettes into Australia.
Fadi will next year go to trial accused of dealing with money that was proceeds of crime. He is set to plead not guilty.
MORE BY BRENDEN HILLS:
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The video also shows Fadi taking centre stage on a Thailand mini bus, this time wearing a different coloured headband.
He looks down the barrel of the camera and sings a rendition of the Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers duet Islands In The Stream.
As Fadi performs the accompanying dance moves, the others on the bus laugh while Salvato urges him to “Take it, Fadi. Take it”.
Back in his Speedos as the resort, Fadi was recorded strutting around the pool holding the pellet-firing gun with the pistol down the front of his Speedos while a shirtless Michael joked: “Hey Fadi, is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”
When a shirtless Michael takes an accurate shot at a tree, Fadi said: “Have you been f**king practising? Look at this c***!”
Michael and Salvato also sumo-wrestle by a pool.
The final videos show the crew flying first-class to Dubai and partying and letting off party poppers at a Dubai nightclub where theme music from the Indiana Jones movies plays over the speakers.