Man sentenced to four years behind bars after stashing 1kg of ice in spare tyre

A Canberra man has been sentenced to four years in prison after he stashed 1kg of the drug ice — equivalent to 10,000 “hits” on the street — in a spare tyre.

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A Canberra man caught with “10,000 hits” of methamphetamine stashed in a spare tyre has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Police found 983 grams of the drug hidden in the spare wheel well of a car driven by Suliman Negah when they were conducting random breath testing on Federal Highway in December, 2018.

At the time of his arrest, police said the significant haul had a street value of up to $750,000 and was the equivalent of removing 10,000 “hits” of the drug from Canberra’s streets.

In sentencing the 28-year-old on Thursday, Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson said a report had indicated a “gambling addiction” may have contributed to his offending.

Suliman Negah was “in a dire financial situation” when police found 1kg of ice hidden in the spare wheel well of his car on December 21, 2018.

The court previously heard Mr Negah had agreed to act as a drug “courier” to pay off a “significant” debt.

His family had fled Afghanistan and his father had died when he was just two years old due to conflict in the war-torn country.

Justice Loukas-Karlsson said the sentence she imposed needed to act as a deterrent and reflect the “human misery that feeds illegal drug trafficking”.

She sentenced him to four years in prison with a non-parole period concluding on May 14, 2021, taking into account his guilty plea and the time he had already spent in custody.

The drugs found in the car driven by Suliman Negah.

Mr Negah was facing a maximum prison term of 10 years after pleading guilty to drug trafficking.

“You do have a chance to improve yourself,” she told Mr Negah, who nodded in the dock.

“You are still a young man and you can make something of yourself.”

She urged him to undertake courses and counselling so he could be a “worthwhile member of the community” when he comes out of jail.

“The thing about being an adult is choosing to do the right thing even when it’s not the easy thing to do and you know that gambling and drug addiction don’t solve your problems, they create worse problems for you,” she said.

“Your life is in your hands. You can improve your life and you are capable of doing that, and you owe it to yourself and your mother to prove you can be a better man.”