Youssef Jabal in court over cover-up plan for Bilal Omari’s cocaine operation
A Lamborghini-driving tradie is facing possible jail time over his attempt to cover up for his cousin, who operated a cocaine-dealing operation in Canberra.
Canberra Star
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Police were listening in to a series of panicked phone calls during the last minutes of a “disorganised” Canberra cocaine trafficking operation, with a Lamborghini driving tradie now facing possible jail time over his ham-fisted attempt to cover up for his cousin.
Court records released to the Canberra Star show builder Youssef Jabal, 35, of Crace in the ACT, took a series of panicked phone calls on the afternoon of December 5, 2017, after police raided his cousin, Bilal Omari, following a long running drugs probe.
Jabal has pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned with the trafficking of cocaine, and faced the ACT Supreme Court briefly last week.
Omari’s drug dealing operation — described in court as “relatively small but nonetheless active” — came to a crashing halt when police showed up at his office with search warrants, including for his Jeep.
The court records show Omari made a phone call to his girlfriend, Fiona Brosnan, who in turn called Jabal.
In one of Bronson’s calls to Jabal, intercepted by police, she urged him to break into Omari’s car and take a stash of cocaine before police got to it.
“Break it, Youssef … Like, he’s got everything in his car,” Bronson said.
Jabal then said: “Leave it with me, I’ll work it out”.
Minutes later, Bronson said in a call to Jabal: “Go break the window, he’ll hold them off. Just break the window and … just clean, clean out whatever, he just needs to go to the f***in’ cleaner.”
In a fourth phone call, involving Omari, Bronson and Jabal, Omari is heard talking in Arabic, saying: “Go to my car now quickly! Go smash the window! There is something
in the back! Take it out.”
Jabal’s brother, Adam, was later seen near Omari’s car, but ran off when a police officer yelled out to him.
Jabal then rang Omari and told him not to talk.
Police found a tyre iron next to Omari’s Jeep, apparently used to smash the back window, and beside it a white shopping bag with a set of digital scales and a sandwich bag with 32g or cocaine.
The sandwich bag had Omari’s DNA and Jabal’s fingerprints on it, with Jabal’s DNA later also found on the shopping bag.
Omari was arrested after trying to do a runner from police as they inspected the bag.
Police later found more than $12,000 in cash, empty clipseal bags and a jar labelled “inositol”, a common cutting agent for cocaine.
A raid on Jabal’s house found large amounts of cash, electronic scales, a money counter, and small quantities of cocaine and MDMA.
Jabal’s lawyer, Kamy Saeedi, told the ACT Supreme Court last week his client was “essentially an accessory after the fact in a very stupid, disorganised situation”.
But Jabal, who spent five days behind bars in December 2017, now faces a potential jail stint for his fleeting involvement trying to cover up for Omari — who he called his “big nosed cousin” in yet another tapped phone call.
Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlssen will sentence Jabal in July.