Florian Chamon: Partyboy Frenchman appeals severity of drug syndicate sentence
A dashing Frenchman who joined an all Gallic drug syndicate in a bid to raise funds to open a creperie has made a bid for an early release. His gang ran a Facebook group which used capsicum, salad dressing and broccoli as code for drugs.
Central Sydney
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A handsome French student who joined a Gallic drug dealing syndicate to raise funds to buy a crepe cafe has lost his bid for an early release.
Florian Chamon argued in the Supreme Court of Appeal on Wednesday that his prison sentence was too severe for his role in the eight-person syndicate.
But two of the three sitting judges dismissed the appeal and ordered Chamon must serve out his sentence of five years with three years non parole.
Party boy Chamon, the youngest in the group, was sentenced in July 2019 for obtaining, packaging and handling drugs and cash for the Sydney-based drug syndicate.
The MDMA, ketamine, LSD and cannabis enterprise was run with three co-accused, and four other associates, out of a Surry Hills address, and used a closed Facebook group to sell the product.
Interested patrons would use the word capsicums for MDMA, broccoli for marijuana and light salad dressing for LSD.
When police arrested him in April 2018, he told them the $163,235 found in his car and Haymarket apartment was savings to buy a creperie.
Police also found digital scales, boxes of vacuum sealed bags, and numerous mobile phones and laptops in the Haymarket apartment.
Chamon, then on a temporary student visa, was charged with dealing with proceeds of crime, participating in a criminal group, and supplying 28.3g of MDMA, all of which he pleaded guilty to.
But Chamon argued that the one year difference between his sentence of imprisonment and that of syndicate “boss” Cheker Hannachi was unsuitable seeing as Hannachi had a “significantly higher role in the criminal enterprise”.
Hannachi, who had a prior criminal history unlike Chamon, organised the activities of the drug runners and the pricing, court documents revealed.
On one phone call intercepted by police, Hannachi, almost 20 years older than the other offenders aged in their 20s, can be heard saying “I am the boss here”.
Chamon’s legal team also argued Hannachi was charged for supplying 476g of MDMA, which was about 17 times more than that of the applicant.
Drug-runner Billy Michah is serving out an almost two year sentence within the community and co-accused Walter Watchou was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs.
Judge Peter Hamill said he believed there were grounds for an appeal, and would have re-sentenced Chamon to four years and six months in prison.
But Supreme Court judges Robert Allan Hulme and Helen Wilson argued that the individual sentences were warranted, even lenient, due to differences in the co-offenders’ characters, criminal history, roles in the syndicate and charges.
His sentence is backdated to his arrest on April 6, 2018.