Ashkan Mokhtarian: UFC fighter faces drug supply charges
Former UFC fighter Ashkan ‘The Assassin’ Mokhtarian is likely to face time behind different bars when he faces court for sentencing in September, a court has heard.
Parramatta
Don't miss out on the headlines from Parramatta . Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Central Coast man facing child abuse charges
- ‘I’ll smash you’: Dark secrets of PT to the stars laid bare in court
A former Ultimate Fighting Championship star has been told he is facing the prospect of jail time after being caught dealing cocaine in Sydney's inner city last year.
Known as ‘The Assassin’ in the octagon, Ashkan Mokhtarian is now staring down time inside a different cage after confessing to supplying drugs to a woman near the Clock Hotel in Surry Hills.
Mokhtarian, 34, was strip searched by police with officers finding seven resealable bags containing cocaine, and 13 smaller bags of granule MDMA following his arrest on June 15, 2019.
He has pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying an indictable amount of drugs – 4.57g of cocaine and 11.5g of MDMA - and one of supplying a small quantity of illicit drugs.
A further charge of dealing with the proceeds of crime, relating to $250 in cash the woman paid for her 0.64g bag of coke and later seized by police, will be taken into account on sentence.
The founder of Australian Top Team gym appeared at Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday with cousin Aryan Masoumian.
The heavily inked Mokhtarian has a distinctive dagger tattoo over his left eye, which is meant to symbolise his detachment from society.
Masoumian, 27, from Quakers Hill was enlisted as the delivery driver and pleaded guilty to three charges including two counts of supplying an indictable amount, and one count of supplying a small quantity, of drugs.
Magistrate Joan Baptie told the court she would give the men time to undergo treatment for mental health issues before sentencing them, but said prospects looked bleak for the cage fighter.
“On what I have now, I would be sending him (Mokhtarian) to jail,” she said. “(For Masoumian) I would give him the option to deal with his mental health.”
Agreed facts revealed plain clothes cops saw the unnamed woman withdraw money from an ATM across the road from the Clock about 9.15pm, before she hopped in the back of a white Toyota Hilux on Collins St.
Soon after cops stopped the car being driven by Masoumian, with Mokhtarian in the passenger seat.
They were arrested and searched, revealing the bounty of drugs, and Mokhtarian later told police he was going to use some of the gear to party with friends.
On Tuesday the court heard the Wentworthville father regularly used cannabis and cocaine, and that he and Masoumian suffered from depression.
It heard Mokhtarian had acted “on impulse” in involving himself in drug dealing, and that Masoumian was seeking some “quick cash” to secure a home for his wife and child.
Magistrate Baptie questioned why both men with “large light bulbs switched on to do something” had not sought mental health treatment.
“If these people were really serious about their predicament and their mental health, they would have been doing something since June last year (when they were arrested)”, she said.
Masoumian told the court, by way of his lawyer Allan Goldsworthy, that he had not felt comfortable confiding in a psychologist but had finally found one he could talk to.
Tehran-born Mokhtarian, whose family fled to Australia at the height of the Iran-Iraq War in 1985, first signed for the UFC in March 2017.
His record stands at 13 wins from 16 mixed martial arts bouts, but Mokhtarian lost two from two in the UFC before being released from his contract in May, 2019.
During his career he spoke openly about his struggle with drugs and mental health in his teen years, and how he formerly spent time in Silverwater prison.
Mokhtarian sighted his training to become a UFC fighter as instrumental in turning his life around.
Magistrate Baptie told the court this week she would likely convict he and Masoumian when they return for sentencing on September 16.