Maarouf El Chami: Wolli Creek personal trainer charged over cocaine

A southern Sydney personal trainer busted with cocaine at his apartment was swept up in a series of organised crime raids following Sydney’s latest gangland murder.

A Wolli Creek personal trainer has avoided spending 12 months behind bars after he was caught up in sweeping police raids targeting organised crime in Sydney.

Maarouf El Chami, 55, was not the intended target when Raptor Squad police officers went to his Wolli Creek unit to execute a Firearm Prohibition Order search last Thursday at 4am.

However, officers located 18.4 grams of cocaine, wrapped in plastic, found inside a tin in the living room of El Chami’s home.

Police used El Chami’s keys to open the boot of his car, parked at the unit, where two packages of cannabis leaf were found.

Maarouf El Chami was sentenced for supplying cocaine when his Wolli Creek home was raided. Picture: Facebook

The items were seized for further examination and El Chami was arrested and taken to St George Police Station.

He was charged with supplying prohibited drugs more than an indictable amount and possessing prohibited drugs.

El Chami was refused bail last week and entered a plea of guilty to both charges. He spent five days behind bars.

In Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday, El Chami’s defence lawyer Fadi Abbas said his client had “put his hand up”and admitted the drugs were his during the search which “saved court and police time”.

He also noted without El Chami’s admission, the prosecution case would have been “weak”.

Mr Abbas noted the drugs were for his client’s “personal use” and he only planned to share him with a friend.

The lawyer explained El Chami had turned to drugs when he became unemployed from his job as a personal trainer during Covid lockdown and had been caring for his mother.

Mr Abbas also noted El Chami was seeking treatment from a psychologist and argued he would be better served by continuing that treatment in the community rather than serving a full-time jail sentence.

He said El Chami would be supervised by Community Corrections officers where he would have to remain clean, adding he had “no underlying drug issue”.

Magistrate Michael Connell took into account El Chami’s early plea of guilty and admissions to the police as well as his deteriorating mental health. He also noted a report that said El Chami was a “low risk of reoffending” despite having a conviction for a similar charge in 2010.

Magistrate Connell sentenced El Chami to a 12-month intensive corrections order to be served in the community where he will have to complete 120 hours of unpaid volunteer work and remain abstinent from illegal drugs.