Saadallah El-Asmar: Drug runner busted selling cocaine outside Northies Cronulla avoids jail

The unemployed man was caught with multiple bags of cocaine inside his car after he made a sale. Read how police tracked him.

A father-of-three has avoided being sent to jail but will be subject to electronic monitoring after he was busted selling coke “to help out a friend”.

Saadallah El-Asmar, 30, is not a drug user but had become involved in illegal activity due “pressure from anti-social associates”, Sutherland Local Court heard last week.

Documents tendered to court said Sutherland detectives were surveillancing Northies, a popular Cronulla club, on March 22, earlier this year at about 9pm.

Officers observed a man, who was known to them, walk outside the club, look at his phone before El-Asmar pulled up in his car.

The man got inside after pulling out $50 notes and El-Asmar drove a loop of the block before returning to the club.

Police stopped the man and found he had a small bag of cocaine, which he admitted to buying for $300.

Officers then followed El-Asmar and stopped him on Taren Point Road in Caringbah.

While officers asked him to get out of the car, El-Asmar grabbed his mobile phone and locked it.

Officers found another mobile phone, $1000 in $50 notes and in a cavity behind the glove box 36 small resealable bags containing cocaine. El-Asmar’s wallet also had $185 inside.

He was arrested and claimed to have recently purchased the car, telling officers he had no knowledge of the drugs.

El-Asmar was taken to Sutherland Police Station and charged with supplying an indictable quantity of cocaine, supplying a small amount of drugs and dealing in the property proceeds of crime.

In court, defence lawyer Fadi Abbas said El-Asmar was helping out a friend as a “runner” the night he was busted but did not have a drug nor gambling addiction.

Mr Abbas said El-Asmar had no prior criminal record for similar offences and was supporting his wife who did not work and three children, despite being unemployed himself.

Magistrate Philip Stewart noted El-Asmar had a prior offence of driving in a police pursuit and was now caught in a “dial-a-dealer” operation.

He noted there was a “strong need for general deterrence” because of the prevalence of “drugs circulated” in the community.

“The covert activities make it harder to detect and it was only through the good work of the police...who were waiting for such an offence to occur that the supply was observed,” Magistrate Stewart said.

Magistrate Stewart said the amount of drugs found in the car was at the “upper end” and despite El-Asmar being unemployed he was fined $3000, ordered to undertake 200 hours of community service and will be electronically monitored for 18 months while on an intensive correction order.