Adam Hunter, Jad Seifeddine: NSW business owners who were busted with drugs | List
From a high life of business ownership to drug crimes, these NSW luxury lovers had everything until they were convicted. Now, their names and crimes can be revealed.
Police & Courts
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From landscaping to IT, these businessmen went from hero to zero when they were busted with drugs.
Some were undone using their business as a cover to import or sell drugs, while another lost everything after being caught dealing.
Here is a list of NSW business owners who fell from grace when police eventually caught up with them.
MATTHEW DAVID SMITH, NORTH TURRAMURRA
This self-proclaimed owner of a carpet laying business which boasts a portfolio of upper north shore clients was jailed after his messy drug addiction and shocking driving habits were exposed.
Matthew David Smith, 28, of North Turramurra, pleaded guilty late last year to two counts of possess prohibited drug, four counts of licence expired two years or more before and two counts of drive vehicle, illicit drug present in blood.
On December 12 in 2018, officers were patrolling known drug activity hot spots in Surry Hills where they came across Smith and his mate in a vehicle and began to question them.
Police searched the car and found an A4 book with a list of chemist addresses with the majority crossed out and prescription drugs, police facts state.
Further, there were six black prescriptions from Prince of Wales Hospital and police checks found Smith had gone to a number of chemists on the day “uttering fraudulent prescriptions at eleven separate chemists”, police facts state.
Smith was arrested and his phone was seized which contained footage of Smith holding two firearms with ammunition, which led to a search warrant at a home in Botany.
When police attended the home they located a Smith and Wesson Revolver and an Erfurt pistol, along with 50 rounds of ammunition and “a number of prohibited drugs
He received an aggregate sentence of seven months in prison.
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ADAM HUNTER, BUNGENDORE
This broke business owner known as “Pablo Excavator” who was recruited to help smuggle cocaine from South Africa hidden inside a digger was sentenced to 12 years behind bars this year.
Adam Phillip Hunter, 35, pleaded guilty last year to attempting to import $140 million of cocaine from South Africa inside a second-hand excavator in 2019 and got the nickname online after the notorious Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
Judge Andrew Colefax told the court Hunter was having financial troubles in 2018, with an overdue utilities bill, no funds left on his credit card and struggling to pay for basic living expenses.
A regular client of Hunter’s business, Bungendore Landscape supplies, became “aware” of the financial struggles and offered to help him, becoming known as the mysterious “coffee man”, the court heard.
Hunter had no idea the police were onto him and had intercepted the machine when it arrived at Port Kembla, near Wollongong, and X-rayed it, finding the 1kg packages.
The business owner made repeated calls to the port questioning why the excavator had not been delivered, with staff claiming it was being cleaned and had electrical problems, the court heard.
Police found 348 plastic-wrapped 1kg blockers concealed in the hydraulic arm, found to be 332.1kg of cocaine.
In September this year, Hunter was handed a sentence of 12 years and nine months, with a non-parole period of eight years and three months, backdated to his arrest on July 14, 2019.
He will be eligible for parole on October 13, 2027.
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JAD SEIFEDDINE, WHALE BEACH
This self-made owner of an IT business was caught dealing $7500 of cocaine at a Neutral Bay cafe.
Jad Seifeddine, 29, of Whale Beach pleaded guilty to charges of supply prohibited drug, possess prohibited drug and deal with property proceeds of crime.
For a string of drug and driving charges, he received a combined sentence last year of intensive corrections orders and community corrections orders by supervision of more than five years.
Court papers reveal he was being electronically monitored by police when he was contacted by a known drug buyer who ordered 28.4 grams of cocaine on October 16, 2019.
Two days later investigators saw him attend Maisey’s Cafe where he met with a male inside and supplied the drugs for $7500.
It was almost a month later when police executed a search warrant at Seifeddine’s (former) address in Narrabeen where they found 78.89 grams of cannabis cookies, 71.19 grams of cannabis butter, 218 grams of cannabis leaf, 2.62 grams of cocaine and 0.34 grams of MDMA.
In addition to the community corrections orders with convictions, Seifeddine was ordered to undertake a combined 300 hours of community service, he was disqualified from driving for a period of 12 months and fined $500.
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AARON WATERS, DEE WHY
This muscled-up Louis Vuitton-wearing drug dealer from Sydney’s northern beaches swapped his designer shoes for prison greens after being jailed for three years.
The court had been told 27-year-old Aaron Waters, who at the time owned a successful Dee Why swimming pool business Superior Pool Care and once posed for a photo on a horse wading through the sea, was involved in the supply of cocaine and MDMA out of an inconspicuous garage near Manly’s wharf.
Before his downfall, Waters did not shy away from showing off his money, treating his thousands of Instagram followers to photos of his luxury lifestyle including overseas travel.
He pleaded guilty last year to a string of serious offences including supplying prohibited drugs and recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Last year he was sentenced to three years and six months jail with a non-parole period of one year and nine months.
Waters will be first eligible for parole in July 2022.
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JEFFREY ACOSTA, QUOC KIEM TRAN, ROUSE HILL
Two men, who were partners at a western Sydney aquarium business and later linked to one of the largest drug importation busts in Australia history, were jailed last year.
Jeffrey Acosta, 38, of Rouse Hill, and Quoc Kiem Tran, 38, of Cabramatta received sentences last year of 11 and 10 years’ jail respectively over their attempt to import more than one tonne of ephedrine, a precursor to the drug ‘ice’, worth $650 million, in a shipping container from China.
The men were among 13 people charged over the large-scale drug supply and manufacturing operation, which had links to the Rebels bikie gang, when Border Force officials intercepted the container at Port Botany on June 24, 2017.
The offending was done under the guise of Tran’s legitimate Seven Hills-based aquarium import business, Global Marine Products, the syndicate co-ordinated the shipment to Australia.
Acosta and Tran were sentenced on a string of offences at Penrith District Court after pleading guilty to importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, being 1310kg of ephedrine.
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