AN0M: Mohammed Yaghi convicted of smuggling cannabis for the Italian mafia

Mohammed Yaghi lived a crime-free life for two decades, but the lure of hundreds of thousands of dollars to be one of the Italian mafia’s middle men Down Under proved irresistible.

After 20 years living a crime-free life, a Western Sydney man was pulled back by the allure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Calabrian mafia’s cannabis trade.

What the ‘Ndrangheta said to get Mohammed Yaghi to return to crime, police will never know — but they heard all of his secrets as he posted under the moniker “Joker” on the encrypted app AN0M.

The biggest one was that the 44-year-old had quietly become one of the mafia’s middle men Down Under.

From living a relatively normal life caring for six kids, Yaghi found himself running errands for the mafia. Over three months in 2021 he dropped thousands of dollars to mafia associates in Sydney and played a key role in importing almost 200kg of cannabis, according to court documents.

Unfortunately for him the Australian Federal Police had all the pictures of the drugs and money to prove he was the Joker and convict him in court last week.

Mohammed Yaghi and some of the cannabis and money seized by police.

The most damning of these were pictures he took of a cannabis shipment that showed bedsheets and kitchen items in his home.

According to documents tendered to court, his first foray into the mob’s drug activities was picked up by the secret police messaging app on April 1 2021, when a disgruntled mafia drug customer complained about their cannabis stock.

Drugs pictured on Yaghi’s AN0M messages ...

... which were taken in his home.

“Bro I hate complaining but I haven’t got cracker yet all my customers want cracker I can’t lose them please can u tell him next load have to be cracker otherwise I will lose them plz bro,” they said to Yaghi after a 58kg delivery.

The day after came his next errand, picking up the $441,100 payment for the drugs — and $12,800 for himself.

It was part of a repeated routine of Yaghi’s that police outlined in a statement of facts detailing just how the mafia lured him in.

In total police said in court documents Yaghi made more than $400,000 for his role in the criminal enterprise.

At times his AN0M messages read like he was playing peacemaker between suppliers and dealers squabbling over missing kilos in a shipment, in others he was dictating how to test the quality of weed like a science.

“Bud must have the outside and nice green,” Yaghi, as Joker, writes in one message.

“When u crack it u hear click and u see nice green inside ... that good but when u see heap of brown inside no good.

“Smell must have strong smell or fruity smells if got like tea smell no good … when u hold bud with 2 finger down like bunch if stay pop up mean good if stay flat no good.”

In total the group was responsible for the sale of more than 200kg of cannabis.

After a few weeks passed and police had not swooped in on them, Yaghi found more buyers for the mafia weed.

“Yeah I got 27 (27 pounds of cannabis) left everyone got Atm so I’m full need to move them lol,” he says in one message on the app.

By the time AN0M was days away from being shut down by police, Yaghi was trusted enough to deal directly with associates of the South Australian man police allege is part of the mafia — Salvatore Lupoi.

Lupoi is facing serious drugs charges in his home state but is alleged to be the user “Happy” who Yaghi would often deal with on AN0M.

He is accused of organising an unrelated cocaine import there with other alleged ’Ndrangheta members.

Yaghi’s lawyer Fadi Abbas. Photo: NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

According to court documents, Yaghi delivered $600,000, $535,000 and $85,000 on three occasions to associates of the accused mafia boss for the sale of what police allege was his imported cannabis.

Days after the app was shut down police arrested Yaghi and several others, and thanks to a rookie mistake police tied the drug shipment to him because the AN0M pictures showed his bedsheets and kitchen in the background.

Last week he faced court, represented by his lawyer Fadi Abbas, where he was handed a three-year intensive corrections order after pleading guilty to commercial drug supply and dealing with more than $1 million of proceeds of crime.

News tips: [e-mail]