Trent Jeske and Asaad Alahmad sentenced over drug deals linked to Alameddine crime clan

Details of the sentencing of Trent Jeske and Asaad Alahmad — along with how their ‘misguided loyalties’ led them to become drug dealers in the first place — can now be revealed after a temporary gag order was lifted in court.

Asaad Alahmad and Trent Jeske in an undated photograph.

A key player in a lucrative drug trafficking ring connected to the Alameddine crime clan has walked free from jail on parole, while another could be released from custody by the middle of the year, it can be revealed.

Trent Jeske, 26, and Asaad Alahmad, 30, both confirmed ringleaders of the clan’s drug dealing subgroup ‘Ready 4 War’, faced Parramatta District Court last week for sentencing on commercial drug supply charges, almost two years after they were locked up as part of sweeping police raids targeting known associates of the organised criminal network.

Despite facing a maximum penalty of life behind bars for their crimes, Jeske and Alahmad were handed minimum jail terms of 20 months and 26 months respectively.

With the sentences backdated to include time already served, Jeske was immediately released to parole, while the court heard Alahmad will become eligible for parole in July this year.

Details of the pair’s sentences - and how their “misguided loyalties” led them to become drug dealers in the first place - can only now be aired after a temporary gag order was lifted this week.

A police mugshot of Alameddine crime family associate Asaad Alahmad. Picture: Supplied

Trent Jeske, pictured after his weight loss surgery.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal lawyers for the two men argued at their sentencing hearing that their actions in becoming involved in the drug syndicate stemmed from a “bond” with fellow drug dealers they had known since childhood.

“It is some type of loyalty in a misguided way,” Alahmad’s barrister Avni Djemal SC said.

“Not from pressure, but from influence of people involved in this milieu.”

In a sentencing report tendered to the court, Alahmad, who is the brother-in-law of family patriarch Rafat Alameddine, stated his lifestyle at the time was “primarily funded by his criminal activities”, including the purchase of a $145,000 BMW.

An image taken of Asaad Alahmad in a hospital bed after he was shot in 2021.

Rafat Alameddine has not been charged with any offences related to the drug ring.

However, Alahmad said in the court document that the funds were just a “side benefit” he was motivated to maintain “due to his strong bond with his co-offenders”.

The court heard Alahmad had survived two attempts on his life after shootings in 2019 and 2021, and that his father was a victim of a gangland murder.

The Telegraph revealed last year when he applied for bail on these charges that police believed the second attempt on his life led to the shooting murders of four members of the Hamzy family in retaliation.

Alahmad has not been charged with any offences in relation to those shootings and it is not suggested he had any involvement in them.

Meanwhile, Alahmad and Jeske’s involvement in the ‘Ready 4 War’ operation eventually came undone after police placed them as the central figures behind the botched sale of more than 400g of meth to a drug dealer in Newcastle in April 2022.

According to the statement of facts, Jeske was caught on a police surveillance device talking about the bungled drug deal, saying the man they had delivered it to in the Hunter area had smoked some of the meth instead of selling it.

“Someone’s dying today,” Jeske said, according to a transcript of the recording.

“Oh my god,” another person replied.

“He’s smoking my gear,” Jeske replied.

In sentencing Jeske and Alahmad, Judge Sophia Beckett noted they both had “very traumatic backgrounds”, although for different reasons, and had developed addictions to drugs in their late teens.

She found there was a medium risk they would both reoffend and warned them any further infractions would result in lengthy jail time.

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