Drug dealer Sherif Ali Verdu-Tsotras jailed after doing 200km/h during Eastern Freeway pursuit
A drug dealer nabbed with almost a kilo of ecstasy caught the eye of a police helicopter after he was clocked doing 200km/h on the Eastern Freeway. VIDEO: Watch exclusive aerial footage of how police in the sky co-ordinated ground units to snare the teen.
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A cashed-up teenager who sped at 200km/h on the Eastern Freeway was nabbed with a huge drug supply and a manual on running a drug cartel.
Sherif Ali Verdu-Tsotras, 20, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to a minimum two years after pleading guilty to reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
Verdu-Tsotras, 19 at the time, had never held a driver’s licence when he drove at 200km/h on the Eastern Freeway just after 7.30pm on June 12 last year.
The road menace caught the attention of a police helicopter which tracked the tearaway’s escapade through the eastern suburbs.
The airwing mobilised police on the ground to intercept Verdu-Tsotras.
A police car approached Verdu-Tsotras when he was then stopped in traffic at the intersection of Springvale Rd and Burwood Hwy, Burwood East.
An officer got out and leaned into the Audi’s open windows to try to turn the car off, before the teen accelerated heavily, almost hitting other cars.
The court heard the officer only avoided being hit or dragged along by the car because he managed to jump back in time.
Verdu-Tsotras then reached speeds of 170km/h as he drove to Glen Waverley, where he abandoned his car on Folkestone Crescent.
Police caught up with him as he walked up the driveway on Kenilworth Crescent and hid a Louis Vuitton bag under a parked car.
In it police found bags of ecstasy tablets, cocaine, magic mushrooms and his keys.
A search of the unemployed teen’s Maribyrnong apartment then uncovered more ecstasy, cannabis seeds, scales, deal bags, someone else’s licence and Medicare card and a book titled, How to Run a Drug Cartel in a locked safe.
Verdu-Tsotras was caught with 807.8g ecstasy, 20.9g cocaine and 23g of magic mushrooms.
Judge Felicity Hampel said the teen’s “protracted” dangerous driving with “no concern for others’ safety” was “reprehensible”.
“That no one was killed or injured is due to good fortune and nothing more,” she said.
The court heard Verdu-Tsotras’ childhood was marred by trauma and abuse, and he had begun using a large amount of drugs at an early age.
Verdu-Tsotras received a payout of more than $400,000 at age 18 from a hospital who treated his mother before her death, the court heard.
Judge Hampel said Verdu-Tsotras had good prospects of rehabilitation, having undertaken drug rehabilitation while on bail.
Verdu-Tsotras, who also pleaded guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of MDMA and dealing cocaine, was jailed for a maximum four years and three months.
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