County Court drug dealers: the nastiest traffickers to go down in 2019
From dealers caught up in bizarre kidnap plots to a heroin queen busted after a murder investigation, Leader has compiled some of Melbourne’s nastiest dope slingers who went through the County Court last year.
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From dealers caught up in bizarre kidnap plots to a heroin queen busted after a murder investigation, Leader has compiled some of Melbourne’s nastiest suppliers who went through the County Court last year.
THE HEROIN QUEEN
Jenny Di Blasio and her boyfriend dealt big amounts of heroin out of their Notting Hill apartment.
Di Blasio may have gotten away with it had it not been for the murder of Chinese national Bo Wang.
Detectives investigating the unsolved murder of Wang seized CCTV from Di Blasio and her boyfriend.
Instead of finding clues to the murder, Investigators uncovered a large-scale drug-dealing operation.
The day after the murder and the seizure of the CCTV footage, police returned to Di Blasio’s apartment and seized more than $30,000 in cash, deal bags and scales.
Di Blasio kept records of the operation which show she handled more than 2kg of heroin and more than $300,000 cash.
Di Blasio was sentenced in the County Court last August to time served – 203 days – and a 12-month community correction order after pleading guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of heroin and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
THE DRUG DEALER, THE FRUITERER AND THE BARBER KIDNAP PLOT
Federal police were closing in on Melbourne drug kingpin Feres Al Janabe when they uncovered a bizarre kidnap plot sprung from a feud between two Toorak Village traders.
Al Janabe had been hired by fruiterer Shadi Farah to kidnap his barber neighbour and nemesis, Nader Kajajo.
The plot was foiled after Al Janabe was busted by the AFP moving 9kg of meth from Victoria to Western Australia between March 1, 2018 and July 27, 2018.
Police crushed his drug empire through phone analysis and surveillance.
Al Janabe, who listed his occupation as unemployed, used various aliases and encrypted messages to run his “large scale commercial operation”.
Al Janabe, 43, was sentenced at the County Court last August to a maximum of 11 years and ten months’ prison with a non-parole period of eight years after pleading guilty to drug trafficking.
Farah was jailed for nine months and given a three-year community corrections order.
Mr Kajajo told Leader the situation became so intense he “had to move house to keep myself safe and my girlfriend and her children safe”.
“My business suffered because the clients they didn’t come, they didn’t feel safe,” he said.
FROM ELITE SCHOOLBOY TO HIGH-RISE DRUG DEALER
Last July, Cain Quah, a former Melbourne Grammar and Melbourne High student caught with almost 3kg of meth at his Southbank apartment, was jailed for 16 years.
Quah became a trivia question as he was the first dealer to be jailed under tough new drug trafficking laws.
Quah will serve at least 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to trafficking the huge quantity of meth, as well as to weapons and drug possession charges.
Quah fell foul of a new law, which came into effect on February 1, 2018, mandating 16 years — with the minimum to be 60 per cent of the total sentence — for trafficking a large commercial amount of drugs.
Quah was busted by police at his Southbank apartment with almost 3kg of “high purity” meth on January 2, 2019.
Police also found an unregistered handgun with the serial number scraped off, 20 hollow point bullets, butterfly knives, knuckle dusters and almost $90,000 in cash scattered around Quah’s apartment.
The former Melbourne Grammar and Melbourne High student denied he was a drug trafficker, telling police he was a “money lender” who was given the meth in lieu of a $30,000 loan.
He also told police he was a martial arts weapons collector and the gun was part of his collection.
FENTANYL DAD
A “responsible and devoted” drug-addicted dad trafficked fentanyl via the dark web from suppliers based in China.
Last March, the County Court heard how the man, who pleaded guilty to trafficking a drug of dependence, bought the banned highly potent synthetic opioid, which is 50 times stronger than heroin, from China and sold it under the guise of fake internet aliases, or “handles”, via encrypted sites Dream Market and Wall Street Market.
The man, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was detected by investigators from Operation Sunroof — a Victoria Police initiative tracking fentanyl on the dark web — who launched a sting operation in January 2018.
Investigators found the illegal drugs were posted from a Moorabbin East post office.
The man’s identity was suppressed out of concerns for his safety due to the “high level of co-operation” he provided to authorities.
The dad was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order and 300 hours of community service.
THE DRUG DEALER, THE STRIP CLUB AND THE EXTORTION PLOT
Genna Schvarts was arrested at his Balaclava home in 2018 after police caught him with a stack of cocaine and MDMA, $240,000 cash and a taser.
Schvarts, a Russian born “businessman” – who made money selling Diesel Jeans – packaged the drugs in “Tom & Jerry” deal bags.
He was bailed but rearrested a month later after he helped two Sydney enforcers bash his Exotica Gentlemen’s Lounge business partner in a violent attempt to extort ownership of the city strip club.
Schvarts pleaded guilty at the County Court last November to drug trafficking and intentionally cause injury.
He was sentenced to time served – 571 days – and a two-year community correction order.
THE METH IN LOGS TRAFFICKING CONSPIRACY
Drug kingpin Wedi Bembo played a “central role” in a conspiracy to import 125kg of meth hidden in timber logs from Nigeria to Australia.
The $125 million consignment was intercepted by Australian Federal Police in June, 2016.
AFP officers substituted the meth with a different substance and allowed the consignment to be delivered to its Sunshine destination.
Bembo was linked to the operation after he was recorded travelling to and from the site.
Property documents, mobile phone records and fingerprints found on a notebook in a Carlton flat linked to the operation were all used to build the case against Bembo.
The conspiracy ran for several months until Bembo was arrested in July, 2016.
He was on bail for other major drug charges at the time of his arrest.
Bembo was busted in 2013 trying to import heroin hidden in furniture from Pakistan and also conspired to ship in a large amount of meth from China in 2014.
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Bembo was sentenced at the County Court last August to 19 years’ jail after being found guilty of attempting to possess a large commercial quantity of meth.
However, the sentence will not begin until Bembo completes much of his federal sentence for his prior drug charges.
His non-parole period was extended from 16 to 25 years and he will not be eligible for parole until 2043.