Melbourne AFL player Majak Daw gives reference for attempted cocaine mule Anthony Virgato

A Preston chippy who hoovered $500 in drugs daily called on an AFL player to help him beat jail on a serious cocaine charge.

Former Melbourne Demons footballer Majak Daw backed cocaine fiend Anthony Virgato at court.

A Melbourne chippy with a $500 a day drug habit who attempted to possess almost 6kg of cocaine has been backed at court by now retired AFL footballer Majak Daw.

Anthony Virgato was sentenced in the County Court on Monday to a minimum four-year jail term after he was found guilty of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of cocaine suspected of being unlawfully imported.

Virgato, of West Preston, was pinched after authorities intercepted an air parcel at the TNT depot at Melbourne Airport on July 1, 2019.

The package arrived via the Netherlands disguised as ‘Dutch auto parts/Seat Covers’.

Police found almost six kilos of cocaine in eight vacuum sealed blocks hidden among various car seat cover kits.

The cocaine, which weighed 2.5kg to 3.3kg pure, was bound for a ‘John Sthamos’ at a Reservoir address.

However, investigators, who couldn’t find any Sthamos, believed the name was “fake”.

The Reservoir address was a construction site for a home under renovation owned by Virgato Investments Pty Ltd.

Virgato, who lived at Epping at the time, attempted to collect the consignment from TNT on July 5.

Investigators, who had Virgato under surveillance, launched a sting to catch the carpenter red-handed.

Police, who repackaged the consignment minus the coke, dispatched an undercover cop posing as a TNT delivery man to drop the goods at Reservoir.

Anthony Virgato

The undercover cop spoke to Virgato who was working at the house.

“I have a delivery for John,” the cop said.

“I’m just a worker here, I’m a carpenter,” Virgato said.

“The package is for John Sthamos,” the cop said.

“Let me make a phone call to the boss to see what he wants

me to do,” Virgato said.

Virgato, who accepted the package, was tracked by police to Bunnings Thomastown then onto an Epping store.

Police witnessed Virgato receive boxes from another man then leave the scene.

Virgato was arrested at his Epping home where he was busted with cocaine later that day.

Virgato told police he spent “$400 to $500” per day on cocaine and his “business had not been doing well lately”.

Investigators also discovered various google searches on Virgato’s phone including ‘make cocaine pearl with petroleum’, ‘Bolivian rock cutting agent’, ‘latest drug busts Melbourne 2019’ and ‘13 arrested in drug bust Flemington’.

Virgato agreed to collect the package to pay off a drug debt purported to be in the thousands, the court was told.

The defence submitted Virgato had a “personality disorder” and “impaired mental functioning”.

The court heard Virgato had trained in martial arts.

Virgato also received various character references including a written reference from former Melbourne Demons player Majak Daw.

Daw switched to the Demons at the start of the 2021 season after 54 games with North Melbourne but retired this season without playing a game for the club.

Daw provided the reference before he retired.

Virgato was jailed for a maximum seven years and nine months.

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