Matthew Taweel: Drug dealer snagged in undercover police sting
Trafficker tracked and trapped: Little did a Bentleigh East man realise that his digital dealing set-up had been infiltrated by covert drug detectives.
South East
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A police operation caught a Bentleigh East business boss supplying drugs to a middleman who then sold the gear to an undercover cop.
A court heard Matthew Taweel, 33 of Bentleigh East, dealt ice to another man who then on-sold smaller quantities online.
But the middleman hadn’t realised his set-up had been compromised and he was in fact selling substances to a plain clothes officer, leading police straight to Taweel.
Taweel, the director of a debt recovery service company, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and possession charges at the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
The court heard in November last year a covert operative went online and agreed to purchase 1.7g of ice from a man who police knew was dealing.
A meeting was arranged at the dealer’s South Yarra apartment and the operative attended.
While there the dealer received a phone call from Taweel, who then turned up in his Audi.
He got in Taweel’s car, purchased 3.7g of meth from him, got out and then did a deal with the undercover cop — all under the watchful eye of other detectives.
Taweel drove away but was later arrested, with a lab analysis proving the ice he had sold was 83 per cent pure.
Earlier this year he was nabbed with more meth, this time in St Kilda with 1.79g and an ice pipe in his car.
Defence lawyer Seda Kilic said Taweel had been a law-abiding citizen before he was introduced to drugs by a previous partner and he “became addicted, lost control”.
She said he was using 1g of ice a day and had been “very self-destructive”, but was now getting treatment for his habit.
She said he was committed to getting his life back on track.
Magistrate Gregory McNamara said Taweel only just retained his liberty.
“He was not at the end of the chain here, he was supplying,” Mr McNamara said.
“If he did have any (drug) priors, it would be jail.”
Taweel was sent for a community correction order assessment to include drug counselling and unpaid work.
