Criminal caught up in police corruption scandal, Azzam Ahmed, back in jail

A player in one of Victoria’s most notorious police corruption scandals — which led to drug squad detective David Miechel being jailed — has found himself back on the wrong side of the law.

Police at the East Kew home and murder scene of Terence and Christine Hodson in 2004.

A criminal who ran a suspected Tony Mokbel drug house at the centre of one of Victoria’s worst police corruption scandals has been sent back to jail.

Azzam Ahmed, 58, last week was sentenced to 4½ years in prison after being found guilty of possession and trafficking of cocaine and methylamphetamine.

The County Court was told 278.6 grams of cocaine and 46 grams of methylamphetamine were found at a Moorabbin factory during a police operation in October 2021.

Ahmed had been just six months out of his parole period having been sentenced in 2005 to 17 years in jail over the infamous bust of a drug house in Dublin St, Oakleigh East.

Drug squad detective David Miechel and crime figure Terrence Hodson were arrested at the property as they tried to burgle it on AFL Grand Final Day in September 2003. Hodson later agreed to give evidence to anti-corruption investigators but was shot dead with his wife Christine at their Kew home in 2004 before the case made court.

Former drug squad detective David Miechel outside court. Picture: Jessica O’Donnell

Drugs found inside the house where Miechel was caught. Picture: Supplied

Miechel served a long prison term for the burglary.

His drug squad colleague Paul Dale was later charged with the murder of Hodson, but the case was withdrawn after the 2010 murder of witness Carl Williams inside Barwon Prison.

Ahmed’s name came up often in the subsequent Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants.

The commission was told Ahmed had given two ­mobile phones to lawyer Nicola Gobbo, whose giving of evidence to police led to the royal commission.

The royal commission also heard that police were told $700,000 in cash had gone missing from the Dublin St drug house after the break-in.

Terence and Christine Hodson. Hodson was killed alongside his wife before he could front court.

Investigators seized ecstasy valued at $8.5m from the property, which they were told was controlled by drug kingpin Tony Mokbel.

Police alleged after arresting Ahmed after the Oakleigh East bust that he was a player in a major drug syndicate with international links.

The operation was allegedly of such sophistication that one of his co-offenders had twice chartered private planes to buy ecstasy tablets.

Ahmed’s first criminal conviction was in 1989 for cultivating and possessing cannabis.

He went to prison in 1995 for importing cannabis resin, and in 2005 copped a 17-year stretch over the Oakleigh bust.