Hoang Tran, Farah Ibrahim face lengthy jail sentences after intercept
When an eagle-eyed policewoman spotted something “unusual” about two men in a Mercedes, she had no idea she was about intercept a “bonanza stop” with loaded guns secreted in the car.
Police & Courts
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An eagle-eyed policewoman who spotted something “unusual” about two men in a Mercedes led to a “bonanza stop” and a cache of deadly firearms taken off the streets.
Hoang Tran, 40, and Farah Ibrahim, 28, both face up to 10 years’ jail after Senior Constable Jessica La Rocca and First Constable Kate Lyons found loaded guns, counterfeit notes and drugs when stopping the pair on Ballarat Rd, Sunshine, about 6pm on August 6 last year.
In a County Court plea hearing for Tran this week, prosecutor Richard Pirrie said it was a “random” intercept after the officers observed the driver failing to give way at a roundabout.
But Tran’s lawyer, William Barker, said the intercept was instead “racial distinction”.
He said one officer told an earlier hearing how she was first drawn to the fact a Chinese man and a man of darker skin were in a car together.
“Clearly, she said she found that surprisingly unusual,” Judge McInerney said.
“Her intuition proved true. It turned out, as far as the police are concerned, a bonanza stop.”
Tran, the driver and owner of the 2007 black Mercedes coupe, was on bail at the time.
Ibrahim, from Keilor Downs, was subjected to a firearms prohibition order.
After observing a glass ice pipe in the passenger-side footwell the officers informed the men the vehicle would be searched.
In a guitar case on the back seat was an unregistered Tikka T3 bolt-action, centre rifle with a Leupold scope attached. The magazine contained 10 rounds of ammunition. Ibrahim’s DNA was later found on the gun’s grip and trigger.
A loaded Ruger P93 DC semiautomatic 9mm handgun was also found under the front passenger seat.
Serial numbers had been removed from both firearms.
A subsequent search of Tran’s Kings Park home found a loaded Taurus Circuit Judge revolver 22 rim-fire rifle in a holster, secreted in a convection oven box under the dining table. The firearm had been stolen in a burglary at a Delacombe home in July 2015.
Also in the box was a Laurona Eibar, break-open handgun shoved in a black sock. Tran’s DNA was found on the guns.
Three counterfeit $100 notes were also seized from a black bag behind the driver’s seat, and Tran was found with .35g of ice in his jeans pocket.
Mr Barker conceded Tran had a “lengthy criminal history” and expected to go to jail.
Judge McInerney said Tran had not learnt his lesson from multiple stints in jail over the years — including for firearm possession offences.
Tran pleaded guilty to seven charges, including possessing a traffickable quantity of firearms, possessing a loaded firearm in a public place and process counterfeit currency.
Ibrahim pleaded guilty to two charges: being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, and possessing a firearm with no serial number.
Both men will be sentenced next month.
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