Men jailed for ‘drug version of Uber Eats’

HARDWORKING taxi drivers have been caught up in a sophisticated drug operation that delivered drugs to up to 900 customers.

FOUR men have been jailed after they were caught operating a highly organised and successful Sydney business described as “the drug version of Uber Eats”.

Khaled Dib, Mohamed Dib, Ihsan Salma and Omer Arab mostly used taxis to deliver mobile phone orders for cocaine from up to 900 customers across an area spanning the Northern Beaches to Cronulla.

“This was a sophisticated criminal operation which ran a drug-dealing network along the lines of that legitimate business (Uber Eats), using mobile phones for customers to place orders and, in most cases, taxis driven by an offender to satisfy those orders,” NSW District Court Judge Peter Berman said on Tuesday.

Judge Berman said customers made an order by contacting one of the Dibs, who would either allocate the job to a driver or deliver the cocaine themselves.

“There was much that would be familiar to the operator of a legitimate taxi business,” he said.

“This is not surprising as the majority of the offenders were taxi drivers — not that they performed that function when they were delivering drugs.”

Police estimate the men had between 800 and 900 customers and on Fridays and Saturdays each driver could meet as many as 100 people, the agreed statement of facts reveals.

Judge Berman said while a hardworking attitude was usually viewed as a good thing, when it came to sentencing, in this case, the men’s “very industriousness has made their offences serious indeed”.

He sentenced Salma, who had $337, 870 in his possession on his arrest, to a maximum of seven years and six months in jail with a non-parole period of four years and three months for supplying a commercial quantity of cocaine and knowingly dealing in the proceeds of crime.

Khaled Dib was sentenced to seven years with a non-parole period of four years for supplying a commercial quantity of cocaine while Mohamed Dib received seven years and three months with a non-parole period of four years and two months.

Arab received a term of five years and 10 months with a non-parole period of three years and four months for supplying cocaine, possessing an unregistered firearm and possessing a taser.

For Arab and the Dibs, the judge also took into account an offence of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

He gave all the men a 25 per cent discount for their guilty pleas.

Judge Berman noted that each of them offered their heavy cocaine use as some explanation for their crimes, claiming they weren’t involved in the drug supply operation to fund a luxurious lifestyle.

But he said their explanation also demonstrated how serious drug supply was. “Who knows how many of their many customers would have committed crimes to fund their habits?” the judge said.

Four men have been jailed after they were caught operating “the drug version of Uber Eats”. Picture: Keryn Stevens/AAP