Bootleg tobacco farmer and ‘family man’ jailed after feds bust $15m grow operation outside Katherine

A court has heard a father of three lied to federal agents about what he was growing on his Katherine property. Read how he was busted.

Justice Brownhill said the total excisable value of the plants was $14,992,955.

A “family man” and father of three who set up a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar black market tobacco farm outside Katherine will spend three months in jail following a bust by federal agents.

Ali Taleb, 45, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in November to growing the illicit crop and preparing to convert it into a saleable product with a total value of almost $15m.

The court heard Taleb had spent more than $100,000 on a deposit and 12-months’ rent in February 2018 on farmland outside Katherine where he set up his bootleg plantation.

In July of that year, police then photographed the crop and passed the investigation on to the Australian Taxation Office following an anonymous tip-off.

ATO and Border Force agents raided the 7.77ha property and discovered Taleb and his co-offender cousin along with “a large number of men” who “appeared to be living in temporary accommodation and working at the property”.

In sentencing Taleb to 15 months in prison, suspended after three months, Justice Sonia Brownhill said the agents found three cultivated areas “with extensive irrigation systems” and “a large number” of tobacco plants.

“Investigators also located a 40-foot shipping container with steam seeping from it which had been converted into a drying kiln for tobacco leaf. It contained sliding racks of tobacco leaf drying inside which weighed a total of 6.75 tonnes and 150 trays of tobacco,” she said.

“There were also tractors, hoes, a picking machine and seedling trays at the property. You were spoken to by investigators. You told them you were an excavator driver growing eggplant on the property and it would be a couple of weeks before harvest of the crop.”

Justice Brownhill said Taleb had never been a registered or licenced tobacco grower but if sold legally, the total excisable value of the plants was $14,992,955.

She said the married father of three owned a successful demolition company in Victoria which employed five full time workers, with references describing the offending as out of character.

“They indicate that you are a hard-worker, honest and reliable, and a family man who provides care for his children, doing things such as driving them to school and medical appointments, doing the shopping and looking after them,” she said.

“They also say you are well loved in your community.”

Justice Brownhill said while she accepted Taleb’s family would suffer hardship if he was sent to jail, “the very serious nature of this offending and your principal involvement in it” meant time behind bars was warranted.

“Given your excellent prospects of rehabilitation, I do not consider that any supervision or conditions, other than that you are of good behaviour, are necessary once you are released,” she said.