Former Olympic martial arts hopeful and long-time friend of AFL star Ben Cousins has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for his role in conspiring to traffic 44kg of MDMA, the drug used to make ecstasy.
Fabian Quaid, 33, of Sydney, will serve a minimum 10½ years before being eligible for parole, after being sentenced by Supreme Court Judge Lindy Jenkins in Perth today.
Fabian Quaid (right) with Ben Cousins at an Anthony Mundine fight.
Fellow conspirator Dimitrios Papadimitriou, 42, of Queensland, was also sentenced to 17 years with a minimum parole period of 10½ years.
Rade Ljuboja, 60, of NSW, who admitted to smuggling 60kg of MDMA into Australia in April 2008, was jailed for 25 years with a minimum 16 years.
His assistant, Dejan Medan, 30, of Victoria, was jailed for 14 years with a minimum parole period of 8½ years for admitting his role in the plot.
All four men had been facing life sentences for conspiring to traffic a commercial quantity of powdered MDMA - which had an estimated street value of $14 million to $24 million - while Ljuboja had admitted an extra charge of importing a commercially quantity of an illegal substance.
The court had earlier heard that 60kg of MDMA powder had arrived in Fremantle port aboard a cargo ship from Melbourne on April 17, 2008.
While about 16kg of the drug later went missing, 44kg was taken to a house in the Perth northern suburb of Lockeridge where police, who had been monitoring the drug-smuggling operation, substituted it with a harmless substance.
Ljuboja, Papadimitriou and Medan were arrested in Perth on May 5, 2008, while Quaid was arrested in Sydney on May 21 and later extradited to Western Australia.
In sentencing today, Justice Jenkins said that although Quaid had shown no remorse, was "not of good character" and had little hope of rehabilitation, he had spent the past 10 months in a maximum security wing of WA's toughest jail with no knowledge of why or when he would be allowed to rejoin the regular prison.
Conditions inside Casuarina Prison's Special Handling Unit - a "jail within a jail" - were harsh, with Quaid spending 14 hours a day locked in a 4m x 2.5m cell with no access to exercise or other activities.
Quaid will continue to serve his sentence in the special handling unit, and Justice Jenkins said the fact Quaid had not been told why he was being kept in the cell or when he would be let out meant he would suffer undue hardship during his jail term, which entitled him to a discounted sentence.
Ljuboja and Medan were given discounted sentences for their early guilty pleas, while Papadimitriou was given credit for his "good character".
Quaid, who was described in court as a "money launderer" and "negotiator for outlaw motorcycle gangs", shook hands with the other defendants after they were sentenced.
Medan, a Bosnian War refugee, waved to the public gallery as he was led away.