Asylum seekers accused of smuggling millions of dollars worth of drugs into Australia
FOUR refugees who fled the Middle East for a safer life in Australia allegedly shipped millions of dollars of drugs into Sydney as part of a crime syndicate linked to an ex-Olympian.
Three of the former Iranian refugees now face indefinite detention if convicted and jailed for more than a year, because Iran will not take them back, meaning we have to keep them.
According to court documents, the plan was cooked up at the now-closed Malibu Lounge Cafe at Westfield Liverpool under the orders of the cafe’s chef and financier, Green Valley man Saeid Ghorbanpour, 34.
Former Australian Olympic boxer Anoushirvan Nourian, who was also to have represented Iran at the Sydney Olympics — only to be banned over steroids — has been charged along with Ghorbanpour over a second drug importation.
Three of the four refugees had moved to Liverpool after being accepted by Australia.
The fourth, who was living in Victoria on a protection visa, survived the December 2010 Christmas Island disaster in which 48 asylum seekers were killed when their boat smashed into rocks.
Despite the men originally fleeing the war-torn Middle East, the plan allegedly saw two of the refugees return there to organise a 90kg shipment of tea leaves laced with pseudoephedrine to be smuggled into Australia.
Arash Maleki and Omid Nourizad Eh Haris allegedly flew from Sydney to northern Iraq to arrange the shipment of drugs. Amin Maleki allegedly helped unpack the shipment at Storage King, Moorebank.
Authorities have requested the Christmas Island sinking survivor not be named for legal reasons and threats to his family in Iran.
He was allegedly recruited to put the shipment in his name and collect it from Port Botany.
Police allege the importation originated from “Iran, Iraq and Dubai” and was also “found to have links to the United Kingdom”, the court documents said.
The three refugees have been charged with numerous counts of supplying and possessing large commercial quantities of a prohibited drug.
However Arash Maleki fled Sydney on a flight to Dubai the day before police raided several Western Sydney addresses on August 15, 2014.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said if the men were jailed for 12 months or more they would be deported under the government’s character test laws — but Iran does not accept deported people, meaning they would face indefinite detention.
In Central Local Court last Wednesday, former boxer Nourian pleaded guilty to conspiring to import a commercial quantity of pseudoephedrine into Australia between February 2014 and February 2015.
Nourian, 43, of Guildford, was a medal hope for Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the light welterweight division. He came ninth.
He was set to box for Iran at the Sydney Olympics but was banned after testing positive for steroids.
Ghorbanpour was arrested on February 14, 2015. He was refused bail on November 5 and has pleaded not guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs.
He is facing charges in relation to a second importation of tea leaves laced with pseudoephedrine. He is listed to face Parramatta District Court on December 10 where he is expected to enter a plea to supplying a large commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.
Police allege Ghorbanpour “was an active participant of an international criminal syndicate” that “not only imported a vast quantity” of illegal drugs, but also supplied them, according to documents tendered at his bail application.
He and the others were arrested following an investigation by the NSW Firearms and Organised Crime Squad known as Strike Force Crosswise.
Ghorbanpour allegedly gave Arash Maleki and Eh Haris $10,000 for their plane tickets to Iraq, the documents stated.
Police allege that at a meeting with Ghorbanpour at the Malibu Lounge in May 2014, one of the men had expressed fear about being searched at Sydney airport.
Ghorbanpour allegedly said “we have nothing to worry about because if we were under investigation we would have been arrested by now”, court documents stated.
The shipment arrived in Sydney in July 2014 disguised among 132 boxes containing 1.3 tonnes of tea.
THE PLAYERS
SAEID GHORBANPOUR* Chef and had financial interest in Malibu Lounge at Westfield Liverpool
* Police allege he was a principal of the drug operation and a participant in an international crime syndicate that imported and then supplied the drug
* Police allege he was a chief in the operation that saw refugees to Australia mobilised in a pseudoephedrine smuggling syndicate
ANOUSHIRVAN NOURIAN* Former Olympic boxer for Iran and then Australia.
* Thrown out of the Sydney 2000 Olympics when competing for Iran after testing positive to steroids prior to the opening of the Games
* Became a naturalised Australian in February 2004
* Competed for Australia in the 2004 Athens Olympics and was considered a medal prospect
* Knocked out in the second round of competition and finished 9th out of 27 competitors
AMIN MALEKI* Came to Australia as a refugee from Iran
* Police allege he helped unpack jars containing pseudoephedrine laced tea leaves when they arrived in Sydney
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