Property developer jailed over $26m cocaine bust

PHOTO: James Bahmad will be eligible for release in 2027. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

A Sydney property developer has faced court after he was busted with a loaded pistol and a 114kg cocaine delivery.

A father of six who was caught using a diesel generator to smuggle more than 100kg of cocaine into Sydney has been jailed for a minimum of five years and six months.

James Bahmad, 42, learned his fate in the NSW District Court on Monday after he pleaded guilty to possessing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, which was suspected of being illegally imported.

Police found dozens of blocks of cocaine in the back of a vehicle. Picture: AFP

The self-employed property investment and development entrepreneur also pleaded guilty to possessing an unauthorised, loaded semi automatic pistol, which the court was told he acquired on a “drug bender” because he thought people were stalking and trying to kill him.

Bahmad was one of three men busted with the drugs in October 2018 after Australian Federal Police started monitoring the group’s activities and discovered Elias Boustani drove a Thrifty hire truck from the Gold Coast to Sydney in the middle of the night with a large wooden crate in the back.

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The next morning the court was told the three men met at the Sandhub landscaping business in Strathfield where a forklift was used by an employee to transfer the crate onto a Mitsubishi truck.

Bahmad left the business driving the Thrifty truck, Boustani drove the Mitsubishi and the third man, Ray Farah, drove a Hyundai iLoad to a property at Austral.

James Bahmad’s troubled past was revealed in court. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

After the trio arrived Bahmad went to a hardware store to get an angle grinder, returned to supply it to Farah and drove around surrounding streets to keep a look out as the drugs were cut out of the base of diesel generator, which was in the wooden crate.

When AFP officers arrived at the scene 62 blocks were found within a half empty cavity inside the generator, while another 60 blocks of cocaine weighing 1kg each were found in the back of the iLoad while Farah was driving it to Leppington.

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Technology experts within the AFP had also discovered members of the group were using heavily encrypted phones tied to the Ciphr network, which features encryption technology so advanced that phones can be erased remotely and law enforcement stopped from eavesdropping on messages.

The combined weight of the cocaine blocks was 114.9kg, worth an estimated wholesale value of up to $26 million and an estimated street value of almost $115 million.

Bahmad played a more significant role in the operation than Farah and Boustani, who judge Dina Yehia SC said performed more “menial work”.

“There is no suggestion that this offender was involved in the importation of the border controlled drug,” she said.

“He was not the architect of the enterprise.

“He was not responsible for the ultimate decision making.”