A serious cocaine bust involving Australian online and live poker pros that occurred back in January this year was finalised in a Melbourne court this week.
David ?zanderfish? Saab, Robert ?remo_04″ Reemeus, and Darren Hughes were dealt jail sentences for attempting to smuggle A$8.5 million worth of cocaine in an ‘industrial scale’ drug bust involving 14.6 kilograms of the dangerous material.
Reporting on the sentencing, the Herald Sun newspaper noted that 30-year-old Saab won A$550,000 in one season at the Crown land casino in Melbourne.
Prosecutors described Saab as “…an aspiring Walter Mitty, a fantasist with a desire for success,” who rubbed shoulders with the rich and became a major poker tournament player.
But he and two accomplices, Darren Hughes (27) and Robert ?remo_04? Remeeus (28) were given a combined 30-year jail term by Judge Liz Gaynor on Tuesday after pleading guilty to importing 14.6 kilograms of cocaine hidden in agricultural equipment from Canada.
Customs and Australian Federal Police intercepted the air-cargo shipment on its way through Sydney on January 15 this year and replaced the cocaine with other material in plastic-wrapped parcels inside the legs of a mechanical spreader, the court heard.
The defendant Hughes – who also gained a seat at Crown’s card tables as a serious poker player – was then monitored as he hired a van to bring the equipment to his Kew address, where it was later smashed open with a hammer to access what the trio believed was still cocaine, just before their arrest on January 24.
South Korean-born Saab, who the court heard was the son of a woman who came to Australia as a mail-order bride, had struggled as a young man in Australia before becoming a semi-professional backgammon player and setting up his own internet service business, the Court heard.
After running into financial trouble he turned his hand to poker and enjoyed some success during two tournaments in 2008. Robert Richter QC told the court that his client aspired to a glamorous life and gravitated towards the rich people he met at casinos.
Summing up before sentencing, Judge Gaynor said Saab was the chief organiser of the drug smuggling operation from the Australian end and stood to personally collect A$110,000 in illegal proceeds. Hughes was to be paid $10,000 for his involvement.
Police phone intercepts showed the drugs – which had a street value estimated between A$6.5 million and A$8.5 million – were already destined for specific buyers.
Judge Gaynor, in sentencing Saab to a minimum of 10 years for cocaine importation, said the “illusory world you have constructed for yourself” had been shattered by his arrest, as had his “delusions of wealth”.
She said both Remeeus, at the time a disability worker with the Department of Human Services, and Hughes, were both seduced into the scheme for their own reasons but were otherwise unlikely suspects.
Convicted of attempting to possess the cocaine, Hughes and Remeeus were given eight-year jail terms with a minimum of five.
Both Saab and Reemeus were members of a team of poker players called rather grandly ?The SAAB Squad” – a team of “exceptional poker players from Australia that will be traveling the globe in search of success on the felt,? according to their Facebook page.