The alleged ringleader and the enforcer of a $30 million illicit tobacco syndicate will be released back into the community despite one of the men being arrested at the airport as he attempted to leave the country. Nazir Haddara, 25, and Hassan Jassem, 21, were granted bail at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday afternoon following a protracted hearing that detailed some of the inner workings of the alleged criminal network, including keeping detailed store records of all illicit products sold. Boxer and alleged tobacco syndicate boss Nazir Haddara.
Haddara, the alleged ringleader of the syndicate, was arrested at Melbourne Airport early on Tuesday as he tried to board an international flight to Dubai. The court heard the 25-year-old boxer, who was on bail at the time of his arrest for an unrelated matter, had paid a deposit for a luxury villa in the Middle Eastern city, despite being unemployed and not lodging a tax return in three years. Investigators arrested Jassem, the syndicate’s suspected enforcer, in a room at the Philadelphia Hotel in Echuca on Tuesday, where they allegedly found a large amount of illicit cigarettes and vapes, two mobile phones and two envelopes containing more than $11,000 in cash.
The arrests followed a 12-month police investigation where officers say they intercepted more than 10,000 telephone calls by alleged syndicate members detailing the operations and structure of the enterprise and the roles several key players held. In some of .
