Criminal couple linked to one of Australia’s biggest drug busts have been given lengthy prison sentences

If you wanted to get something from point A to point B, Nasser Abo Abdo was the person to call.

With a wealth of experience in the electronics and import-export industries, he became a go-between for gangs seeking to transport illegal drugs between North America and Australia.

His role was so important that he was nicknamed “The Engine” and “The Mechanic.”

On Friday, Abo Abdo was sentenced to 21 years in prison for one of the biggest drug plots ever foiled by Australian police. His partner Leonor Fajardo was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The Victorian District Court heard US citizens traveled to Australia in 2017 to set up a business importing car audio parts.

A year later, they were in the middle of a plan to hide 1,293 kilograms of pure methamphetamine and 16 kilograms of pure cocaine in three shipping containers that were to be sent from Los Angeles to Melbourne.

The illegal substances would then be passed on to a crime syndicate in New South Wales.

For their work, Abo Abdo and Fajardo earned more than $5 million.

International investigations dismantle drug syndicate

Judge Michael O’Connell said police in the US and Australia were able to secretly monitor the syndicate, planting covert listening devices and intercepting telephone conversations.

But it was the work of an undercover Department of Homeland Security agent named 1474 that brought The Engine’s conspiracy to a halt.

The judge said Agent 1474 was tasked with bringing large containers filled with drugs into the warehouse before they were to be loaded onto a ship.

Instead, the agent took the goods to authorities, who replaced the drugs with another substance.

Abo Abdo and Fajardo were arrested on February 7, 2019, before the shipment reached Australian shores.

Judge O’Connell said the case was one of the most serious drug crimes ever prosecuted in Australia and that the substances would have caused “immense” social harm if they had reached the streets.

“The value of the drugs is difficult to understand. It’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.

In court documents, prosecutors said the total sales value of cocaine and methamphetamine, if sold in grams, would have been between $498.3 million and $828.3 million.

The drug importation conspiracy emanates from a rural suburb of Melbourne

When Australian federal police announced the arrests, they put the value of the loot at a then-record $1.29 billion and said violent Mexican cartels were ultimately behind the plot to create a “tsunami” of drugs.

Police found $350,000 cash when they searched the house where Abo Abdo and Fajardo lived in the semi-rural Melbourne suburb of Woodstock.

They also confiscated Abo Abdo’s diary, a money counting machine and a Samsung burner phone. The device’s passcode was Sushi.123456.

Contacts listed on the phone included “Tequila,” “Big Cuz,” and “Diamente Rubi,” who police claimed were criminals involved in the scheme.

Judge O’Connell said Abo Abdo later claimed he had been threatened into joining the criminal enterprise and that his brother, who lived in the US, had been attacked.

However, the judge said there was no evidence that pressure had been brought to bear on Abo Abdo in Australia, who “appeared enthusiastic” during the wiretapping attempts. Fajardo’s job was to provide “personal administrative assistance,” the court said.

The court was told that Abo Abdo, 57, had previously built a business empire in the US and amassed a net worth of $40 million before the global financial crisis in 2008 had a “catastrophic” impact.

The criminal couple has been considered a “model prisoner” since their conviction.

Fajardo, 52, was a former employee who had been his romantic partner since 2005. The couple had clean criminal records until their arrest.

Judge O’Connell said Abo Abdo and Fajardo had served as “model prisoners” for the last five years they spent in custody.

He said Abo Abdo led Islamic prayers for fellow inmates while Fajardo compiled a portfolio of artwork and appeared in prison theater productions.

He said both had good prospects for rehabilitation and would continue to count on the support of their family members in the United States.

Still, the judge noted, the two should be sentenced to prison terms that would deter others from committing serious drug crimes.

Abo Abdo’s 21-year sentence for conspiring to import a commercial quantity of drugs included a 14-year non-parole period.

If time has already been served, he could be released in 2033, while Fajardo, guilty of the same charge, could be released as early as 2027.