April 15, 2016
An Iranian in detention for entering Australia illegally is in even more hot water now, after he had friends in Iran mail him drugs.
A guard found the drugs hidden in a package mailed to Mahmood Rajabizadeh, 38, at Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Center in April 2014.
Rajabizadeh told the guard it was just coffee and sugar, dipped his finger into a clipseal bag and pretended to taste the drugs when he was quizzed about the package sent to him.
Police found 52.3 grams of heroin and 193.8 grams of methamphetamine in the package as well as 2.2 grams of meth hidden in a floor cavity in Rajabizadeh’s room.
In sentencing Rajabizadeh to 9 1/2 years, District Court Judge Christopher Stevenson said Rajabizadeh would have been in a “very powerful position” if the drugs had made it into the center. “This offence is, in my view, objectively very serious,” Judge Stevenson said. “The influence you would have been able to exert would have been great.”
The drugs sent from Iran were hidden in sealed cigarette packets.
A search of Rajabizadeh’s room revealed he had meth, foil, a syringe and a cigarette lighter stashed in a secret cavity under the floor in his locker.
The court was told staff randomly searched the room about once a month but the drugs and paraphernalia were not found until police and a sniffer dog were brought in.
Judge Stevenson rejected Rajabizadeh’s claim that he had never used illicit drugs and said Rajabizadeh had shown no remorse.
Rajabizadeh arrived at Christmas Island by boat in 2010, leaving behind his wife and teenage child in Iran. He alleges he left Iran because of concerns about his personal safety due to political unrest and his religion.
Rajabizadeh will be eligible for parole after seven years behind bars.
