by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong-raised plasterer has been jailed for trafficking a commercial quantity of cocaine.
Granit Sylejmani, now 31, was charged after Australian Federal Police officers raided his Bentleigh East home and found 4.5 kilograms of cocaine on 19 February 2020.
The haul was equivalent to 2.5 kilos plus of pure cocaine.
Its value was “not insubstantial”, sentencing Victorian County Court judge Richard Maidment said on 23 November.
Sylejmani also pled guilty to possessing 308 grams of cannabis found throughout the home, as well as a fake NSW drivers’ licence.
Police seized nearly 3 kilos of plastic shrink-wrapped cocaine in a shoe box in the laundry, as well as nearly a kilo of loose cocaine in a frying pan and a pot in a kitchen cupboard.
Three bags were also allegedly seized from the bedroom of Sylejmani’s housemate – who Sylejmani claimed knew nothing about drugs in the house.
“I threw it in there,” Sylejmani told police.
Judge Maidment didn’t accept Sulejmani’s denial of selling cocaine from his home.
Nor his explanation that an unnamed male “drug friend” had asked him to store the blocks of cocaine found in the laundry in exchange for 50 grams of cocaine for personal use.
Sulejmani’s role was likely more substantial and motivated by “significant profit”, Judge Maidment stated.
This was suggested by the “totality and condition” of the cocaine, as well as the array of seized paraphernalia such as a hydraulic press, vacuum sealing machine, deal bags, scales and cocaine purity testing kit.
Sylejmani still suffered “reasonably severe” post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of growing up in the horrors of war-struck Kosovo in the late 1990’s.
His family escaped and settled in Dandenong as refugees.
Unable to speak English, Sylejmani suffered vilification and harassment and fell in with a “bad crowd” at school.
He found cocaine particularly “compelling”, as a means of masking his PTSD symptoms.
But this did not reduce his moral culpability for trafficking drugs – given he didn’t seek drug treatment until he was imprisoned.
Judge Maidment noted Sylejmani was a first offender, remorseful and motivated to rehabilitate.
During custody, he’d been drug-free.
Sylejmani was jailed for up to seven years. He’ll be eligible for parole after serving four-and-a-half years.
His term included 644 days in pre-sentence remand.
The housemate Arianit Hajzeri was recently convicted and jailed for 77 days for possessing cocaine.
