A father at the centre of a major drug bust on the South Coast involving millions of dollars worth of methamphetamine and cannabis has been jailed for almost two decades.
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Luigi Fato, from East Lynne, appeared in Wollongong District Court via video link from Long Bay jail on Wednesday, April 27, where Judge Paul Conlon sentenced him to 18 years jail, with a non-parole period of 12 years.
Fato, along with a vast syndicate of runners and dealers, was responsible for dealing in millions of dollars worth of methamphetamine and cannabis during an eight month period in between 2013 and 2014.
He and another associate were arrested in February 2014 while trying to sell nine kilograms of methamphetamine to undercover officers at Gundagai.
The group was also responsible for a 2750-plant cannabis crop found at a property at Crowther, north-east of Goulburn.
In sentencing Fato, Judge Conlon found he was the kingpin of the entire operation, which had associates stretching throughout south-eastern NSW.
“I’m satisfied he played a very significant role [as principal] in the drug activities of this criminal group,” Judge Conlon said.
The court heard Fato, now 64 years old, had mirgrated to Australia as a seven-year-old and spent his childhood and early adulthood in Wollongong.
He was employed at the steel works as a bricklayer for five years before leaving there to work for the family supermarket business growing vegetables.
He married at the age of 24 and had three children, however his wife left him in the 1990s over his daily cannabis use.
More in Friday’s Bay Post/Moruya Examiner.
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