The boss of the notorious Sydney Brothers 4 Life gang has been found guilty of running a drugs syndicate from inside one of Australia’s most heavily guarded prisons.
A three-week trial against Bassam Hamzy, 45, concluded last week, with jurors returning their verdict on Friday after a week of deliberations.
He has been found guilty of one count of commercial supply of drugs and one count of knowingly handling the proceeds of crime, it reports. The Daily Telegraph.
Hamzy’s cell is within the high-risk prisoner unit at Goulburn’s Supermax prison, but he was still able to run the methamphetamine operation using code words with other prisoners and drug dealers.
He has been in prison for more than two decades for various crimes, including shooting dead a teenager outside a Sydney nightclub.
Bassam Hamzy (pictured), 45, boss of the Brothers 4 Life gang, has been found guilty of drug trafficking from prison.
Hamzy is being held in the high-risk prisoner unit at Goulburn Supermax Prison (pictured)
Hamzy had already been tried by the meth syndicate in 2023, but jurors were unable to reach a verdict, so a new trial was held this month.
Prosecutors told the court 450 grams of methylamphetamine had been sold in Wollongong between October 2017 and February 2018 in deals coordinated by Hamzy.
Two men involved in those deals, who were members of Brothers 4 Life, would later testify against him in court.
They are known only as “Witness A” and “Witness I” for their own protection.
The court heard both men received compensation from the prosecution in exchange for their testimony.
Hamzy’s lawyers argued that at least one of the men had turned against him for no other reason than to benefit him, however the jury was not buying it.
The court heard Hamzy received $14,000 from the drug deals.
He is serving sentences for unrelated crimes until at least 2035 and will return to court in August to be sentenced on drug charges.