High-flying refugee drug trafficker jailed

Emad Zarghami, 24, was a scholarship university student in Melbourne with a bright future ahead of him, but instead set his sights on professional gambling.

His plans unravelled when he was stopped in his $140,000 Audi with 261g of cocaine and more than $100,000 worth of cash stuffed in a backpack in the boot, when leaving the city's Crown Casino on Boxing Day 2017.

Police also found a USB attached to his keys. In it was a digital copy of the book Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture.

Zarghami was on bail at the time for other drug offences.

He later told a jury he'd bought the cocaine worth $50,000 for his personal use and to help his dealer, who needed money.

"You were then living a very strange, wasteful and extravagant and self-indulgent lifestyle," County Court Judge Michael Tinney said when jailing Zarghami for three years and seven months on Wednesday.

The young man had offered to plead guilty to drug trafficking but only if prosecutors dropped other charges.

This deal was rejected, and Zarghami went on to deny trafficking cocaine.

A jury found him guilty but acquitted him of dealing in the proceeds of crime.

Judge Tinney labelled Zarghami an "unsatisfactory and most unconvincing witness" who had lost his way despite high academic achievement and what appeared to be a bright future.

"I was, to an extent, disturbed by your stating ... that your occupation was a professional gambler," the judge said.

"This is still what you profess to be.

"You still, seemingly, are intent on taking a form of shortcut in your life. I don't really know why.

Zarghami arrived by boat in Australia as a child after his family fled Iran and the court was told he was traumatised by the events.

His mother sobbed in court as the young man was told he must serve at least two years and three months before being eligible for release on parole.

He has already spent 27 days in pre-sentence detention.

Australian Associated Press