David Saab, a professional poker player gets years of imprisonment after being caught in a sting operation
The trio of Australian online and live poker pros involved into cocaine bust conducted in January this year was sentenced in Melbourne court this week.
David “zanderfish” Saab, Robert “remo_04″ Reemeus, and Darren Hughes – the main suspects in a serious cocaine bust were sentenced to prison time for charges of attempting to smuggle 14.6 kilograms of the drug, worth A$8.5 million.
On Tuesday, Judge Liz Gaynor gave Saab (30) and his two accomplices, Darren Hughes (27) and Robert Remeeus (28), a combined 30-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the charges. Judge Gaynor said Saab was the man in charge in the Australian end of this drug smuggling operation, and that he was therefore sentenced to a minimum of 10 years. She also said both Remeeus and Hughes were seduced into the scheme for their own reasons and were given eight-year jail terms with a minimum of five.
It sounds like a film scenario where the three of them were to import 14.6 kilograms of cocaine from Canada, hidden in agricultural equipment. Customs and Australian Federal Police intercepted the air-cargo shipment on its way through Sydney on January 15, replacing the cocaine with other material in plastic-wrapped parcels inside the legs of a mechanical spreader. Knowing nothing of it just before their arrest on 24 January, the defendant Hughes was then monitored as he hired a van to bring the equipment to his Kew address, and then smashed opened it with a hammer to access what all three believed was still cocaine - already destined for specific buyers with a street value estimated at A$8.5 million. For that operation Saab was expecting to get A$110,000, while Hughes was to be paid $10,000 for his involvement.
The main suspect, the South Korean-born Saab, is the son of a woman who came to Australia as a mail-order bride. He had hard times as a young man in Australia before becoming a semi-professional backgammon player and setting up his own internet service business. Unfortunately he ran into financial trouble and decided to turn to poker, in which he saw some success during two tournaments in 2008. Robert Richter QC told the court that his client had ambitions to lead a glamorous life and that he therefore gravitated towards the rich people he met at casinos. He became a major poker tournament player and in one season at the Crown land casino in Melbourne Saab won A$550,000.
In addition, Hughes also gained a seat at Crown's card tables as a serious poker player. What's more, both Saab and Reemeus were, according to their Facebook page, members of a team of poker players called “The SAAB Squad" - a team of "exceptional poker players from Australia that will be traveling the globe in search of success on the felt.”
Prosecutors described Saab as "...an aspiring Walter Mitty, a fantasist with a desire for success.'' Summing up before sentencing, Judge Gaynor said to Saab "the illusory world you have constructed for yourself had been shattered by your arrest, as well as delusions of wealth''.
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