Heroin driver's sentence tripled

By Candace Sutton
February 9 2003
The Sun-Herald

The chauffeur in the northern beaches heroin syndicate that corrupted former Manly detective Dave Patison, has had his sentence tripled by the Court of Appeal.

Anthony Markarian was not a principal in the heroin business run by Vincent Caccamo, who confessed to the Police Integrity Commission that the Manly detective took a cut of drug profits in exchange for protection.

But on Friday, Justice Dyson Heydon, on his last day on the Court of Appeal before joining the High Court, Justice Robert Hulme and Acting Justice Carruthers overturned the 2-year sentence imposed last July by District Court Judge William Hosking.

The judges said Markarian had carried on a "substantial business" of buying and distributing heroin while acting as a chauffeur for Caccamo. Markarian made more than 50 trips with Caccamo between April 18 and October 10, 2000.

Further, the judges said, Markarian on occasions made up deals for Caccamo, distributed heroin and collected money from Caccamo's runners.


The activities of Markarian and Caccamo came under the notice of the PIC's Operation Florida.
The PIC heard tapes of Caccamo complaining to Markarian about $1000 weekly payments and $32,000 taken during a raid, totalling $92,000, he had to pay to certain police.

"I haven't even had f---in' food in the house and every cent I make f---in' goes to them ... Everything I've made has gone to them," Caccamo said, to which Markarian replied, "It's like paying rent; it's like having a shop and paying rent. Well look, we've got a tax-free business; you don't pay tax, you don't pay rent."

On one tape, Caccamo says, "Five hundred a week should be plenty mate. Plenty." Markarian replies, "That's right, that's right. It should not be a thousand. And when they first gave you that figure, Vince, you should have haggled it then".

Caccamo, who later told the PIC that police demanded payment to green-light his activities, was sentenced last May to eight years' jail with a non-parole period of five years.

Markarian was convicted of supplying commercial quantity of heroin, 415 grams.

The Crown appealed against the District Court sentence, which had a non-parole period of 15 months, and sentenced Markarian, 37, to eight years with a non-parole period of 4 years.

Patison, 43, was jailed for seven years after admitting to 12 offences including bribery and knowingly supplying cannabis and heroin.