The "sophisticated" operation had an estimated 800 to 900 clients across Sydney. Credit:NSW Police "No matter where you are in the Sydney Metropolitan Area babe, we even go to Wollongong and Gosford for ya," he said. In another phone call – one of 65,000 calls and texts police intercepted – he told a male customer: "We make over a hundred grand a night brother." On Tuesday, District Court Judge Peter Berman said the "efficient and reliable service" operated by the men "could be described as the drug version of Uber Eats", a food delivery service. "This was a sophisticated criminal operation which ran a drug dealing network along the lines of that legitimate business, using mobile phones for customers to place orders and, in most cases, taxis driven by an offender to satisfy those orders," Judge Berman said.

Police seized almost $400,000 from the homes of the men. Credit:NSW Police The court heard the men had a customer base of 800 to 900 people who would contact the syndicate with a phone call or a text message. The customers would ask "Are you around?" or request beer, bags, a taxi or tickets. They would then be sent a time the drugs would arrive, and be given a call when the car was close. When the taxi arrived, the customer would sit in the passenger seat as the deal took place. However, if they requested to be driven somewhere, they were told "the syndicate does not provide a taxi service". Each 0.7-gram bag of cocaine was sold for $300. Credit:NSW Police Omer Arab, a relatively new member of the syndicate, was the only one of the four who did not drive a cab.

On a typical Friday or Saturday night, police estimate each driver would meet up to 100 customers, selling at least one 0.7-gram bag for $300 in each transaction. They operated in rostered shifts, from 2pm to midnight on Sunday to Thursday, and until 3am or 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. The sophisticated empire came crashing down when the men unknowingly sold 19 bags of cocaine to undercover police, including one transaction at Macquarie Street in Sydney's CBD. When police raided the homes of the men in November 2015, they found cocaine and almost $400,000 in cash. Judge Berman said although the men supplied at a street level, they did so "with such enthusiasm and regularity" that their criminality "far exceeds that of the usual street level supplier", putting them in the mid-range of seriousness.

The court heard the men sold drugs in part to fund their own drug habits, stemming from problems including traumatic childhoods and failed businesses. Omer Arab underwent gastric sleeve surgery in an effort to lose weight, and "may have replaced one obsession, food, with another, cocaine". He pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine, possessing an unregistered firearm, and possessing a Taser, and was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison, with a non-parole period of three years and four months. The remaining three men pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of cocaine. Khaled Dib was sentenced to four years behind bars, with a maximum sentence of seven years; Mohamed Dib faces seven years and three months in prison, to be eligible for parole after four years and two months; and Ihsan Salma will spend at least four years and three months in prison, with a maximum of seven years and six months. In sentencing the men, Judge Berman said drug supply "is far from a victimless crime".

"Each time a drug user commits an offence to fund his or her drug habit then the community and its members are harmed," he said.