A prominent Muslim youth leader who helped young men in his community turn away from drugs and crime has been sentenced to at least 2½ years in jail for supplying more than $2 million worth of cocaine.

Fadi Abdul-Rahman once publicly declared that "when you stand before Allah, it's not your macho that will make a difference – not your dollars, not your castles, not your cars".

Jailed: Fadi Abdul-Rahman in Auburn in a file picture. Credit:Brendan Esposito

But the 39-year-old will spend a maximum of four years in jail for his role in a drug syndicate that smuggled five kilograms of cocaine with a street value of between $2.1 million and $2.4 million into the country in a wooden chess set sent from the US.

In the Downing Centre District Court on Friday, Acting Judge Geoffrey Graham said Abdul-Rahman and three other men were arrested in mid-2012 when the Australian Federal Police intercepted a suspicious package containing the chess set.