The "daunting" prospect of a strip-search spooked a Canberra bikie after his arrest for drug trafficking, prompting the man to sheepishly hand over to police a large amount of methamphetamine he had hidden in his underwear.
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This bag of drugs was not taken into account when Khaled Khoder was later sentenced to jail, but on Tuesday the incident resulted in the 28-year-old's prison term being extended.
Khoder was arrested in May last year, when police said the Coombs man was a senior Canberra Comanchero with links to criminal networks dealing drugs in the ACT and NSW.
He was remanded in custody and sentenced in August to a backdated jail term of two-and-a-half years, with a 16-month non-parole period, after pleading guilty to trafficking in methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine.
Police detected Khoder's offending through an undercover operation in which they negotiated six drug deals with Khoder, who admitted distributing drugs in order to earn money with which to fund his own addiction.
Justice Michael Elkaim's sentencing remarks from August last year say Khoder was found to have possessed 219 grams of methamphetamine with a street value of up to $200,000, and 28 grams of cocaine that could have been worth more than $16,000. Khoder also had nearly 14 grams of MDMA, but the judgment does not say how much this is worth.
Justice Elkaim noted at the time that while it was unclear whether Khoder remained an outlaw motorcycle gang member, the man owed a drug debt of more than $25,000.
The August 2019 sentencing did not take into account the substance Khoder had hidden in his underwear, because delays associated with laboratory testing meant that at that stage, police had not charged him over that particular bag of drugs.
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After the drugs were confirmed to be 13 grams of methamphetamine - more than twice the traffickable quantity - Khoder was hit with a further drug trafficking charge.
He pleaded guilty last month and appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday for sentence.
Defence lawyer Bowan Shelton urged Justice Elkaim not to extend Khoder's non-parole period, saying conditions at the Alexander Maconochie Centre had "deteriorated".
He said restrictions designed to stop COVID-19 making its way behind bars had made life inside Canberra's jail even tougher than usual.
Mr Shelton said with visitors banned from entering the jail, Khoder was only able to receive one "virtual visit" each week through a video call.
Other impacts on Khoder included the scrapping of two rehabilitation programs he was completing, the cancellation of religious programs including group prayers, and a significant reduction in access to education and the library.
Mr Shelton said these and other factors meant Khoder had been left with "a lack of options" to further his rehabilitation behind bars.
But prosecutor Marcus Dyason said Khoder's prospects for rehabilitation were less about his actions in jail and more to do with his ability to cut ties with "antisocial peers" upon his release.
He said that regardless of the impact COVID-19 restrictions were having on Alexander Maconochie Centre inmates, Khoder's overall sentence and non-parole period should be extended in order to denounce Khoder's offending.
Justice Elkaim added three months to Khoder's jail sentence and extended his non-parole period by one month, making the man eligible for release in October.
During Tuesday's sentencing, the judge said Khoder had chosen to reveal the drugs in his underwear following his arrest because police told him he would be strip-searched - a prospect Khoder found "daunting".
