Pasquale Barbaro “I would rather be poor and free than a millionaire"posed too much of a risk of violating bail conditions and fleeing the country

Barbaro, from Griffith in NSW, is facing five charges of trafficking commercial quantities of ecstasy, money laundering and dealing with the proceeds of crime over a large ecstasy haul uncovered by Australian Federal Police. Pasquale Barbaro posed too much of a risk of violating bail conditions and fleeing the country and therefore refused the application. The 15 million pills were hidden in tomato tins in a container shipped from Italy to Melbourne in June last year. Twenty-five people allegedly involved in the syndicate - stretching from the NSW town of Griffith to Europe - have been charged. Mr Garnett said he agreed with police evidence that Mr Barbaro was the head of the international syndicate allegedly responsible for the 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy. He said that even though there were delays in the case and it would most likely not go to trial until 2010, he had to balance this against the seriousness of the charges and the strength of the prosecution case. The Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday heard Mr Barbaro believed Mr Mokbel should have stayed “underground” and could have “lived like a king” with his children, “eating fish and drinking champagne” if he had been smarter. The court heard police recorded conversations between the accused and another co-defendant in May last year after they had been watching the news of Mr Mokbel's arrest in Greece on television.
Prosecutor Brent Young told the court listening devices captured Mr Barbaro talking about knowing people who had successfully lived happily in the “mountains of Lebanon” without being caught. “What's money,” he allegedly said. “I would rather be poor and free than a millionaire in jail. F..k that!”