Corrupt drug squad cop David Miechel released from prison
A JAILED former drug squad detective David Miechel has been released from prison after serving his minimum 12-year term for a massive drug rip-off.
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DISGRACED former drug squad detective David Miechel has walked out of prison after recently being granted parole.
Miechel emerged from the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat yesterday, having served a minimum 12-year jail term for a big drug rip-off — the longest sentence imposed on a police officer in Victoria.
He served his time without answering questions which investigators believe could have led to the prosecution of other corrupt police officers.
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The former investigator has been at Hopkins during most of his time behind bars.
As a prisoner, Miechel caused no trouble.
He left the jail with a large plastic bag of belongings and got into a waiting car that drove away.
Miechel was arrested in September 2003 while trying to burgle an East Oakleigh house linked to drug kingpin Tony Mokbel.
It had been under surveillance in a police operation that had involved Miechel.
Miechel was attacked by a police dog after suspicious neighbours contacted emergency services. Also detained was crime identity and police informer Terrence Hodson.
The pair had planned to steal a fortune in drugs and cash from the home.
Hodson was to have given evidence over the burglary, but in 2004, before he could do so, he and his wife Christine were murdered.
Charges against Miechel’s boss, Paul Dale, relating to the theft were dropped after the Hodson contract killing.
It was suspected that the Hodson murders were committed by Rodney Charles Collins on the orders of crime boss Carl Williams. Collins died in May this year.
Williams was beaten to death in maximum-security Barwon jail in 2010 — a murder that torpedoed any chance of police securing a conviction in the Hodson killings.
Dale had been charged with the murder of Terrence Hodson, but that prosecution was withdrawn.
It is believed the Adult Parole Board has imposed strict post-release conditions on Miechel after granting his application in recent weeks. Suspicions exist that a fortune in ill-gotten gains awaits him.
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