How Lawyer X turned on loved up drug cook
He was the most sought after “drug cook” in the country and was madly in love with Nicola Gobbo. But that didn’t stop Gobbo from using his birthday party in a police sting and ultimately informing on “The Cook”
Law & Order
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Wheat restaurant wasn’t used to this kind of crowd.
A classy bar for a coffee or after-work drink, it was usually the choice of Melbourne’s elite. Judges, barristers and solicitors — the top end of town — were the typical patrons.
The swanky eatery, below Crockett Chambers in Lonsdale St, was on the ground floor of the building where, on Level 7, controversial barrister Nicola Gobbo, later known as the police informer Lawyer X, would soon lease chambers.
HOW LAWYER X WAS EMBROILED IN GANGLAND FEUD
WHY NICOLA GOBBO TURNED INFORMER
On March 11, 2006, she was to host a party there that would double as a 40th birthday bash, and a send-off, for a special person in her life.
“The Cook’’ — a man whose identity would soon be suppressed in perpetuity — was about to be sentenced to jail for a long time.
Gobbo was The Cook’s constant companion, counsellor, pseudo secretary and lawyer.
He was in love with her. He spoke to her, and about her, constantly.
She fretted, meanwhile, to her police handlers that the effect of her “c--- tease” approach to him was waning.
He was the best drug “cook” in the country — Melbourne’s version of the fictional character Walter White before there was a Breaking Bad.
He cooked speed and ecstasy, and during his career the greedy thirst to produce drugs in huge quantities had seen him kidnapped at gunpoint, put in the boot of a car, ripped off, and nearly blown up.
He was in demand from competing drug lords Tony Mokbel and Nik “The Russian’’ Radev.
Gobbo was not only setting him up with police, but using him to get the ‘’Mokbel cartel’’.
The Cook was miffed that the Mokbels had forced him to set up illicit drug-producing laboratories at his own cost while he got only 10-15 per cent of the profits.
He had just been in rehabilitation, and was seriously depressed.
He was seeking to buy 21st birthday presents for his kids, then just 8, because he expected to be in jail so long.
The Cook made a special request for topless waitresses to serve drinks and nibbles at the party.
He didn’t get his wish.
But the party brought a crowd criminal lawyers represented, but rarely mixed with.
“Your bloody friend Gobbo,’’ the exasperated restaurant owner said to a regular, a lawyer, afterwards.
Gobbo shone as the party’s de facto hostess, posing for amorous photos with The Cook, while outside, police had set up an operations point to record the comings and goings.
“It was hard to know whether there were more cops watching the crims or crims watching the cops,’’ one observer said.
Gobbo, playing the role of the superspy, was in her element.
She had been, either officially or unofficially, a police operative from 1995 onwards.
At this moment, she was reporting to police about Tony Mokbel’s trial strategies, about the statements of informers she had helped to “roll” on crime boss Carl Williams, and about another of her clients, Faruk Orman, who would be charged with murder.
Within six weeks, The Cook, Zlate Cvetanovski, Milad Mokbel and others would be charged in relation to a sting, based on Gobbo’s intimate and detailed intelligence.
She helped convince the Cook to roll on his associates, effectively ending the Mokbel drug cartel.
It was also a turning point in Gobbo’s legal career.
The barristers with whom she shared chambers had had enough of her familiarity with the criminals.
Gobbo later received a tongue-lashing from one of her colleagues.
“We’ve been warning you and warning you about associating with these people,’’ she was told.
“If this continues, you’re out of here. I’ve warned you before. You’re not smart enough to tangle with them. They’ll take you down with them.’’
Although Gobbo would tone it down, she kept up her crusade.
“We kind of gave up on her,’’ one former colleague said. “A lot of this (behaviour) was at the behest of Victoria Police. There’s no doubt she couldn’t decide which side she was on.’’
After the arrests, Gobbo’s betrayal of her clients inspired deep guilt, which explains why she advised The Cook on his statements after she had helped get him locked up.
She was helping him after hurting him — a thread that often defined her career as an informer.