How Nicola Gobbo stung loved up Mokbel drug cook
In a case combining lawyers, guns and money, Nicola Gobbo not only stung a Mokbel drug cook — who was in love with her — but gave him legal advice despite being an “agent of police” before his arrest.
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A Mokbel drug cook who barrister Nicola Gobbo turned on only found out this year that she was the snitch who stung him.
In a case combining lawyers, guns and money, Gobbo not only stung the cook — a drug manufacturer who loved her — but gave him and his co-accused legal advice following his arrest in 2006.
The Lawyer X royal commission quizzed Inspector Dale Flynn about his role in using Gobbo in the police operation before she turned up at the police station to give the cook legal advice despite being an “agent of police”.
He said the “whole thing is unusual” and that since 2016 he had spoken to the cook, who only realised Gobbo was a double agent after reading about her in the Herald Sun.
“He said she played us both off,” Insp Flynn said of the conversation this year.
Counsel assisting the commission, Chris Winneke, QC, questioned Insp Flynn over the steps police took to hide Gobbo’s conflicted status as police informer and defence lawyer for the Mokbel cartel from being exposed in court.
She was recorded by police handlers saying the “general ethics of this are all f----d”.
The royal commission also heard how Gobbo felt “highly emotional” at the cook’s arrest after leading them to the cartel’s drug lab in 2006.
When the cook refused to co-operate, Gobbo was called in to help Insp Flynn convince him to “roll”. Insp Flynn said the “pitch” was simple: do 20 years’ prison or co-operate and see his children on the outside before they were adults.
SOURCES SUSPECTED GOBBO KNEW AUSKICK KILLINGS WERE COMING
The inquiry also heard:
• The cook recently told Insp Flynn he gave Gobbo $250,000 before his arrest.
• She told her police that guns were hidden in the drug lab following a lawyer-client meeting in which she was told about the firearms. They were found and charges were laid.
• She implicated herself in criminal activity by encouraging the cook to commit crimes.
The Lawyer X royal commission continues on Tuesday.