Tony Mokbel tried to “sort out” the gangland war
When faced with a series of trafficking and importation charges, Tony Mokbel tried to “sort out” the gangland war by attempting to broker a deal with police that would see his crew and Carl Williams put behind bars.
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Drug baron Tony Mokbel had offered to broker a deal to get Carl Williams and other criminals to serve “short sentences” to stop the gangland slayings.
Faced with a series of trafficking and importation charges, Mokbel tried to bargain his way out of doing major jail time, saying everyone was “negotiable” except his drug-dealing brothers.
Former Purana Taskforce head Jim O’Brien said that in a 2004 meeting Mokbel said Williams, ecstasy dealer Azzam Ahmed and others in his crew would be willing to “share some short sentences in custody” to “sort out” the gangland war.
Mr O’Brien, told the Lawyer X royal commission, he rejected Mokbel’s “arrogant” proposal. “He wanted to get back to the status quo; we could all go back doing what we do. ‘You can be corrupt and we’ll keep running the drug trade in Melbourne’. That’s what it was about.”
If a deal wasn’t made, Mokbel threatened to drag out court proceedings and make corruption allegations against officers. “That was a tool of Tony’s,” Mr O’Brien said.
At the time a number of drug squad officers were facing corruption probes, which had impacted criminal prosecutions.
Mr O’Brien said the meeting had spurred him into launching a full-scale investigation into Mokbel’s operation to bring down the drug baron.
Mr O’Brien would later rise to fame after he led the operation to arrest Mokbel in Greece in 2007 after the drug baron skipped the country when he learnt he was to be charged with murder.
Mr O’Brien earlier told the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants he was controversial detective Paul Dale’s superior at the time of the Dublin St drug house burglary on Grand Final night 2003.
Their Major Drug Investigation Unit was running an investigation into the drug house, which was being babysat by Azzam Ahmed and Abbey Haynes.
Dale’s partner, David Miechel, was arrested and had his “calf chewed off” by a police dog when he and their informer Terry Hodson were attempting to rob the Oakleigh drug house.
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Mr O’Brien said Mr Dale had called him at 9.32pm and told him “rubbish” that Miechel had been bitten by a dog and the operation was compromised. He said Mr Dale had led him to believe it was the dog guarding the drug house that had bitten Miechel.
Hodson would give a statement to anti-corruption police implicating Dale in the burglary. Eight months later, Hodson and his wife Christine were murdered.
Burglary charges against Mr Dale collapsed when the Hodsons were killed.