What really put an end to Tony Mokbel’s time on the run in Greece
As Australian police hunted the globe for drug baron Tony Mokbel — at the time one of our most wanted fugitives — a break would finally come from the most unlikely of places.
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Police caught a crucial break to uncover fugitive Tony Mokbel’s Greek hideaway from brother Horty, with help from Lawyer X.
It was calls from the drug lord’s panicked associates to tell their boss of a police probe into Horty, which triggered a chain of events that ended his 15 months on the run.
Once Mokbel skipped on his $1 million bail for cocaine smuggling charges in April 2006, police began monitoring the phones of members of his drug dealing cartel, hoping they would reveal the drug boss’ location.
The phones of his brothers Horty, Milad and Kalaban and their associates were among the first tapped.
Former Purana Taskforce detective Jason Kelly has detailed to the Lawyer X Royal Commission how the little known Operation Tool — a probe into Horty’s speed producing operation — provided the first breakthrough leading to Mokbel’s capture.
And investigators were onto Horty after being provided information by their secret gangland informer barrister Nicola Gobbo, aka Lawyer X.
Supt Kelly told the commission that Mokbel’s gang were tipped off police were looking into a car which delivered Horty precursor chemicals in April 2007.
“I believe that a member of the Mokbel crime network became aware of these inquiries and made a telephone call to Tony Mokbel in Greece advising him of the police interest,” Superintendent Kelly said.
In June 2007 — three months after they made the call — a bewigged Tony Mokbel was arrested in a seaside suburb of Athens.
“My understanding is that this (call) and other physical surveillance resulted in a source providing information which ultimately led to the arrest of Tony Mokbel in Greece,” Supt Kelly said.
When Tony Mokbel made his infamous escape — using a yacht to sail from Fremantle to Greece — Horty took over the local operations of his brother’s drug trafficking network known as “the Company”.
Tony oversaw his drug empire from Greece, issuing instructions to Horty and other key “Company” members.
Horty’s drug trafficking arrest in relation to Operation Tool on April 13, 2007, sent a scare through the gang and, from Greece, Tony, ordered his lieutenants to remove anything incriminating from their homes, but not to stop trafficking.
Tony Mokbel’s cartel didn’t know, but their defence barrister of choice Nicola Gobbo was also a secret police informer and had been providing information about the four Mokbel brothers, especially Horty.
Supt Kelly told the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants he had been receiving information from Gobbo, via her handlers, about Horty’s speed manufacturing operations for a year before he made the 2007 arrest.
“We were aware of certain chemicals that had been seized … that we then were able to trace back to an importer and we were then able to show a connection between Horty Mokbel and a middle person,” Supt Kelly said.
“I’m aware that Ms Gobbo was providing information on Horty Mokbel.”
The Herald Sun has previously revealed Gobbo made attempts to get a piece of the $1 million reward for information the led to Mokbel’s capture.
She said she had told police to follow Mokbel associate Jeffrey Jamou as they searched the world for the drug baron.
“Follow Jamou and he will lead you to Tony Mokbel,’’ she claims she said.
Mokbel has also claimed Gobbo advised him to flee over charges of importing 3kg of cocaine, saying she told him police were about to accuse him of two gangland murders.
And he is convinced she tipped off police to his movements while he was on the run.
While Gobbo provided the crucial information to arrest Horty Mokbel, Supt Kelly said he did not believe she “played any part” in Mokbel being found and arrested in an Athens coffee shop.
Police have credited the underworld boss’ capture to an informer known as “Human Source 3030”, who received a reward close to $1 million.
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A drug dealer and Mokbel associate, 3030 provided police with phone numbers and downloaded computer files that revealed not only where Mokbel had fled, but also critical financial details about the Mokbel drug empire.
He turned on Mokbel, and his other fellow gang members, soon after Victoria Police offered the $1 million bounty.
The source has previously said his brother had died of an overdose, which spurred him into becoming a police witness against Mokbel.