Jailed drug boss Tony Mokbel rushed to hospital with chest pains
Jailed drug kingpin Tony Mokbel has been taken to hospital after the alarm was raised inside Barwon Prison.
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Jailed drug boss Tony Mokbelhas been rushed to hospital with chest pains.
Mokbel, who is doing a 30-year stretch for large-scale drug trafficking, was taken to hospital on Thursday night after the alarm was raised inside Barwon Prison, near Geelong.
The 56-year-old has a history of cardiac issues.
In 2012, he suffered a heart attack inside Barwon and was treated a secure hospital ward.
His health was also compromised in 2019 when he was severely bashed by two other inmates.
Mokbel and his legal team have been hard at work in recent times preparing to fight for his freedom.
Associates of Mokbel were unaware of his latest medical episode when contacted by the Herald Sun on Friday morning.
It is understood Mokbel was being housed in the high-security Melaleuca wing of Barwon prison when he suffered chest pains.
Mokbel was moved from “mainstream” after he was ambushed in 2019 and prison management has kept him in isolation wings since the attack.
For some time he was housed in the Acacia Unit, another prison wing where high-profile prisoners, some of them at risk, are locked up.
Mokbel’s father suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 53.
It has been reported the jailed drug lord’s own heart condition will shorten his life expectancy.
Mokbel changed to a healthy diet and lost weight following his cardiac arrest in 2012 when a stent was inserted to unblock an artery.
The Fitzroy-based hospital has a secure ward where it is likely Mokbel is currently being treated.
Mokbel’s next hearing as he fights to be freed from jail on the Lawyer X scandal is set for April 29.
He launched his appeal in 2017 and has already had one of his major convictions quashed.
He will argue that his convictions were tainted by Victoria Police’s use of gangland solicitor Nicola Gobbo.
Other convicted criminals have already been released in the wake of the Gobbo scandal.
A spokeswoman for Corrections Victoria said the body could not comment on individual prisoners.
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