Drug trafficker Zlate Cvetanovski makes bid to be first freed over Lawyer X scandal

A key Mokbel henchman wants to be first to walk out of jail over the Lawyer X scandal and is expected to lodge a bail application within two weeks while he waits for the court to hear his appeal.

A key Mokbel henchman wants to be first to walk out of jail over the Lawyer X scandal.

Zlate Cvetanovski, who was convicted for commercial drug trafficking in 2011, is expected to lodge a bail application within two weeks while he waits for the court to hear his appeal.

He believes the informing by Lawyer X — revealed on Friday to be gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo — made his “conviction unsafe”.

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He is serving an 11 year sentence due to expire in the next 18 months.

It is believed Cvetanovski’s defence will argue Gobbo’s informing tainted a key prosecution witness’s evidence.

Cvetanovski also plans to lodge a submission with the royal commission looking into her improper relationships with the criminal underworld. The commission was created after the Herald Sun’s legal battle to have Ms Gobbo’s informing revealed.

Zlate Cvetanovski arrives at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.

Armour Legal principal Michael Pena-Rees said it was unlikely the Court of Appeal would hear Cvetanovski’s case until after the commission reported its findings in December.

“The damage is ongoing because he is serving a sentence, which is almost at an end, that he may not be required to serve,” Mr Pena-Rees said.

Information that Ms Gobbo gave police was vital in the arrests of both Cvetanovski and a drug cook — who turned police witness against several people who worked for the Mokbel cartel.

Cvetanovski, the cook — who cannot be identified — and Frank Ahec were all arrested on the same day in April 2006 in connection with Mokbel-controlled drug labs.

Cvetanovski said Ms Gobbo advised him to “remain silent” as he sat at the St Kilda Rd police station, while in the next room she was arranging for the cook to do a deal with her police handlers.

Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo.

Ms Gobbo had given police information on the general position of the drug houses, which led to the arrest of Cvetanovski.

The cook, who Ms Gobbo had represented since the early 2000s, became he main prosecution witness in Cvetanovski’s trial.

Justice John Champion — who prosecuted Cvetanovski while a barrister — said had Cvetanovski known Ms Gobbo’s true role, he could have “argued the evidence of the cook should have been excluded from the trial”.

A secret Supreme Court hearing on the Lawyer X scandal heard Cvetanovski’s involvement in the drug ring was first brought to the attention of police by Ms Gobbo, who told them he had set up a drug house next to a Strathmore primary school.

“The cook remarked to Ms Gobbo how stupid Cvetanovski was because when he was tasked with finding a location for manufacturing drugs, he had found a property next to a primary school,” Justice Timothy Ginnane said. “Ms Gobbo conveyed that information to the police. The cook and Ahec were arrested at the Strathmore laboratory.”

Gangland boss Tony Mokbel with his legal team, Nicola Gobbo (left) and Con Heliotis, QC, outside Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.

The cook had encouraged Cvetanovski to use Ms Gobbo as his defence lawyer in the months before his arrest, he wrote in a letter to an IBAC inquiry.

“On the evening I was arrested and unbeknown to me the Cook was also arrested. Her advice to me was to remain silent and say no comment to all police questions,” he wrote.

“At a later date I found out that she was representing the Cook earlier the same night and was involved in discussions with police and the Cook in another interview room, negotiating the Cook deal with police. The lengths police went to orchestrate convictions and ensure my demise, in what can only be described as shady, dishonest and corrupt undertakings, are mind-blowing.”

He said his case was an example of “informer and police corruption”.

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