Australian kingpin Anthony Phillip Sitar’s family stunned he is wanted over drug allegations

The parents of Australian fugitive Anthony Phillip Sitar have opened up about their son and how police are chasing him across the world.

Exclusive: The parents of Australian fugitive and suspected new drug kingpin Anthony Phillip Sitar said they had no idea their son was still alive or that they were now grandparents.

Guerrino and Sandra Sitar have lived for 40 years at the end of a dead-end road about four hours’ drive from Melbourne among the rolling hills of the high country of Victoria’s northeast.

It was here, amid lush green fields full of cows, that Anthony Sitar grew up.

“He was a beautiful kid,” Guerrino Sitar said this week.

“I haven’t spoken to him for years. I don’t know where he is.”

When told he is alive and police suspect he is living in Mexico, he replied: “That’s good to know”.

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Guerrino Sitar (father) at the family home of wanted Australian fugitive Anthony Sitar. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Sitar said he had no way to contact his son, who allegedly fled Australia more than a decade ago, one step ahead of police who wanted to arrest him over the import of about $300m worth of drugs.

“He doesn’t talk to me … I have no number at all,” he said.

He said it had been “bloody years” since the last contact – “five, six, seven”.

Anthony Sitar has been on the run since October 2011, when police were about to arrest him for his alleged involvement in the shipment of 133kg of ice and 14kg of cocaine into Australia.

The plot allegedly involved concealing cocaine in beer bottles destined for the Latin bar on Chapel St in Melbourne which he part-owned.

Sitar was travelling towards his family home on the day his associates were arrested over the importation.

Destino Latin Bar in Melbourne, which has closed down. Picture: Supplied

$14 million of drugs concealed in beer bottles from Mexico.

He then fled Australia, possibly on a fake passport, and is now believed to be in Mexico.

Guerrino Sitar said he knew why his son left the country and that he was wanted by police.

The coastal town of San Francisco, Nayarit in Mexico, where they think Anthony Sitar is. Picture: TripAdvisor

A photograph sent by Australian fugitive Anthony Phillip Sitar from his base in Mexico. The faces of two young children, believed to be Sitar's, have been blurred out. The mural in the background of the photograph, which was taken in Mexico, was significant. Police want to speak with anyone who knows the location of the villa units pictured.

“He was involved with drugs, apparently,” he said.

But he said it was a shock to learn of the allegations.

“Of course it was,” he said. “It was all behind my back … I knew nothing about it.”

Nor was he aware of the existence of two grandchildren, revealed in a photo investigators hope to use to pinpoint his son’s location.

“Do I have grandkids? Do I?” he said.

Sandra Sitar said she “wouldn’t have a clue” about the existence of grandchildren or the whereabouts of her son.

“We would be looking for him too, if we knew where he was,” Mrs Sitar said.

“We’d love to have grandchildren, we wouldn’t have a clue” she said.