Mokbel’s associates named in police investigation Operation Posse
Detectives investigating drug lord Tony Mokbel kept tabs on his wide network of associates. These are the names revealed in the files.
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Former Heat nightclub boss Glenn Wills is among an intriguing mix of Tony Mokbel associates laid bare in police documents.
As detectives prepared to attack Mokbel’s empire, intelligence was compiled on the sprawling nature of his contact base.
There were legitimate businessmen, high-level drug dealers and manufacturers, commission agents, lawyers, frontmen and tax frauds.
Listed alongside Mr Wills were:
• Drug boss George Williams and his son, Carl
• Rising Middle-Eastern organised crime figure Mohammed Oueida
• Betting agent Michael Khodr
• Accused $17m tax fraud player Fadi Sarkis
• Mokbel’s de facto wife Danielle McGuire
• Underworld figure Paul Sequenzia
• Trusted “runner” Mark Lanteri
• Construction businessman Simon Khoury
• Drug cook Paul Howden
• Lawyer Nicola Gobbo
Glenn Wills
Wills not only operated Heat nightclub at Crown casino, he was connected to glitterati.
Both Mokbel and Williams entertained their motley crews inside swank marquees at the 2004 Australian F1 Grand Prix.
It was among the last shindigs before Williams was jailed.
It was Wills who provided the tickets.
Operation Posse intelligence suggests Wills was deeply upset to learn one of Mokbel’s long-term associates had turned informer in 2005.
Mokbel, the report says, had to intervene.
Mohammed Sherif Oueida
Oueida was rising to prominence as a sophisticated ally of Mokbel as others hit the skids in the mid-2000s.
He lived the high life in a $2.8m Greenvale property, buying and flying a light plane and getting around Melbourne in his Ferrari.
By 2007, the bikie-linked Oueida was trying to fill the gap Mokbel left behind and dating Williams’ ex-wife, Roberta.
Michael Khodr
Dubbed “Ponch’’ by the Australian Federal Police, Khodr was suspected of placing bets for Mokbel at NSW’s Warwick Farm in October, 2004, in the amount of $441,850.
NSW Racing fined him $15,000.
The Purana task force suspected he was associating with Ricky and Paul Sequenzia.
Paul Sequenzia
The Mokbels have had a long association with Sequenzia.
Police believe Sequenzia cooked drugs for Jason Moran, a skill he allegedly learnt from Paul Howden.
His connections ran deep with the Morans. His sister married Mark Moran, who was shot dead in June 2000 in a hit likely ordered by Carl Williams.
Mark Lanteri
Lanteri was arrested with major drug offences in 2001 alongside Mokbel, Joseph Parisi and docks expert Rob Karam.
The charges were dropped but Lanteri continued drug trafficking.
He was considered a “runner’’ for Mokbel who was a go-between for his drug deals.
Simon Khoury
Businessman Simon Khoury, no relation to John Khoury, was involved in the construction industry.
Operation Posse believed he was a front for Mokbel’s licensed premises, including the Hugo Lounge in Chapel St, South Yarra, and was linked to the Lotus Bar nearby.
The money behind the Hugo Bar was allegedly provided by both Mokbel and Carl Williams.
Khoury was an associate of John Fakhri.
Fadi Sarkis
Sarkis was involved in a scheme to con the Victorian government out of almost $17m in sales tax from cigarettes.
The sales tax scam also ended in allegations Sarkis offered a bribe to an investigator.
Thoroughbred horses were a passion the Mokbels and Sarkises shared.
Their wives were part owners in a racehorse Planet D’or. It was trained at Mokbel’s horse training facility.
Danielle McGuire
The glamorous one-time girlfriend of Mark Moran, Mc Guire became Tony Mokbel’s mistress.
Mokbel left his wife, Carmel, for McGuire who met him as he hid out in Greece.
The pair had a daughter while he was a fugitive.
After Mokbel’s incarceration she had a relationship with outlaw bikie Toby Mitchell.
Paul Howden
One of the Mokbels’ drug manufacturers, Howden suffered burns after a clandestine lab exploded during a “cook’’ in 1997.
Now deceased, Howden was a business partner of Mokbel and part of a group of associates known as “The Company’’.
‘THE LORD MAYOR’ AND ‘THE OCTOPUS’
The Mokbel brothers had about as many names as the White Pages by 2005.
The Operation Posse documents give background into how Tony, Horty, Milad and Kabalan were known to have used a total of 32 aliases in their various enterprises.
Tony led the pack with 16 extra names, Horty had eight, Kabalan six and Milad two.
The list of noms de plume also included The Lord Mayor and The Octopus for Tony.
Most of the aliases were small variations on their existing names, possibly created to get around things like computer checks.
For example, Tony had used the surnames Makcbel, Mockbell and Matracka and his given names of Antonios Sajih became Anionios, Antoinis, Antonio, Rajih and Sijah.
The brothers’ catalogue of crimes, detailed in rap sheets, was also expansive.
Each had been charged at some stage with offences of violence, though not all of those matters resulted in a conviction.
Tony’s history ran back to 1983 when he was fined $750 for unlawful assault.
He made regular court appearances from then on for matters ranging from using indecent language to drug trafficking,
There was a conviction for attempting to pervert the course of justice in 1992, a fine for hindering police and notation of a court adjournment for assaulting police.
Horty had got off the mark in 1982 with fines for assault matters dealt with in the old Carlton Magistrates’ Court and was in subsequent years charged with trespass, resisting police and discharging a missile.
He did not reach a higher judicial authority until 2001 when handed suspended jail sentences for fraud matters.
Milad had been fined for recklessly causing injury in 1987 and was given a suspended prison sentence for unlawful assault in 1991.
In 2002-2003, some drug and proceeds of crime matters were struck out or withdrawn at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
Kabalan’s file showed he had not been in court for nine years, the last occasion at Benalla Magistrates’ Court where he was fined a total of $550 for riotous behaviour and using an insulting word. Other charges, including unlawful assault, assault in company and assault with a weapon, were withdrawn the same day.
Earlier matters of burglary, handling stolen goods, car theft, unlawful possession and defacing a vehicle had been punished by fines or probation.
A list of Tony’s vehicle ownership history included in the Posse paperwork did not scream that this was a man running Melbourne’s drug trade, until late in the piece.
There had been a 1971 Jaguar, a 1970 Hillman, a 1973 Holden sedan and a white 1986 Mitsubishi van.
Then, in 1999, he registered a red 1998 Ferrari Roadster, which would later be taken away on the back of a tray truck by police.
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