The Gangland War (11 page)

Cassidy and fellow jockeys, Gavin Eades and Kevin Moses, were suspended in Sydney in 1995 for race tipping, after their conversations were recorded during a major Australian Federal Police drug investigation code-named Caribou.

And in 1981, several racing identities, including jockeys and callers, were recorded on illegal NSW police tapes giving inside information to notorious drug dealer, Robert ‘Aussie Bob' Trimbole.

They don't call them colourful racing identities for nothing.

WHILE the crime commission was busy on the racing side, Jim O'Brien continued the dual strategy of attacking Mokbel's resource base while turning trusted insiders into prosecution witnesses.

If Tony had been in Australia, even in jail, he may have been able to control his team but, with him overseas, the fabric began to fray.

Police began to target Mokbel's closest family and friends. They discovered the syndicate, code named ‘The Company', had set up seemingly legitimate industrial businesses to buy massive amounts of chemicals used to make perfume. They then redirected the precursor chemicals to be used in the production of amphetamines and ecstasy. While it was inconceivable that the massive amount of chemicals they bought could be used for a small
perfume production run, no one within the industry queried the purchases. For the Mokbels it was a licence to print money.

But slowly Purana put their hooks into the company.

In September 2006, they (literally) unearthed $350,000 in cash, eighteen watches, 61 items of jewellery and 33 jewellery boxes concealed in PVC pipes hidden on behalf of the Mokbel family in a Parkdale backyard.

They jailed Renate Mokbel, Tony's sister-in-law, after she failed to honour a $1 million surety she offered as part of Mokbel's bail conditions.

The Brunswick property used as surety was seized. It was the place Mokbel had run a speed lab in 1997 and, after a fire, had been rebuilt. Some close to Mokbel became disillusioned that he remained free when Renate was jailed.

His brothers were also arrested and charged. Milad Mokbel was charged after police discovered an alleged drug factory near a primary school in a shop that was supposedly being fitted out as a juice bar. Horse-loving brother Horty was also arrested on drug-related charges. Sister-in-Law Zaharoula Mokbel was charged over an alleged $2.3 million fraud.

A Mokbel financial adviser was arrested and his luxury car seized. When he saw reporters, the adviser loudly advised that they should get ‘real jobs.' He may have had many assets but a sense of irony was not one of them.

Police needed the time that Mokbel was in hiding to build their case. Nearly one year after Mokbel had jumped bail, O'Brien was confident they now had enough information to charge him with two murders, Lewis Moran at the Brunswick Club and Michael Marshall in South Yarra. He was convinced they could finally charge Mokbel over being the head of a massive drug syndicate — although a jury will ultimately make that decision. Police had statements from two hit men, his alleged amphetamines cook and others close to the camp.

In February 2007 Mokbel was charged in his absence with Lewis Moran's murder. It was a strategy to show his followers he was now facing life in prison and so not a man to slavishly follow.

Having stripped Mokbel of his key advisers, police started phase two — Operation Magnum — the identification of Mokbel's hideaway and his ultimate arrest.

In April they announced a million-dollar reward for his capture. Mokbel had always used money to control his underlings and now police were using the same incentive to get them to betray him.

Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland intensified the pressure when he said: ‘We've got no doubt there are people out there who know where he is, who are probably in regular contact with him. Every time he now contacts those individuals, there are going to be huge seeds of doubt in his mind: is this the person who's going to sell me out?'

It would be no coincidence that in the same month an insider code-numbered 3030 approached police, saying he could provide information on Mokbel and four of his top men. The informer was a trusted insider but his own brother had died of a drug overdose and he saw this as the moment he could exact the maximum in revenge.

While police were ready for the long haul the breakthrough came within weeks. By following the electronic transfer of about $400,000 to Athens they deduced that Tony was in Greece. But where exactly?

By using 3030 and introducing two police undercover agents they managed to get close.

The informer was the one who had been assigned to provide a passport and mobile phones for Mokbel. At least one of those phones was bugged by police before it was provided for the number one target.

The passport was later altered for Mokbel to the alias of a supposed Sydney businessman, ‘Stephen Papas'. Why use that name?

It was rumoured that when a local football team supported by Mokbel used a ring-in player they always used the one alias — Stephen Papas. Dishonest habits die hard.

Thanks to the bugged phone, police could soon hear that Mokbel was still running his business, long distance. He would advise his staff when there was a problem with drug production and organise chemical deliveries.

And they continued to send him money — if not truckloads — at least bootloads.

On 5 May police watched as a Mokbel courier collected $440,000 hidden in Collingwood storage facility and then was given another $60,000 by a trusted insider.

But if detectives grabbed the cash courier it would alert Mokbel that Purana was getting close. Instead they used uniformed police to intercept the man — making it look as though they had accidentally discovered the money during a routine car check.

A marked unit slipped in behind the courier's car near Box Hill. The courier became nervous when he saw the police car and kept checking his mirror, which is why he didn't see the red light he ran on the Maroondah Highway. It gave police the perfect opportunity to pull him over and search the car. They found the package of $499,950 in cash. At the man's home they seized a further $8950.

One of the team rang Mokbel to tell him the cash instalment was gone. Tony, sunning himself in Athens, told the subordinate not to worry. He would ensure the same amount would be in his hands within six days. Put it down to a business expense, he said. He might not have been so casual had he known the truth: the police net was closing.

On 15 May the investigators narrowed the location to the prestigious Athens suburb of Glyfada, where Mokbel rented an upmarket home. They also found he was living with Danielle McGuire and their six-month-old girl, Renate. It is not known whether his sister-in-law, Renate, left in jail when he jumped bail, was chuffed that the baby was named after her.

According to Jim O'Brien: ‘He was living in a double-storey apartment there with a rental of EUR2000 ($A3237) a month, living fairly high with a lavish lifestyle.'

In late May, Purana Detective Senior Sergeant Jim Coghlan, who had spent years unravelling the Mokbel empire and had previously holidayed in the area, flew to Athens with a federal investigator to work with Greek police to find the fugitive.

Mokbel spoke on the bugged phone of having ‘coffee at Starbucks' — there were only two of the chain in the area. They were close, but not there yet.

In early June they thought they were. Danielle McGuire had given birth to Tony's baby and the doting dad was always there during infant swimming lessons. Police arrived at the pool just minutes after the family had left.

Three days later they were tipped off he would visit a small seaside restaurant for a financial meeting and would be carrying a folder with paperwork. They arrived at the crowded restaurant but could not spot the balding head of the fugitive. The local police then carried out what was to appear to be a routine identity check. When a well-tanned man with long dark hair opened a folder to produce a passport with the name Stephen Papas, Coghlan realised it was Mokbel in a wig.

At first Mokbel appeared relaxed, thinking he would be able to bribe his way out of any minor passport offence. But his face dropped when he saw the Purana detective. He had the good grace to say, ‘I don't know how you did it but you've done a brilliant job.' He later lost his sense of fair play, telling the police he
had ‘evil dreams about what I was going to do to you and your families.'

Perhaps he should have checked his stars for that day, which read, ‘Leos tend to feel they're entitled to more freedom and independence … others might not agree today.'

On word of the arrest, more than 120 police in Victoria raided 22 properties (including the Bonnie Doon farmhouse where Mokbel had hidden) and arrested fourteen suspects. Later, eight people appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with drug-related offences. Police also seized almost $800,000 in cash, drugs, eight vehicles, two power-skis, a Taser stun gun, mace spray, a pistol, a shotgun and a rifle.

It was also, by pure coincidence, Jim O'Brien's birthday.

Round two to the police.

TONY Mokbel was never going to come quietly. From day one he made it clear he was going to fight any extradition attempts.

Back in Melbourne authorities faced a race against time. They had to present the charges to a Greek court in Greek within 45 days. Under international law a suspect can only be tried on the charges approved under extradition treaties. Eventually Mokbel was charged with the Lewis Moran and Michael Marshall murders and drug trafficking offences. This meant he was facing life in jail — and he already owed a minimum of nine years for his cocaine conviction in 2006.

Despite the odds against him, Mokbel remained remarkably chatty. In the back of the court he spoke to
The Age's
European correspondent, James Button, declaring: ‘I would be on a plane tomorrow if the Australian Government would agree to sort out the truth from the crap.'

He said he was not involved in the murder of Lewis Moran. ‘Mate, I deny full stop all this.'

He claimed he had jumped bail because he knew he was facing more charges and would not have been able to defend himself from jail. ‘Eventually, I do want to go back to Australia,' Mokbel said. ‘All I'm asking is that the Australian Government sit down with me and talk and nut out the crap from the truth and I am hoping to go back.

‘If they came and they talked to me and we came to an agreement I'm more than happy to get on a plane tomorrow.'

It was typical Mokbel bluster. He seemed to believe he had such political clout that he could deal directly with the government. His delusions were such that he had once been recorded saying that when ‘Paul gets back from leave, Con will have a chat and sort it all out.'

‘Paul' was the then Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Coghlan, and Con was his barrister Con Heliotis QC. Mokbel was kidding himself. There would be no deals.

Mokbel went from delusion to denial and eventually to anger.

He said Purana was picking on him.

‘If I were going to jail for things that I did that would be OK,' but Purana was ‘hungry to convict whoever they would like, not for the right reasons'.

He said the underworld war had been a tragedy. ‘We were all friends and it (the gangland killings) was the saddest thing happening, it was just sad.'

In a later hearing he was less relaxed, claiming that being sent back to Australia was like facing trial in Nazi Germany.

‘It would be impossible for me to get a fair trial,' Mokbel told a Greek court. ‘It's like you sending me to Hitler.'

The churlish may have pointed out that Mokbel was familiar with the concept of summary execution without trial.

Eventually a panel of three Greek judges granted the extradition. His local lawyer, Yannis Vlachos, said Mokbel would appeal.
‘It is an uphill struggle, but we will fight it and remain optimistic,' Vlachos said.

The process was further delayed when he was sentenced to a year in a Greek jail on false passport charges. He was moved to the maximum-security Korydallos prison complex, fifteen kilometres from the city. Built for 640 inmates, it houses nearly 2000 and was described by Amnesty International as one of the worst jails in Europe.

So it was a surprise when the phone rang in the Purana office and the voice at the other end belonged to Mokbel, who had apparently bribed prison officials for access to several mobile phones.

Angling for a deal, he wanted the murder charges dropped if he was to return. He said he was prepared to talk about police corruption or anything else. He said to O'Brien, ‘I'm a drug dealer, not a killer.' Hardly the best admission for your CV.

The House of Mokbel had fallen. Now he was trying to salvage something from the wreckage.

It meant the police could claim a massive victory against organised crime. But the win came twelve years after their failure to act had set the scene for gangster to turn on gangster in what became the underworld war.

Al had got away with murder.
But, a few years later,
it would be his turn.

 

IN 30 years in the underworld, Gregory John Workman earned a name as a man who didn't dodge danger.

Like most of his breed, he had a lengthy police ‘docket'. It had begun when he was a teenager, back in 1966 when Sir Robert Menzies was Prime Minister and imperial currency was being replaced with dollars and cents.

Workman's record included convictions for assault, theft, burglary, malicious wounding, abduction, illegal possession of a firearm, armed robbery and escape.

He began to build a reputation as a tough teenager in a tough place — the working-class Melbourne suburb of Preston. It was an area and an era in which many teenagers joined gangs — either the Mods or the Sharpies. Most moved on, but Workman used street violence as work experience in his chosen field. He was a diligent delinquent and eventually graduated from gang member to gangster. His reputation grew and, like many others,
the young standover man turned to dealing drugs as he moved into middle age.