Tony Mokbel Caught in Greece
Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:56 amHerald Sun - breaking news
Mokbel arrested in Greece
June 05, 2007 12:00am
DEVELOPING STORY: ONE of Australia's most wanted fugitives, convicted drug baron Tony Mokbel, has been arrested in Greece, Victorian police say.
"Victoria Police can confirm that it has received information that Tony Mokbel has been arrested and is in the custody of the Greek authorities," a Victoria Police spokesman said tonight.
"At this stage, due to ongoing operational activity, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
The spokesman could not say exactly when or where Mokbel was arrested.
Mokbel, 41, went missing in March last year when he failed to appear towards the end of his Victorian Supreme Court trial over the importation of 2kg of cocaine.
He was subsequently found guilty of trafficking cocaine and sentenced in absentia to a minimum of nine years' jail.
He has also been charged over the murder of underworld figure Lewis Moran in the front bar of Melbourne's Brunswick Club in March 2004.
In April this year, Victoria Police offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Details of Mokbel and his girlfriend Danielle McGuire, who went missing in Europe last year, have been circulated to Crime Stoppers International and Interpol.
Victoria's top detective, Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland, said at the time the reward was announced a $1 million bounty for Mokbel was justified.
Mr Overland said detectives were hoping to exploit fading loyalties in the underworld.
"We've got no doubt that there are people out there who know where he is, who are probably in regular contact with him," he said.
"Every time he now contacts those individuals, there's going to be a huge seed of doubt in his mind - is this the person whose going to sell me out?
"It also puts a further seed of doubt into the minds of other criminals who are out there about the so-called wall of silence in the criminal underworld."
Late last month, reports surfaced that Mokbel had survived a gun battle with former business associates in Lebanon, long rumoured to have been his overseas haven.
Mokbel and his bodyguards were seen in a shoot-out with the criminal's former business associates in the north Lebanon town of Shikka, according to the reports.
A source said Mokbel was travelling with a group that included relatives with military experience, who were acting as bodyguards.
Mokbel arrested in Greece
June 05, 2007 12:00am
DEVELOPING STORY: ONE of Australia's most wanted fugitives, convicted drug baron Tony Mokbel, has been arrested in Greece, Victorian police say.
"Victoria Police can confirm that it has received information that Tony Mokbel has been arrested and is in the custody of the Greek authorities," a Victoria Police spokesman said tonight.
"At this stage, due to ongoing operational activity, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
The spokesman could not say exactly when or where Mokbel was arrested.
Mokbel, 41, went missing in March last year when he failed to appear towards the end of his Victorian Supreme Court trial over the importation of 2kg of cocaine.
He was subsequently found guilty of trafficking cocaine and sentenced in absentia to a minimum of nine years' jail.
He has also been charged over the murder of underworld figure Lewis Moran in the front bar of Melbourne's Brunswick Club in March 2004.
In April this year, Victoria Police offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Details of Mokbel and his girlfriend Danielle McGuire, who went missing in Europe last year, have been circulated to Crime Stoppers International and Interpol.
Victoria's top detective, Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland, said at the time the reward was announced a $1 million bounty for Mokbel was justified.
Mr Overland said detectives were hoping to exploit fading loyalties in the underworld.
"We've got no doubt that there are people out there who know where he is, who are probably in regular contact with him," he said.
"Every time he now contacts those individuals, there's going to be a huge seed of doubt in his mind - is this the person whose going to sell me out?
"It also puts a further seed of doubt into the minds of other criminals who are out there about the so-called wall of silence in the criminal underworld."
Late last month, reports surfaced that Mokbel had survived a gun battle with former business associates in Lebanon, long rumoured to have been his overseas haven.
Mokbel and his bodyguards were seen in a shoot-out with the criminal's former business associates in the north Lebanon town of Shikka, according to the reports.
A source said Mokbel was travelling with a group that included relatives with military experience, who were acting as bodyguards.