The Informant

He went to a Melbourne boys' private school, where he falsely claims to have been school captain, claims to have played AFL Under 19s football, and claims prominent sportsmen as friends.

A schoolmate played cricket for Australia.

In the late 1990s, the supergrass was one of the first drug dealers in Melbourne to realise that ecstasy was rapidly becoming the drug of choice, and that making it in Australia would be more profitable than importing it.

He made it his business to learn how to make professional-looking ecstasy tablets and amphetamine-based speed tablets, designed to be sold as ecstasy.

On perfecting the recipe, he sold his skills to the notorious Moran family syndicate.

Attempts by rival drug dealer Tony Mokbel to lure the supergrass away from the Morans helped fuel Melbourne's underworld war.

He once bragged to detectives he'd handled drugs worth $30 million in the late 1990s.

He claimed he obtained huge amounts of cocaine from the Australia-wide drug syndicate run by Morans.

He became a nightclub bouncer and first came to notice in 1999 during a drug squad investigation into the Moran family's drug-dealing enterprise.

He was originally seen as a peripheral figure but a police investigation concluded he was a major drug trafficker who passed himself off as a successful businessman. 

His partners — Lewis, Mark and Jason Moran — were all shot dead during the underworld war.

Once dubbed by police as the drug dealer to the stars and one of the most influential figures in Melbourne's underworld, the Melbourne man's name is suppressed by court order.

He was originally arrested with two kilograms of cocaine in his possession in August 2000 and was then persuaded to become Australia's biggest drug informer.

Mokbel cultivated the supergrass as a friend, largely because he was the most accomplished speed and ecstasy pill-maker in Australia.

Mokbel's attempts to poach the Moran gang's pill-making expert contributed to a falling out between the two groups.

The supergrass agreed to take part in controlled deliveries of chemicals to Mokbel.

He also bought amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy from Mokbel while secretly taping the transactions.

The two were discussing Mokbel's plans to establish regular cocaine importations in the street one day in late 2000 when a car pulled up nearby and tooted. 

Mokbel asked the supergrass to hang around while he went over for a quick chat with the driver.

He then whispered into his tape that Mokbel's associate was driving "FCJ-376, a maroon Ford sedan". 

When Mokbel came back he was caught on tape telling the supergrass the man in the car was his inside man at United Parcel Service and would ensure the planned cocaine importation from Mexico would get through undetected.

"He's got the keys. He's the boss and he goes in and gets it for me," Mokbel said on tape.

Police checked the registration and found the car belonged to Ron Cassar, second in charge at UPS in Melbourne.

The AFP used information obtained by the supergrass on secret tapes to set up a sting operation that snared Mokbel and four other key players in the cocaine racket.

Mokbel was worried he too would be picked up, but relaxed after several days and on December 1, 2000, told the supergrass about having got away with it.

Mokbel was caught on tape making a damning admission to the supergrass over his leading role in the cocaine smuggling.

AFP agents and Victoria Police kept Mokbel under surveillance before arresting him on August 24, 2001.

Evidence gathered by the supergrass has put away corrupt drug squad detectives and tapes he made of Mokbel for police implicate Mokbel in major drug deals.

He helped set up Mokbel, Lewis Moran and several other key underworld figures — often taping his targets with a hidden tape recorder.

The supergrass taped phone calls by Mokbel involving millions of dollars and tonnes of drugs.

Yet it was a relatively minor importation of less than 2kg of cocaine -- for which he would have made just over $100,000 -- that saw Mokbel finally convicted of drug smuggling.

Even though he refused to give evidence against Mokbel, the supergrass played a major role in the AFP being able to charge him.

When he learnt of serious police corruption, the supergrass went to the Ethical Standards Department and turned on the drug squad.

He provided information that led to the arrest and conviction of three drug squad police — Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Strawhorn, Detective Sergeant Malcolm Rosenes and Detective Senior Constable Stephen Paton.

The supergrass also stunned detectives by naming his celebrity customers.

He provided Victoria Police with taped evidence implicating music, sport and TV stars.

The dealer identified the household-name celebrities, before being convicted of serious drug offences in 2003.

Among those named as regular cocaine customers were:

ONE of Australia's biggest rock performers.

A LEADING female actor who spent years starring in one of Australia's longest-running television dramas.

A PROMINENT retired AFL player connected to a male actor who surprised detectives by turning up at a cocaine dealer's house in Docklands during a raid.

SEVERAL leading Victorian barristers.

Police considered investigating the celebrities further to try to corroborate the dealer's claims, but decided against singling them out.

Force priority is to chase drug dealers, not users.

He once bragged to Mokbel and others that he was dating TV journalist Naomi Robson (right).

Robson later went public to say: "There was no close relationship; I hardly knew the bloke. He was a casual acquaintance."

She admitted to the Herald Sun in 2006 that she was involved in a relationship with the supergrass without knowing he was a conman and drug dealer.

Mokbel was secretly taped talking to the supergrass about the supergrass's relationship with the former host of Seven's Today Tonight.

"So how's Naomi?" Mokbel is heard to ask during a salacious discussion between the two men about their intimate affairs.

"She is all right, she's made, yeah," the supergrass replied, much to the delight of police monitoring the conversation.

In 2003, the supergrass was the target of a murder plot, which involved poison being smuggled into Barwon Prison for convicted triple murderer Greg Brazel to administer to him.

Brazel was later interviewed about the attempt but refused to name the underworld figures who asked him to kill the informer to stop him testifying.

Journalist Geoff Wilkinson recalled a day in early 2004 when the supergrass went to ask the Supreme Court to stop the Herald Sun publishing a story he didn't want in print.

Few people represent themselves in the Supreme Court, wrote Wilkinson, even fewer do so in sandals, shorts, a T-shirt and with hair halfway down their back.

The injunction hearing, which was due to proceed after court hours before Justice Bill Gillard, did not go ahead after a last-minute compromise was reached.

The deal we made that day was one of the few he's known to have honoured.

I suggested the paper would withhold the story from publication - at least temporarily - if he agreed to sit down that night for a deep and meaningful discussion over a cool drink about his concerns and his fascinating past.

For once, the man who broke promises to police, judges and the Parole Board was as good as his word.

He turned up near the newspaper's Southbank office, driving a car rented in one of his many names.

Displaying his usual concern about being under surveillance, we took a circuitous route into the city and finished up in Caulfield.

Dinner and drinks at a restaurant was followed by a session at an Elsternwick hotel and a much longer session at a student pub in the city.

The man with dozens of false names and a $1 million price on his head was confident, articulate and well-travelled - even then.

Not your average crook.

He revealed how police used to hide a wire on him while he was secretly recording his dealings with major drug dealers and corrupt detectives.

But he complained he had to buy his own recording equipment because the recorder police gave him had insufficient capacity.

The master manufacturer and supplier of methamphetamines was coy about his rumoured relationship with Naomi Robson but happily talked about the night he shared a bed with another woman, unaware she was a drug boss's mistress.

The supergrass was given a heavily discounted sentence for drug trafficking on the condition he agreed to give evidence against Mokbel.

After serving part of his sentence, he convinced the Adult Parole Board to allow him to move overseas in 2004 because of fears for his safety.

He was released on the strict condition he returned to give evidence.

But once overseas he refused to return and disappeared.

An expert in identity theft, he is believed to have lived under several aliases while in Europe and Asia and remained a prodigious drug trafficker.

His police record shows convictions for more than 400 fraud offences.

In 2005, a warrant was issued for his arrest for breaching parole.

In November 2006, the AFP's worldwide investigation into a cocaine gang started after alert Customs officers at Melbourne Airport spotted a man acting nervously after arriving from overseas.

He was pulled over for a routine check.

They discovered the 35-year-old Melbourne man had a small amount of cocaine hidden inside his body and began questioning him over his stash.

That arrest led to a major investigation in several countries.

On December 6, 2007, Australia's number-one fugitive was captured in Holland after three years on the run during an Australian Federal Police operation that smashed a worldwide cocaine syndicate.

The man was grabbed by police as he was about to board a plane in Amsterdam. 

Police believed they had cracked a major cocaine smuggling syndicate which was allegedly operating out of the Netherlands and was sending drugs to Australia, Canada and other countries.

It specialised in getting drug couriers to hide cocaine in their bodies, often inside condoms, before boarding commercial flights to destinations around the world.

The supergrass was among three alleged members of the organised crime gang picked up during the operation, which has involved the AFP working with various overseas agencies.

More arrests were expected.

AFP agents picked up two of the supergrass's associates in Melbourne and Canberra.

It will be alleged the Melbourne man was the syndicate financier while the supergrass and the Canberra man were allegedly the kingpins of the global cocaine smuggling ring.

The Canberra man is expected to be extradited to Melbourne today to face drug charges.

AFP agents raided five Melbourne addresses and arrested the alleged financier in a Hawthorn home.

They searched his property and seized credit cards and items with the potential to be used in the production of drugs.

A police profile found he spent $80,000 in the previous 12 months on hire cars, and $150,000 on air fares. 

He had 30 aliases, and was one of the biggest drug movers in Melbourne. He was known to spend $5000 on a night out.

At one point, he pleaded to leave Australia because there was a million-dollar contract on his head.

Police were to seek his extradition for his breach of parole and he is likely to face fresh drug trafficking charges.

His initial sentence reduction for agreeing to give evidence against Mokbel may be revoked as he fled overseas before the trial. 

Properties at Southbank, Prahran, South Yarra and St Kilda were also raided.

On December 8, 2007, it was reported that the supergrass told police he fears being killed if he is extradited to Melbourne.

The supergrass is aware of the failed 2003 plan to kill him and told his captors he fears other attempts will be made on his life if he is brought back to Melbourne.

The supergrass, 40, appeared in an Amsterdam court and was remanded in custody while Australia prepared its extradition case.

Alleged syndicate member Julian Robert Cazabon, 37, was in custody to March after being extradited from Canberra to Melbourne. 

He will face a charge of conspiring to import cocaine.

The names of two of Mr Cazabon's alleged co-conspirators were suppressed by a Melbourne magistrate.

One of those, Neil Pugh, 31, was bailed until December 20.

The Hawthorn man was charged with proceeds of crime offences allegedly relating to the syndicate's activities.

Evidence emerged that the supergrass's syndicate used couriers to import up to 4kg of cocaine into Australia every month for four years.

financial experts at the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre helped the AFP track down gang members through money movements.

Three syndicate couriers had been arrested in recent months, two of them at Melbourne Airport and one as he arrived in Canada.

Canadian Mounties were playing a significant role in the continuing investigation as many of the gang's couriers were recruited in Canada and some of the cocaine was also being smuggled there.

On December 13, 2007, it was reported that police had smashed a global drug ring involving six countries after 40 arrests including 14 Australians, that netted nearly 2000kg of drugs and chemicals.

The latest bust was the second alleged drug ring brought down that week, after the arrest of two men from Melbourne and Canberra, and the supergrass in Amsterdam.

Australian Federal Police said international law enforcement officers had seized 600kg of cocaine, 111kg of ice, 83kg of ecstasy and 1200kg of materials used to produce ice and ecstasy.

Police said the ice and ecstasy destined for Australia was worth an estimated $13.7 million on the streets.

Police had also seized $2.3 million in cash and $6.7 million worth of property.

The Australian end of the operation, launched in August after drugs were found concealed in suitcases from Canada, involved officers from Customs, the AFP, the NSW police, the Australian Crime Commission and the NSW Crime Commission.

The 14 Australian arrests were made in Sydney and Melbourne where 28.6kg of ice and 23kg of ecstasy tablets were seized since August, the AFP said.

The Australian Joint Asian Crime Group (JACG) made the first arrests in Sydney after Australian Customs Service officers discovered 15kg of ice in the lining and frames of three large suitcases.

JACG involves officers from Customs, the Australian Federal Police, the NSW Police Force, the Australian Crime Commission and the NSW Crime Commission.

JACG Coordinator Detective Chief Inspector John Lehmann said the operation had slashed the amount of drugs reaching Australian shores.

“By using the combined expertise of the various agencies which are members of the JACG we have been able to work with international law enforcement agencies to dismantle a syndicate allegedly responsible for large volumes of illicit drugs reaching Australia’s streets,” he said.

The 14 Australians have been charged with varying drug offences, including conspiracy to import and supply a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.

On February 7, 2008, Julian Cazabon was bailed.

Bail was not opposed and magistrate Peter Couzens granted him bail with a $50,000 surety on the conditions that he give up his passport, not associate with co-accused and live in Farrer, in the ACT.

He is to return to court in April.

On April 3, 2008, the Herald Sun reported that the informer was set to return to Australia to give evidence against former underworld associates and high-profile celebrity cocaine clients.

He appeared before a Dutch court the previous day where formal extradition to Australia was approved.

Schiphol-oost Department of Haarlam Court, west of Amsterdam, was told the man had until April 15 to lodge an appeal, but unless an appeal was filed, he would be flown home to Melbourne to face charges related to his alleged drug smuggling.

His lawyer said his client had yet to decide whether he would fight the extradition order, which the lawyer said was a possibility since his client feared for his safety if he were forced to return.

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