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Renate offers to give up mansion
March 31, 2007

The sister-in-law of fugitive drug boss Tony Mokbel says he destroyed her family by disappearing while on bail.

Renate Mokbel, 36, is in prison after failing to pay a $1 million surety for her husband's brother, who skipped bail near the end of a Supreme Court trial last year.

In his absence, Tony Mokbel was found guilty of being knowingly concerned in importing two kilograms of cocaine. In his absence, he was sentenced to 12 years' jail, with a nine-year minimum.

Renate Mokbel begged a judge to let her sell the family home so she can get out of jail.

Christian Juebner, for Mrs Mokbel, said in the Supreme Court that she wanted to pay the surety by selling the family home, which was the subject of a court restraining order.

The home is said to be worth $1.1 million to $1.2 million.

Mrs Mokbel pleaded to Justice Kim Hargrave to vary the restraining order on her suburban Brunswick home so she could sell it, pay the $1 million and be reunited with her three children aged 14, 10 and three.

In an affidavit tendered to the court, Renate Mokbel said she believed her brother-in-law would have done the "right thing" by her, her husband Milad Mokbel and their three children and not disappear.

"I have absolutely no idea where Tony presently is.

By absconding, Tony has essentially destroyed my family," she said.

In the affidavit, Renate Mokbel said she agreed with her husband, who is now in custody on drug charges, to offer the Brunswick property as surety.

She said her 14-year-old daughter wanted to run away, and had found life tough at school because her mother was in custody.

Renate Mokbel said her older son, 10, was often in excruciating pain because of a serious medical condition that affected blood flow to his hips. The boy also had epileptic seizures.

She said her younger son had to be separated from her while screaming after a prison visit.

"It is impossible for me to put into words the complete devastation that I feel at being separated from my children," Mrs Mokbel said in the affidavit.

"If I were able to access the money with which to pay the $1 million surety, I would do so immediately so that I could be home raising my children."

She said she did not realise when she agreed to be a surety that the house may be restrained.

"I only became surety for Tony because Milad (her husband and Tony Mokbel's brother) asked me to do it," she said.

In court, Trevor McLean, for the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, said the judge who ordered that the surety be paid had noted that the house was subject to restraining orders related to Milad Mokbel.

He said prosecuting authorities wanted to adjourn the current hearing so they could prepare court documents after investigating whether Renate Mokbel had other assets which could be used to pay the surety.

Mr McLean said it had been established that Mokbel family members had acquired assets through criminal activities.

Renate Mokbel said in her affidavit that she had no income, no other unrestrained assets, and no prospects of borrowing money from family or commercial interests. She said her tax returns showed she earned between $5757 and $64,864 a year from 2001 to 2005.

She said her bank account may have less than $737 in it and she did not know if her credit card was still working.

She remains in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women's prison at Deer Park, in Melbourne's west, pending an appeal.

Mrs Mokbel said she would abandon her appeal against Justice Bill Gillard's decision not to revoke her order to pay the $1 million if she won today's application.

Justice Hargrave said he would hear an application on April 16 to vary the restraining order and reserved costs.

Police miss Mokbel in Dubai
March 31, 2007 (Herald Sun)

Fugitive drug boss and gangland murder suspect Tony Mokbel may have given police the slip in Dubai.

Police are bitterly disappointed they didn't catch Mokbel after being tipped off that he was going to the rich Dubai World Cup horse race meeting.

Scores of police, including Interpol officers, mounted a secret, 10-hour surveillance at the meeting, which includes the world's richest horse race.

A Dubai-based Australian Federal Police agent briefed local police on Mokbel and every officer was given photos and descriptions of him and girlfriend Danielle McGuire.

Officers scoured Dubai's Nad Al Sheba racecourse but there was no sign of Mokbel, 41, or McGuire, 35.

One of Mokbel's associates recently told Victoria Police Mokbel had fled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which does not have an extradition treaty with Australia.

He told police Mokbel, a keen racegoer, was expected to come out of hiding for the $7.4 million Dubai World Cup.

Mokbel bail extended
March 30, 2007 (Herald Sun)

A member of the Mokbel family briefly faced court over a $2.3 million fraud.

Ms Mokbel, 39, wife of Horty Mokbel, appeared at Melbourne Magistrates' Court charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.

The mother of three is accused of falsely claiming she was an oil company manager or petrol station owner earning up to $250,000 a year to get loans and credit cards, including a $1 million loan from the National Australia Bank in 2004.

She was bailed last November with conditions including regular reporting to police, a requirement her lawyers unsuccessfully tried to have removed in February because it was embarrassing for her.

Magistrate Barbara Cotterell continued her bail and ordered Ms Mokbel, of Preston, to face a two-day preliminary hearing in September.

Jail couple may call it quits
March 29, 2007 (Herald Sun)

A forbidden prison love affair that led to a spectacular jailbreak and fatal shootout 15 years ago is on the rocks.

Warder Heather Dianne Parker helped her lover, notorious criminal Peter Robert Gibb (left), and another inmate escape from the Melbourne Remand Centre on March 3, 1993.

But she now regrets doing so, and would describe her life with Gibb as, at times, a "living hell", the County Court heard.

Parker, 42, is accused of assaulting a love rival.

Defence counsel Ben Rozenes said Parker had met Gibb, now 52, at a vulnerable time in her life and he had taken an interest in her.

"In some respects, one might say that turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life," Mr Rozenes said.

Judge Sue Pullen will sentence Parker on April 18.

Reference to Mokbel affair hits ALP again
March 29, 2007 (The Age)

Another Labor Party figure was implicated in the Tony Mokbel references affair that caused the shock resignation of Opposition frontbencher Kelvin Thomson.

The Age has discovered Alex Gaspi, a long-time member of the party's Left faction and a former electorate officer for Opposition finance spokesman Lindsay Tanner, wrote a glowing reference for the convicted drug lord in August 2000.

Mr Gaspi, who died in 2006, worked for Mr Tanner until quitting in 1997, three years before writing the reference. He was also a one-time returning officer for internal ALP elections.

Mr Thomson was forced to resign as shadow attorney-general this month after it was revealed he had endorsed Mokbel, who was seeking transfer of a liquor licence for the Gas Station Cafe in Maribyrnong's Highpoint shopping centre.

Mr Gaspi identifies himself as an IT consultant working from home. It says he had known Mokbel for about 20 years, with contact "mainly of a social nature".

"I am aware of Mr Mokbel's personal and business background. I have observed him to be a very successful businessman. I believe that Mr Mokbel is an honest person who upholds the law," he wrote.

The Mokbel file, obtained by The Age, includes a reference from the police sergeant in charge of liquor licensing in Brunswick at the time, Ray Dole. Written on Victoria Police letterhead, it said Mokbel was "of reformed habits and is making a worthwhile contribution to society".

Mr Dole, a former detective from the drug squad, major crime squad, homicide squad and armed robbery squad, quit the police under investigation in 2001 and now works at WorkCover. He refused to comment, saying he was "sick and tired of it".

The file was used in Mokbel's attempt at VCAT to overturn a decision of the liquor licensing panel chairman, James Guest, to refuse the licence.

Roberta'a bald statement
March 28, 2007 (Herald Sun)

Underworld identity Roberta Williams turned heads in court with a shock new hairdo.

"I did a Britney Spears," she told the Herald Sun.

But Williams, who served six months' jail for ecstasy trafficking in 2004, said her inspiration was not the erratic pop star but her sister Sharon.

"My sister's got cancer. She's really sick," she said.

A friend cut her hair during a recent fundraising campaign, towards which Williams says she raised almost $6000.

"It feels weird. It's cold," she said of her new crop.

Roberta wore a beanie to Melbourne Magistrates' Court to support her former partner, multiple murderer Carl Williams.

Roberta exchanged smiles with Williams, who sat in the prisoner's dock surrounded by security staff.

The pair are divorcing, but Roberta remains a supporter.

The court was told that Williams was awaiting Legal Aid funding so psychological reports could be prepared for a plea hearing set down for April 27.

Cop killer's web of lies
March 29, 2007 (Herald Sun)

Double police killer Jason Roberts is running a website from his maximum-security jail cell in a heartless insult to the families of his victims.

The convicted murderer rants that he was wrongly convicted and is the victim of brutal treatment.

It is believed he has dodged a jail internet ban by mailing lengthy diatribes to supporters, who post them on the website where they appear with poems and biographical information, all written in the first person.

"I am condemned if I say nothing, and no doubt I will be condemned for speaking out here," he says. "I will not let the lie of my conviction to be given substance by my silence."

In other postings, he:

DESCRIBES himself as "single and innocent".

NAMES interests including "women and freedom".

DETAILS why he went on a hunger strike.

A Corrections Victoria spokeswoman said no prisoner was allowed internet access.

"This site was set up outside the prison by someone in the community," she said.

"The person running this site should be mindful of the impact to the victims' families and the broader community.

"We call on this person to shut the site down."

Roberts and another were convicted of the 1998 murders of Silk and Miller. In February 2003, Roberts was jailed for life with a 35-year non-parole period.

A jury unanimously agreed that the pair killed Silk and Miller in a shootout in Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin, just after midnight on August 16, 1998.

They were later secretly taped coldly describing the shootings as "a little thing", and taunting police, shouting "bang bang, suck on that" as they drove past other officers.

The tapes also revealed they considered murdering Miller's widow, Carmel, and young son, James, to fool police into believing the murders were drug-related.

But Roberts protests his innocence on the site.

In a poem, he states: "When an innocent man is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life, it is the equivalent of cutting this throat with a knife."

He complains he is regularly strip-searched and is chained when under escort.

He believes there is a conspiracy to punish him on each anniversary of the killings, or when St Kilda and Hawthorn play for the Silk-Miller Cup in honour of the slain officers.

"Every time I am due for an important court hearing, or every time they play the Silk-Miller cup at the footy, someone 'allegedly' drops a note on me making an anonymous allegation, and you lot come running down in you're (sic) jack boots, your jump suits and your fuckin' batman belts to arrest me and drag me off to a punishment unit," he says.

He claims allegations he was attempting to escape were fabricated.

His rants include details of what he said was a three-week hunger strike against harsh treatment.

Poem titles include Corruption, An Innocent Man and Cursed.

Police who investigated Jason Roberts are angry that he has been able to have the website created in his name.

Other police spoken to by the Herald Sun said Roberts should not have the right to broadcast such rubbish.

"May Jason Roberts rot in hell," one former Lorimer policeman said. "Angry about the website? Yeah I'm angry."

Another officer who did not work on Lorimer said of the website: "It's bloody ridiculous. He's supposed to have lost his liberties in jail.

"This is infuriating, not only to the victims' families and the blokes who worked on Lorimer, but to all police in general."

The families of Sgt Silk and Sen-Constable Miller politely refused to comment.

March 27, 2007
Image released as Goussis sent to trial

Magistrate Jane Patrick released an image from a hotel's closed circuit television system after she committed Evangelos "Ange" Goussis to stand trial on a charge of murdering underworld patriarch Lewis Moran.

The image, recorded at the Brunswick Club Hotel at around 6.30pm on March 31, 2004, shows Moran's drinking companion Bertie Wrout slumped against a bar while a gunman in the bottom left-hand corner aims a pistol at Moran's long-time friend.

What the image does not show is Moran being chased by another armed man before he was shot twice.

A badly wounded Wrout survived being shot in the chest and arm while Moran died at the scene.

A witness, known only as "C" who has been jailed for the crime, said in a statement that Goussis shot Moran and that another man, who is now terminally ill, shot Wrout.

Goussis, one of five gangland figures to have been charged over the shooting, pleaded not guilty to murdering Moran and was discharged on a count of attempting to murder Wrout.

He remains in custody and was ordered to appear again in the Supreme Court in July for a directions hearing.

Witness C, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court via video-link during Goussis' two-day committal hearing.

Carl Williams, witness C and another man have pleaded guilty to Moran's murder while Tony Mokbel, who fled Australia a year ago, was charged over the shooting last month.

March 26, 2007
Bail me out Tony (Herald Sun)

Tony Mokbel's jailed sister-in-law has pleaded with the fugitive drug lord to give himself up so she doesn't have to languish in prison.

She was jailed for two years this month for failing to pay a $1 million surety she put up to get Mokbel bailed.

Speaking through her family, Renate Mokbel said she desperately wanted to be free to care for her three children.

"It's in Tony's power to make that happen and if he was any sort of a man he would hand himself in," Renate's brother told the Herald Sun.

"Renate is appealing to Tony to do the right thing and set her free.

"She is devastated that because of Tony's actions she is in jail and unable to look after her children."

Renate's cancer-stricken mother, Elaine Kattyle, said Mokbel would almost certainly read of the family's plight on the internet.

"We hope he reads this plea and thinks about Renate being in jail because of him and how distressed she and her children are," Mrs Kattyle said.

"Tony can solve that problem by giving himself up."

March 25, 2007
The crim, the gangland funeral and the missing flag (Herald Sun)

One of football folklore's most baffling mysteries was solved yesterday.

The whereabouts of Carlton Football Club's 1982 premiership pennant had troubled the Blues for years.

It was one of 16 won by the club, but legend had it that the treasured "flag" was in a place that would need more than a dose of courage to get it back.

The Blues yesterday confirmed the pennant's return.

Almost seven years ago the club generously agreed to a family request to lend the 1982 flag to drape over the coffin of slain drug dealer Mark Moran.

But when football manager Col Kinnear later asked the notorious gangland family to return the flag, he was firmly turned down.

The few Blues officials who knew it had been lent to the Morans did not know yesterday it had been returned.

A search of Carlton's memorabilia this week by inventory official Martin Shannon noted the pennant had been returned, presumably by an associate of the Morans.

March 24, 2007
Ex-detective linked to underworld murder (The Age)

A former Victorian detective is suspected of involvement in two unsolved gangland murders.

Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland said the disgraced former drug squad detective Paul Dale was a "person of interest" in the double murder of criminal-turned-corruption-informer Terence Hodson and his wife, Christine. They were shot dead in Kew three years ago.

Dale had a firm alibi for the night of the killings. He was in country Victoria, and while there made calls to police colleagues. But investigators are examining whether his activities before the murders may have encouraged criminals to kill the Hodsons.

Hodson was murdered six months after he agreed to give evidence against Dale and another former drug squad detective, David Miechel, about the trio's attempted theft of $1.3 million worth of ecstasy pills.

Miechel was convicted and jailed last year. When Hodson was killed, trafficking charges against Dale were dropped.

March 23, 2007
Friend hid Mokbel cash

A businessman let drug lord Tony Mokbel store more than $150,000 in cash in his bank account to avoid it being seized by authorities, a judge ruled.

South Yarra fashion boutique owner Emidio Navarolli claimed funds in his ANZ account were winnings from betting on horses that the convicted drug importer tipped for him.

But Supreme Court Justice Bernard Bongiorno found the account was really Mokbel's and was used to avoid the problems caused by a restraining order on his assets that had been in place since 2001.

He said Mr Navarolli lied about betting accounts he had with bookmakers and that Mokbel was placing wagers on his behalf.

The Supreme Court also heard Mr Navarolli had:

LIVED in a house owned by Mokbel;

SPENT $75,000 on a Mercedes Benz for the missing millionaire;

LET Mokbel use a Docklands apartment rented in his name and

PAID almost $150,000 in legal fees for Mokbel on the expectation that it would be repaid "when Tony got back on his feet".

He claimed the pair bet on races together, splitting the profits on winners picked by Mokbel.

Mr Navarolli said bookies would put money into the account and he would pay Mokbel his share of the winnings in cash.

Justice Bongiorno ordered that the account be frozen and banned Mr Navarolli and Mokbel from accessing it.

March 22, 2007
Moran hearing begins

A preliminary hearing has begun into the murder of gangland patriarch Lewis Moran, shot as he sat drinking in Brunswick.

Moran, 58, was gunned down as he sat drinking with a mate at the Brunswick Club in March 2004.

Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard from witnesses who were passing by as the killers entered then fled the hotel after the attack.

A witness identified only as 'B' said in a statement that as he left the club he passed Moran standing in his usual spot at the bar with his back to the wall facing Sydney Road.

Once outside, he headed for a bus stop and noticed two men walking towards him in bulky "drab-coloured industrial dress" and wearing dark beanies.

"I could see that they were talking and appeared to be grinning and jocular," the man said.

Evangelos Goussis, 39, contested charges of murdering Moran and attempting to kill Moran's long-time friend Herbert Wrout.

Noel William Faure, 52, has pleaded guilty to Moran's murder, while a man who cannot be identified has been jailed for it.

Missing drug boss Tony Mokbel has been charged with it and his brother Milad has been questioned by police over it.

Moran's widow Judy sat in court just metres away from George Williams, whose underworld killer son Carl Williams has pleaded guilty to organising the murder and that of her son Jason.

The hearing continues on Monday before magistrate Jane Patrick.

March 20, 2007
Eagles star sacked amid drug rumours

AFL star Ben Cousins has been banished indefinitely by his club the West Coast Eagles amid rumours he is addicted to the drug known as ice.

The star mid-fielder had recently split with his long-time girlfriend and he is believed to have embarked on a drug and alcohol fuelled 'bender' after his team's match on Saturday night.

He attended the club's jumper presentation on Sunday in what officials described as an unsatisfactory state.

Cousins then avoided two training sessions in which several of his team-mates were drug tested.

He appeared at the club on Monday and was required to provide testers with a urine sample.

It is believed he was then involved in a heated conversation with coach John Worsfold, a chemist.

Sources have claimed that Cousins told Worsfold to keep out of his personal life. It was then that Worsold decided to banish Cousins from the club.

Cousins and former team-mate Michael Gardiner have been linked to Perth underworld figures including convicted drug dealer John Kizon and the sergeant-at-arms of the Coffin Cheaters Motorcycle Club, Troy Mercanti.

March 17, 2007
Gatto the winner - Chopper (Herald Sun)

Convicted gangland murderer Carl Williams may have the score on the board in Melbourne's underworld war, but ultimately he is the loser, according to an "authority" on the city's crime scene.

"Carl won the gangland war, but he lost the chess game," Read told the Nine Network's Sunday program.

In an interview to be aired this weekend, Read named the real winner of the so-called gangland war as building industry consultant, criminal identity and former heavyweight boxer Mick Gatto.

"Mick Gatto's got more brains (than Williams)," Read said.

"He was sitting there playing chess quietly."

In his interview, Read said Gatto used Italian criminal philosophy, which in such situations is usually superior to the Australian version.

"Italians are prepared to lose 20 or 30 people in a gangland war in order to ultimately win it," he said.

"Whereas Australians ... when in doubt, shoot everybody."

Read also criticised Williams' choice of hitmen.

"He (Williams) must be in his cell now wondering what possessed him to hire these knuckleheads, these junkies, these dogs and these scumbags to go and do these killings for him," he said.

"Now they're dobbing each other in, whereas the Italians have stuck staunch and haven't said a word."

March 16, 2007
Mokbel bets probe (The Age)

Some of Australia's most prominent trainers, jockeys and bookmakers have been called to give evidence as part of a secret Australian Crime Commission investigation into missing drug boss Tony Mokbel's links to the racing industry.

The investigation has uncovered "ghost" bookmaking accounts set up to allow Mokbel to place massive bets just weeks after he was bailed on serious drug charges.

Jointly run by the Purana gangland taskforce and the Australian Crime Commission, an inquiry is examining Mokbel's complex financial network and is now concentrating on his tangled love affair with the racing world.

The investigation has established that Mokbel's assets are much greater than initially estimated.

A specialist Purana unit, supported by forensic accountants and solicitors, has uncovered his hidden asset base and now estimates his drug turnover at $180 million.

Police initially identified 38 companies controlled by Mokbel, but they now believe the number is far greater.

And many in the industry are becoming increasingly nervous as they have been called to secret ACC hearings to explain their relationships with him.

Two jockeys, two trainers and three bookmakers have been subpoenaed or will be summonsed to appear at the hearings. The proceedings are usually held in secret. The commission can compel witnesses to answer questions under oath and demand financial and legal documents connected with investigations into organised crime.

Racing identities who have appeared before the commission or will be required to give evidence include bookmakers Alan Eskander, Frank Hudson and Simon Beasley, jockeys Danny Nikolic and Jim Cassidy and trainers Jim Conlan and Brendan McCarthy.

They are not considered crime suspects but are witnesses who authorities believe can shed light on Mokbel's racing interests.

March 16, 2007
Renate stays behind bars

The sister-in-law of fugitive Melbourne drug trafficker Tony Mokbel will remain behind bars after her lawyers failed to win her release by delaying the payment of a $1 million surety.

An earlier court order forced her to pay the surety, or face two years in jail.

Appearing in the Victorian Court of Appeal, her lawyers sought a stay on the order for her to pay the $1 million and be released from custody until an appeal is heard.

Justices Alex Chernov and Geoffrey Eames dismissed the application.

March 15, 2007
Police close to solving Peirce murder

Police believe the man who shot career criminal Victor Peirce on May 1, 2002, was murdered hitman Andrew "Benji" Veniamin.

Victoria's elite Purana anti-gangland taskforce today took over the investigation into Peirce's death.

Homicide squad inquiries indicated the murder appeared gangland-related and passed the investigation on to the taskforce who are now concentrating on charging the man who drove Veniamin to Bay Street Port Melbourne in a silvery blue 1987 Holden Commodore on the night of the shooting.

Inspector Jim O'Brien said that a new witness has come forward and provided substantial new information.

"Detectives believe they have identified the passenger and shooter of Victor George Peirce," Insp O'Brien said.

They were now appealing for help in finding the driver of the car who they said shared responsibility for the murder.

Police say Veniamin's get-away driver was also involved in at least three other gangland killings.

At the time police believed he was the leader of various drug syndicates in Melbourne and heavily involved with drug trafficking.

It has been suggested that Peirce was murdered after he failed to fulfil a contract to murder Essendon underworld figure Jason Moran.

It was reported last year that Peirce received a down-payment, supplied by Carl Williams, for the Moran hit, but warned him he was in danger instead of killing him and pocketed the money.

Before his death in March 2004, Veniamin was the right-hand man of drug dealer and underworld murderer Carl Williams.

Veniamin was shot dead in self-defence by Carlton identity Mick Gatto.

After his passing Veniamin's position is believed to have been taken over by Terrence Chimirri.

A $100,000 reward is still being offered for information leading to a conviction for Peirce's murder and police are also offering witness protection for informers.

March 15, 2007
Renate Mokbel behind bars

Renate Mokbel, the sister in law of Tony Mokbel, was arrested today and jailed until she can come up with the $1m surety she put up for the fugitive drug baron before he fled overseas whilst standing trial on charges of drug importation.

She was picked up at her lavish Brunswick home by Purana detectives this morning after the Supreme Court issued a warrant for her arrest.

At 11.30am Renate, the wife of Milad Mokbel, was taken to the Dame Phyllis Frost prison to be remanded in custody.

March 14, 2007
Moran hit witness sues club (Herald Sun)

A woman who was near Lewis Moran when he was shot dead claims she was unfairly sacked by the Brunswick Club after being unable to return to night shift.

Former duty manager Sandra Sugars told the Herald Sun she watched in horror as two masked gunmen burst into the club and shot Moran in 2004.

"I was a few feet from Moran when it happened," Ms Sugars, 54, said.

"I saw exactly what happened to him. It's something I will never forget."

Despite professional counselling, Ms Sugars said she still lived in fear and suffered interrupted sleep and nightmares.

She said the memories flooded back when Carl Williams pleaded guilty to the murder last month.

Ms Sugars, a manager for eight years and club member for 20, said she was unable to return to night-shift after suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

Ms Sugars alleges her employer sacked her just three days after a magistrate returned a finding in a case in whch she was a witness.

Ms Sugars has lodged a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission against the Brunswick Club, claiming she was unfairly dismissed on the grounds of disability discrimination.

Ms Sugars told the Herald Sun she was seeking compensation against the club for loss of income.

She says the Brunswick Club offered her no help or counselling to assist her to return to night work.

VCAT deputy president Anne Coghlan ordered a mediation conference to take place between Ms Sugars and the club, on April 11.

If the case is not solved, a three-day hearing will start on July 25.

March 13, 2007
Milad Mokbel knew about Condello killing: Taskforce (The Age)

A brother of Tony Mokbel has been implicated in the unsolved murder of feared underworld figure Mario Condello.

The Purana gangland taskforce alleges that Milad Mokbel knew details of Condello's imminent execution in February 2006.

In the first major public disclosures since Condello's murder, a detective told Melbourne Magistrates Court that Mokbel told a close associate he should "make himself scarce" because Condello was about to be shot.

Detective Senior Constable Dale Fitzgerald said that 45 minutes after Mokbel's warning on February 6 last year, Condello was ambushed as he arrived at his East Brighton home.

He also revealed that Purana had identified a "person of interest" who was in the vicinity of Condello's murder.

This person, who remains under investigation, has denied any involvement in the crime, but has allegedly admitted that he is a friend of Mokbel.

But the claimed breakthrough in the investigation hit a hurdle when magistrate Peter Couzens refused Senior Constable Fitzgerald's application to formally question Mokbel over Condello's murder.

Mr Couzens said what he had heard in support of the application was "simply not enough" to make Mokbel a suspect.

Under the Crimes Act, a person already in custody for another matter — Mokbel has been refused bail on drug charges — can be questioned only if "reasonably suspected of having committed an offence".

Tony Mokbel, who vanished almost year ago during his cocaine trial, was charged last week with the murder of crime patriarch Lewis Moran, which he is accused of financing with multiple murderer Carl Williams.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Tinney told Mr Couzens that police wanted to interview Milad Mokbel on the same terms as they successfully applied to question him in Barwon Prison over Moran's murder the week before.

Senior Constable Fitzgerald said police had obtained a signed statement from a witness who was with Mokbel just before Condello's murder.

He alleged that Mokbel told the witness that Condello, 53, was "going to be murdered and to make himself scarce". "A short period of time after the discussion Mario Condello was murdered," he said.

He would not identify the witness, but said he was a "close confidant" of Mokbel and was well known to Mokbel's family.

Defence lawyer Gerard Lethbridge submitted that the "mere knowledge" that a crime was to happen did not make someone guilty of it, and that there was not a scintilla of evidence that Mokbel counselled or procured the murder.

March 13, 2007
Hugo Rich in Court

Notorious bank robber Hugo Rich appeared at a committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court today.

He is charged with one count each of murder, armed robbery, going equipped to steal and three counts of theft of a motor vehicle after security guard Erwin Kastenberger, was shot dead during an armed robbery at the Blackburn North shopping centre on March 8, 2005.

Kastenberger, 58, was killed while making a cash delivery from a Chubb armoured van.

It is alleged Kastenberger and a colleague were approached by two armed men and Rich shot Kastenberger dead.

Rich's alleged accomplice, Lenny Ryan, pleaded guilty last week and received an eight year sentence with a minimum of six.

Ryan and Rich are old mates who spent years in jail together.

March 9, 2007
Mokbel homeowner dealt drugs with Moran

The man claiming he transferred a house into the name of Tony Mokbel to stop his estranged wife from getting her hands on it was involved in drug deals with amphetamine king pin Mark Moran and met with him on the night of Moran's murder.

He was one of the last people to see Mark Moran alive.

In February 2002, Melbourne coroner, Mr Frank Hender, said that at about 7.10 on the night of June 15, 2000, Moran met Hafner at the Gladstone Park shopping centre for a drug deal.

March 9, 2007
Politician quits over Mokbel reference

Shadow Attorney General Kelvin Thomson has been been forced to quit the ALP's front bench after it was revealed that he wrote a favourable reference for Tony Mokbel when the fugitive drug boss applied for a liquor license in 2000.

The licence Mokbel applied for was rejected because of his criminal background Mr Thomson said he was unaware of when he provided the reference.

Mr Thomson's electorate of Wills covers Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick where Mokbel plied his trade.

Oppostion leader Phillips Rudd's office was anonymously tipped off about the reference three days before Mr Thomson's removal.

He said he had "done the right thing in 'fessing up' to his mistake.

When Thomson wrote the reference Mokbel had served jail time over a conviction for attempting to bribe a judge and was under police investigation for the importation of large amounts of drugs.

March 9, 2007
Mackay's remains found? (Herald Sun)

The discovery of human bones in an orange grove in Griffith, NSW, has prompted speculation they are those of murdered anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay.

Tests show the bones are human.

A NSW police spokesman said he was aware of local rumours they were Mr Mackay's, but would not comment further.

Mr Mackay was last seen walking from a Griffith hotel on July 15, 1977.

His vehicle was found in the carpark; there were bloodstains, drag marks and three spent .22 cartridges.

March 8, 2007
Milad Mokbel questioned over Lewis Moran hit (The Age)

A brother of missing Melbourne drug boss Tony Mokbel has been questioned by gangland detectives over the 2004 murder of crime figure Lewis Moran.

Detectives were expected soon to seek permission to interview another prisoner over the execution of Condello, who was shot in the garage of his East Brighton home in 2006.

Members of the Purana taskforce were granted permission to interview Milad Mokbel at Barwon Prison.

Melbourne Magistrates Court heard that police have been told Mokbel knew of plans to murder Moran, who was gunned down while drinking with a friend at the Brunswick Club.

Detective Sergeant Peter Trichias said in evidence that Milad Mokbel was present with another man when money was paid to the gunmen.

March 6, 2007
Zarah to stand trial

Zarah Garde-Wilson has been sent to trial over claims she possessed an illegal gun that belonged to her murdered boyfriend during the underworld war.

Ms Garde-Wilson, 29, pleaded not guilty to a charge of possessing an unregistered .25 Mauser pistol in June 2004, a month after her convicted killer defacto husband, Lewis Caine, was shot dead and dumped in a Brunswick street.

The lawyer also pleaded not guilty to four counts of giving false evidence to the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).

March 6, 2007
Roberta Williams in court

The estranged wife of gangland murderer Carl Williams faced court charged with a string of driving offences.

Roberta Williams (left) appeared briefly at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on seven charges including driving while suspended, speeding, failing to indicate and using a mobile phone while driving.

Her son from a previous marriage, Tye Stephens, also faced the same court on unrelated charges.

Both cases were adjourned.

March 5, 2007
Committal hearing for Zarah

Gangland lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to defend a charge of possessing an unregistered pistol and four charges of lying at a hearing before the Australian Crime Commission in June 2004.

Ms Garde-Wilson contested the five charges.

Garde-Wilson's case centred on the evidence of a registered informer, code-named 166.

166 alleged he passed a gun, a .25 Mauser pistol which he said was given to him by solicitor George Defteros in April 2004, to Ms Garde-Wilson's boyfriend Lewis Caine, a convicted killer.

Caine was executed a month later in Melbourne's gangland war.

A senior case manager with the ACC, who was 166's "handler", said the informer was fitted with a recording device and asked to recover a firearm from Garde-Wilson after he learned she had it.

The court heard that Ms Garde-Wilson returned the weapon to 166 on June 4, 2004 after the informer asked for it back.

Giving evidence via video link, 166 said he agreed to meet her to collect the gun only on the understanding she would not be charged over it.

March 5, 2007
Could Carl help solve Hodson murders? (Herald Sun)

Police and prosecutors hope fallen gang boss Carl Williams will help solve the murder of a police informer and his wife.

A former drug squad detective, who was Hodson's police handler, was sacked after being accused of criminal behaviour with the informer and theft of confidential police files.

Another sacked detective is serving at least 12 years' jail over a $1.3 million drug theft with Hodson.

The Hodsons were killed in their Kew home on May 16, 2004.

Terry Hodson's drug squad handlers until the previous year were Det-Sgt Paul Noel Dale and Sen-Det David Miechel.

All three were charged with the Grand Final Day theft of drugs worth $1.3 million from an East Oakleigh house about to be raided by police. (More)

March 6, 2007
Former detective quits ATO over Gatto link (The Age)

A former Victorian detective has quit his job as a senior Tax Office investigator after an inquiry was launched into his links with underworld figure Mick Gatto.

The Australian Tax Office suspended Peter Spence last month after Victoria Police's Purana taskforce passed on information about his relationship with Mr Gatto.

A senior police source said Mr Spence had an "an inappropriate relationship" with the senior "Carlton Crew" member and industrial relations consultant.

But Mr Spence told The Age he had done nothing wrong and that he resigned a fortnight ago because the Tax Office was unfairly targeting him after four years of dedicated service.

He said Mr Gatto was a contact he had known for more than 22 years through his former police work, including as a detective with the now-disbanded major crime squad.

Mr Gatto has been investigated by tax officials for failing to declare more than $2 million of income.

In 2004, Mr Gatto paid $250,000 to the ATO to settle a dispute over unpaid taxes.

Mr Spence said he never discussed sensitive tax or police matters with Mr Gatto during their "three or four" chance meetings in the past two years.

March 5, 2007
Police to be implicated in gangland murders? - 3AW Rumour File

A caller to this morning's 3AW breakfast show suggested that a well known criminal was set to give evidence implicating two disgraced police officers in two gangland killings.

March 5, 2007
Mokbel's Melbourne hideaway (Herald Sun)

Fugitive drug criminal Tony Mokbel narrowly escaped Australia because one of his lovers hid him in suburban Melbourne for several days, police believe.

Police identified the woman just too late to confirm intelligence she had hidden Mokbel in the outer suburbs before he fled overseas.

"There is credible information Mokbel was there and that we missed him by about a week," a source close to the investigation told the Herald Sun.

The woman suspected of harbouring Mokbel before he fled last March is not his long-term girlfriend, Danielle McGuire, or his former lawyer, Zarah Garde-Wilson, who was named in court as one of Mokbel's lovers.

She is a former girlfriend of one of Mokbel's brothers, but police have been told she also had a fling with Mokbel.

Federal police agents interviewed the woman, but she denied having seen Mokbel. There have been no confirmed sightings of Mokbel since he disappeared on March 19 last year.

A Herald Sun Insight investigation into Mokbel has discovered:

ONE of Mokbel's right-hand men paid thousands of dollars to try to bribe three High Court judges.

THE Office of Police Integrity is believed to be investigating several serving and former Victoria Police officers who it suspects had long-term corrupt dealings with Mokbel.

VICTORIA Police's Ethical Standards Department has been told a sacked corrupt officer teamed up with a prominent Melbourne lawyer to try to bribe detectives who arrested Mokbel.

A POLICE sergeant allegedly corrupted by Mokbel tried to transfer into the taskforce investigating him. He resigned after ESD began investigating his links with Mokbel.

THE Victoria Police Mokbel taskforce was moved to more secure offices after Mokbel threatened to kill detectives on it.

FEDERAL police agents have evidence of Mokbel spreading the word in the underworld that he was prepared to pay $1 million for a copy of the police evidence against him in a cocaine smuggling case dubbed Operation Plutonium.

SUPREME Court judge Murray Kellam said he was satisfied Mokbel told a trusted associate he could influence police and that it was arguable some police were susceptible.

POLICE have tapes of Mokbel admitting that one of his co-accused might have to be killed as he was a weak link who might be tempted to testify against him.

MOKBEL was secretly taped saying he was attempting to bribe a scientist at the Victoria Police laboratory to tamper with drug exhibits so prosecutions would fail.

POLICE bugs captured Mokbel claiming he was "in sweet" with corrupt former drug squad detective Stephen Paton and that he had paid $200,000 to police to help him with court cases.

THE AFP believes it foiled a plan by Mokbel to form a long-term relationship with the notorious Arellano-Felix Organisation so he could arrange weekly deliveries of cocaine from the Mexico-based cartel to Melbourne.

POLICE secretly taped Mokbel in 2005 as he was trying to buy a tonne of MDMA powder to make ecstasy tablets.

MOKBEL was also taped admitting to driving into the Victorian bush and hiding 500kg of chemicals capable of making amphetamines with a street value of $2 billion. Like Mokbel, they haven't been found.

The AFP believes high-profile gangland lawyer George Defteros and a solicitor tried to talk a crucial witness out of testifying against Mokbel at Mokbel's cocaine smuggling trial.

Mr Defteros was charged in 2004 with inciting murder and conspiracy to murder. The charges were dropped in 2005.

The key witness told the AFP he sought advice separately from Mr Defteros and the solicitor after he was arrested in 2000 over his role in helping Mokbel import nearly 2kg of pure cocaine into Melbourne from Mexico.

He claimed to the AFP that both lawyers advised him to plead guilty and also told him not to talk to police about Mokbel's involvement in the cocaine deal.

The witness also told the AFP Mr Defteros and the solicitor warned him Mokbel might kill him if he thought he was going to become a police informer.

Mr Defteros and the solicitor both deny the allegations made by the witness, whose name has been suppressed.

But AFP agent Jarrod Ragg, who led the investigation into Mokbel's cocaine smuggling, told the Supreme Court he believed the witness's version.

Agent Ragg said the witness told him Mr Defteros and the solicitor warned him that if he became an informer he was going against the ethics of criminals.

The witness gave evidence in the Supreme Court in which he alleged Mr Defteros told him he wouldn't survive in jail if he broke the criminal code and testified against Mokbel.

He said Mr Defteros warned him: "You'll get sticked . . . as in stabbed."

Mokbel's lawyer, Con Heliotis, QC, told the court both Mr Defteros and the solicitor had filed affidavits in which they strenuously denied the allegations made by the witness.

The witness entered the witness protection program and gave evidence against Mokbel in 2006. His damning testimony helped get Mokbel convicted.

March 5, 2007
Witness tried to bribe judges (Herald Sun)

The key witness who helped convict cocaine smuggler Tony Mokbel also tried to bribe three High Court judges.

Those he tried to bribe include former High Court judges Sir Daryl Dawson and Mary Gaudron.

He handed thousands of dollars in bribe money to a fellow prisoner in the belief it would be paid to Justices Dawson and Gaudron and one other High Court judge.

Police later discovered the prisoner was conning the witness and there was no attempt to pass the money to the High Court judges and no suggestion they had been approached in any way.

The names of the prisoner and the Mokbel witness have been suppressed.

Mokbel's lawyer, Con Heliotis, QC, questioned the witness -- referred to as Mr U during Mokbel's 2006 trial -- about the bribery attempt after Mokbel was charged with importing almost 2kg of pure cocaine into Victoria.

Mr U played an important role in the cocaine importation and, after being arrested over it, became a prosecution witness against Mokbel.

He admitted to Mr Heliotis he knew that the prisoner who conned him into handing cash over, supposedly to bribe the High Court judges, was homosexual and that he had shared a cell with him.

Mr Heliotis produced a card sent to Mr U by the prisoner which said: "You are unique. Welcome to my harem."

Mokbel's barrister then said: "This man who leaves his card by your pillow and says all these things to you, did he also tell you that he'd already contacted Justice Dawson and got him to look into your file?"

Mr U said: "Yes."

Mr Heliotis said: "And that he managed to get Justice Dawson to have a meeting with the other High Court judges to decide on exactly what they can do for you?

Mr U said: "Yes."

Mr Heliotis said: "So he told you he was ringing Mr Justice Dawson of the High Court of Australia and discussing your case?"

Mr U said: "Yes."

Mr Heliotis said: "And how you were going to get a sentence reduction?"

Mr U said: "Yes."

Mr Heliotis said: "Did he go on to tell you that Justice Dawson required up to three payments for administrative fees up front?"

Mr U said: "Yes."

Mr Heliotis said: "You gave him money?"

Mr U said: "Yes, I gave him money."

Mr Heliotis said: "Spread over a period of months, from October 2002 until March or April 2003?"

Mr U said: "Yes, I gave him three payments."

Mr Heliotis said: "The first payment was $5000?"

Mr U said: "Yes. He comes back and says: 'I've got to give $3000 to Mary Gaudron.' I believed it. I was a sucker. There's no connection between him and any of the judges.

"He frauded me (sic). They charged him with fraud. He ripped me off eight grand."

March 3, 2007
Code of silence smashed

The underworld code of silence has been smashed, according to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Coghlan, QC — the man who authorised the deals with criminal figures that forced gangland killer Carl Williams to plead guilty.

Mr Coghlan told The Age that more major crimes would be solved as career gangsters agreed to give evidence. "We are already seeing the results in other cases."

Mr Coghlan said the deals with some of the figures in Melbourne's underworld war had taken years to negotiate — and the admissions forced Williams to plead guilty.

March 2, 2007
Hotel manager tells of Lewis Moran's murder (The Age)

Sandra Suggars, the duty manager of the Brunswick Club, where Lewis Moran was murdered in 2004, told the Age how Moran had pushed her out of the way as a masked gunman moved in for the kill and fired into his head.

The volley from the long-armed firearm was so close Ms Suggars felt the warmth of the shots on her leg.

March 2, 2007
Informer fears for his life (the Age)

A gangland organiser turned informer is certain Carl Williams will have him killed in jail.

A judge said the man, who she jailed for his crucial role in an underworld execution, was convinced Williams or an associate would murder him.

Justice Betty King told the informer, who cannot be identified: "You believe no amount of protective custody can assist you to prevent it happening."

The informer supplied the shotgun used to kill Jason Moran.

He also told Williams where to find Moran, and provided him with an alibi for the time of the murder.

But the informer, known as a "black sheep" in his family, eventually made statements to police about his involvement in the Moran murder and organised crime.

The 14 statements involved numerous crime figures, violence and drug dealing, Justice King said last September in jailing the informer for 23 years.

March 2, 2007
George and Roberta Williams implicated in murders? (Herald Sun)

Informers have implicated the estranged wife and the father of Carl Williams in several gangland murders.

Police confirmed they would interview another person over the Moran slaying.

And at least one informer has promised to give evidence against George Williams (left) about the murders of Mark, Jason and Lewis Moran, and against Roberta for incitement to murder Lewis Moran.

Neither Roberta nor George Williams has been charged.

Another informer, a notorious criminal who acted as a gunman in the murders of Jason Moran, Pasquale Barbaro and Michael Marshall, has told police that George Williams was at the 2003 meeting where the Marshall murder was planned.

George Williams said he knew of the informer's claims and did not dispute that he was present at the fast food outlet that day.

"So were a lot of other people, I suppose. I didn't know about no plan.

"I know nothing about the conversation," he said.

March 1, 2007
Williams to expose corrupt police? (The Bulletin)

Brilliant Bulletin investigative journalist, Adam Shand, published a story which also gave rise to the possibility that Carl Williams maybe able to assist police in uncovering the extent to which he was protected by corrupt detectives.

Shand also highlighted the belief that other members of Carl Williams' family were implicated in several underworld killings.

The following is from the Bulletin's March 1, 2007 issue. Similar articles by Shand can be found at his 'Bluestone' page....

Bluestone can reveal exclusively that as Williams awaited trial for the slaying of two-bit hood Jason Moran, the Purana Taskforce was turning up the heat on the rest of the crime clan, once the most feared in Melbourne.

The substance of the discussions was this. Either Carl would plead guilty or his father George Williams would be charged with the murder over the killings of Nikolai "The Russian" Radev in 2003 and Lewis Moran in 2004. Carl's estranged wife Roberta would also be charged over Lewis Moran's murder. Other family members would be charged with conspiracy, perverting the course of justice etc, etc.

If, by a miracle, Williams had beat the Moran charge, Purana would have simply moved onto the next charge. At least three people, including the man who drove the getaway car, had fingered Williams as the mastermind behind the Radev killing on a Coburg street. Williams and his father George were alleged to have lured Radev to the killing ground on the pretext of meeting an amphetamine cook. The late Andrew Veniamin, then Williams' hatchet man, despatched Radev in a hail of lead. 

George Williams told Bluestone that he told his son he could not advise him to accept "the deal" even if it meant that Williams Senior would stay out jail. There's no certainty that the police can, or will, honour such agreements.

But now that Williams has nothing left to lose, perhaps he will cease to protect the corrupt police officers who helped him to run the business from the mid-1990s. From his tiny cell, Williams still might shake the foundations of the city. When his infant daughter is old enough to know the history, she might say her Dad did the right thing after all.

Now that gangland killer Carl Williams has confessed to murder, he might also cough up the names of the police who had been protecting him.

March 1, 2007
Tape of Marshall hit released by court

A chilling recording of the murder of Michael Marshall released by the Supreme Court revealed his killers stalking him outside his home.

"That's him, ready," the driver says. The gunman replies: "Yep. Drive faster, faster." After the sound of gunshots, the driver tells the gunman: "Get in, get down. Nice and down, stay down."

Click hear to hear the police recordings of Michael Marshall's shooting - From The Age

March 1, 2007
Untold Story - Melbourne's underground war (The Age)

Essential Reading! - Click Here

March 1, 2007
Gang war - Live on Melbourne radio

Melbourne's underworld war was reignited on talkback radio today as gangland widow Judy Moran's comments prompted a furious backlash from killer Carl Williams' wife Roberta.

Mrs Moran (right) told Southern Cross Broadcasting she wanted the death penalty for Williams, who pleaded guilty to killing her husband Lewis and her son Jason.

"I think we'd like to bring Bolte's government back and I think I'd like to be the hangman and I'd like to pull the lever,'' Mrs Moran said.

Mrs Moran protested the decision not to pursue prosecutions against Williams for the murders of Mark Moran and Barbaro, whom she painted as an innocent victim.

Mrs Moran's comments, especially her description of Barbaro who was slain alongside Jason Moran, appeared to infuriate Roberta Williams.

Mrs Williams rang 3AW to contradict Mrs Moran's description of Barbaro.

"He was a drug runner for the Moran family transporting amphetamines from Melbourne to Perth,'' she said.

At one point, according to Mrs Williams, Barbaro was imprisoned in Perth and was left to do jail time there with "no financial help for himself or his family by Jason or his brother'', Mrs Williams said.

"Judy should get facts right and help publish the truth instead of getting on air and in papers and magazine and whatever and telling the public lies.''