The Gangland War by John Silvester Page B

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