Organised Crime in Australia

Posted by Peter on March 31, 2006 at 14:02:06:

The rise of a drug lord

April 1, 2006

Underworld godfather Tony Mokbel would have lost his liberty this week - but he is not around to serve his jail term. John Silvester profiles the small man who wanted big things.

It was just a little stumble that spilt the tin that caused the fire that led to the explosion that brought the firemen who called the police who found the amphetamine laboratory that Tony built.

The lab, in a quiet residential street in Brunswick, had proved to be a virtual goldmine, pumping out speed until the day Paul Edward Howden kicked over a bucket of solvents that ignited and burnt the house down in February 1997. Police didn't have far to look for the main suspect. They found Howden at The Alfred hospital being treated for severe burns to 30 per cent of his body.

Police also discovered the lab had produced 41.25 kilograms of pure methylamphetamine with a potential street value of $78 million. Prosecutors claimed the clandestine operation had produced enough speed for 1.3 million users. "It is the largest seizure of methylamphetamine in Victoria and it's the largest detected manufacture of methylamphetamine in the state," the County Court was told. Even the trial judge, Graeme Crossley, seemed impressed. "I can't believe how big it is," he said.

Howden's barrister, the energetic Con Heliotis, QC, told the court his client was just a minor player who agreed to the plan out of loyalty to a friend — the godfather to one of his three children — identified only as "Tony". For his work in the massively profitable enterprise, Heliotis claimed Howden was paid just $10,000 in home renovations.

Police agreed that Howden, a plumber by trade, was the stooge of the operation and Heliotis helpfully added that his client was "just short of stupid". When he jailed Howden for four years, Judge Crossley took into account his minnow status: "You were a factory roustabout rather than the managing director."

The managing director was Godfather Tony — who was never formally identified in court — but police needed only to look over the badly charred side fence to solve the mystery. The house next door was one of many owned by the Mokbel family.

Tony Mokbel was said to have lost millions when the lab was discovered but he was a master at finding advantage in adversity. While the court was told Howden was the official owner of the speed lab house the property was soon absorbed into the growing Mokbel Empire. The extended Mokbel family knocked down the burnt shell to extend their garden, planting a mature palm worth $15,000 to go with the new swimming pool. Long before Tony Mokbel became the public face of drug dealing in Victoria, children in the street referred to the million-dollar property as "the drug house".

Meanwhile, Howden, the burnt patsy, would never tell detectives who funded the venture — and "Tony" would not forget his loyalty. During Howden's sentence Mokbel would regularly drive to the jail to visit, even persuading prison officers to let him take his friend for an unauthorised trip to a local McDonald's for a break from prison food.

When Howden, 36, died of heart disease in December 2001 Mokbel placed a death notice in the Herald Sun that read in part: "You will always be in my prayers and I will never ever forget you. I promise to you my friend to be there for your family till the day I die." It was a Mokbel trademark. You never forget a friend — or an enemy.

While police had known for years that Mokbel was involved in drug manufacturing it was the Brunswick lab fire that showed that the businessman on the make had become a major player in the underworld. Yesterday Tony Mokbel was finally sentenced to a minimum of nine years in prison after he was found guilty of cocaine trafficking, but he was not in court to hear his fate. Mokbel jumped bail days before his trial was completed. He is now Australia's most wanted man.

ANTONIOS SAJIH MOKBEL WAS ONE OF the sharper students at Coburg's racially diverse Moreland High School in the late 1970s but he was never going to push on to tertiary study. The boy with the rich Lebanese heritage and traditional Australian tastes was always in a hurry to make money. His first full-time job was as a dishwasher at a suburban nightclub before he became a waiter, later working security, a surprising choice for a man no bigger that a football rover. But Mokbel was smooth. He found he could often persuade people to his point of view without overt violence.

Like many ambitious young men on the make, Mokbel soon realised that if he were to acquire the sort of money he wanted, he would have to make his own running. It was in those early years, too, that Mokbel noticed that people partying often lost their inhibitions, and were prepared to pay well for a good time.

In 1984, aged just 19, he bought his first business — a struggling Rosanna milk bar. For two years he and his young partner, Carmel — whom he would marry in 1989 and with whom he would have two children — worked long hours seven days a week battling to make a living before finally selling out for their original investment price.

It would be the one and only time Mokbel didn't seem to make massive profits in his business ventures, despite an early police report saying he "lacked financial acumen".

In 1987 he bought an Italian restaurant in Boronia. In those days he was content to roll the dough — years later he was rolling in it. He steadily built the business, expanding when he bought the shop next door. He sold the restaurant as a going concern in 1994 but kept ownership of the building.

In 1997 he opened T Jays Restaurant in Sydney Road, Brunswick, after buying several adjoining properties and he started to be noticed as an ambitious developer with an appetite for consuming businesses. By 2000 the former struggling milk bar proprietor bragged to friends he owned or controlled 38 different companies.

In the same year he began his most ambitious development. An $18 million 10-storey "winged keel" apartment tower over Sydney Road. The plan was to build 120 apartments and townhouses, offices, restaurants, gym with pool and a four-storey car park on the old Whelan the Wrecker site. No one seemed to wonder how he could generate that sort of money.

At the same time he was also developing 10 units in Templestowe that he planned to sell for $300,000 each. In 2000 he owned the Brunswick market site and claimed to make $500,000 a year in rent money.

His business portfolio was as wide as it was impressive with interests in shops, cafes, fashions, fragrances, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs and land in regional Victoria. He and his companies owned two white vans, two Commodores, a red Audi, a 2000 silver Mercedes, a Nissan Skyline and a red Ferrari Roadster that he bought in September 1999. He even managed to give his wife a Kilmore pub as part of the family businesses. One of his fashion houses was appropriately named LSD — apparently an abbreviation for Love of Style and Design. It was apparently the drug dealer's idea of a private joke.

BUT IT WAS NOT THROUGH DRUG DEALING or shady business dealings that Mokbel first started to develop a questionable public profile but through one of his other great passions — gambling. In later years, with nearly $20 million of his assets frozen he took to describing himself as a professional punter — even though he was banned from racetracks and casinos as an undesirable.

For years Mokbel was known as the type of punter who used inside information to keep the odds on his side. He was the leader of the notorious tracksuit gang — a group responsible for a series of highly suspicious late cash plunges on racetracks in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

His team once won $500,000 and demanded to be paid in green $100 bills after lodging the bets with the older grey notes in what was a clear money laundering exercise.

Some bookies refused to lay credit bets for Mokbel because he was often forgetful on collection day. One claimed he lost more than $1 million from the non-payer.

In 1998, racing officials launched an investigation into the ownership of nine horses linked to Tony and Carmel Mokbel. The following year the Victoria Racing Club banned them from racing horses.

But racing experts say Mokbel continued to own horses although they were officially under the names of friends and associates. He used the same strategy in "legitimate" business, hiding his interests under the names of friends and family.

During the 2001 police investigation into Mokbel, police found the prolific drug dealer had strong links to seven jockeys and trainers. Phone taps picked up his regular conversations with three leading jockeys, but racing authorities were powerless to act, as the phone taps could not be released for a non-criminal investigation.

Mokbel was finally arrested in 2001 on drugs charges. In 2004 — while on $1 million bail and despite having his assets frozen — he told friends that he had won nearly $400,000 on the Melbourne Cup. He was also seen punting heavily at the Oaks two days later, backing three winners in a row, including the appropriately named Hollow Bullet.

The public display so angered senior police they moved with racing clubs to ban him from the Melbourne casino and Victorian racetracks. Several years earlier, in late 2000, Mokbel had begun an affair with Danielle Maguire. She was not the only woman in his life, but he was living with her when he disappeared on March 20 this year — days before his cocaine trial was due to finish. Maguire — who has been unable to help police in their inquiries as to his whereabouts — is the ex-girlfriend of Mark Moran, a drug-dealing standover man who was murdered on June 15, 2000. When Mokbel was arrested in 2001 he and Maguire were living in a Port Melbourne bayside penthouse that he rented for $1250 a week. He told friends he enjoyed the relaxed seaside lifestyle and planned to buy the property.

SO HOW DID TONY MOKBEL GRADUATE from dishwasher to unknown amphetamine dealer and then to the Hollywood crime cliche of the millionaire, Ferrari-driving drug baron with the beautiful girlfriend and the celebrity lifestyle?

It began modestly and in the early days he was more bumbling crook than master criminal. In 1992 Mokbel was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice after a clumsy bid two years earlier to bribe a County Court judge was undone in a police sting. He was trying to shop for a "bent judge" who would give an associate a suspended sentence for drug trafficking.

Mokbel and two others were arrested as he handed over $2000 as the first of $53,000 that was supposed to have gone to the judge. Part of the "agreed" payment was to be made in cocaine.

In 1998 he was convicted over amphetamine manufacturing but beat the charge on appeal. His lawyers successfully argued he should not have been charged with amphetamine trafficking when the drug he was handling was pseudo-ephedrine — a drug that could be used to make amphetamines.

Inmates in prison remember Mokbel as "cunning and a fast learner". His main lesson was the need to insulate himself from hands-on drug dealing and only use middlemen he could trust.

According to police he was one of the first of the major drug dealers to move into the designer pill industry, pressing tablets for the nightclub crowd.

According to the UN, Australia has the highest use of ecstasy per capita in the world and the second for amphetamines. Mokbel could cater for both markets, manufacturing speed in Australia and importing ecstasy from Europe. And for his top-shelf clients he smuggled cocaine via Mexico.

He had pill presses hidden in Coburg and Brooklyn and the consummate networker developed his own team that included an industrial chemist, rogue police, a locksmith, dock-workers, jockeys, trainers, a pill press repairer, distributors and cargo bonds officials. He had used two brothers as local speed lab cooks but also sourced drugs from Sydney.

His profits jumped from large to massive. Convinced he was born lucky, Mokbel started to spend $20,000 a week on Tattslotto. It was more than a Saturday night interest. First division wins and big plunges on the track helped launder drug money into punter's dividends. (Some of his laundering efforts were less successful. It was rumoured he left millions hidden in a large washing machine but that the cash mysteriously disappeared after an unwelcome late-night visit.)

No drug trafficker, no matter how powerful, can work alone and Mokbel was to develop an extensive underworld network, although his contact list has somewhat shrunk due to Melbourne's gangland war. Among his associates have been Nik Radev (killed in April 2003), Willie Thompson (July 2003), Michael Marshall (October 2003), Andrew Veniamin (March 2004), Lewis Moran (March 2004), and Mario Condello (February 2006).

As Mokbel's wealth and profile grew so did the interests of drug squad detectives. Two police investigations into him failed but a third, set up in 2000 called Operation Kayak began to track the activities of the massive drug dealer.

It would be a trusted insider who worked as a police informer who would destroy him. The informer, who has since fled the country, eventually became an ethical standards department source and helped expose corruption within the drug squad.

Only after the informer took them inside the secret world of Tony Mokbel were police able to establish the unprecedented size of the empire. First there was his fake, or pseudo-ecstasy, business. Using locally produced amphetamines mixed with other available drugs he pressed millions of tablets. He told his friends he made them for $3 a pill and sold them for $12 to $14.

He also imported hundreds of thousands of MDMA ecstasy from Europe paying $4 and selling for $17 in minimum 1000 lots. Still not satisfied at quadrupling his money he would sometimes crush the pills and re-press them at half strength to double his profits.

In late 2000 he told the informer he was part of a team importing 500,000 ecstasy tablets although he said his normal shipments were about 75,000 tablets. The load arrived in a container ship and cleared Melbourne docks just before Christmas.

He had also planned a 3-million-pill importation worth more than $50 million in March or April 2001. It is not known if it landed. But always keen to explore new drug markets he bought 80,000 LSD tablets for $5 a tablet, later being told by a colleague he was ripped off.

In August 2001 Mokbel was finally arrested over importing barrels of the chemical ephedrine to make an estimated 40 million amphetamine based pseudo ecstasy tablets. Police estimated the 550 kilograms of the chemical turned into pills would have had a street value of $2 billion.

The charges didn't stick, but it was the beginning of the end for Mokbel. His business assets were frozen after his arrest and were managed by the National Australia Bank, which had loaned him millions for his property developments. But without regular cash injections from his drug operations the loans could not be serviced and his empire collapsed.

Mokbel was also charged by federal police over importing three kilograms of cocaine from Mexico, an enterprise that Mokbel dismissed as "just rent money". Rent money or not it was a compelling case. Even his lawyers advised him to plead guilty for a reduced sentence.

But the punter was keen to back the long shot. Mokbel knew that many major drug cases had been delayed because some drug squad detectives had been charged with corruption. He pleaded not guilty and in 2002 was bailed after 12 months in jail. He was to report twice daily at a local police station but at one stage had the conditions altered so that he could take his children to Gold Coast theme parks. He naturally stayed at his own idea of an adventure playground, Jupiter's Casino.

During the long court delays, Mokbel informally approached detectives offering a deal. He would plead guilty and guarantee two other drug dealers would also plead if they received only two years each. Then, he explained, all those nasty corruption allegations would disappear. It would be business as usual.

But there were no deals and one of the traffickers was sentenced to five years and the second to 11.

During the trial Mokbel remained relaxed — even to the point of appearing cocky — a puzzling performance considering his defence veered from ludicrous to laughable.

But with the trial close to complete Mokbel looked a beaten man. It was either that he knew his dream run was over or that he had learned even more disturbing news. Tony Mokbel, the hands-off drug dealer, was under investigation for murder by the Purana gangland taskforce. Mokbel was told that he was being investigated by the Purana gangland taskforce over at least one — and possibly more — underworld murders, including that of Mario Condello, who was shot dead at his Brighton East home on February 6.

The puppet-master who pulled the strings was no longer looking at a long, but manageable jail term for drug trafficking. If charged and convicted of a gangland murder he was facing life with no minimum.

The man who always reported for bail at the South Melbourne police station just disappeared on March 20. He left his three mobile phones, his girlfriend, his frozen assets, his city apartment and his public image profile and walked away.

Without a client, his legal team, led by Con Heliotis, withdrew but as all evidence had been led Justice Gillard allowed the case to continue. He was found guilty of drug trafficking on Tuesday and yesterday sentenced in absentia.

"I think he has had an exit strategy in place for some time," one policeman who has worked on him for years says. "Tony never liked to back losers."

==

Posted by Skippy on March 31, 2006 at 16:38:43:
In Reply to: The rise of a drug lord - Australia posted by Peter on March 31, 2006 at 14:02:06:


Tony vanishes, and cops don't mind

By Padraic Murphy

April 01, 2006

ANTONIOS "Fat Tony" Mokbel's contempt for the law began with a prison sentence in his early 20s that left him broke, his wife distraught and caused him to miss the birth of his first child.

The multi-millionaire gangster, who vanished a fortnight ago, was sentenced in absentia yesterday to 12 years in jail for attempting to import 3kg of cocaine from Mexico.

But his disappearance means the sentence is a pyrrhic victory for police.

Four weeks ago, senior investigators believed they were close to linking Mokbel to Melbourne's underworld murders. Now they are engaged in an international manhunt and facing questions about how his police links may have helped him flee and why the 40-year-old was not under surveillance when prosecutors tried to revoke his bail before he disappeared.

Mokbel's criminal history stretches back almost 20 years, and his antipathy towards Victoria Police and the law was forged through his dealings with bent cops and an early stint in jail that forced the closure of his prosperous restaurant and left him the destitute father of a young child.

In 1992, Mokbel was sentenced to 12 months over an amateurish attempt to bribe a judge.

"It could be said his casual involvement (in this matter) reduced him from a relatively prosperous small businessman with a contented marriage to an impoverished prisoner who could not support his wife," said the sentencing judge in 1992.

While on remand, Mokbel missed the birth of his first child, and his wife Carmel became, in the words of the judge, "psychologically disturbed".

Mokbel emerged from prison more determined than ever to flout the law.

Once just a bit player in Melbourne's drug underworld, by the mid-1990s Mokbel's networks to criminals, police and lawyers were unrivalled.

He was happy to deal with most drug syndicates in Melbourne, but in November 2002, Mokbel was kidnapped and savagely beaten by associates of the notorious Carlton Crew and another freelance drug dealer, Nik "The Bulgarian" Radev.

Thereafter, Mokbel consolidated his relationship with a violent gang of up-and-coming criminals from Melbourne's western suburbs, and Radev and senior Carlton Crew member Mario Condello were murdered in the rolling underworld war.

While police count Mokbel's conviction on the cocaine charges as a victory, many believe the disappearance of the father of two means the full extent of his crimes may now never be known.

A heavy gambler and womaniser, Mokbel is believed to have organised the theft of 175kg of pseudoephedrine from a colourful former police officer who was taking the amphetamine-precursor chemicals to a drug company in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Corruption investigators believe Mokbel was involved in long-term corrupt relationships with a disturbing number of serving and former police.

The Weekend Australian has been played a covertly recorded conversation between two members of the former drug squad and Mokbel.

In the tape, the police can be heard reminding Mokbel they are not corrupt, and that he was not to say they were if a senior corruption investigator starting asking questions.

The two officers can be heard writing on the table -- a move a criminal associate of Mokbel's said was normally an attempt by police to pass on information without being picked up by listening devices.

At one point Mokbel comments: 'This is going to get bad for all of us."

And bad it did get.

Many of the police involved in Taskforce Kayak, the operation that targeted Mokbel and members of the Moran family gang, have since been convicted of crimes or left the force.

One officer has been investigated over claims he pressured a woman in the witness protection program to have sex with him in a Gold Coast motel meant to be a safe house. The woman's husband, a well-known criminal, has vowed to take revenge on the now former police officer.

The state's most senior detective, Simon Overland, has admitted the hunt for Mokbel could be a long one.

"You can spend five years on the run. That's fine. We will find you eventually, and we will bring you back to face justice," Mr Overland said.

But as one associate of Mokbel's said yesterday: "There would be a lot of police who would be more than a little relieved he's disappeared. I reckon there'd be a few who would be hoping he won't be found."

Posted by az on April 06, 2006 at 04:14:22:

Thanks. That's a couple of great writeups on the fat one

Wonder where he is? There's a fair bit of speculation as to whether he's dead or alive but I's say the cunning little shit has simply disappeared. Wouldn't be surprised if he's aleady opened up a kebab franchise in Lebanon

On a sidenote - one of the guys charged with the Mexican cocaine bust (Ron Cassar) - does anyone know if this is the same Ron Cassar that just happens to be Chopper Read's brother in law?

If so, I lived a couple of doors up from Ronny in Collingwood in the early 90's and he was a quiet but friendy type of fella

Mokbel took off 'with $20m'
From: AAP

April 19, 2006

MISSING millionaire drug dealer Tony Mokbel transferred $20 million overseas and unlawfully fled Australia, police told a Melbourne court today.
Mokbel, who was sentenced in absentia late last month to 12 years' jail for trafficking cocaine, has been missing since March 19 when he failed to appear at his Victorian Supreme Court trial.

Federal Agent Jarrod Ragg today told the court he still believed Mokbel had voluntarily absented himself from the trial.

He was appearing at a hearing where the prosecution has applied to revoke Mokbel's $1 million bail, put up by Mokbel's sister-in-law.

Mr Ragg said sources had told police that after Mokbel was arrested he arranged for $20 million to be transferred overseas and that he was in possession of several passports in assumed names.

Mr Ragg also told the court police had information that Mokbel had unlawfully departed Australia after he failed to appear in court.

The federal agent said he had information on Mokbel's whereabouts, but would not reveal in court where the convicted drug trafficker was believed to be.

The court was told that Mokbel believed he had been implicated in an underworld murder and had expressed concerns for his safety.

Justice Bill Gillard reserved his decision over the $1 million bail at today's hearing.

Mokbel fled country 'disguised as priest'
From: Sunday Herald Sun
By Carly Crawford

April 23, 2006


MELBOURNE'S underworld is alive with stories of millionaire Tony Mokbel fleeing Australia via Perth disguised as a priest.
The theory has Mokbel, who failed to appear at his cocaine importing trial on March 20, slipping out of the country using a false passport.

An underworld source said Mokbel had traversed the continent then flown to Africa before going into hiding in the Middle East.

Lebanese-born Mokbel is the subject of a global search.

A business associate of Mokbel believed the prominent suspect in Melbourne's bloody gangland war had fled to Beirut.

The associate said he had mounted a hunt for Mokbel because the convicted drug dealer owed him "legal" money.

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"Tony, he went to Perth," he said. "We know he has some false passports and we know the names (on them).

"He dressed as an old Lebanese man . . . like a Maronite priest to go to Beirut. He flew to South Africa (Johannesburg), then Cairo, then Beirut.

"He has many friends there . . . because he has money, much more than $20 million."

The man believed Mokbel used the Lebanese name Sufayar as one of his aliases.

The source said he believed Mokbel had fled because he had been implicated in murders by a police informer.

In court this week, Australian Federal Police agent Jarrod Ragg said sources had told police Mokbel had moved $20 million offshore ahead of his flight

This is getting rather amusing. Read an article this weekend on Mokbel's relatives in Lebanon. They come from a small-ish village and since Tony disappeared there's been all this activity in the village with cops and reporters hanging around. Erm I suspect Tony may not be visiting his relatives for a while as it seems he's not that stupid

He has a hell of a life ahead of him though, always looking over his shoulder

Mokbel family loses $1 million bail
From: AAP

April 26, 2006


A VICTORIAN judge has ordered the sister-in-law of fugitive drug dealer Tony Mokbel to forfeit $1 million she provided for his bail.
Renata Mokbel provided $1 million worth of property as surety for her brother-in-law's bail after he was charged with trafficking cocaine.

Mokbel was reported missing after he failed to appear at the end of his Supreme Court trial on March 20.

He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to 12 years jail for importing 2kg of pure cocaine from Mexico to Melbourne in late 2000.

Today, in the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bill Gillard said he was satisfied Mokbel had failed to observe his bail conditions and ordered his $1 million bail be revoked.

Mrs Mokbel, who appeared in court for today's judgement, was given 31 days to pay the $1 million.

Justice Gillard said Mrs Mokbel would face up to two years jail if she failed to pay the amount.

Her lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, told the court his client would be making an application to appeal against the judgement.

Federal agent Jarrod Ragg had previously told the court police had information Mokbel transferred $20 million overseas before fleeing the country.

He said it was believed Mokbel had several passports in false names and had the contacts and finances to support a fugitive lifestyle overseas.

Gangland turncoat ready to betray both factions
By John Silvester
April 26, 2006

A SENIOR underworld figure wants to cut a deal with police to give evidence against the alleged main players in Melbourne's gangland war.

The man, a career criminal whose family has influenced Melbourne crime for more than 70 years, has a deep knowledge of the gangland factions and is alleged to have worked for both sides as a freelance gunman.

Prison sources said the man, who had spent decades in and out of jail, was "broken" after spending months in solitary confinement. The potential witness has been responsible for or involved in the violent deaths of at least five people and the non-fatal shootings of two more.

He will be the third major player in the gangland war who has decided to confess, smashing the traditional underworld code of silence. The man has previously refused to co-operate with police, but it is believed he now wants to cut a deal where he will be given a minimum sentence for his crimes rather than an indefinite jail term.

"He doesn't want to die in jail," a police source said.

But the man, now aged in his 50s, might have to be satisfied with improved jail conditions rather than ultimate freedom.

A notorious jailhouse lawyer, the man has previously manipulated subordinate criminals to confess to protect him from murder charges.

His family was heavily involved with criminal elements in the former Painters and Dockers Union that lived by the code: "We catch and kill our own."

While most of the main players in the war remained loyal to one side, the new witness was a gun for hire who is alleged to have worked for both gangland factions.

His family have had a major influence in Victorian crime since the 1920s and his grandfather was shot in Sydney during a cocaine war.

The man, whose own criminal career spans at least 40 years, was first charged with an offence when he was 11. He claims he was eight when he saw his first gangland murder.

His decision to give evidence means that one of Melbourne's crime syndicates, which was built on unquestioned loyalty to two major gangsters, has now collapsed.

Three of the group's hitmen are in jail, a fourth is dead and several alleged insiders have become prosecution witnesses.

The Purana anti-gangland taskforce and homicide squad detectives now believe they know who planned and/or carried out 16 of Melbourne's underworld murders.

Missing millionaire drug dealer Tony Mokbel fled Australia last month after he learned he was under investigation by Purana detectives over organising at least one underworld murder.

Police have also discovered that notorious Melbourne gunman Victor Peirce was shot dead on May 1, 2002, because he accepted and then failed to carry out a $200,000 contract to kill Jason Moran.

Moran and his friend, Pasquale Barbaro, were later shot dead while watching a junior football clinic on June 21, 2003.

Is this article talking about Keith Faure???

A criminal dynasty that began in the 1920s
May 20, 2004

Three generations of gangsters have made the Faure clan rather well known, writes John Silvester.

The Faures are underworld bluebloods, having produced three generations of gangsters.

The grandfather of the present generation was Norman Leslie Bruhn, who made a living standing over cocaine dealers in the 1920s. In June 1927, Bruhn was shot five times as he went to collect his pay-off from a drug dealer near Liverpool Street, Sydney.

The hit was allegedly ordered by Snowy Cutmore, who died with Squizzy Taylor in a shoot-out in Melbourne four months later.

Then there was father Noel Ambrose Faure. He was one of Australia's best safebreakers and an influential member of the painters and dockers union during the dockers' wars of the 1960s. He was a gentlemen compared with his sons Keith, Noel and Les, who are all convicted killers.

Keith George Faure was the most dangerous. A killer, armed robber and career criminal, he was first charged with breaking and entering when he was 11 and was said to have seen his first gangland murder when he was eight. He has a long history of escape, theft and violence. He has given his occupation over the years as painter and docker, slaughterman and abalone sheller.

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He was convicted of shooting Senior Constable Michael Pratt in the back during the robbery of an ANZ bank in Clifton Hill on June 4, 1976. Faure shot Pratt as the off-duty policeman tried to stop the robbery.

Pratt was awarded the George Cross for bravery but the injuries forced him to retire from the force.

Faure was also found guilty of manslaughter over the killing of Shane Dennis Rowland, who was shot dead in a Richmond house on May 1, 1976.

That year was a big one for Keith. He was also found guilty of a second count of manslaughter for killing fellow inmate Alan Sopulak in Pentridge. The victim was stabbed nine times with a sharpened butter knife.

In Pentridge he was a leader and headed a heavy faction in the longest and bloodiest "war" in an Australian prison.Faure was lucky to avoid a third homicide trial. Within weeks of his release from prison in 1987, he was involved in the armed robbery of a Thornbury jewellery shop where the owner, Mario Sassano, was shot dead.

It was at a time when the more paranoid members of the underworld believed the armed robbery squad was hunting career bandits and executing them.

A homicide squad detective used the rumours to his advantage. He had a short message passed on the Keith: Come to the homicide squad to be interviewed or risk having the armed robbery squad shoot you in bed.

The next morning a freshly showered Faure was at the St Kilda Road crime department complex, and happy to help.

Four men were charged over the armed robbery and murder. According to police, Faure used his own form of plea bargaining. He gave one of his co-accused a simple choice: plead guilty or die. He pleaded guilty.

The other three were then able to blame the guilty man and beat the murder charges.

Faure was sentenced to 13 years for the armed robbery but beat the murder charge.

In Pentridge, he was a leader and headed a heavy faction in the longest and bloodiest "war" in an Australian prison.

He fell out with standover man Mark Brandon Read, who had his own team, known as the Overcoat Gang because they wore coats to hide their home-made weapons, even in summer. Faure had his own team, KGB (Keith George's Boys). Over the years there were more than 100 attacks, including stabbings, bombings and bashings.

The origins of the war could be traced back to allegations that Read ate all the sausages promised to H Division prisoners for Christmas one year. But the real power battle was over Read's friend, Billy "the Texan" Longley, who was in prison at the time.

Faure's painters and dockers wanted Longley dead and they needed to get Read first.

"Keith George Faure represented the power in Pentridge in the 1970s," Read once said. "Every painter and docker in jail backed Keithy. He represented the criminal version of the old school tie."

But while Faure had more criminal contacts, senior prison officers backed Read. Faure had broken governor Jimmy Quinn's nose in a B Division fight years earlier and prison officers have long memories.

Read would find cell doors left open when he wanted to launch a sneak attack. He was effectively given a green light to attack any of Faure's team. In 1990 Faure was stabbed twice in the chest in Pentridge. He survived.

Years later, when he was released, he went to Tasmania to visit Read. The war was then officially over.

But Read continued to haunt him. In April 2002 Faure was in court again, this time for driving without a licence.

The court was told that Faure was upset after seeing the movie Chopper in which a jail character called "Keithy George" was stabbed to death in the opening scene. Faure's lawyer, big Bernie "the Attorney" Balmer, told the court his client was so upset by the film's treatment of his life that it had affected his judgement at the time in question.

The movie won the best Australian film award.

Keithy's brother Noel, 47, was convicted in 1990 of the manslaughter of a Rye man, Frank Truscott.

Younger brother Leslie Peter was the last Faure to be convicted of homicide.

He pleaded guilty to the 1997 murder of Lorna Stevens, 27, whom he claimed died during a game of Russian roulette.

Les was convicted, appealed, won a retrial and then pleaded guilty. The trial judge did not believe the Russian roulette excuse and said it was murder. Les was sentenced to 14 years.

Keith blamed himself for his younger brother's actions. He told a reporter: "It's his first time in trouble. I feel he's bearing the brunt for my mistakes in the past and I hope it doesn't continue in the (jail) system. I hope he gets a break."

hehe that one's from Melbourne Crime scene? (great site, wish they're update it)

I grew up next to Thornbury and not far from Clifton Hill. The Thornbury robbery definitely rings bells. The jeweller was just up the road from my mother's house and made big news at the time. It closed downnot long after the robbery

The Clifton Hill shooting bank robbery incident - the bank is virtually across the road from what was then The United Kingdom Hotel (it's a McDonald's these days). This is the hotel wher Dennis Allen's younger brother robbed one day, and shot a barman in the process

Keith Faure collapsed recently before a court appearance so can see why he's had enough of the life - although considering he killed Lewis Moran he's gonna be inside for quite a while

Mokbel's brother charged
From: AAP

April 28, 2006


THE brother of fugitive millionaire drug baron Tony Mokbel has been charged with drug trafficking.

Milad Mokbel, 38, of Brunswick in Melbourne, was arrested during police raids on Tuesday night which allegedly uncovered a clandestine drug laboratory.

Police allegedly discovered the lab in a shop in Strathmore.

They also swooped on properties in Brunswick, St Albans, Armadale and Highett.

Milad Mokbel faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday charged with two counts of trafficking a large commercial quantity of methylamphetamines and one count of possessing methylamphetamines.

He did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody until July 19.

Milad Mokbel's name had been suppressed by Magistrate Michael Coghlan until today.

Prosecutor Sue Pullen, SC, told the court on Wednesday she was concerned the release of Mokbel's name could jeopardise an ongoing police investigation.

Mokbel 'hid in farmhouse'
From:
By Padraic Murphy and Natasha Robinson

April 28, 2006


POLICE believe fugitive drug lord Antonios "Fat Tony" Mokbel may have hidden in a farmhouse in rural Victoria for almost a fortnight before fleeing overseas.
The revelation came as authorities tried to move against Mokbel's lawyers yesterday, unsuccessfully urging a magistrate to force his key legal team to provide evidence to police.

The Australian understands that Australian Federal Police officers executed apprehension warrants on several properties about two weeks ago near Nicholson, a picturesque town on the Gippsland Lakes three hours east of Melbourne, after being tipped off that Mokbel was lying low in the area.

The intelligence came too late and police failed to find Mokbel, but the Gippsland connection has added to speculation that the 40-year-old fled the country via one of the many fishing ports that dot the area. At least one popular fishing resort in the area has long been suspected as a pick-up port for drugs dropped by passing container ships.

The Weekend Australian reported last Saturday that one of the more popular theories in police circles was that Mokbel had escaped on a yacht he bought in a friend's name.

The theory goes that if he is successfully delivered to his destination - which almost everybody says is Lebanon - the yacht's captain and crew get to keep the vessel.

Yesterday, police failed in their attempt to have a group of Melbourne criminal lawyers undergo a compulsory interview about Mokbel's activities.

Police wanted to talk to Mokbel's former barristers Nicola Gobbo, David Page QC and Con Heliotis QC about a reference Mokbel made to his legal advice during a police interview in October last year. The interview was conducted after his arrest for an alleged plot to smuggle ecstasy into Australia.

They also wanted to speak to the woman police previously alleged was Mokbel's on-off lover, his former solicitor Zarah Garde-Wilson.

Barrister for the commonwealth Ed Lorkin argued that the police investigation should not be hampered by his disappearance. "It is not ... the way in which the authorities wish to conduct themselves, by simply saying 'Oh well, Mr Mokbel has ... gone off the radar, therefore everything will cease until he is discovered'," Mr Lorkin told magistrate Phillip Goldberg.

Mr Lorkin said if police waited until Mokbel was apprehended to speak to the lawyers - using a hypothetical example of an arrest being five years down the track - any one of them could have been "run over by the proverbial truck".

"The other less colourful issue would be that memories fade over time," Mr Lorkin said.

Mr Goldberg dismissed the police application as "time-consuming and costly" and serving "no real purpose".

Mr Goldberg said it might be that Mokbel's charges - two counts of incitement to commit an offence, related to the alleged sourcing of MDMA powder and other ecstasy precursor chemicals - would never progress to a committal hearing.

www.theage.com.au

Mokbel's brother on drug charges

28apr06

THE brother of fugitive millionaire drug baron Tony Mokbel has been charged with drug trafficking.

Milad Mokbel, 38, of Brunswick in Melbourne, was arrested during police raids on Tuesday night which allegedly uncovered a clandestine drug laboratory.
Police allegedly discovered the lab in a shop in Strathmore.

They also swooped on properties in Brunswick, St Albans, Armadale and Highett.

Milad Mokbel faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday charged with two counts of trafficking a large commercial quantity of methylamphetamines and one count of possessing methylamphetamines.

He did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody until July 19.

Milad Mokbel's name had been suppressed by Magistrate Michael Coghlan until today.

Prosecutor Sue Pullen, SC, told the court on Wednesday she was concerned the release of Mokbel's name could jeopardise an ongoing police investigation.

Hi guys,

I'm going to post a bunch of Organised Crime related news released for Australia in general here.

I hope you don't mind. Otherwise we should rename this topic to cover the individual (and fat) drug dealer "Antonios Mokbel" since most of the posts so far are on him.

Come on guys, lets keep the spirit of the old forum alive! Keep posting news releases for a certain topic with that topic heading, instead of making a new topic for every new issue in Organised crime that occurs in the news.

Eg. OC in Australia, should have all the general OC-related news articles from Australia in it.

Take care,

Cassandro

AFP dismantles major ice laboratory


Australian Federal Police (AFP) agents have dismantled what is suspected to be the largest crystal methamphetamine (ice) laboratory discovered in Australia.

A major operation across NSW and Queensland late yesterday and the early hours of this morning has resulted in the arrest of seven people allegedly involved in a sophisticated drug syndicate.

AFP agents have disabled the laboratory on a remote property near the Northern NSW town of Murwillumbah which had a number of buildings - one of which had a secret underground room.

The AFP will allege in court that the well established laboratory was being used to manufacture large quantities of ice.

AFP's National Manager Border and International Network, Federal Agent Mike Phelan said the AFP utilised new anti-drug laws brought into affect last year which target the illegal importation of precursor substances to be used in the manufacture of commercial quantities of illegal drugs.

"These laws enable the AFP to continue leading Australia's fight to stop the flow of large amounts of precursors which produce significant amounts of drugs," Federal Agent Phelan said.

“This operation has disrupted a major syndicate operating out of NSW, which was allegedly using imported precursors which are hard to obtain and are very expensive,” Federal Agent Phelan said.

A 30-year-old man and a 32-year-old man were arrested at the property in Eungella late yesterday. They are expected to appear before the Tweed Heads Magistrates Court this morning.

A 60-year-old man and a 62-year-old man were yesterday arrested at a residential premises in Lennox Head and are expected to appear before Tweed Heads Magistates Court this morning.

A 35-year-old man and a 23-year-old man were yesterday arrested at Brisbane Airport and are expected to appear before Brisbane Magistates Court this morning.

A 41-year-old Mortdale man was this morning arrested at his home and is expected to appear today at Central Local Court in Sydney.

The men have all been charged under Commonwealth laws with conspiracy to manufacture commercial quantities of controlled drugs, namely hydrochloride methylamphetamine crystalline (ice) being not less than the commercial quantity applicable to (ice), and conspiracy to pre-traffic commercial quantities of controlled precursors namely, controlled precursors used in the production of amphetamines, in particular hydrochloride methylamphetamine crystalline (ice) being not less than the commercial quantity applicable to controlled precursors.

Press Conference

A Press Conference will today (Friday April 7, 2006) be held at AFP Headquarters in Sydney.

Time: 1.30pm (Sign in at 1.20pm)

Address: 110 Goulburn Street, Sydney

High resolution photographs

The AFP is working out arrangements for pool footage to be provided.



Media enquiries:

AFP Media (Canberra): (02) 6275 7100

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE
3 April 2006

British woman charged over tablets in suitcase A 19-year-old woman from the United Kingdom has been charged with attempting to allegedly smuggle more than 10,000 amphetamine tablets into Australia. The woman arrived at Perth International Airport yesterday on a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa. When Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service officers x-rayed the woman’s black soft-sided suitcase, they allegedly noticed anomalies in the image. They referred the woman to Customs officers who conducted a further examination. The officers allegedly identified tablets concealed within the lining of the suitcase. The woman was referred to Australian Federal Police (AFP) agents who later charged her with importing a border controlled drug and with possessing an unlawfully imported border controlled drug under the Criminal Code 1995. She is expected to appear before the Perth Court of Petty Sessions today. The maximum penalty for drug smuggling is life imprisonment.

CONTACT: Customs Corporate Communication: 02 6275 6793
AFP Media (Canberra): 02 6275 7100

A joint Customs-AFP media conference will be held at AFP Regional Officers, Law Enforcement House, Murray Street, West Perth, at 1115 hours (WST) where the suitcase with the drugs will be displayed.

BANDIDO SLAYING

Russell Merrick Oldham - Wanted For Murder
28 April 2006



Police have named a man wanted over the shooting murder of Rodney Monk.


About 9:15pm Thursday 20 April, police were called to a laneway near Riley Street, East Sydney. On arrival police discovered Monk's body with a gunshot wound to the head.


Monk was the leader of the 'downtown' Bandidos Motorcycle gang.


Russell Merrick Oldham is described as being of white appearance, 39-years-old, about 200cm tall with a solid build, grey hair and blue/grey eyes.


Police believe Oldham may have changed his appearance. He is considered armed and dangerous.


Oldham should not be approach. Anyone who can assist with the whereabouts of Oldham or the investigation should call Kings Cross Police Station on 8356 0099 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

SLR - Current News

Shipping Container Theft - $2.6M Cigarettes
17 March 2006



On Monday 6 February, a truck carrying a 40-foot shipping container, laden with cigarettes valued at $2.65 million, was stopped by police and Customs officers, as it was leaving a Botany Bay facility.


The driver, a 49-year-old Edmondson Park man and his offsider, a 51-year-old Catherine Field man were arrested at the scene and charged over the theft. Both men are due to appear in Waverley Local Court, Wednesday 5 April 2006.

Following these arrests Property Crime Squad detectives from Strike Force Marungul conducted extensive inquiries culminating with the arrest of a security guard at his Ingleburn home on Wednesday 15 March. The guard was taken to Campbelltown Police Station. He was subsequently charged with conspiracy to commit theft and conditionally bailed to appear in Campbelltown Local Court, Wednesday 5 April.


On Thursday 16 March, 3 wharfies were arrested at their homes in the early morning, a 51-year-old man at Catherine Fields, a 36-year-old man at Casula and a 29-year-old at Bonnyrigg Heights. Each were charged with conspiracy to commit theft and conditionally bailed to appear in Waverley Local Court, Wednesday 5 April.


A 55-year-old Merrylands man was arrested in a street at Bankstown. He was questioned before being released, pending further inquiries.

SLR - Current News

PACIFIC ISLANDER RAM-RAID GANGS

Ram Raid Harrington Park - Photo Released (ATM)
3 March 2006



Police have released a photo of a disguised man who is wanted for questioning in relation to a ram-raid in Sydney's south-west in 2005.


Detective Acting Superintendent Steve Raines, said the photo is believed to have been taken in November 2005. “Strike Force Piccadilly detectives have obtained this photo as a result of their inquiries into ram-raids and ATM thefts in metropolitan Sydney. We believe the photo was taken and printed in the week following the ram-raid at Harrington Park. The photo is of a man, possibly of Pacific Islander appearance and with a large build. He is using a T-shirt to mask his face and is sitting at a table holding a seemingly large quantity of cash.


Police are endeavouring to establish who the man is and where the cash has come from. “We know there are members of the community who will be able to identify the man in this photo from the clothes and jewellery he is wearing. We are appealing to those people who know the man's identity, or know where the photo was taken, to contact Strike Force Piccadilly detectives via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000,” Detective Acting Superintendent Raines said.


The Harrington Park Ram Raid occurred about 2:15am Monday 21 November 2005. Up to 5 male offenders drove 2 vehicles through the front glass doors of a plaza on Fairwater Drive. The contents of an ATM were loaded onto a blue Holden Commodore utility. A red Mazda RX7 was also used as a getaway vehicle. Police located a reported stolen grey Toyota Hilux utility at the scene and seized it for forensic examination.


Since Strike Force Piccadilly was established in August last year, 18 offenders have been arrested, 116 charges have been laid and the operation of three organised criminal syndicates in Sydney has been disrupted. The strike force was set up to investigate the carjacking of luxury/high performance vehicles, as well as ATM ram-raids and thefts. The strike force comprises detectives from the State Crime Command Property Crime Squad and Robbery and Serious Crime Squad, the Metropolitan Robbery Unit and Local Area Commands from around Sydney.

SLR - Current News

Cannabis Seizure - Birrong
16 March 2006



On Thursday 16 March, police from Bankstown Local Area Command executed a search warrant on a home on Auburn Road, Birrong. Police discovered 254 cannabis plants of varying maturity. The drugs have an estimated street value of $800,000. Other items associated with a sophisticated hydroponics set-up were also found at the premises.


A 42-year-old Bankstown man was subsequently arrested. He was charged with cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited plant and refused bail to appear in Burwood Local Court, Friday 17 March.

SLR - Current News

Assyrian Kings (Sydney street gang)

Wanted For Murder - Ramon Youmaran
14 February 2006



Police have released images of Ramon Youmaran following a renewed appeal for information regarding his whereabouts. Youmaran is wanted in connection with a shooting murder of a 28-year-old Fairfield man on Friday 13 December 2002.


About 4:00am Monday 13 February, police executed a search warrant on a house in Leafy Grove, Plumpton, after a stolen motor vehicle was detected parked on the premises.


Police seized approximately 18,000 MDMA and methamphetamine tablets, with an estimated potential street value of $720,000. Police also seized 5kg of precursor, used in the manufacture of prohibited dugs. No arrests were made at the scene.


Several firearms were seized for forensic examination and included an M16 military-style assault rifle, semi-automatic rifle and revolver.





About 6:15pm Monday 13 February, Task Force Gain detectives attended a house in Jindabyne Circuit, Woodcroft. Youmaran was observed by police getting into the passenger seat of a green Mercedes Benz (NSW registration NXI 76T). A pursuit was initiated after the vehicle failed to stop and travelled along the M7 and onto the M2. The pursuit was terminated after the Mercedes exceeded 200 kilometres per hour. The vehicle was last seen travelling east along the Seven Hills Road. A description of the vehicle was circulated via police radio.



Youmaran has changed his appearance a number of times since December 2002 to avoid detection. He is considered dangerous and should not be approached.


Anyone with information about the current whereabouts of Ramon Youmaran is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous.

SLR - Current News

Good documentary about the "ice" epidemic in Australia. There a now twice as many "ice" users them heroin users. Crystal methamphetamine comes into Australia from Asia and its much cheaper then "coke" and "eccy".

Four Corners: The Ice Age

Examining the emerging epidemic of crystal methamphetamine "ice" in Australia.

Just click on the "Play" button for the video to start.


http://abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/200...efault_full.htm

Chronology: The Emergence of Methamphetamine in Australia

Through a compilation of media, police and customs reports this chronology reflects the ever-growing presence of methamphetamine and 'ice' in Australia, from the early 90s to 2006.

1991
November Customs and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) warn of a new threat of a drug called "ice" and lobby the Federal Government to develop a campaign to stop its spread. Customs says it is the most popular drug of abuse in Japan and Korea, and second most popular in the Philippines. Joint operations in Hong Kong and Japan seize 80 kilos of the drug, believed to have been manufactured in China.

1997
25 August A large shipment of a Chinese "new-age" drug has Australia's federal law-enforcement agencies very concerned, according to AFP crime trends for April-May. The 4.5kg shipment of pink ice is found in Melbourne. A batch of white ice weighing 200g is seized in Sydney early this year. "Ice", methamphetamine hydrochloride, is regarded as one of the most significant drug developments in at least four Asian countries and a major one in several more, the report by federal agents says. It was too early to describe it as a threat in Australia, but it is a "potential threat". Canberra Times

1998
29 August Victoria Police fear a violent change in Melbourne's drug culture following seizures of ice. They warn that ice is deadlier than crack cocaine, and that it can spark sudden and extreme violence, and induce 30-hour highs. "The experts tell us users really do turn to violence when under the influence of ice and that is one of the great concerns that we have," drug squad head Chief Inspector John McKoy says.

About 200g of ice with a street value of $1 million is allegedly seized when four Indonesian nationals are arrested by special operations group officers. The haul is the largest by state police. Chief Inspector McKoy says users tend to stay on the drug "because once they start to withdraw it gives them the worst feeling possible over and above every type of other illicit drug". He says ice is more expensive than heroin, which could help stop it becoming widely used. Herald-Sun

1999
13 January Ice - a cocktail of heroin, speed and other substances - is the latest drug scourge to hit Perth streets, selling for between $100 and $300 a tablet, the District Court is told. Commonwealth prosecutor Hilton Dembo says it is the most potent of the amphetamine family on the streets, according to federal police. Mr Dembo's comments come during sentencing submissions for 51-year-old Indonesian Pangy Tanadi who has pleaded guilty to importing ecstasy and ice. Tanadi was caught with 720 yellow and green ice tablets and ice powder when searched by customs officers at Perth Airport last September. Analysis showed the concoction had caffeine and ketamine as well as pure heroin and speed (amphetamine). The West Australian

28 October Bust: 4kg ice at Perth airport from Singapore.
Customs officers detect approximately 4 kilograms of the designer drug 'ice' and approximately half a kilogram of methamphetamine tablets at Perth International Airport. The AFP say the seizure of ice is one of the biggest finds of its type detected at Perth. Some drugs were found concealed in baggage while others were strapped to the body of two passengers.
Customs Press Release

2000
The Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission rates amphetamines as a greater risk than heroin.

20 April Bust: 20kg ice in Hong Kong bound for Australia.
Hong Kong Police arrest two men and seize approximately 20kg of 'ice' from a shipping container in Hong Kong. The two men - an Australian citizen and a citizen of Hong Kong - are suspected of being part of an international drug trafficking syndicate. The drugs represent the largest recorded seizure of 'Ice' destined for the Australian market, almost tripling the previous largest seizure of 7kg made in Perth last October. AFP Press Release

16 October In a move underlining regional alarm about the huge proliferation of methamphetamine production in Burma, China signs an anti-drugs cooperation agreement with Association of South-East Asian Nations. The accord, supported by 23 other countries including Australia, is the result of an international congress on illegal drugs in Bangkok. China's pact with the 10 ASEAN countries reflects its concern about the rapid growth of methamphetamine manufacturing close to its southern border with Burma. The Australian

29 November The use of a potent form of amphetamine known as ice is on the rise across Australia, drug watchers say. "What crack is to cocaine, so ice is to amphetamine," researcher Dr Shane Darke warns. Dr Darke, senior investigator of the federally funded Illicit Drug Reporting System, says amphetamines, or speed, are making a big comeback in Australia and experts are concerned about the spread of the more potent product.
Australian Associated Press

2 December Over 12 months, researchers throughout Australia document an unprecedented rise in the presence and use of methamphetamine, the derivative of amphetamine best known locally as "ice" or "shabu". The numbers, they say, are unexpected and the fear is that it is being manufactured locally, heralding further rises. Sydney Morning Herald

21 December Bust: 79kg ice in Sydney containers from Hong Kong.
Authorities announce two massive drug seizures in Sydney - a record 79 kilograms of Ice and approximately 184 kilograms of heroin - the third-largest heroin seizure in Australia. Senator Vanstone says that a coordinated investigation involving the Joint Asian Crime Group, the Australian Federal Police, Customs and Hong Kong authorities, followed Customs' discovery of drugs concealed cleverly in shipping containers. Senator Amanda Vanstone:"The haul of Ice represents about 1.2 million hits of the drug with an estimated street value of $15.8 million."
AFP Press Release

2001
April Queensland's amphetamine industry is said to be worth $400m. An Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence report shows that 30 of 131 clandestine labs seized across the country from 1999-2000 were in Queensland. 85,000 people over 14 are estimated to have used the drug in the past 12 months compared to 17,000 heroin users.
Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence

21 May Bust: 2.3kg ice Perth airport from Jakarta. A South-East Asian drug syndicate operating out of Perth is busted and four people are arrested by Australian Federal Police as part of a joint operation by Indonesian and Australian authorities. On arrival in Perth from Jakarta on Thursday afternoon last week, the alleged couriers are found to be carrying in body packs 2.3 kgs of methylamphetamine, with an estimated street value of more than $2 million.AFP Press Release

22 May A boom in the use of a powerful crystallised form of amphetamine known as ice has caused violent hallucinations and psychoses in Perth users, drug counsellors say.They say ice found in Perth is up to 80 per cent pure, compared with regular amphetamine, such as speed, which is often less than five per cent pure. Drug users and counsellors tell The West Australian that inexperienced ice users looking for a rush often take massive doses and get a high which lasts up to 36 hours. Heroin addicts are trying ice because heroin is hard to find in Perth, a counsellor says. The West Australian

19 June Organised Asian crime gangs are using strife-torn South Pacific nations as bases in the hope of flooding Australia with drugs. And the bosses have made a marketing decision to deal mainly in deadly methamphetamine tablets instead of heroin. New Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty also reveals Australia's heroin drought is more a result of the business strategy by crime czars than a shortage of the drug. He says there is plenty of heroin available in Asia, but crime syndicates have decided to concentrate on making methamphetamine (speed) tablets instead. Mr Keelty says Burma is thought to be producing about 700 million methamphetamine tablets a year. Herald Sun

17 July Bust: 242kg ice on yacht at Mooloolaba, and Gold Coast unit.
Federal Police and Customs seize a record 412kg of amphetamine-type stimulants including 'ice', and arrest two men following an operation in southern Queensland. The operation nets several types of drugs from a yacht moored at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast and from a town house on the Gold Coast.The breakdown of the drug types and net weights includes:

* 90.66 kilograms or 1,007,353 tablets of suspected methamphetamine;
* 152.23 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine crystals;
* 1.56 kilograms or 4220 tablets of suspected MDMA or ecstasy;
* 168.53 kilograms or 451,548 tablets of suspected (MBDB) commonly referred to as eden;

The 'eden' and 'ice' seizures are the largest of these specific types of amphetamine to date in Australia. AFP Press Release

September Ice implicated in an horrific double murder.
Drug user Damien Anthony Peters is arrested over the stabbing of Bevan James Frost, after Frost's decapitated head and mutilated body is found in a flat in Sydney's Surry Hills. Peters confesses to the murder of Frost and tells police he killed another man, Andre Akai, dismembering his body in a similar way and disposing of it in the sewer and rubbish bins around Surry Hills. Peters had injected ice before both killings. While he had also used cocaine, marijuana, methadone and a host of other drugs, medical experts say the depression caused by the ice abuse was a factor in his behaviour. Daily Telegraph

29 November A nationwide shortage of heroin has sparked a shift in the illegal drug market, prompting injecting drug users to turn to speed. Use of crystalline methamphetamine, known as ice or shabu, rose in every state and territory over the past year. Of the 961 users surveyed, 53 per cent used the drug this year compared with 15 per cent in 2000, data from the Illicit Drug Reporting System shows. The increasing use of the drug, which is mainly imported, comes as seizures by Customs have soared. A total of 82 kilograms of ice was seized in the last financial year compared with 971 grams in 1997/98. The Illicit Drug Reporting System found a continuing drop in the number of fatal heroin overdoses which went from 345 in 1999/2000 to 265 in 2000/01.
Sydney Morning Herald

2002
5 February Bust: 1.67kg ice at Sydney airport from Hong Kong.
Customs officers seize 1.67 kilograms with a street value of over $150,000 of Ice at Sydney Airport, the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison, announces. The drug is discovered when Customs examine a piece of unaccompanied baggage which arrived in Sydney.AFP Press Release

18 April One person a day is being admitted to Graylands Hospital, Perth, with speed psychosis - a violent mental condition linked to the designer drug ice. The drug, also known as methylamphetamine, crystal and glass, was rarely seen in Perth two years ago but health experts and police now consider it the biggest drug problem facing the State. One in five mental hospital admissions are linked to ice, which can cause hallucinations and severe paranoia. Before November 2000, police had never seized ice in WA, but in the past three months they have confiscated almost 10kg with a street value of $5 million. The Department of Health's acting director of joint services development, Bill Saunders, says the methylamphetamine problem is putting the health system under enormous strain. "This epidemic has really only happened in the last year...and I think we have all been caught a bit by surprise," he said. The West Australian

2003
15 May Bust: 223kg ice in Sydney container of rice sticks from China.
A joint operation by Customs and the AFP in Sydney results in a record seizure of 223kg of the methamphetamine drug commonly known as 'ice'. Two people face court in relation to the seizure, which has an estimated potential street value of $112 million. "The drugs had been cleverly concealed in a container shipment of cartons of rice sticks which had been landed at Port Botany from China on 2 May," says Customs NSW Regional Director, David Collins. AFP Press Release

17 May Englishman Gary Leigh, in Australia on a grant from the Millennium Foundation in London to publicise the hazards of the drug 'ice', warns that Australia will see the same devastation as the United States, where he has been living. Big US cities now have Crystal Users Anonymous groups, attended by addicts whose bodies have been wasted and their personal relationships and careers destroyed. The drug has cut a swathe through the gay scene, and is spilling over into mixed clubs. Leigh says he has found strong evidence of the drug in clubs here. "It really hit me that Sydney is knee-deep in crystal, and Melbourne is on the same path. I have found it almost impossible to be in a club here without being offered crystal by someone at some point." Sydney Morning Herald

19 May Bust: 90kg ice in Sydney from Hong Kong.
The Joint Asian Crime Group (JACG) seizes an estimated 90kg of the amphetamine drug known as 'ice', which has an estimated potential street value of $45million, and arrests four people in Sydney. The drugs are found by officers from the JACG at a unit in Cremorne. They are believed to have been imported into Australia hidden in a consignment of machinery which arrived from Hong Kong in late March. AFP Press Release

14 June St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, is seeing incidents of amphetamine psychosis on a daily basis and The Salvation Army detoxification centres report that while heroin addiction is still their biggest problem there is a rise in amphetamine and ice abuse across the state. Police have seized almost half a tonne of ice in the past two years - the majority of it in the past four weeks. "Australia missed out on crack for some reason but it's safe to say we are not going to miss out on ice," warns Superintendent Paul Jones of the NSW Drug Squad. Australian Federal Police's Peter Drennan ... says his officers have been aware of the increase in ice throughout South-East Asia over the past two years and knew it was only a matter of time before smugglers targeted the lucrative Australian market. The AFP now have officers based in Beijing, Hong Kong, Myanmar and Thailand in an attempt to disrupt the supply chain. Asian intelligence reports highlight ice as the major drug problem throughout South-East Asia, at a time when heroin production is falling. Daily Telegraph

4 September Bust: 750kg pseudoephedrine in container from Cambodia in Sydney.
Australia's biggest ever seizure of pseudoephedrine, a chemical precursor used in the production of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) including methamphetamine, is made by Australian Crime Commission (ACC) and Australian Customs Service officers in Sydney... The 750kg of pseudoephedrine has an estimated wholesale value of approximately $40 million but, if used in the production of ATS, a potential street value of $1.4 billion. Joint AFP & Customs Press Release

16 September Melbourne police uncover two large-scale backyard amphetamine labs, netting drugs valued at more than $50m. Police believe one lab at Ashburton, in WA, had been running for four years.

21 September The Australian Crime Commission Illicit Drug report finds that amphetamine labs have increased fivefold since 1996 to almost 250 in 2002.

2004
15 January The use of crystal methamphetamine, also known as ice, is more widespread than anticipated, say researchers from the recently released Party Drug Initiative (PDI) study. Preliminary results of the study, based on interviews with more than 800 regular ecstasy users in capital cities, show almost three-quarters also recently used methamphetamine powder or speed. Robert Graham, of Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital Drug and Alcohol Service, says increasing numbers of people are being seen in the hospital's emergency department with drug-related physical and psychiatric problems. The evidence suggests the drug epidemic is continuing to evolve, Graham says. "This is a pattern of behaviour we saw and thought was isolated to the eastern suburbs of Sydney three years ago, but this study suggests it's more widespread." Sydney Morning Herald

16 February Bust: 2kg ice Perth airport from Kuala Lumpur.
Customs stops an attempt to import more than 2 kilograms of methamphetamine through Perth International Airport. Customs officers select for further examination a 42-year-old man who arrived on a Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur.
Customs Press Release

30 March Bust: 1.5 tonnes pseudoephedrine for ice production in Philippines destined for Qld.
About 1.5 tonnes of Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride (Pseudoephedrine) is seized in the Philippines which federal agents will allege was destined for Australia. Pseudoephedrine is a precursor in the manufacture of amphetamine-type substances and police believe the shipment had the potential to generate between 900 kilograms and 1.3 tonnes of amphetamines.
AFP Press Release

9 June Bust: 1,000 kg of crystal methamphetamine in Fiji destined to Australia and NZ.
AFP and Australian Customs Service, with Fijian and New Zealand police, raid a lab in Suva capable of producing 500kg of ice a week, almost all of it bound for the Australian market.
AFP Press Release

18 July "The dynamics (of the illicit drug market) are evolving and they are moving towards amphetamine-type stimulants" Justice Minister Chris Ellison. The Australian

22 October Bust: 125kg ice found in candles in Sydney from China.
A joint Customs and AFP operation results in one of the largest-ever seizures in Australia of the drug, crystalline methylamphetamine, commonly known as 'ice'. The two agencies have identified and dismantled the Australian base of a highly sophisticated international narcotic smuggling syndicate, after Customs detected 125 kg of 'ice' inside a shipping container from China. AFP Press Release (PDF 58KB)

2005
5 February NZ says it's being flooded by record amounts of imported crystal meth - seizures of the most potent form 'P' skyrocket from 748gms in 2003 to 17.5kg in 2004 - a 23 per cent increase. Seizures of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, the precursor chemicals used to synthesise meth, almost double from 830,320 tablets in 2003, to 1,857,692 tablets in 2004.

27 April The latest police intelligence reveals Chinese triad gangs made a business decision to concentrate on smuggling ice to Australia instead of heroin. Details of the Chinese syndicate's tactics are exposed in the Australian Crime Commission's latest illicit drug report. The report says: "Chinese trafficking groups previously associated with heroin importations to Australia and crystal methamphetamine (ice) importations to Japan appear to have consciously sought, with some success, to create a market for crystal methamphetamine in Australia." Herald Sun, Melbourne
# Illicit Drug Data Report 2003 - 2004

27 August Bust: 400kg ephedrine for ice production seized in Sydney from Vietnam.
A joint AFP and Australian Customs Service operation results in the arrest of four men and the seizure of approximately 400kg of ephedrine. The drugs are detected when Customs officers select a shipping container from Vietnam. The container's consignment, which included 74 boxes of decorative statues, is x-rayed and physically examined revealing compressed powder, tested to be ephedrine, concealed inside a number of the statues. It will be alleged that this ephedrine was intended to make methamphetamine and had the potential to make 1,440,000 tablets with a potential street value of up to $72 million. Customs Press Release

August 36-year-old Sydney financier, Brendan McMahon is charged with several counts of animal cruelty and bestiality, after a trail of mutilated and skinned rabbits are found in the streets near his Sydney home. He claims he suffered serious mental health problems induced by his addiction to ice. The bestiality charge is later dropped. Sydney Morning Herald

5 September A National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre study finds the methamphetamine problem is now as large as heroin abuse was at its peak in the late 1990s. As many as 73,000 people nationwide are addicted to methamphetamine, about 1 1/2 times the number of heroin addicts. The NDARC study finds a 58 per cent rise in the number of hospital admissions for drug-related psychosis since 1999. Between 2003 and 2004, 3190 methamphetamine users across the nation were hospitalised for mental and behaviour disorders. Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital emergency care director Gordian Fulde estimates violence associated with crystal meth in his hospital had risen five-fold between 2000 and 2004. The Australian

5 September The AFP and state police forces say there is a link between rising crystal meth use and violent crime. "If you look at all the gangland killings in Melbourne in the [past few] years, all the major players in that are associated with the methamphetamine industry," Detective Senior Sergeant Jim O'Brien of Victoria's clandestine laboratory unit says. The Australian

29 October Rebecca McKetin of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW releases a study on methamphetamine use in Sydney, saying that the chemical is largely misunderstood as a "party drug" or "recreational drug". McKetin says the crystal form of methamphetamine, called ice, which is up to 80 per cent pure, is also the easiest to ingest and the most addictive. The rate of psychosis among users is 11 times that of the general population and is causing a revolution in emergency services motivated by the need to protect ambulance and police officers. One in five regular methamphetamine users experienced psychosis in the previous 12 months and "the psychosis was not restricted to those who had a history of mental disorders", the report says.
Weekend Australian

1 December An estimated 12,000 young Sydneysiders are believed to be dependent on the latest wave of amphetamines, known to users as "crystal" or "ice", making these the second-most-used illicit drugs after cannabis. The outbreak has created serious problems for hospital emergency rooms as well as doctors, who are often faced with young people who become aggressive, agitated or psychotic after overuse, or depressed during withdrawal. The Minister for Health, John Hatzistergos, warned yesterday: "Psychosis, mental and physical health problems, blood-borne viruses are the terrible consequences which can result from the use of stimulant drugs. The seriousness of the problem should not be underestimated." Sydney Morning Herald

2006
8 January SA children as young as 14 are being treated for methamphetamine addiction as welfare workers and medicos warn of a looming epidemic. Dubbed the "new heroin", counsellors and police say use of methamphetamines, also known as crystal and ice, has caused a startling crime wave. Program director of the Gambling and Addiction Treatment Service, Robert Mittiga, says habitual use of the drug has led to serious child abuse and negligence, gang rapes and violent crimes. Mr Mittiga says the number of people he treated for methamphetamine addiction had increased four-fold in the past three years. About 40 per cent of his patients have methamphetamine addictions, compared with heroin addicts, who comprise two per cent of his clientele.
The Sunday Mail Adelaide

7 February Bust: 46kg ice in speedboat imported from Canada to Sydney. A joint operation by the AFP and Customs locates nearly 46 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine hidden in a speedboat imported from Canada. AFP forensic tests later confirm the total quantity of crystal methamphetamine amounted to approximately 46kg with an estimated street value of $17.5 million. Customs Press Release

13 February Bust: Thousands of methamphetamine tablets found in Sydney.
Police seize $720,000 worth of drugs including 18,000 MDMA and methamphetamine tablets from a house in Plumpton, near Mt Druitt in Sydney's west. NSW Police Press Release

The UN's annual report, produced by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), states that clandestine laboratories are increasingly being used around the world, and especially Australia, for the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine and other drugs. The report also says that drug traffickers are now using Australia and New Zealand as a transit area for global shipments of crystal methamphetamine.
2005 INCB Report

Life sentence over gangland murders
By Peter Gregory, Chief court reporter
May 3, 2006 - 1:13PM

Missing underworld figure Tony Mokbel was one of two men who agreed to pay $150,000 for the execution of crime patriarch Lewis Moran, a judge has said in jailing a gangland killer.

Justice Bernard Teague fixed a 19-year minimum jail term for 54-year-old Keith George Faure, who pleaded guilty to murdering Moran.

Appearing in court via videolink from a remote location, Faure was sentenced for the Moran killing and the separate murder of another underworld figure, Lewis Caine.

Justice Teague jailed Faure, of Norlane, for life for Moran's murder and 24 years for the murder of Caine.

He said in imposing the 19-year minimum that Faure agreed to give prosecution evidence and co-operate with authorities over the murder of Lewis Moran, who was shot dead on March 31, 2004.

Caine was murdered about six weeks later, on May 8, 2004. His body was found on the roadway in a dead-end Brunswick that night.

Justice Teague said Lewis Moran and his friend Herbert Wrout were both shot while enjoying a drink at the Brunswick Club. Moran was killed and Wrout received serious, but not fatal, injuries.

Faure had agreed to cooperate with authorities and had made an extensive statement about his role in the murder of Lewis Moran. He had also promised to help police in their invesigation of another case.

On the night of the Moran killing, Faure took three firearms and two balaclavas as he drove the two gunmen to a location close to the club.

After the shootings, he drove them away.

Justice Teague said the Moran murder was a callous, planned, premeditated execution for money.

"To some people, life is not sacred, as it should be. To some people, life is cheap," he said.

Outside court, Lewis Moran's widow, Judith Moran, told reporters she was "shattered".

In a separate hearing, Justice Teague sentenced former boxer Evangelos Goussis, 38, to 20 years' jail, with a 15-year minimum, for the murder of Lewis Caine. Goussis was also found guilty last November of the murder.

He said Goussis had said he fired the shot that killed Caine, who appeared to have been fired at when he was sitting in the back seat of a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Justice Teague said Goussis and Keith Faure had been drinking with Caine at a Carlton hotel shortly before the shooting. He said all three men had close contacts within rival camps that were seen to be engaged in retributive killings.

theage.com.au

Alleged drug smuggler 'used many names'
From: AAP
By Jo Prichard

May 04, 2006


A SYDNEY man accused of smuggling 100kg of cocaine into Australia tried to hide his real identity on several occasions, a West Australian court was told today.
David Sukkar, 25, is on trial in the Supreme Court for his alleged involvement in a plan to import $70 million worth of cocaine from the Brazilian-registered bulk grain carrier Macros Dias, to Albany, 390km from Perth, in July 2004.

Four bags of cocaine were dropped over the side of the vessel into a dinghy in Albany Harbour, carried ashore and hidden in sand dunes.

Mr Sukkar has told his defence counsel he thought he was dealing with a shipment of guns.

Crown prosecutor Hilton Dembo today told the jury only two words separated the case of the defence and prosecution.

"Drugs and guns ... when you think about it, there is very little else there that is in dispute," Mr Dembo said.

"(A) federal agent ... told you what a controlled operation it was," he said.

Under examination from his defence counsel, Mr Sukkar said a man in Lebanon showed him some guns for sale in the boot of his car.

Four months later in Sydney, he was contacted by the same man and asked to help with a shipment of "what you saw in the boot of my car", Mr Sukkar told the court.

Mr Dembo today told the jury, Mr Sukkar had several times shown a "consciousness of guilt" by using different names during the operation, including in Albany.

He said Mr Sukkar had changed some or all of his identity details in his transactions with an electronics store, a caravan park, the man who hired out the dinghy in Albany, a travel company and airport staff.

Mr Dembo also questioned what he said was Mr Sukkar's apparent lack of motive for getting involved in such a dangerous operation.

"We're not talking about a few joints of cannabis here," Mr Dembo said.

"People don't just do that for nothing."

Mr Dembo said Mr Sukkar was willing to spend his own money on mobile phones, hotel bills and meals for himself in WA, even though he gave the impression there was nothing in it for him.

Mr Sukkar is accused of helping in the drug haul with Bolivian national Jose Sevilla, who, before Mr Sukkar got to Albany, travelled to WA to meet the Marcos Dias and its haul.

"Would anybody in their right mind, ladies and gentleman ... trust somebody with $70 million (in) drugs?"

Sevilla pleaded guilty to his part in the operation last year.

300,000 'using cannabis daily'
From: AAP
By Nick Ralston

May 05, 2006


ONE third of Australians have used cannabis and 300,000 people are using it on a daily basis, the national drug council says.
Concerned by misinformation about cannabis and its reputation as a soft drug, the Australian National Council on Drugs today launched a new booklet to educate users and their families.

The council said the booklet, Cannabis - Answers to Your Questions, provided facts about the drug from more than 700 recent studies.

ANCD chief executive Gino Vumbaca said while general use of the drug was in decline, 5.5 million people aged over 14 had tried it at some time, and 1.8 million people had used it in the past 12 months.

But the most serious problem was the 295,200 people who smoked cannabis every day, Mr Vumbaca said.

Of that figure, 10 per cent, or 30,000 people, were dependent on the drug, he said.

"It's not reefer madness revisited or anything. We're not trying to paint this as anyone who goes near cannabis is going to become mentally ill," Mr Vumbaca said.

"We're going solely on what the evidence says and when people talk about links to mental health problems and other problems, they are talking about people who smoke daily, and they are the ones we want to understand that they are putting themselves at risk."

Mr Vumbaca said cannabis users came from a range of socio-economic groups, with people aged between 20-29 years the heaviest users.

The booklet would answer questions for a lot of people who may have grown up with an ill-conceived idea of the drug's effects, he said.

"What we're seeing in long-term studies is that those who use it long-term seem more likely to suffer high levels of anxiety, depression and mental illness," Mr Vumbaca said.

Garth Popple, executive director of the Sydney drug rehabilitation centre We Help Ourselves, said 20 per cent of people at the centre were there as a result of cannabis dependence.

Ten years ago, there wouldn't have been a single person in rehabilitation because of the drug, he said.

"People are now smoking hydroponics, the heads of the plant, which are stronger than the leaf which they smoked in the 1960s," Mr Popple said.

"People are developing dependencies quicker because there is more in their system."

The booklet is available through the ANCD and can be downloaded from their website.

More on Mokbel. It seems there's more than a few people that want to get their hands on him

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/st...55E2862,00.html

Cartel joins Mokbel hunt
By CARLY CRAWFORD
07may06

A RUTHLESS band of Mexican drug runners has joined the international hunt for fugitive millionaire Tony Mokbel, an underworld source says.

A business associate of the convicted drug baron believes a Mexican cartel of former soldiers, known as the "Zetas", is on Mokbel's trail.
"Some of the people Tony is in business with are hunting him in the Middle East," the source said this week. "There is one man, who they call El Cactus, who runs the cartel.

"He is a very dangerous man. They call him cactus because you don't want to get too close to him."

The Mexican gang is said to be linked to Columbian drug lords.

The source says he wants the claims made public so more people can join the search. Mokbel vanished in March during his trial for cocaine trafficking. He was sentenced in absentia to at least nine years' jail.

He is listed on Interpol's wanted database and a police taskforce has been formed to find him.

He was accused of orchestrating a cocaine smuggling bid that police thwarted in 2000. It emerged during the trial that one of the middlemen Mokbel had used was connected to the Mexican drug cartel Arellano Felix.

The ultra-violent, US-trained paramilitary commandos known as the "Zetas" have been held responsible for hundreds of murders along the US-Mexico border this year.

Librarian free after helicopter jailbreak
From: AAP

May 07, 2006


THE librarian who hijacked a helicopter to airlift her lover out of Sydney's Silverwater jail in 1999 will be released on parole from prison tomorrow.
Lucy Dudko, 48, has been granted parole after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence, The Sun-Herald reports.

She will walk free from Dillwynia women's prison, near Windsor in Sydney.

But her lover, convicted armed robber John Killick, won't be free from jail for at least another seven years, when he will be 71.

Killick is serving a minimum of 23 years for armed robbery and the dramatic escape which captured the nation's attention.

The pair pulled off one of the most amazing jailbreaks in Australian history.

Dudko used a handgun to force the pilot of a helicopter to set down in the maximum security grounds of Silverwater prison on March 25, 1999.

Killick boarded the chopper and after it landed about 10km away from the jail, near Macquarie University, the pair eluded police for 45 days.

They were recaptured together on May 9 at a caravan park in Bass Hill in Sydney, only 10km from Silverwater jail.

Dudko left behind a daughter, aged 10, when she went to jail.

"El Cactus" this Herald Sun guys are quit creative!!!!!!!!!
The leader of los Zetas is Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano El Lazca,
or Z1. Los Zetas are the enforceres of the cartel de golfo, which is headed by Osiel Cardenas, who is imprisoned and represented in the outside world though: militiary issues el Lazca and business issues Gregorio Sauceda, "Don Goyo" or "El Caramuela"
But as they are all engaged in a "total war" (in Goebbels meaning) against the alianza de sangre, i doubt they have time and interest to hunt a australian lowlife through the middle east.
Good article about the war::
La sangre que falta correr: la guerra de los narcos

Fantastic discussion guys. This is the sort of thing that needed to happen with this thread.

Some great posts by Adrian and Skippy. Good on you guys. The pics are really good also.

"The Emergence of Methamphetamine in Australia" fantastic article Skippy, I was looking for something like that recently.

Keep it up guys, I'll post up some more stuff soon.

Cassandro

Drug accused faces retrial
From: AAP

May 11, 2006


A-25-year-old Sydney man accused of smuggling cocaine into Western Australia will remain in custody until a court considers a possible retrial.
A jury in the Western Australian Supreme Court could not come to a unanimous decision last night on the two charges against David Sukkar – aiding and abetting the importation of 100kg of cocaine and attempting to possess the drug.

Mr Sukkar allegedly helped Bolivian national Jose Sevilla hide the haul in four bags in sand dunes near the coastal town of Albany, 470km from Perth, in July 2004.

Sevilla had steered a dinghy through Albany harbour to pick up the drugs from the Brazilian registered bulk grain carrier Macros Dias.

Mr Sukkar's counsel had argued that the accused thought he was helping to import guns, not drugs, and that guns were not unfamiliar to Mr Sukkar because of his family's involvement with a Christian militia group in Lebanon.

Prosecution lawyers had argued that Mr Sukkar had tried to cover his tracks by using several names and identities while in Albany.

A bail hearing scheduled for today has now been adjourned and Mr Sukkar will remain in custody until the court next meets on June 12.

Prosecution has said it will oppose any bail application.

Raids disrupt alleged drug ring
From: AAP

May 11, 2006


AN alleged international heroin trafficking syndicate has been exposed in raids led by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) in Sydney and Melbourne.
The ACC targeted four premises in Sydney and three more in Melbourne and Geelong, allegedly seizing 3.73kg of heroin, $8,000 cash and a luxury motor vehicle.

The ACC said the raids had disrupted an international heroin trafficking syndicate, with distribution networks throughout a number of Australian states.

Two Sydney women, aged 27 and 46, and a 30-year-old man were charged with a range of drug related offences, including, aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.

A Melbourne man, 49, face similar charges, the ACC said.

If found guilty, the accused could face lengthy prison terms ranging from 25 years to life imprisonment.

The investigation, named Operation Confound, involved the Australian Federal Police, Customs, NSW Police, South Australia Police, Victoria Police and Western Australia Police, the statement said.

The ACC would not reveal which courts the accused would face.

Mokbel's Mexican connection

thursday, May 11, 2006

imageA warning by US authorities that Colombian cocaine cartels are aggressively targeting Asia casts new light on the attempt by fugitive drug boss Tony Mokbel to set up a cocaine pipeline between Australia and South America.

The warning from the US Drug Enforcement Agency followed a huge drug bust in China that saw DEA and Chinese customs agents seizing almost 150 kilograms of Colombian cocaine.

“This is extremely significant as it confirms that Colombian drug trafficking organizations are expanding their distribution operations into Asia…,” said William Fiebig, a DEA special agent based in Beijing. “It’s a market, a huge market..”

According to the DEA, the seized cocaine was due to be broken up and distributed both in mainland China and shipped to other places, including Hong Kong, Thailand and as far away as West Africa.

Last week the Australian Crime Commission’s latest Illicit Drug Data Report warned that West African and Asian organised crime gangs had been identified behind cocaine trafficking into Australia.

The ACC said South America continued to be the primary source for cocaine. According to the DEA, Colombia accounts for 50 per cent of all cocaine produced, followed by Bolivia and Peru. But Mexico – and Mexican organised crime groups - has become the main transit point for trafficking the drug to the US and other countries.

And it was Mexico to which Tony Mokbel turned when he masterminded the importation of almost three kilograms of cocaine in 2000. His part in the importation led to him being sentenced to a minimum of nine years jail in March – but only after he had vanished in the closing stages of his trial

He is now rumoured to be in Lebanon along with $20 million with which the Australian Federal Police say he was able to escape.

Mokbel’s trial was told how one of his associates travelled to Mexico in August 2000 and arranged for a “sample” of cocaine to be sent back to Australia for testing. Mokbel decided the quality of the cocaine was “excellent” and agreed to send US$37,000 (A$69,548) in American banknotes to pay for the full shipment.

Another associate flew to Mexico with the cash and the cocaine was packed into glass candles and Mexican handicrafts and sent through the United Parcel Service to fake addresses in Melbourne. The packages were intercepted by yet another member of Mokbel’s team at the UPS depot in Melbourne, but the Australian Federal Police were waiting. It turned out that the man to whom Mokbel had been planning to on-sell the cocaine was acting as a police informer.

At his trial, the judge said Mokbel had masterminded the operation. “In summary, he supplied most, if not all, of the finances necessary for the venture, including expenses and the cost of cocaine. He gave instructions as to where and through what system the goods were to be transported to Australia,” the judge said. You can read his full comments here.

But some in Melbourne’s underworld believe the cocaine shipment – relatively small for the likes of a criminal on Mokbel’s scale – was simply a trial run. If the pipeline had worked, it’s believed Mokbel would have used it on a much larger scale to bring in cocaine from Mexico.

Last weekend it was reported that a Mexican drug gang called the Zetas was on Mokbel’s trail. The Zetas is supposed to be made up of former Mexican military special forces commandos and police trained by the US.

The Zetas have attained something of legendary status along the US-Mexican border, where they mainly operate. One former DEA official has been quoted as saying they are “better than the Secret Service. In terms of weapons, communications, perimeter control and security, these guys are very good.”

The Zetas have been linked to a number of contract killings across the US border in Texas, where their influence has been spreading.

If Mokbel has in some way double-crossed the Zetas, having the Australian Federal Police and Interpol on his trail will be the least of his worries. “They’re an impressive bunch of ruthless criminals,” says Arturo A. Fontes, an FBI special investigator for border violence based in Laredo, Texas.

Cannabis worth $1.3 million seized
From: AAP

May 17, 2006


A CANNABIS haul worth $1.3 million was seized by police during a raid on a home in Adelaide's north-western suburbs today.

Detectives from biker gang taskforce Operation Avatar arrived at a home in Cheltenham about 11am and promptly began a search that uncovered 67 one pound (454 grams) bags of cannabis, as well as fireworks and a pair of guns.

Police said the amount of cannabis equated to 67,000 street deals, with a total value of $1.3 million.

A 41-year-old Cheltenham man was arrested at the home and charged with possession of cannabis for sale and possession of fireworks.

He will appear in court at a date to be confirmed.

Ice smugglers jailed in Qld
From: AAP

May 18, 2006


TWO US Navy sailors and a Canadian national, who tried to smuggle $1 million of methylamphetamine into Australia aboard an American warship, have been handed lengthy jail terms.

Daniel Christopher Maio, 36, and Andrew Lester Labanon, 39, both Americans, and Canadian Mehdi Mohammadi, were today sentenced in the Townsville Supreme Court for the illegal importation of 11kg of the drug, otherwise known as 'ice'.

Maio, who dramatically changed his plea to guilty in the trial's latter stages, received a 12 and a half year sentence. Labanon received six years, with the possibility of parole after three.

Gold Coast-based Mohammadi, a Canadian born in Iran, received the harshest punishment, with Justice Kerry Cullinane sentencing him to 14 years' jail, with a non-parole period of seven years.

North Queensland Australian Federal Police (AFP) operations manager Jason Byrnes said agents were delighted with the outcome.

"This is a great victory for the Australian Federal Police. We managed to intercept the 'ice' before it hit the streets," he said.

A task force of more than 20 undercover federal police agents foiled the drug smuggling operation in July last year.

The court was told Maio, a chief petty officer on the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, had left the crew some weeks before his arrest.

But on board he had hidden a blue seabag containing three packages of methylamphetamine, known as ice and worth $1 million, in the radar dome on the vessel.

Maio had arranged to pay Labanon $US10,000 to bring it ashore and deliver the seabag to him when the Boxer was visiting Townsville.

The AFP claimed the drugs then would have been passed on to the Australian connection, Mohammadi.

Agents tracked Maio and Mohammadi from Brisbane to Townsville, where they received the drugs from Labanon.

Labanon, who had just arrived in Townsville on the USS Boxer, was arrested in his room in a Townsville resort on June 8.

Maio and Mohammadi were stopped by police south of Townsville the same day.

Man charged over $11 million fraudWednesday, 17 May 2006
(Australian Federal Police Announcement)

Australian Federal Police (AFP) agents have today charged a Sydney man with defrauding a number of telecommunication carriers of more than $11 million.

The 43-year-old man from Middle Dural is alleged to have dishonestly entered into contracts with five telecommunication carriers for the provision of time for international calls.

The time was then on-sold to consumers as pre-paid phone cards.

The AFP will allege in court the man defaulted on paying more than $11 million to the telecommunication carriers between January 2003 and September 2004.

It will also be alleged the man passed on worthless cheques when pressed for payment by the telecommunication carriers.

The 12-month investigation included the execution of three search warrants on residential premises at Middle Dural, Dural and Hornsby on 27 April 2006. A large amount of documents, electronic items and more than $70,000 in cash were seized during the warrants.

The AFP arrested the man this morning at his Middle Dural home and he was conveyed to Castle Hill police station.

He has been charged with one count of dishonesty with respect to defrauding the telecommunication carriers and one count of money laundering more than a million dollars under the Criminal Code Act 1995.

The man is expected to appear in the Sydney Central Local Court this afternoon.

AFP National Manager Economic and Special Operations Peter Drennan said the AFP was vigorously pursuing people who were attempting to find new ways to defraud Australia's corporate sector.

“People are using different methods in an attempt to profit from crime. However the AFP has powerful legislation in the Criminal Code and Proceeds of Crime Act to bring offenders before the court and deprive them of their illegal gains.”

The money laundering charge carries a maximum penalty of 25-years imprisonment.


Media enquiries: AFP Media (Canberra): (02) 6275 7100

Gunshot Death - Mosman
12 May 2006
News



About 8:00pm Thursday 11 May, police discovered the body of a man at Balmoral Beach.

Police attended the beach after reports of a man was seen floating in the water.

The body has been formally identified as Russell Merrick Oldham. The 39-year-old was discovered on the beach suffering a gunshot wound to the head. His death is not being treated as suspicious.

Brothel Bandits - Sydney Metro
11 May 2006
News

Police are seeking with the investigation into a series of armed robberies on Sydney brothels. Since January 2006, armed bandits have targeted brothels and massage parlours at Lidcombe, Newtown, Padstow, Narwee, Granville, Flemington, Guildford and Moorebank.

Police have released images of 2 offenders wanted in connection with a robbery in Guildford. About 11:55pm Saturday 6 May 2006. During that incident, staff members were threatened with a firearm and a demand for money was made.



The offenders are described as being of Middle Eastern appearance and aged in their early 20s.

Police are urging anyone who has fallen victim to a similar offence and not reported it to come forward. Brothel operators and sex workers are also being warned to ensure security in and around their premises.

Fat Tony's escape route
Friday, May 19, 2006

imageDetails of how Melbourne drug boss Antonios “Fat Tony” Mokbel pulled off his amazing vanishing act continue to emerge, with the latest pieces in the jig saw claiming he used a previously established “rat line” or escape route through Asia.

According to the Herald Sun the land-sea-air route, which involved bribing Asian officials, had been originally set up by the Moran crime family. It had previously been used to successfully spirit members of that group out of the country.

Although Mokbel and the patriarch of the Moran clam, Lewis Moran, fell out over Mokbel’s ambitions to dominate the a Melbourne amphetamine market, the Herald Sun says those running the rat line were only interested in the colour of Fat Tony’s money.

“Although the plan was set up by the Morans, those who actually arrange the various forms of transportation, false documents and bribed officials don’t care who the fugitive is, as long as they have plenty of cash,” an insider said.

And there was plenty of that. According to the Australian Federal Police, he had $20 million stashed away. Mokbel is now widely believed to be in his native Lebanon, which does not have an extradition treaty with Australia.

Mokbel disappeared on March 20 in the closing stages of his trial on cocaine smuggling charges. He had also been tipped off that Purana gangland squad detectives were close to charging him with murder.

The falling out between Mokbel and the Morans, supposedly due to Mokbel’s attempos to poach the Moran’s expert pill maker, was one of the triggers for Melbourne’s underworld war.

The Victorian Supreme Court has been told that Mokbel and another man paid $140,000 to have Lewis Moran murdered in March 2004. Both Moran’s sons, Jason and Mark, were also murdered during the war. You can read Gotcha’s previous posting on the Lewis Moran murder here.

It also emerged today that Mokbel’s girlfriend, convicted drug dealer Danielle McGuire, had also once been the lover of Mark Moran, gunned down in 2000.

I know where Mokbel is: insider
Keith Moor
19may06

THE whereabouts of fugitive drug boss Tony Mokbel are still a mystery two months after he disappeared.

Police don't know where he is or how he fled.

They have received information from various sources as to where Mokbel might be and what his escape route might have been.

But they have so far been unable to confirm any of them.

"The bottom line is we don't know where he is," AFP national manager Mike Phelan told the Herald Sun yesterday.

"While we are following a range of different inquiries, both domestically and overseas. If we knew where Mokbel was we would be doing everything necessary to bring him back to Victoria to serve his sentence."

The Herald Sun has provided the AFP with information obtained from a convicted criminal who believes he knows where Mokbel is and how he got there.

He has known Mokbel for several years and also knew murdered drug dealers Lewis Moran, his son Jason and stepson Mark. All three Moran gang members were killed during Melbourne's underworld war.

The AFP has asked the Herald Sun not to reveal precise details of Mokbel's alleged route and destination nominated by the insider.

"We are still investigating it," Mr Phelan said. "It is one of a number of scenarios that have been put to us from various sources both in Australia and overseas."

The Moran gang insider said the escape route he believes Mokbel used was established several years ago as an insurance policy by the father-son drug team of Lewis and Jason Moran in case police, or underworld enemies, got too close for comfort.

Both Morans were killed -- Jason, 36, in June 2003 and his father Lewis, 58, in March 2004.

Mokbel used to be close to the Morans, but had a falling out and was recently implicated in the murder of Lewis Moran.

The insider said he was aware of at least two Moran gang members who successfully used the escape plan to get out of the country.

"I would be very surprised if Mokbel hasn't now used it," he said. "Mokbel was certainly one of only a handful of people, including me, trusted enough to not only know what the escape plan was but also who to call to swing it into action."

The insider said Mokbel knew how to contact people in Australia and overseas who could implement various stages of the escape plan.

Each was prepared to accept cash to organise their part of it -- and not ask questions about who the client was. And while each of them knew exactly what to do in relation to their part in the plan, they were not aware of the other stages.

He said he had witnessed discussions between Moran gang members about the escape plan.

"Mokbel was certainly aware of it and knew it had worked in the past without authorities discovering it," the insider said.

He said Mokbel would have been prepared to serve his jail time over the cocaine importation he was recently convicted of.

"He would have expected to cop about five years for the cocaine job and could have handled that much time inside," the insider said.

But he claimed Mokbel discovered one of Victoria's most notorious hitmen had turned police informer and was implicating him in Melbourne's underworld murders.

He said Mokbel feared the Victoria Police Purana gangland killing taskforce was close to charging him with financing at least one of the executions.

"That made fleeing very attractive," the insider said.

Supreme Court judge Bill Gillard confirmed after Mokbel fled that Mokbel was a murder suspect.

"I refer in particular to the revelation that the Victorian police were investigating Mr Mokbel's alleged involvement in a gangland murder and had made a decision to arrest him in respect to the crime," he said on April 26.

Mokbel disappeared shortly before he was convicted of smuggling 1.93kg of pure cocaine into Victoria from Mexico. He was sentenced in his absence on March 31 to 12 years' jail and ordered to serve a minimum of nine.

AFP agent Jarrod Ragg told the Supreme Court on April 19 that Mokbel was believed to have transferred $20 million overseas since his release on bail in November 2002. He said the AFP had also received information Mokbel had several passports in false names.

"Mokbel is the head of a Lebanese organised crime syndicate based in Melbourne," his statement to the Supreme Court said.

"Mokbel has sufficient contacts and financial resources to support a fugitive lifestyle overseas."

Mokbel's lawyer, Con Heliotis, QC, has raised concerns his client may have been murdered or abducted, but federal agent Ragg said police had nothing to indicate Mokbel had met with foul play or was being held against his will.

He said all the evidence pointed to Mokbel having absconded.

"Mokbel has been named by a Victoria Police informant as having paid for a contract murder and provided the firearms to commit the murder," federal agent Ragg's statement to the Supreme Court said.

"A statement had been provided to this effect and is suspected to have been made available to Mokbel by his former solicitor and current girlfriend Zarah Garde-Wilson."

Justice Gillard said Mokbel was believed to have become aware of the contents of the Victoria Police statement on March 14 -- five days before he disappeared.

"Australian Federal Police were told on Friday, 17 March, 2006, that Victorian police proposed to arrest the prisoner and charge him with being involved in the murder," Justice Gillard said.

A second warrant to arrest Mokbel was issued by magistrate Phillip Goldberg on April 20 after Mokbel failed to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court for inciting others to import drug-making chemicals.

The AFP charged Mokbel in October last year over alleged attempts to organise a shipment of chemicals to make ecstasy.

Mokbel was the first person in Australia to be charged with inciting others to import a drug.

He was on bail for other drug offences when the AFP nabbed him on the inciting charge.

Mokbel was carrying $40,000 in cash in a bag and had six mobile phones with him when the AFP swooped.

Party scene led girlfriend to drugs
Keith Moor
19may06

POLICE assigned to watch a nude dancer after a tip-off she was selling drugs were happy to work overtime.

Their diligence at keeping their eyes peeled paid off.

They stopped her car after spotting her leaving a Collingwood apartment shortly before midnight and stripped her of the 501 amphetamine tablets she was carrying.

The tabletop dancer claimed to the Victoria Police drug squad officers that she got the pills from the woman living in the Collingwood unit she had just left.

Grabbing the exotic dancer was reward enough. That she was prepared to become a police witness against those she claimed supplied the drugs was an added bonus.

And what a big bonus it was.

A raid early the next morning on the Collingwood property resulted in what was at the time one of the biggest seizures of amphetamine pills in Victoria.

It also led to the arrest of Danielle McGuire, who went on to become fugitive murder suspect Tony Mokbel's live-in lover.

The erotic dancer told police she got the pills from McGuire, who lived in the Oxford St, Collingwood, apartment with her male model boyfriend and two-year-old daughter.

Police raided McGuire's home on May 23, 1998, and discovered 7300 amphetamine tablets and the raw ingredients and equipment to make thousands more.

The haul had a street value of about $400,000.

Evidence suggests the pills were being sold as ecstasy, which was just starting to become popular in Melbourne's nightclub, gym and modelling scenes.

McGuire and her model boyfriend were charged. He pleaded not guilty and she pleaded guilty to trafficking in a commercial quantity of drugs and possessing illegal drugs.

The boyfriend was cleared and McGuire attempted to change her plea to not guilty, but failed and her guilty plea was heard in May, 2002, by which time she was in a relationship with Mokbel.

Prominent lawyer Con Heliotis, QC, and equally high-profile barrister Nicola Gobbo, represented McGuire at the 2002 County Court hearing. They also represented Mokbel in his many court appearances since being arrested in August, 2001.

Mr Heliotis painted a bleak picture of McGuire's background. He said she had a difficult relationship with her father and stopped communicating with him when she was 13. At 14 she had started a seven-year relationship with a 20-year-old man.

Mr Heliotis said when that ended she had a six-month relationship with another man, which resulted in the birth of her daughter in November, 1995.

"He was an unstable individual, Your Honour, who, after the relationship ended, was to come to her home, kick in her door, put a knife to her throat demanding that they resume the relationship," he told the court.

"And when she refused, became sexually aggressive."

Mr Heliotis said McGuire's brother convinced her to join the Underworld gym in Melbourne's Banana Alley as a means of helping to get over her disastrous relationship.

He said she got in with a crowd of nightclub-loving people and started taking drugs.

"She started with cannabis, moved fairly quickly and easily to amphetamines, and in particular, ecstasy," Mr Heliotis said.

He said it was through drug taking that she met the male model who was arrested with her in 1998.

"Their use was such that they were buying in quantity to save money and from that stage it was a simple transition to start to sell some of the drugs that they were buying to others," Mr Heliotis said.

"And, in a relatively short period of time, to acquire established clientele who would take large numbers of the pills each time they became available -- and so they started to buy in greater bulk."

County Court Judge Jim Duggan said McGuire's lifestyle revolved around nightclubs. "Drug use seems to have dominated your lifestyle for some period of time.

"It appears that that lifestyle was financed by drug trafficking," the judge said.

He jailed McGuire for three years in May, 2002, ordering she serve a minimum 18 months.



Coffee time: Danielle Maguire (left) and Renate Mokbel.