Vic: Mokbel 'hid in Bonnie Doon' lair, say police

AAP General News (Australia)
08-18-2007
Vic: Mokbel 'hid in Bonnie Doon' lair, say police

MELBOURNE, Aug 18 AAP - Melbourne drug lord Tony Mokbel is believed to have hid in
a small town made famous in the film, The Castle, while detectives hunted internationally
for him.

Fairfax newspapers say police now believe Mokbel was lying low in a farmhouse at Bonnie
Doon, 150 km north-east of Melbourne, after skipping bail last year.

Police executed search warrants on the property when they arrested George Elias, one
of the drug lord's closest associates, on drug charges two months ago, Fairfax says.

Since Elias's arrest, detectives from the Purana Taskforce have interviewed neighbours
in Bonnie Doon, trying to piece together Mokbel's last known movements before he was smuggled
onto a ship seven months later.

Mokbel skipped bail in the closing stages of a cocaine importation trial, for which
he was sentenced to nine years in his absence.

He is facing charges over the murders of gangland rivals in Melbourne and is in custody
in Greece, while Australian authorities seek to extradite him.

AAP sjm/rs

KEYWORD: MOKBEL

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