Could drug kingpin Tony Mokbel soon be free?

STR/AFP via Getty Images

Could a bunch of Australia’s most notorious gangland criminals soon be free?

Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel is currently serving a 26-year sentence for trafficking MDMA and methamphetamines.

However, this week, a judge ruled that Mokbel’s then-lawyer, Nicola Gobba, perverted the course of justice by feeding information to the police in the lead-up to his arrest.

Gobbo, who you may know as Lawyer X, was representing Mokbel at the time, but had been conspiring with Victoria Police for over a decade to put him behind bars.

Mokbel is now asking for his drug trafficking and importation convictions to be overturned as he didn’t know she was informing Victora police.

In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt is joined by veteran crime journalist Adam Shand to explain the likelihood of Mokbel’s convictions, and potentially those of others who were represented by Gobbo, being overturned.

“Justice Fullerton has said the use of Nicola Gobbo as an informer against her clients meant that she was involved in a “joint criminal enterprise” with Victoria Police.

“So we now see the possibility of Tony Mockbell and others having their cases re-looked at… I think he should have a real shot at getting his case overturned because it relied so heavily upon Nicola Gobbo’s testimony and cooperation.

“He’s already in the midst of an appeal, and it will be up to the powers that be to decide whether or not the involvement of Gobbo as an informer against him prejudiced his basic legal rights to a fair trial.”