A court in Melbourne ruled Friday that one of Australia’s most famous drug kingpins must face a retrial after his defence lawyer was revealed to have been a police informant.
Tony Mokbel — one of the key figures in Melbourne’s years-long gangland war — was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.
Violence linked to his group, known as “The Company”, claimed dozens of lives and was later immortalised in the hugely popular Australian TV series “Underbelly”.
But it was later revealed that Mokbel’s high-profile lawyer at the time, Nicola Gobbo, was feeding information to police while supposedly defending her clients.
Mokbel spent about 18 years behind bars but was released on bail this year after a court ruled he had a strong chance of overturning the criminal convictions.
His appeal hinged on the fact he would not have pleaded guilty if he had been aware of Gobbo’s double life, his legal team told Victoria’s Court of Appeal this year.
The court acquitted Mokbel of one charge on Friday, ordering a retrial for another and dismissed his appeal relating to a third charge.
He remains on bail before the case returns to court later this year.
Gobbo — also referred to as Lawyer X and Informer 3838 — claims that over 300 people were arrested and charged based on the information she provided, according to a June 2015 letter that was made public in December.
A Royal Commission of inquiry in 2020 found Gobbo’s double life during a period of intense gang bloodletting in Australia’s second-biggest city were “fundamental and appalling breaches” of her obligations as counsel to her clients.
Gobbo was a key police source during the critical years of gangland prosecutions between 2005 and 2009, but was also registered as an informant as far back as 1999 — two years before she was admitted to practice law.
She was recruited as a police informer after being charged with drug offences in 1993.
She received a good behaviour bond and no conviction was recorded, according to a police informant registration document tabled with the Royal Commission.
Victorian police spent five years and millions of dollars fighting in the courts to keep Gobbo’s identity a secret, maintaining that she could be murdered if it came to light.
Gobbo told a court in 2024 she had been living in hiding for years since her double life had been revealed.
“I’m tired and I’m broken,” she said. “I’ve just had enough.”
