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Antonios Sajih Mokbel (Arabic: طوني مقبل; born 11 August 1965) is an Australians criminal who has been convicted of a number of offences, most prominently commercial drug trafficking. He has spent most of his life in Melbourne, Australia. Operation Purana alleged that he is the mastermind behind the Melbourne amphetamine trade. He has been linked to Carl Williams, and charged but not convicted of two murders in the Melbourne gangland war. He disappeared from Melbourne while on trial in March 2006, and was arrested by Greek police in Athens on 5 June 2007. He remained incarcerated until 4 April 2025 when he was bailed in the aftermath of the gangland Lawyer X scandal.
Mokbel and his family moved to Melbourne when he was eight years old. They settled in the suburb of Brunswick, with his father working at the Ford Australia factory and his mother at a meat factory. He spoke no English upon arrival in Australia and struggled at school, attending St Margaret Mary's Primary School, Brunswick High School and Moreland High School but was a keen Australian rules football player.
Mokbel's father drowned at Bondi Beach in Sydney on his 16th birthday. He would later reflect that this left him "dirty on the world" and led to him dropping out of school. Mokbel had no criminal record prior to his father's death; a psychological profile completed following his incarceration concluded that this was a defining moment in his life.
Mokbel was first arrested for a street brawl aged 18, and first incarcerated in 1992, having been caught attempting to bribe a judge. It was after this imprisonment that Mokbel became increasingly involved in the trafficking of drugs in Melbourne, in part to fund his accelerating gambling habit. He initially dealt in marijuana, then moved in to speed and later ecstasy pills as well. Mokbel found success in this trade, and rapidly gained wealth and notoriety throughout the next decade, forming an enterprise known as The Company.
In 1997, Mokbel luckily escaped injury and charges when one of his drug labs, worth 78 million dollars, exploded with him in it. This did not stymie the growth of his wealth in these years; by 2000, Mokbel owned a Ferrari car, expensive property, and racehorses. Indicating the scale of his operations at this time, it is known that Mokbel organised and received a shipment of ephedrine great enough to make two billion dollars of street drugs in late 2000.
It has been alleged that in late 2002 there was a meeting of more than ten Melbourne organised crime figures in Carlton. At that meeting, it is said that Mokbel was beaten, nearly to death, by Nik Radev's bodyguard, Western Australian Troy Mercanti, who was a member of the Coffin Cheaters motorcycle gang. Melbourne’s fatal gang wars came to Perth, court told - The West Australian, 2006-09-21 Andrew Veniamin was ordered by his then close associate, Mick Gatto, to take Mokbel to a female doctor. In the following couple of weeks, Mick Gatto was told that Veniamin and Mokbel became close allies.
Mokbel was alleged to have laundered over $2 million through At the Top of the Town, a high-profile Melbourne CBD brothel which he purchased through a business associate. One of Mokbel's amphetamine producers also ran a brothel in the Melbourne south-eastern suburbs while another Mokbel gang member who trafficked large amounts of drugs for Mokbel also ran a brothel. "Business washed drug cash" by Keith Moor Herald Sun 2007-04-30,"The Industrial Vagina Chapter 8: The State as a Pimp, p189" by Sheila Jeffreys"
While still awaiting trial in early 2006, Mokbel received intelligence that Operation Purana officers intended to charge him with murder for his alleged role in two of the Melbourne gangland killings. He therefore skipped bail and fled after 19 March. Mokbel first hid himself at a friend's house in Bonnie Doon, Victoria, while an associate made preparations for a maritime escape to Greece. A team of Greek sailors were recruited, and a yacht was purchased and transported to Fremantle, Western Australia, where Mokbel was then driven in two hired vehicles. He set sail on November 11, and arrived in Greece on 24 December 2006.
While Mokbel was in hiding in Greece, police laid the murder charge that had provoked his flight. Mokbel was charged with Lewis Moran's murder on 28 February 2007. Mokbel on Moran murder charge - The Australian, 2007-02-28 Police alleged that he and Carl Williams paid Keith Faure and Evangelos Goussis $150,000 for the March 2004 murder of Lewis Moran. Faure and Goussis were both convicted of the murder, but Mokbel was acquitted in September 2009. He was also charged in 2007 with the October 2003 murder of suspected drug dealer Michael Marshall, but prosecutors later withdrew this charge.
Mokbel became Australia's most wanted fugitive, until his eventual arrest by Hellenic Police in Athens on 5 June 2007. Disguised Mokbel grabbed at seaside cafe - The Age, 2007-06-06 Prior to his arrest, there was a $1 million bounty for information leading to his capture. $1m Mokbel reward up for grabs - The Age, 2007-06-06
On 5 July 2007, Australia made a formal request to Greece for Mokbel's extradition. Mokbel made appeals against the extradition in three Australian courts, as well as the Athens Court of Appeal, Greek Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). These attempts were all unsuccessful, and on 8 May 2008, the Greek justice minister finally ratified the Greek Supreme Court's decision thus enabling Mokbel's extradition. Lebanon had also made a simultaneous request to Greece for Mokbel's extradition, which an international law expert described as "strange", leading to reported speculation that Mokbel had bribed Lebanese authorities to make the request. Lebanon would not extradite Mokbel to Australia, as he is a Lebanese citizen, and so successful extradition to Lebanon would have enabled his permanent escape.
On 17 May 2008, Mokbel arrived at Melbourne Airport aboard a Gulfstream jet along with eight Lebanese men. The cost of the $450,000 jet trip drew some criticism, but the Victorian state said they intended to regain the costs by seizure of Mokbel's criminal earnings.
On 27 February 2012, Mokbel suffered a mild heart attack. On 11 February 2019, Mokbel was stabbed in Barwon Prison.
Mokbel appealed his convictions on the basis that his barrister, Nicola Gobbo, was simultaneously acting as a police informant (see Lawyer X scandal). His appeal of his 2006 conviction for cocaine importation was successful, although he had already entirely served that sentence; his appeal of the 2012 convictions is ongoing. In 2023, Mokbel's sentence was reduced from 30 years with a non-parole period of 22 years to a 26-year sentence with a 20-year non-parole period. The appeals judge announced that there were several factors that were also considered in reducing the sentence, including a 2019 prison yard assault and the impact COVID-19 had on the prison system. The reduced sentence meant that Mokbel was to be eligible for parole by 2031. Mokbel was released on bail on 4 April 2025. Drug kingpin to fugitive to free man: Mokbel walks after 18 years behind bars Sydney Morning Herald 4 April 2025
Robert Mammome reprised his role as Tony in Nine Network's 2020 series Informer 3838.
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