Vic: Mokbel fled Australia disguised as priest: report

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2006
Vic: Mokbel fled Australia disguised as priest: report

MELBOURNE, April 23 AAP - Fugitive cocaine importer Tony Mokbel is believed to have
fled Australia via Perth dressed as a priest.

Another theory has the millionaire businessman, who was out on bail, using a false
passport to abandon his cocaine importing trial on March 20.

Mokbel was found guilty in his absence of being involved in importing 2 kg of cocaine
from Mexico to Melbourne in 2000.

An underworld source told the Sunday Herald Sun Mokbel flew to South Africa before
making his way to Beirut.

The whereabouts of Mokbel, 40, has fascinated the nation, as police, journalists and
underworld figures try to pinpoint his hiding spot.

An associate said he would search for him as the convicted drug trafficker owed him
"legal" money.

"We know he has some false passports and we know the names (on them)," the associate said.

"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."

Mokbel is believed to have used the Lebanese name, Sufayar, as one of his aliases, the man says.

The associate said he believed Mokbel had fled because a police informer had implicated
him in murders.

Australian Federal Police agent Jarrod Ragg this week told the court Mokbel was thought
to have moved $20 million offshore before he fled.

AAP jat/rs

KEYWORD: MOKBEL

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