Milad Mokbel jailed on drugs charges

The brother of drug kingpin Tony Mokbel has today been sentenced to a further four years’ jail after being convicted of trafficking a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine.

Milad Mokbel, 43, pleaded guilty in Victoria’s Supreme Court to trafficking the drug, known as ‘‘ice’’, at a clandestine laboratory at Rye between September 2002 and April 2003.

In sentencing, Justice Simon Whelan described him as a ‘‘willing, eager, knowledgeable and genuine drug trafficker’’, but added he was ‘‘prepared to be a man about it and the face the consequences’’.

Mokbel is already serving an 11-year maximum for blackmailing a business associate, drug trafficking, attempted trafficking and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

He sentenced to a further eight months’ imprisonment, to be served cumulatively, for refusing to answer questions at the Australian Crime Commission in relation to the murder of gangland patriarch Lewis Moran, and has three prior convictions for assault matters and driving while disqualified.

But the judge said his guilty plea, the delay in the proceedings reaching court and the fact he had spent a significant portion of time in custody at very high security units at Barwon Prison, were mitigating factors.

Also to be taken into account in sentencing was the fact he had strong support from his family, who ‘‘have been through some very hard times’’, the judge said.

‘‘It was a relevant mitigating factor that you had suffered greatly seeing the effect which your incarceration has had upon them,’’ he told him.

‘‘This is a serious drug offence, and, after your initial arrest in relation to it, you went on to commit further more serious trafficking offences.

‘‘Specific deterrence is obviously important here. General deterrence and denunciation are also important. On the other hand, until you were taken into custody in April 2006 you had never been to jail before, and, given the family support which you obviously have, your plea of guilty, and the forthright acceptance of responsibility evident in the way the matters in mitigation were put to me, I consider that there are reasonable prospects for your rehabilitation.’’

Justice Whelan told the court Mokbel, who was born in Lebanon and was the youngest of five children, became ‘‘embroiled in gaming and drug trafficking through your association with your brother, Tony, who was described as a loud, overbearing and inspiring person, who you looked up to’’.

Tony Mokbel - one of Australia’s most notorious crime figures - is awaiting sentence after the one-time fugitive admitted earlier this year to major drug trafficking charges, ending one of Victoria’s most expensive police investigations and prosecutions.

Five years after he vanished during a drugs trial, and sailed into hiding - and Australia’s most-wanted status - in Greece, the 45-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking a large commercial quantity of methylamphetamine and one count of trafficking a large commercial quantity of MDMA (Ecstasy) in the mid-2000s.

He also pleaded guilty to inciting an undercover police officer to import a commercial quantity of MDMA, the key active ingredient in ecstasy, in 2005.

The trafficking charges each carry a maximum life sentence, while the incitement-to-import charge, which is a federal offence, carries a maximum seven-year jail term.

Tony Mokbel was also accused of bankrolling the 2004 slaying of ‘‘Carlton Crew’’ patriarch Lewis Moran at the height of Melbourne’s gangland war, but a jury acquitted him of the charge in September, 2009.

The elder brother was also charged with murdering hot-dog seller and small-time drug dealer Michael Marshall, 38, in front of his son in South Yarra in 2003, but prosecutors later withdrew the charge in May, 2009.

Milad Mokbel was ordered to serve four years’ jail, two of which were to be served concurrently with the sentence he is already serving. Justice Whelan fixed a new non-parole period commencing today of four years, five months and two days.

The maximum penalty for the offence is 25 years’ imprisonment.

He will become eligible for parole on Christmas Eve 2015.