Shortcut: Tony Mokbel’s Freedom with Charlie Bezzina

Australian True Crime

Meshel Laurie

True Crime

4.6 • 979 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a "Shortcut" episode. It’s a shortened version of this week’s more detailed full episode, which is also available on our feed.

Retired homicide detective Charlie Bezzina reflects on Melbourne’s gangland era and Tony Mokbel’s role within it.

He discusses the work of the Purana Task Force and the impact of Nicola Gobbo’s dual role as a lawyer and police informant, which has raised questions about past convictions.

With Mokbel now released on bail, we examine the lasting implications of this complex chapter in Australian criminal history.

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CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on instagram.

Guest: Charlie Bezzina

Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We recently received a message from a listener who'd encountered Tony Mockbell in the wild,
0:09.9	or in suburban Melbourne at least.
0:13.1	Mockbell is one of Melbourne's most notorious underworld figures.
0:16.8	He's involved in one way or another with just about every colourful yarn to come out of that scene over the last 30 years,
0:23.9	including Victoria Police's Purana Task Force, established in 2003 to combat the escalation in gangland killings.
0:32.4	Its legacy is now surrounded by controversy and allegations of improper conduct.
0:39.1	Mockbell was arrested on drug charges in 2005, but he skipped bail due, he says, to advice from
0:46.0	his lawyer, Nicola Gobbo. He was re-arrested in 2007 in a coffee shop in Athens, extradited
0:53.6	and imprisoned.
0:55.7	But Mockbell walked free from jail earlier this year.
0:59.2	His is one of thousands of convictions now threatened by the revelation
1:03.0	that while acting as defence counsel for clients,
1:06.1	Nicola Gobbo was also working as a police informant for the Piranha Task Force.
1:12.1	We at Australian True Crime are lucky enough to have a friend
1:14.7	who was also deep in the mix of the Melbourne gangland war,
1:18.5	retired homicide detective Charlie Bozina.
1:21.7	Charlie joins us to share his recollections of that time
1:24.9	and Mock Bell's place in it.
1:27.4	This is Australian true crime.
1:29.6	We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created,
1:34.0	the Wurundri, Woi Wurung people of the Koolan Nation.
1:37.4	And a warning.
	...

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