Police raided three houses at Burnside and Reservoir about 6am today as part of the Mokbel investigation, codenamed Operation Magnum.The raids were the culmination of a 14-month operation targeting associates who allegedly used proceeds of crime to organise Mokbel's great escape.A man and two women were arrested and were this morning being questioned at St Kilda Road police complex.
The arrests come almost three weeks after Mokbel was extradited to Australia in a dramatic end to more than two years on the run.The drug boss disappeared while on trial for cocaine smuggling in March 2006.It is believed he was holed up at an associate's property in Bonnie Doon, in Victoria's high country, before fleeing Australia eight months later.Mokbel was arrested in Athens in June 2007 and returned to Australia via a luxury Gulfstream jet on May 17 after a seven-month extradition battle.He is serving a minimum nine years' jail at Barwon Prison's high security unit after being convicted in absentia for smuggling two kilograms of cocaine from Mexico.Mokbel also faces a further 15 charges, including two for the murders of underworld rivals Lewis Moran and Michael Marshall and a string of drugs charges.
A 63-year-old Reservoir man is expected to be charged with trafficking a drug of dependence, conspiracy to pervert the course of justic, accessory after the fact and deal with proceeds of crime.
Two Burnside women, aged 46 and 34, are both expected to be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, accessory after the fact and deal with proceeds of crime.This morning's raids follow the execution of more than 50 search warrants throughout NSW, Queensland and Western Australia in recent months, police said.
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