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Victorian drug crims to lose all assets

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http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/new-assets-seizure-laws-to-take-every-last-cent-from-convicted-drug-lords/story-fni0fee2-1226964288678
New assets seizure laws to take every last cent from convicted drug lords

  • Matt Johnston state politics reporter
  • Herald Sun
  • June 23, 2014 10:00PM

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More than $50 million has already been seized from Tony Mokbel.


DRUG barons sent to jail now face being stripped of almost all they own, even without any evidence their riches are ill-gotten gains.

Tough new laws to ensure crime doesn’t pay will also crack down on kingpins who shield their assets by parking them in a relative’s name.

Police will get new powers to freeze and sell off assets.

Forfeiture laws to be introduced to State Parliament this week would allow courts to label a criminal convicted of large-scale drug cultivation or trafficking a “serious drug offender”.




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A Ferrari seized by police from Tony Mokbel’s home.

Authorities could then pursue the criminal’s property without having to prove, as they must now, that the property was involved in the commission of a crime or was bought with the proceeds of crime.

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Attorney-General Robert Clark told the Herald Sun this meant they would lose almost everything “save for basic household goods and tools and a modestly priced vehicle”.

“Any financial gain drug traffickers may have stood to make will be effectively wiped out,” he said.

“These laws will send a strong message to would-be drug traffickers that crime will not pay in Victoria. Not only will they go to jail for a long time, but they will lose almost everything they own.

“Drug traffickers are peddlers of death and misery, who wreak a terrible toll on young lives across our state.

“Those behind the mass distribution of ice and other drugs across our state need to be hit hard.”

The money raised would go into government coffers.

High-profile cases of drug tsars living off suspected proceeds of crime include Tony Mokbel, who escaped to Greece on a yacht in 2006.

More than $50 million has been seized from the trafficker and his associates, but recent Herald Sun revelations about Mokbel laying huge racing bets from prison suggest a continuing flow of money.

The legislation is to include safeguards to try to ensure that innocent third parties, such as an unwitting housemate or partner in an asset, are not swept up in asset seizures.

Under baseline sentencing laws before Parliament, drug kingpins also face a 14-year average jail term.

Further law and order reforms, including a push to dump defensive homicide laws, are due to be debated in Parliament as early as this week.

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http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/drug-crims-to-lose-all-assets/story-fni0ffsx-1226964298551

June 24, 2014 12:00AM

DRUG traffickers richly deserve to have their considerable assets seized under new laws to be introduced in the Victorian Parliament.

There is no question these new laws will be supported by a public tired of the arrogance of criminals who live a millionaire lifestyle, surrounded by their ill-gotten gains.

Drug lords enjoy flaunting their wealth for all to see. Their ostentatious behaviour is an insult to the law-abiding community. Tony Mokbel drove a Ferrari and owned racehorses before fleeing Australia in a yacht he bought to aid his escape to Greece. He was arrested still running his drug empire through the internet and on mobile phones.

No longer will criminals be able to keep their assets safeguarded from their crimes. Offenders convicted of serious drug offences will forfeit everything they own. The law used to require proof that the assets in question were the proceeds of criminal activities.

Under the new laws, such assets do not have to be linked to crime. Convicted criminals will be left with no more than their clothes and what might be found in a modest home. The Ferrari or the Porsche will no longer sit in the driveway. There may no longer be a driveway to the house where their family may be living. The criminals themselves will be serving years in jail under new sentencing requirements.

Nor will it be a case of selling off what they own before they can be convicted. An order will stop the disposal of property from the time they are charged until the outcome of their trial, or the charges being withdrawn. These are harsh laws but necessary to deal with the asset empires built up by serious offenders and for too long beyond the reach of police. In the case of Mokbel, serving a minimum of 22 years in jail for drug trafficking, authorities have seized more than $50 million in assets. Even so, there are still large sums undiscovered, which Mokbel is drawing on to lay bets for tens of thousands of dollars on major horse racing meetings.

For a time, criminals had to prove their assets were not the profits of crime, which is the reverse of the usual onus of proof that rested with police and prosecutors.

Wealthy drug offenders will undoubtedly engage the services of highly paid solicitors and barristers to challenge the new legislation, but the Government is confident they will not succeed in what would be a major constitutional challenge. The new legislation will have the imprimatur of the Victorian Supreme Court in declaring someone a “serious drug offender” after convicting a defendant of the most serious of drug offences.

Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark calls drug traffickers “peddlers of death and misery who wreak a terrible toll on young lives”. This is the grimmest of realities.

Mr Clark says criminals dealing in ice and other dangerous drugs will see their financial gains simply “wiped out”.

There are safeguards to ensure innocent third parties, such as families, are not disadvantaged by seizures under the Confiscation Act. Dependants will not be left homeless, but most likely they will be living in a different home.

One of the major benefits of the new legislation is to stop assets being reinvested to finance further criminal activities, which is often the case in high-end drug trafficking. A major problem with existing legislation is to separate from assets that which has been obtained legitimately and what are the proceeds of crime. That is no longer at issue.

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"and other dangerous drugs" - Just who is to say what determines whether a drug is dangerous, or not?

How about cannabis? Will a small time grower, producing enough for him/herself and partner, and selling just enough to pay for electricity, nutrients, replacement lights, growing media, etc. lose everything they have worked to build all their lives?

And what about newly married couples, etc. where one is unaware that the other is dealing?

Is synthetic cannabis to be regarded as a dangerous drug? Hashish?

Such criminals will soon learn to steadily move their wealth to states, territories, and countries where the Vic / Qld laws can't touch it, or put some in the hands of close and trusted friends, or even corrupt lawyers / bankers / "business people" who aren't dealing, and/or go bush regularly, and bury it in multiple locations.

Edited by CLICKHEREx

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