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Mokbel furious over 'lunatic' drama Underbelly

HE acts, speaks and looks like an extra out of The Sopranos but drugs tsar Tony Mokbel is furious his life has been made into a Channel 9 drama.

The 42-year-old, who yesterday again managed to stave off an extradition order from Greece, said Underbelly had ensured he could never get a fair trial in Victoria or possibly anywhere in Australia.

His family is understood to have seen the show, which won't be broadcast in Victoria until 2009 but is rating well in other states, and he has heard about his portrayal in it.

"They are lunatics," he told The Daily Telegraph yesterday of the show's producers.

"I didn't really want to know anything about it, it really is just crazy.

"I'm not a movie star, I wouldn't make a good movie star but here is this thing."

He said producers never contacted his family and had refused to take calls when they rang about the show. Mokbel was particularly furious his partner Danielle McGuire was also featured in the series.

It might not be shown on television in Victoria but Mokbel said there was no such thing as television any more with the internet the new viewing platform.

"How am I going to ever get a fair trial with everything that is being said about me," he said.

By Charles Miranda in Athens
March 06, 2008
The Daily Telegraph