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hunters want MokbelBy Kelvin Healey
May 06, 2007 01:00am
Article from: Sunday Herald SunFont size: + -
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TWO world-famous US bounty hunters have added Australian gangland crime czar Tony Mokbel to their most-wanted list.
Duane "Dog" Chapman and Leonard Padilla have expressed their keen interest in nabbing Mokbel and claiming the $1 million bounty on his head.
Padilla said catching Mokbel would be "a piece of cake" and has implored the Australian Government to hire him to the hunt.
A spokesman for the Hawaii-based Chapman confirmed the fugitive specialist, who stars in his own reality TV hit, Dog. The Bounty Hunter, was also interested in the challenge.
Chapman, a former convict-cum-Christian, boasts of having nabbed 6000 fugitives, and attempts to motivate his captives to turn their lives around.
Mr Padilla, also a larger-than-life character who stars in a National Geographic Channel documentary, said hiring private bounty hunters would be the most cost-effective way of tracking down Mokbel.
Mokbel vanished in March last year, during a trial, before he was convicted of trafficking cocaine.
Police have since also charged him with the murder of Lewis Moran.
Mr Padilla said he had successfully captured fugitives in Lebanon, one of the countries where investigators believe Mokbel may be hiding.
"Lebanon is an easy place to find a guy," he said.
Mr Padilla said the fact Mokbel's lover, Danielle Maguire, may be travelling with him would make the fugitive easier to track.
Mr Padilla said his only worry about joining the chase was that public rewards could often be tough to claim.
"It is really darn difficult to collect from a government entity," he said.
Mokbel, who was jailed in his absence for 12 years for cocaine smuggling, is being hunted by Australian Federal Police and Interpol.
Interpol has circulated photographs of Mokbel to its 184 member countries.
This week Victoria Police revealed that Crime Stoppers programs around the world had been mobilised to find the drugs boss.