Drug trafficker returned to Australia

MELBOURNE, May 17 (UPI) -- Convicted Australian drug trafficker Tony Mokbel returned to Melbourne in handcuffs Saturday after being flown from Greece on a chartered jet.

Mokbel was arrested last year in a cafe near Athens.

Australian police officers accompanied Mokbel on the flight, the Melbourne Herald Sun reported. Police said his girlfriend and their child had to remain in Athens because there was no room for them on the plane, a Gulfstream.

Mokbel was on trial on drug trafficking charges in 2006 when he jumped bail. He was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 12 years.

Yannis Vlachos, who represented Mokbel in Greece, said Mokbel was looking forward to seeing his family.

"He is hoping to show the justice system he is not the monster that the mass media has painted him to be," he said.

Mokbel was convicted of bringing cocaine into Australia. Investigators have suggested he was involved in gangland killings.