MELBOURNE — A court in Melbourne ruled Friday that one of Australia’s most famous drug kingpins must face a retrial after his defence lawyer was revealed to have been a police informant.

Tony Mokbel — one of the key figures in Melbourne’s years-long gangland war — was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.

Violence linked to his group, known as “The Company”, claimed dozens of lives and was later immortalised in the hugely popular Australian TV series “Underbelly”.

But it was later revealed that Mokbel’s high-profile lawyer at the time, Nicola Gobbo, was feeding information to police while supposedly defending her clients.

Mokbel spent about 18 years behind bars but was released on bail this year after a court ruled

See Full Page