Lawyer X was a police informer with the perfect cover.

She was a respected defence barrister acting for feared gangland and mafia figures.

As Victorian police desperately tried to bring an end to the underworld bloodshed which played out on Melbourne’s city’s streets from 1998 until 2006, the lawyer — who was given the codename Informer 3838 by police — passed on her clients’ secrets and helped them lock up killers and drug traffickers.



There is now a Royal Commission into the tactics, which could see gangland figures - including convicted drug smugglers and killers - walk from jail.

The first figure to walk free was Faruk Orman.

The Herald Sun uncovered the scandal in 2014, but much of the story was shrouded in court orders that prevented the full truth from being told.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Lawyer X story.

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WHO IS LAWYER X?

One of Victoria’s youngest women barristers, she had dreamt of being Prime Minster and worked on her university’s student newspaper.

She would go on to shape events almost as much as the headline villains she represented — Tony Mokbel, Carl Williams and others. But how did she come to step over the line and betray her clients?

READ PART 1 >> THE SCORPION’S STING <<

THE HODSON MURDERS

How did a secret police file, the ‘Blue file’, which exposed Terry Hodson as an informer, end up in the hands of the Melbourne underworld? What role, if any, did his own lawyer play in events in the months before his death?

READ PART 2 >> THE HODSON BETRAYAL <<

WHAT DID CARL WILLIAMS KNOW?

He was bashed to death in a high-security prison block by a man he thought was his mate. And when they laid drug kingpin Carl Williams to rest, the truth about several unsolved gangland murders were buried with him. Did he also take secrets about Lawyer X to the grave?

READ PART 3 >> THE MAN IN THE GOLDEN COFFIN <<

WRONG LAWYER BLAMED FOR FAT TONY

Drug baron and wig wearer Tony Mokbel says he got a tip from a lawyer that he should flee Australia before police could charge him with a series of underworld murders. But the finger of blame landed on glamorous solicitor Zarah Garde-Wilson — who was not only innocent, but already suspicious of the person Mokbel says was the culprit, Lawyer X.

READ PART 4 >> A WIG & A PRAYER <<

MAFIA DRUG PLOT A BUST

It was the world’s biggest ecstasy bust at the time. The Tomato Tins case saw dozens of smugglers jailed and 15 million pills seized. But will law enforcement’s great success story now be undone by the very person who is believed to have helped crack it?

READ PART 5 >> THE TOMATO TINS TWIST <<

CRIM INFORMED ON 2300 TIMES

His isn’t a household name like his pal Tony Mokbel, but Rob Karam was just as prolific at importing drugs. He got busted after trying to do a massive deal with an undercover cop and is doing hard time. But this massive gambler’s luck might be about the change.

READ PART 6 >> THE ROB KARAM TEST <<

WHAT HAPPENED IN BALI

Ron Iddles had hunted killers and child rapists. He was one of Victoria’s top homicide cops. But when he found himself flying to Bali on a secret mission, what he found would shake his faith in the system he’d devoted his career to.

READ PART 7 >> BALI & THE SLOW REVEAL <<

HOW THE STORY CAME OUT

Almost as much effort went into stopping the Herald Sun from revealing the Lawyer X story as went into hunting the criminals who may now walk free because of it. This is how reporter Anthony Dowsley uncovered the truth.

READ PART 8 >> HOW WE UNCOVERED THE TRUTH <<