Australian organized crime boss Tony Mokbel, who is of Lebanese origin, is reported to have fled to Lebanon after being convicted of drug trafficking and suspected of involvement in gang killings.

Australia's Sunday Herald Sun reported on Sunday that Federal police agents are believed to be in Lebanon hunting for Mokbel who disappeared last month from Melbourne where a court found him guilty of cocaine smuggling.

A man claiming to be a business associate of Mokbel, who is known as "fat Tony," said he was looking for him in Beirut, the newspaper said.

Australian federal police declined to comment on the claims.

However, reports in Australia have said that an international manhunt was underway for Mokbel, the country's top fugitive.

Mokbel, 40, was a no-show at his cocaine trafficking trial on March 20. In his absence, a jury found him guilty of smuggling almost 3kg of pure cocaine into Australia from Mexico in late 2000. He was sentenced to 12 years in jail, with a minimum of nine years.

However, police was still investigating his connection with Melbourne's gangland murders. The tit-for-tat killings, that swept the city's underworld over the past 8 years, have left 29 criminal figures dead. The majority of the murders are still unsolved.

Mokbel, a multimillionaire property developer, is suspected of involvement in the Feb. 6 murder of underworld figure and former lawyer Mario Condello.

The Sunday Herald Sun quoted one of Mokbel's business partners as saying he had people searching for the fugitive in Beirut. The source said he had nothing to do with Mokbel's criminal activities but that they were in real estate together.

"We know he's there. We have some business with Tony - nothing to do with what he's done (criminally). We are in property," said the source.

"When he left for Beirut, the business went bad," he added.

Australia has no formal extradition treaty with Lebanon.

The source said Mokbel had many investments in Beirut, including an interest in St Georges Marina, a luxury port in the Lebanese capital.

Mokbel's investment portfolio in Melbourne includes property and boutique retail clothing stores.

The source indicated he was publicizing the drug baron's suspected whereabouts to attract police attention.

Mokbel, a father of two, is well known in Melbourne's Maronite community. He is divorced and is living with his girlfriend Danielle Maguire.