ATHENS, May 16 (Reuters) - Greece on Friday extradited Australia's most wanted fugitive, Tony Mokbel, to face a murder investigation and serve out a 12-year drugs sentence imposed by an Australian court.

Police said two Australian police officers, accompanied by two Interpol officials, boarded a chartered plane with Mokbel which took off from Athens airport at 9 a.m. (0600GMT).

"Mokbel is on his way to Australia after every detail for his extradition was finalised," a police official told Reuters.

Mokbel, known as "Fat Tony", was sentenced in abstentia to 12 years in jail for cocaine trafficking in 2006. He fled to Greece before the end of that trial.

Mokbel was also wanted on suspicion of ordering the murders of rival crime boss Lewis Moran and another man.

He was arrested in an Athens coastal suburb last year after a joint Australian-Greek police operation and fought a long legal battle to avoid extradition.

He had been using a fake identity for nine months and living in Greece with his girlfriend and two children. (Writing by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

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