Drug boss Tony Mokbel has lost his final bid for freedom.
The High Court on Friday refused the 48-year-old special leave to appeal against his conviction and 30-year jail term.
The ruling may have condemned the man, once known as Australia's most wanted, to die in prison, with his lawyers saying a heart problem will cut his life short.
Mokbel claims his extradition from Greece to Australia in 2008 violated international law and therefore he should not have been prosecuted for drug trafficking offences.
Mokbel's barrister, Ron Merkel QC, told the court both countries pushed through the extradition before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) could determine whether to intervene.
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He said the countries learnt the ECHR was due to officially inform them of Mokbel's appeal, and so rushed through his extradition.
If the ECHR decided to look at Mokbel's appeal it could have dragged out the extradition process by up to five years.
"From then the race started to get him out," Mr Merkel told the court.
Mokbel's application to the ECHR said his life would be in danger if he was returned to Australia.
Mr Merkel also said the subsequent 30-year sentence and 22-year minimum Mokbel received in the Victorian Supreme Court was crushing.
Two High Court judges took two minutes to reject Mokbel's latest bid for freedom.
The judges determined it was not in the interests of justice to allow the appeal.
Mokbel pleaded guilty to two trafficking charges and one of incitement to import drugs.
He disappeared in March 2006 while on trial for importing cocaine, hiding in Victoria for eight months before driving to WA and boarding a yacht to Greece.
He was arrested in Athens in June 2007.
Mokbel sought special leave to appeal at the High Court after he failed in an appeal in the Victorian Court of Appeal in May.
His lawyers previously said doctors had told Mokbel he had 24 years to live due to heart problems.
They say this means his jail sentence is, in effect, a life term.
Mokbel will be eligible for parole when he is 67.
