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 Dennis William Smith
Smith, known
behind his back as "Fatty", "Fat Cat" or "the Fat
One", was
a popular figure among criminals.
According to
a 2002 story in the Melbourne
Age, Smith had dealt drugs and guns, moved stolen property, pretended to be the
son of a war hero to get free air travel, smuggled prostitutes and made three
giant industrial diesel motors disappear for the insurance money.
He could get you a driver's
licence, an Asian bride, a cheap air ticket, or a hot credit-card.
He has been an AFL club sponsor,
company director, hotel owner, gambling identity, railway worker, boner and
butcher.
At a 2002 court hearing, Smith said that he was a labourer.
Smith is rumoured to have laundered
some of the proceeds from the 1976 Great Bookie
Robbery, where six bandits,
armed with sub-machineguns, grabbed 118 calico bags filled with cash.
A team led
by Raymond Raymond 'Chuck' Bennett is thought responsible
for the raid which could have netted up to $15m.
It was after that robbery that
Smith, and long-time partner, Kerry Ashford, opened the sleazy Aussie Bar in the
Philippines capital Manila, an offshore haven for major criminals from Sydney
and Melbourne.
One of these was Russell
'Mad Dog' Cox, who after having escaped form Long Bay jail is said to have
sought refuge at Smith's establishment.
Cox's
girlfriend and accomplice was Helen Deane.
She was the sister of the aforementioned Bennett.
The Bar was apparently a windfall
for Smith.
He once told police that he bought it for $25,000 and it was taking
$40,000 a week.
In Manila, Smith
established a drug-dealing network.
He was
beyond the reach of Australian police who could not trust officials there to
investigate his syndicate.
When NCA officers secretly flew to
Manila, Smith had Filipino investigators follow them.
Smith and Ashford are
believed to have had nearly 50 Filipino officials on their payroll, including
immigration officials and police.
Smith was a principal figure in
eight references from the Costigan Royal Commission given to the NCA, and a
target of three Australian Federal Police task forces.
At the height of his
criminal career, he owned a Rolls-Royce, ten racehorses in Victoria and wore
$300,000 of gaudy gold jewellery.
Even though Smith was a known
criminal, there was a large advertising hoarding for the Aussie Bar at the North
Melbourne Football Club's home ground in Arden Street and Smith was rumoured to have helped a
well-known player by paying out his gambling debts.
Smith was deported from the
Philippines in August 1986 as a result of a tip-off from one of his enemies.
He
was arrested in Victoria three months later.
In October 1986 Smith,
Ashford and another associate, Thomas
Schievella were arrested for dealing drugs
out of a Campbellfield trucking yard.
Smith was charged
with trafficking cocaine and cannabis valued at about $500,000.
After one of his
team, Peter James Cross, gave evidence against him, Smith was sentenced in the
County Court to a maximum of 11 years' jail.
Ashford was sentenced to 10 years
with a minimum of eight, Schievella got eight years with a minimum of six.
Smith
was released after serving six years.
In January 1998, stick-up merchant Billy
Prideaux was the prime focus
of a police operation named Albers.
Albers was formed after a string of banks in
Melbourne's south-east were robbed netting the offender/s close to two million
dollars.
By then Prideaux
had spent over tens years of his forty-five behind bars, serving time for
numerous armed offences ranging from bank jobs to assault.
He was on parole and had apparently slipped into
his old ways.
Detectives believed Prideaux
was running with a second ex-con named Leigh Torney
and enlisting Dennis Smith as the getaway expert.
Shifts around the clock sweated on Torney and Prideaux.
One day detectives sat in an unmarked car
watching Prideaux and Torney
step through a dry-run on a Keilor bank.
Prideaux and Torney
did everything but commit the crime, double-checking drop-off times, shutters,
alarms, escape routes.
Surveillance detectives followed the pair back to
Moorabbin.
Several weeks full-time, several crews full-time
- but the pressure had not pinned the bank-job run on Prideaux
and his associates.
The Albers team had more than a hunch that Billy
was behind the bank heists but hunches don't convince judges.
By 1999 Smith and Ashford were back doing
what they did best -- selling drugs.
The heavily tattooed former
meatworker became connected with the Hollyford Hotel in Elizabeth Street,
central Melbourne.
The establishment became a meeting place for many notorious
identities.
Drugs, guns and stolen property were exchanged and bought in the
pub.
Smith was no average criminal.
Only
he would deal drugs out of the driver's window of his Rolls-Royce on one of
Melbourne's main streets during mid-afternoon.
And only he would run a drug
dealing syndicate from a Carlton hotel and still find time to sell an undercover
policeman a shoplifted shirt for $30.
In May 1999, police at the Mill
Park District Support Group began an investigation of a local woman who had
become a prodigious amphetamine seller.
Mary Gannon, 39, had turned drugs
into a small business, selling speed from her home seven days a week.
Gannon was very busy.
Police
monitored 4500 calls on her mobile phone in two months.
Her reputation as a
reliable source of supply was the result of her connection with Dennis Smith.
When police became aware of Smiths
involvement in the operation the NCA was informed.
An undercover policeman was then
introduced to Gannon who sold him large amounts of drugs over the next six
months.
In September 1999 police were watching as
she and the undercover detective purchased drugs from Dennis Smith in Carlton.
In early December 1999 police were
watching Smith as he met with two other criminals, Stephen "Fat
Albert" Collins and Dennis "Wee Wee' Baldwin, at the 'Head Quarters',
a house in Liverpool St Footscray.
They watched as the crime team conducted
reconnaissance on the Commonwealth Bank in Barkly Street and the Kealba View
Hotel.
On December 21, 1999 Smith was due to
sell $3000 of amphetamines to the undercover policeman.
Smith had become
suspicious of his client and even called Mary Gannon in jail for reassurance.
The outcome of the conversation was that Smith went through with the sale two
days later and within half an hour his hotel was being turned upside down by
police.
On December 23, 1999 three
colourful Melbourne identities were arrested in a series of raids that police
said had smashed a big Melbourne-based drugs distribution racket.
Dennis Smith was one of five people
arrested during the raids by the Victoria Police and the National Crime
Authority.
Selling in amounts
up to two ounces at a time, Smith lived up to his "Greedy" moniker by
selling short of the amount ordered.
Kerry Ashford was also arrested
when the special operations group smashed their way into the Hollyford Hotel.
Another man arrested in the raids
was considered to be a major dealer in stolen property.
Police are believed to have found
large quantities of illegal firearms, amphetamines and two hydroponic marijuana
crops during the raids.
They also found fake documents including driver's
licences, birth certificates, loan applications and passports.
Police also found
that the hotel's store-room had been turned into a drugs warehouse complete with
plastic bags and two sets of electronic scales.
Remnants of amphetamines were
found on one set.
Houses in Strathmore, Roxburgh Park,
West Heidelberg, two properties in Footscray, and a farm at Katandra, near
Shepparton, were also raided.
One of the Footscray properties
raided was the 'Head Quarters' in Barlky Street.
There, police found ammunition,
balaclava's and two-way radio's.
In the garage was a Niva
four-wheel-drive vehicle and, inside, a large metal ram designed to attach to
the bull-bar.
Police also found a loaded, sawn off, double barrelled shotgun, a
.32 pistol and some bolt-cutters.
The shotgun was tested and found to
have been used in a Moonee Ponds robbery four years earlier.
The raid at the farm near Katandra
netted 14 guns including two .22 rifles cut down to makeshift pistols.
Regional crime coordinator,
Detective Superintendent Danny Moloney, described the Hollyford Hotel as a
supermarket for amphetamines and other drugs in Melbourne's city centre.
Detective Moloney said there would
be a noticeable shortage on the streets as a result of the operation.
A witness to the raid, Mr Ben
Hunt, said he had arrived at the Hollyford for a Christmas break-up party when
police swooped.
"About four four-wheel drives
pulled up behind us and about 10 or 15 guys came out with all the gear on and
started smashing doors," he said.
"They all went in screaming and
yelling and chairs and tables were flying around."
Detective Moloney said two elderly
men were taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital immediately following the raid.
But he said no one was injured.
"We wanted to make sure they were fit and well after that occurred,"
he said.
Detective Moloney declined to
discuss the size or monetary value of the seizure but said it was alleged that
all those arrested were involved in trafficking "large quantities" of
amphetamines.
On
March 1, 2002, Dennis Smith was jailed for a maximum of three years, the 11th
time he had been imprisoned.
All but six months of his sentence was suspended.
He had spent 239 days in custody since his arrest.
The court heard
Smith was "at the highest level of the hierarchy in the amphetamine dealing
network."
Smith, who pleaded
guilty to trafficking between May and November 1999, was now in declining health
and, according to his counsel, his days of criminal activity were over.
The court was told Smith was
battling melanoma (a disease that claimed his brother), diabetes and
the effects of two strokes.
During his plea
hearing, the court heard of Smith's "other side" in which he did
charity work for the Western Bulldogs and helped chauffeur football legend Ted Whitten after he
became ill.
Judge Barton Stott
had been urged not to jail Smith.
But Judge Stott,
noting Smith's lengthy criminal record, elected to jail him for three years.
He
set a non-parole period of six months.
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