|
 Dino Dibra
Petty offences like theft led
to bigger and worse things for Dibra who grew up in the Sunshine area. At
age fifteen he started with theft. At
sixteen he was charged with driving recklessly and dangerously. One
year later, at age eighteen, he was caught in possession with a drug of
dependence. Less than two
months later he was convicted and fined after resisting police and escaping
lawful custody. The
detective who first arrested him told the Herald Sun: "Even then he was
likening himself to a gangster. He loved that lifestyle. He was a funny guy and
nothing seemed to faze him. When I charged him once and asked him if there was
anything he wanted to say, he said, 'I'm young, I'm sweet and I'm
innocent.'" Dibra went
on to add more serious charges to his docket: reckless conduct endangering life,
and reckless and unlicensed driving. By
mid-1994 he was charged for assaulting police and using and possessing cannabis. The
nineteen year old then faced charges of making a threat to kill, threatening to
inflict serious injury and unlawful drug possession. He was jailed and fined.
On October 15, 1996, Dibra, who pumped
his stocky frame, full of steroids, was
imprisoned after he went berserk while driving.
He was sentenced to
18 months jail, fined $2500 and ordered off the road for five years.
Dibra failed in an
attempt to appeal against the convictions but was released less than a year
later.
In mid 1997 and in
October that year he was handed more jail time for unlicensed and careless
driving and failing to answer bail.
During his early
twenties, police say Dibra was running a stolen car racket with friend
Rocco
Arico
The racket allegedly
involved re-building registered cars with the bodies and parts of stolen ones.
When not buying new
cars at auction for the clean framework, police have been told, the two were out
extorting nightclub patrons for their car keys.
Nightclubs were
playgrounds for Dibra and
Arico.
In particular they
were regular faces at Dome in Prahran and a Crown Casino nightclub.
Police believe Dibra
was dealing in cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines at clubs.
He had a loyal group
in tow and
Arico was his most faithful sidekick.
"Their
behaviour was violent, irrational and dangerous. they'd go off tap for no
reason," a former detective says of the duo.
Dibra was later linked to savage bashings, shootings,
blackmail and extortion.
Sources also told
the Herald-Sun that Dibra was known to murdered gangsters Mark
Moran and Charlie Hegyalji.
Dibra was known to fancy
himself as an Alphonse Gangitano-type, the
mob leader of his own little crime world.
The walls of his bedroom were
covered with framed pictures of Scarface and characters from crime movies like
Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction.
He once explained outside
Melbourne Magistrates' Court what made him tick: "Mate, I've just watched
Reservoir Dogs too many times."
Police believe Dibra was dealing
in cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines and ran a stolen car racket.
Contempt first
manifested itself in his early years.
As a teenager, he would ride an unregistered
motorbike past divisional vans trying to bait them into pursuits.
Career criminal Charlie
Hegyalji was shot
and killed
on November
23, 1998, at 1.00am.
Several shots were pumped into his head at close range.
Hegyalji
had spent the day drinking beers and brandy with a few associates at the London
Tavern in Hawthorn Rd, Caulfield, the Grosvenor Hotel on the
Nepean Highway, St Kilda and the Newmarket Hotel in Inkerman St, St Kilda.
Throughout
the day, Hegyalji tried to contact Dino
Dibra via payphone.
"Charlie
made a few calls to a guy called Nino or Dino and asked him to come down to the
pub, but the guy never turned up," a witness told detectives. "I
thought Charlie may have wanted to buy some drugs."
Hegyalji arrived
home in a taxi where a waiting gunman shot him four times.
On December 6,
1998, Dibra and four others were involved in a shooting at the Dome nightclub in
Prahran.
Dibra's accomplices
included former Footscray reserves player Michael Phillip Dewhurst of Melton and
another friend, Ahmen Molic of Sanders Avenue Sunshine.
The three men were
in the company of another two when they started a fight with security
guards.
During the brawl,
the men mentioned firearms and said that Molic would 'pop' the bouncers.
Detective Sergeant
John Carmody said Molic produced a gun and shot one bouncer, Nick Talakouros,
in the leg and another in the stomach.
Dewhurst was later
arrested for punching and kicking a bouncer and for hitting another with a pole.
Houssam
"Sam" Zayat who was ambushed in Tarneit on September 9, 2003 is
also believed to have been present.
Dibra was a known associate
of Andrew ''Benji'' Veniamin who was shot dead
in Carlton in March 2004 and a friend of Paul
Kallipolitis, who was murdered in 2002.
In early 1999, Dibra and Veniamin
fell under the microscope of a police operation.
"Both Dibra and Veniamin have
significant violent criminal histories," a police document states.
"They were both involved in
shooting incidents...and numerous hydroponic cannabis crops in houses in the
Sunshine area."
In March 1999, detectives and
members of the Special Operations Group pounced.
Dibra and others were arrested
during mobile intercepts.
Police raided Dibra's home and found
a cannabis crop along with a loaded .45 pistol and .22 sawn-off rifle.
Detectives charged him with drug
offences and possession of firearms.
He was bailed on the condition he
report twice daily to police.
By May 1999, according to police
intelligence, Dibra was back to his hydroponic cannabis business, with Veniamin
his partner in crime.
Dibra, and Rocco Arico were among several men charged over the bashing and stabbing of a man
forced at gun point into the boot of a car on August 2, 1999.
In this case the
victim, one of Arico's associate's brothers, was kidnapped in broad daylight in
the northern suburb of Ardeer.
The victim was
punched, kicked and pistol whipped in an extortion attempt.
After the initial
kidnapping, Dibra, Arico of Albion St Brunswick, then 22 and manager of a Lygon Street pool
hall, and associates Terrence Chimirri and Salih Kocoglu had
to chase their victim who activated an emergency switch to open the boot.
He jumped from the
moving vehicle and the four chased him and bundled him back into the car in
front of flabbergasted onlookers.
They took him to
Dibra's Taylors Lakes house.
But police had
installed phone and video bugs as part of the investigation into the Dome
Nightclub shooting.
The kidnap gang
attempted to extort $20,000 from the victim's brother.
This was whittled
down to $5000 by the time police raided the house.
The victim was still
in the boot of the car when they arrived.
Dibra, Arico and Chimirri
were arrested the next day and Kocoglu soon after.
Arico was bailed on
those charges when prosecution witnesses did not attend court.
In December 2001,
the County Court was told that much of the action surrounding the kidnapping was
caught by police surveillance cameras.
On August 6,
1999, Dibra was arrested with another two men.
This was over the 1998 bouncer shooting at
the Dome nightclub.
On June 15, 2000,
Dibra's associate Mark Moran was murdered - shot
out the front of his Aberfelde home.
According to a
Channel 10 news report in April 2002, Dibra was the prime suspect in the shooting.
On July 15, 2000,
Dibra was driving a car involved in a minor accident in Taylors Lakes which
resulted in the victim being shot five times.
Again, in the
company of Rocco Arico, now on bail for the August 1999 incident, the pair were
driving cars which cut off another vehicle.
In the ensuing
argument, Arico shot the man several times with an automatic pistol.
The road rage
shooting victim had been offered cash to say that he'd incorrectly identified
Arico, senior-detective Darren Dean later said when he opposed Arico's bail.
Arico
was
arrested on July 17, 2000, at Melbourne Airport trying to board a flight to
Perth.
He had $100,000 of
cocaine in a bag in his pocket.
On October 14,
2000, Dibra, 25, was blasted to death outside a home in Krambruk St, West
Sunshine.
Police said his
death was no surprise.
Det-Insp Allen of the Homicide
Squad later said that Dibra was shot several times after visiting friends and
associates.
More than one weapon was believed
to have been used.
On the night of his
murder, neighbours of Dibra told the Herald Sun they saw several men running
around and yelling as shots were fired about 9.15pm.
One local resident,
who did not want to be named, said he heard two distinct types of gunshots and
believed the death took place in an exchange of bullets.
"There were
about six shots, then a car load of men drove off. It sounded like two different
guns going off. The last three shots were louder than the first three.''
Another neighbour
said: "It sounded like fire crackers at one stage then a car took off and
that was it.''
Det-Insp. Andrew
Allen, of the homicide squad, said it was unclear whether more than one weapon
was used.
He said a number of
people at the house during the shooting were helping police with their
inquiries.
Dibra was known to have made many enemies in his brief and wild life, police
sources said, "there would be plenty of suspects. He has been so
violent to so many people in the past."
Police
believe Andrew Veniamin
was the person who betrayed Dibra.
Purana
Taskforce detectives say Veniamin was there as an enemy
when Dibra was gunned down by an interstate hitman.
Detective
Inspector Andrew Allen later said "We believe there's
up to three people involved, but we believe we know the
identity of one of those gunmen now. We are quite
confident in saying this is not the only murder he has
committed."
On Friday June
22, 2001, Mick Dewhurst was set a maximum of 18 months jail his part in the Dome
nightclub shooting.
Justice
Coldrey said that Dewhurst had many prior convictions.
On December 17,
2001, Arico and Chimirri pleaded guilty to kidnapping for ransom after
police revealed the tapes and bugs in Dibra's home at the time of the incident
in August 1999.
The
court heard that Dibra was the architect of the daylight kidnapping.
Arico
was jailed in June 2001 for nine years with
a minimum of seven over the road-rage shooting in July 2000.
In December 2001 his minimum sentence was
increased after he admitted to the kidnapping.
On April 21, 2002, it was
revealed in the Herald Sun that police believed three people were involved in the
execution of Dibra.
Det-Insp Andrew Allen, of the
Homicide Squad, said police had made a recent breakthrough.
"The homicide investigators
have established that three people are involved in this execution murder and
someone out there holds the key to solving this violent crime," he said.
Det-Insp Allen said someone knew
the trio and urged them to break the "wall of silence" which had
confronted detectives during their 18-month inquiry.
"It's quite likely that they
may have been known to him or known to people who perhaps he was visiting that
night. No descriptions were available of
the suspected killers and their sex was unknown, Det-Insp Allen said.
Dibra's family also pleaded for
information.
In September 2003, the Herald Sun reported
that recently murdered gangsters Nik
Radev and Sam
Zayat were considered prime suspects over the murder of Dibra.
Murdered hitman Andrew Veniamin
was another suspect.
Radev's girlfriend Katriana Smyth
later claimed she heard Radev and another man planning Dibra's murder.
Shortly after making her claims,
Smyth was murdered.
On April 27, 2006, Mick Dewhurst was killed during an argument in Melton about 3:15pm.
Dewhurst, 31, of Melton South, was stabbed in the stomach in the
altercation with two men in Palmerston St, which was believed to have been a
drug deal gone wrong.
"It appears there has been an altercation
between the deceased man and two other
males," Acting Det Sen-Sgt Marty Robertson
said.
"As a result a stabbing has occurred. We have
two men that are assisting us with that
matter."
According to witnesses, the victim slumped into
his car after being stabbed in the street and
managed to drive about 20m before he died.
Passers-by called an ambulance.
Police charged 41-year-old Melton resident, Craig
Vella, the day after Dewhurst's death.
Dewhurst had a long list of criminal
convictions, including cannabis and heroin
offences, assault and the recklessly causing serious
injury from the Dome Nightclub incident.
He was born in Footscray and was expelled
from Melton High School while in year 8.
His IQ was tested at 87 and he served time as a
19-year-old in Pentridge Prison's H division.
A police source said: "He was a street
criminal who got tied up with the wrong crew - and
a lot of those blokes are dead now."
|
