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A Purana taskforce member, Detective-Sergeant Martin Robertson, told the court
the arrests were part of the taskforce's Operation Fared.
He said police had been contacted by a registered police informer who revealed
allegations of the planned murders.
"He [the informer] alleged he had been approached by the defendant,
Defteros," Detective Robertson told the court.
"He was asked at that time if he had any work. He was told by
Defteros that
there was work for him on behalf of Condello and that they needed people they
could trust."
It is alleged that Defteros
then set up an initial meeting between Condello and
the hitman which led to subsequent meetings where the pair discussed the
intended killings.
"During these meetings ... the informer was given the job to kill Carl and
George Williams and people that were described as minders," Detective
Sergeant Robertson said.
The court heard the police informer wore an electronic wire during the meetings
was now in a "secure location".
He told the court Condello and the informer discussed the Williams's movements,
getaway vehicles to be used and the need to obtain false passports. He said the
pair allegedly also talked about the use of disguises for the killings.
Detective Sergeant Robertson said police had intercepted phone calls between Defteros
and the alleged hitman and between the hitman and Condello.
For each murder the hitman was to be paid $150,000 with $50,000 paid up-front.
After the killings the hitman would flee overseas using a false passport.
 The court heard that Condello had become the leader of the Carlton Crew since
the arrest of Mick Gatto for the shooting if Andrew
Veniamin March
23, 2004.
He was denied bail after the court heard that the last contact made between
Condello and the man hired to kill Carl and
George Williams
was two weeks
before.
Condello was remanded in custody and ordered to reappear with
Defteros the
following September.
Another of the Williams team, Terrence Chimirri told Chanel 9 he believed he was
also the target of the alleged Condello conspiracy:
"Personally, I reckon 90 per cent they were trying, but I'm still here so I
think the people that were trying haven't got balls."
Chimirri
is one of the last of the team still standing or not in jail: "I
use paranoia as an awareness so I'm aware of things.
If they are going to come, be prepared to
fucking put me off."
And of his old lawyer and Condello's co-accused, George
Defteros, Chimirri
said:
"His services were shit. He's a piece of shit. Seriously he's just a
money-hungry bloke ... He got me for 10 large, the cunt. I got a new solicitor,
a better one, much better."
"I'll die for them [the Williamses]. No worries, you know what I mean. On
the regards as I know they would do it for me."
"I mean personally I'm not plotting on anyone so, you know what I mean. But
if they come, that's a different situation."
Condello was bailed in March 2005 on charges of incitement to murder three
underworld figures, but refused police protection.
Magistrate Jelena Popovic agreed to bail Condello after being told by prison
psychiatrist Daniel Sullivan that the suspect was struggling with life in a
high-security division and "in layman's terms, Mr Condello could be
considered stir crazy".
Condello was grateful for the decision. "Thank you very much, your honour.
I can assure you of one thing: I won't let you down," he said.
In a five-hour taped
interview with detectives from Victoria Police's ethical standards department on
August 19, 2005, former
chief superintendent Kerry Milte claimed Condello
and another underworld figure stripped a solicitor naked and beat him in a Lygon
St restaurant basement as a warning not to speak about their activities.
"They stripped the
solicitor naked . . . held a pistol to his head, broke a plate on his head and
wanted to know how much he'd told me about what was going on,'' he said.
Mr Milte also:
NAMED an Italian organised crime
boss who was allegedly involved in five murders.
IDENTIFIED a Lygon St crime
figure who had allegedly paid $4 million in bribes to senior Victorian police.
CLAIMED corrupt police "green-lighted''
the illegal activities of several Italian organised crime bosses.
ALLEGED the Italian syndicate had
put gang members in positions of authority in immigration, customs and the
police.
Mr Milte told ESD why he was
recruited by Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon.
"Because of some old
connections, I had the means of getting information on particularly Italian
organised crime,'' his
"And to a lesser degree,
Chinese operations and to another degree, some Lebanese people and that
principally involved Mick Gatto, Mario Condello,
Mokbel (fugitive crime boss Tony Mokbel).''
In the interview Mr Milte also
named allegedly corrupt police and identified several organised crime figures.
Mr Milte, 61, a former
Commonwealth police officer and barrister, was recruited by Chief Commissioner
Christine Nixon in 2002 to help tackle organised crime in Victoria.
He was later committed to stand
trial on charges including bribery and conspiring with a Victorian police
officer to disclose confidential information.
Mr Milte told the Herald Sun he
was horrified his ESD record of interview was being circulated.
He claimed a small faction of
Victorian police was trying to undermine Ms Nixon and suggested circulating his
ESD interview was an attempt by these officers to discredit her.
In the early evening of February 6, 2006, Condello joined friends, including Mick Gatto, at the Society Restaurant in Bourke St.
He was last seen alive at 9.40pm when he left a restaurant in Hardware Lane in
the city to drive home after dining with a lawyer.
Condello, then 52 was gunned down at his heavily secured home in North Road,
Brighton East, where he had returned to live.
He arrived there just on 10pm under the conditions of his bail.
When Condello believed he was at risk, he moved house.
But on this night, he drove into his driveway, opened the garage door and was
shot dead before it closed.
His killer is thought to have run into the garage when Condello activated the
electronic door, fired at least three shots and fled before the door finished
closing.
The Herald Sun reported that a terrified woman was a telephone witness to the
murder.
The woman, a friend of Condello, heard him shot while she was talking to him on
the phone.
The secret witness was interviewed by police who hoped she may have heard the
voice of Condello's killer.
She refused to comment when approached by the Herald Sun and said she knew
nothing that could help police.
The woman is believed to have driven to the scene after hearing shots, but left
when she saw police at the house.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed the woman had been interviewed and that
investigations were continuing.
One of Condello's neighbours, who wished to remain anonymous, was watching the
TV show Prison Break when he heard "bang, bang, bang, bang" from
across North Road, North Brighton.
"It was really quite loud, six to seven shots," he said.
"It was repetitious gunfire, there wasn't any pause, just one shot after
the other. It sounded like the same gun."
Detectives know the killer monitored Condello's movements.
It is unlikely the gunman followed him home, as Condello was experienced in
anti-surveillance.
Eighteen months after police foiled a plot to kill Condello, police said they
had no information there would be another attempt.
Acting Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland said police were not watching
Condello's home and had "no prior intelligence or inkling that he was
currently at risk".
But he warned would-be revenge killers: "Don't do it. You either finish up
dead or in jail. It's not a good option either way."
Police could not discount the possibility that jailed underworld figures or new
players on the organised crime scene were behind Condello's murder, Mr Overland
said.
Investigators checked phone records from prison to see if any coded messages
were sent relating to attempts on Condello's life.
Police say it "is difficult but not impossible" for prisoners to pass
instructions through visitors to associates on the outside.
Mick Gatto
went to the Condello house shortly after his friend had been killed,
and police were concerned he may also be at risk.
Overland said, "The events of last night indicate to us that there may be,
and I say may, be some heightened risk to
Mick Gatto.
We have spoken to Mr Gatto
already. We've made arrangements to speak to him
again, and we will be making offers of assistance and protection to him.
I have to say, though, our experience in the past is when we make these offers
they're not accepted.
We have actually offered Mario Condello protection in the past, and those offers
have not been taken up.
Overland said that police may also offer protection to the Condello family.
When police spoke to Gatto
he told them he had no idea who killed Condello.
"I know nothing about it. I don't believe it is gangland connected … no
way. I believe whatever the reason, it will come out in the wash."
Mr Condello's solicitor, Anthony Brand, said after the murder: "I am
shocked by this. I had no doubt he probably would have won this trial.
He was
totally besotted with his children and concerned for his wife. His wife and
children will be devastated."
Police suspect the man who ordered Condello's murder set a deadline on the hit
that was due to expire within weeks.
Condello's trial for incitement to murder was to begin the next day with legal
argument, before the empanelling of a jury, and was expected to finish within
two weeks.
Condello was charged with incitement to murder three men - one, a prominent
figure in Melbourne's gangland wars.
While Condello was confident of an acquittal, detectives say his killer could
not afford to wait.
If convicted, he was certain to be jailed in maximum security and could not be
reached for years.
Condello's trial should have marked a major milestone for Victorian police.
After all, they'd brought another senior member of a leading criminal gang to
court.
Anthony Brand, says his client was certain he could defeat the charges.
"We were very confident, he was extremely confident about the outcome. He
had maintained his innocence throughout the length of this proceeding, indeed,
from the day of his arrest, and we were confident of running and winning this
trial," Brand told ABC radio.
But police were disappointed that the trial would not proceed.
Overland said, "It's obviously a matter of some sadness that that trial is
not able to be completed, given the circumstances. It doesn't affect the broader
plans that we have in place.
This is another obviously serious event, it's
something we'll have to deal with, but we've got the people, we've got the
resources, and that's what we'll do.
On the morning of Condello's murder, Victoria's Police Chief Commissioner,
Christine Nixon, told ABC Radio in Melbourne that she believed the gangland
problem was under control.
"The Gangland issue - it took us such a long time to get control of that,
and now I think we have, and now we're moving into a place where - I think I was
interviewed and said - hopefully it never happens again."
"And that will be because of the kind of detectives, processes and systems
we're putting into place to make sure it doesn't."
We've charged nearly 80 persons with almost 300 offences. 17 people have been
charged with 43 counts of murder, incitement to murder, conspiracy to murder,
and many of those are still before the courts.
The day after Condello's murder Ms Nixon said that she was surprised by the
shooting but it was too early to say whether it was part of the gangland war.
She said it was a "matter for conjecture" whether Condello would have
survived if he had been refused bail in the Magistrates Court.
"But we did oppose bail, and we opposed it both on the conditions of the
threats that he might have been under [and] we had concerns that he would not
appear for trial."
Condello was carried to his rest in a two-toned, golden bronze casket as bells
tolled and priests pleaded with a congregation not to exact vengeance for a
murdered man.
 The funeral was on a massive scale.
An hour before the requiem mass began, the flowers were piling up on the steps
of St Ignatius Catholic Church on Richmond Hill.
The church says that it is open to the four winds and all kinds of people.
There were big men in dark glasses with big shoulders straining inside tight
designer black suits.
There were smaller men with dark glasses and full-length leather coats looking
at the big men.
There were blonde women with dark glasses in Versace suits and Gucci jeans
looking at each other.
And there were high-school kids without glasses in shorts and school blazers
just looking nervous — like many others present.
“Any suggestion that any friend of Mario should not be welcome at this church
shows a complete misunderstanding of the Catholic church,” parish priest the
Rev Father Peter Norden said at the beginning of the service.
Outside stood the Tripodi funeral hearse, a solid black Cadillac.
Three big black stretch limousines arrived carrying the principal mourners,
including Condello’s wife, Vanda, daughter Vanessa, and 17-year-old twin sons
Guerino and Rosario.
They soon had many of the 600 mourners in tears as they made heartfelt tributes
to their father.
 He lay in front of them, in front of the high altar with its flickering candles,
in the golden casket with a huge spray of red roses on top and his smiling
portrait gazing out at the congregation.
Vanessa told how her father spent his first seven years in Italy before
migrating with his family to North Fitzroy, and how he overcome his background
to obtain a law degree.
She then fast-forwarded to the past 18 months when, she said, her father had
undergone “an amazing renaissance”.
“He was touched by God,” she said. “He overcame the demons that had been
plaguing him.
“He prayed the rosary every day and this massive burden of conflict was lifted
from him.”
Vanessa Condello conceded her father had “made some mistakes” but said he
was no longer with them “to protect us from tactless, insensitive cowards . ..
. they know who they are”.
She addressed her father: “You could be charming, arrogant, rude and sometimes
downright scary . . . but now I know you won’t be there to see me graduate,
disapprove of my boyfriends, walk me down the aisle.
“But Dad, I know we’ll meet again and the first thing you’ll probably say
to me is, ‘Your skirt’s too short’.”
The service then moved to the readings. Sister Barbara Walsh quoted Leviticus:
“You must not exact vengeance not bear a grudge against the children of your
people.”
Father Lou Herriott read from St Paul’s letter to the Romans with its passage:
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord.”
The priest told the congregation: “Never try and get revenge.”
Father Norden told how he first met Mario Condello 20 years ago.
He had shared a meal with the family in late January.
He said the dead man had found a new faith in the past 12 months “despite the
dark clouds overhead”, and was carrying a small rosary around his finger when
he was gunned down.
It took 10 men — including Mick Gatto
— to lift Mario Condello into Signor
Tripodi’s Cadillac.
The cortege moved off, leaving Mick Gatto
behind.
He stood tall in the crowd as, one by one, men in black came forward to shake
his hand and kiss him on both cheeks.
Young men with wrap-around sunglasses stood near him, looking intently into the
crowd.
The mourners eventually dispersed, leaving Mick
Gatto in his sun glasses looking
suddenly vulnerable. And very, very alone.
Gregg James Anthony Hildebrandt was granted bail on May 31, 2006.
He faced a two-year wait in Barwon Prison before his trial
started
Justice King has imposed a $400,000 surety, a strict curfew and ordered
Hildebrandt to report to police twice daily.
 On July 30, 2006, detectives released an image of a man they said is a suspect in
the killing.
The head of police crime tasked operations, Detective Superintendent Richard
Grant, said the suspect was seen in a small, red, four-door Hyundai in the
"immediate vicinity" of Condello's home at the time of the murder.
The wanted man was described as 24 to 25 years old with a slim build, black hair
and some facial hair on his chin. He was wearing a red peaked cap.
"There is a possibility he was involved," Mr Grant told reporters.
"He was acting suspiciously at the time Mario Condello was murdered. He is
a person of interest and we desperately want to talk to this person or anyone
who has any information."
A witness placed the man and the red car at the murder scene and provided the
face image police have released, Mr Grant said.
He would not confirm if the man was seen shooting
Condello, if he was seen with
a weapon, how he acted suspiciously or if he was acting alone.
"It's hard to say whether there was more than one killer. That's why I've
always used the words killer or killers," Mr Grant said.
Underworld informers were coming forward with information of the gangland
murders by the Purana police taskforce, Mr Grant said.
"The underworld code of silence is slowly being broken, and I think that's
for a number of reasons," he said.
"I think the success of Purana is finally starting to show. I think the
fact that we are able to coercively question people is starting to help, and I
think with the number of strategies we have put in place and the resources we
are now throwing at the Purana taskforce, you are now starting to see
results."
Police believed members of the public could shed light on the man's activities.
"We believe a number of people may have been driving past Condello's home
at the time," Mr Grant said.
"They may have been walking the dog or just going for a walk, and we would
be asking for them to come forward.
"We have a number of things we can put in place to protect their identity
and to protect them ... we will do anything we can to assist those people coming
forward and giving us the information we need."
On December 6, 2006, the Australian reported that Victorian police were trying
to force the key informer in the prosecution case against Mario Condello out of
witness protection, despite fears he could still be a target for a revenge
underworld hit.
The attempt to involuntarily terminate his place in the witness protection
program would leave the informer, who can be identified only as "166",
without the new identity and relocation he was originally promised by police in
return for giving evidence.
166's real identity is widely known among Condello's former criminal associates.
The informer, who has also helped expose police corruption in the past, was
first told by Victoria Police in June 2006 that around-the-clock protection for
him and his partner would be terminated.
It is understood police claimed that the murder of Condello, on the eve of his
trial in which 166 was to testify, meant the informer and his partner were no
longer at risk.
Under witness protection laws, 166
can appeal to Police Chief Commissioner
Christine Nixon. If Ms Nixon refuses to intervene, the informer has three days
to appeal the decision to Victoria's Director of Police Integrity.
The Australian reported that 166
had told police that as an informer he is still
a potential target for a revenge "hit" by Condello's criminal
associates, who saw his co-operation with police as an unforgivable betrayal of
the mafia's code of silence.
On January 9, 2007, the Herald Sun reported that underworld sources linked Condello's murder to missing drug boss Tony Mokbel.
They claimed Mokbel
paid for the hit on Condello, an enemy and business rival
who was a big money lender and launderer and convicted drug trafficker.
But police rejected a suggestion that
Mokbel was murdered – as a mafia payback
to avenge Condello's killing.
Police sources said they were "100 per cent sure"
Mokbel was still
alive.
They said there was evidence they could not disclose that persuaded them
Mokbel was in a particular area overseas.
Mokbel, 41, disappeared six after Condello's murder – only days before the
jury in his cocaine importing trial was due to retire to consider its verdict.
He was later convicted in his absence and sentenced to a minimum nine years'
jail.
It was assumed that Mokbel, who was on bail with a $1 million surety, had fled
to escape justice.
As well as the coming trial verdict, he had been made aware five days earlier
that he had been implicated in at least two underworld shootings and was likely
to face murder charges.
But a usually reliable source told the Herald Sun that
Mokbel "never left
the country".
He claimed the multi-millionaire drug boss was snatched and killed the night he
vanished after reporting on bail to South Melbourne police station at 5pm on
March 19 last year.
"Mokbel made a big mistake when he put out a hit on a made man (Condello),"
the source said.
"The (Honoured) Society couldn't let that go unanswered."
He said it was common in traditional mafia revenge killings for the victim's
body never to be found, or given the dignity of a proper burial.
Theories and rumours have abounded about what happened to
Mokbel and Condello.
At one stage last year it was suggested
Mokbel had been recaptured and was being
interrogated by police in a maximum security section of Barwon Prison.
Another theory, which still persists in some circles, suggests that one of Mokbel's
closest allies turned on him and sanctioned his killing.
On March
8, 2007, The Age revealed that
the Purana taskforce may be close to a breakthrough in the
investigation into the murder of Condello.
Detectives were expected soon to
seek permission to interview a prisoner over the execution.
 On
March 14, 2007, the Age reported that Milad Mokbel, a brother of Tony
Mokbel had been implicated in the unsolved
murder of Mario
Condello.
The Purana gangland
taskforce alleged that Mokbel knew details
of Condello's imminent execution.
In the first major
public disclosures since Condello's murder, a
detective told Melbourne Magistrates Court that
Mokbel told a close associate he should "make
himself scarce" because Condello was about to
be shot.
Detective Senior
Constable Dale Fitzgerald said that 45 minutes
after Mokbel's warning, Condello was ambushed as he arrived
home.
He also revealed
that Purana had identified a "person of
interest" who was in the vicinity of
Condello's murder.
This person, who
remained under investigation, had denied any
involvement in the crime, but allegedly
admitted that he was a friend of Mokbel.
But the claimed
breakthrough in the investigation hit a hurdle
when magistrate Peter Couzens refused Senior
Constable Fitzgerald's application to formally
question Mokbel over Condello's murder.
Mr Couzens said
what he had heard in support of the application
was "simply not enough" to make Mokbel a
suspect.
Under the Crimes
Act, a person already in custody for another
matter — Mokbel has been refused bail on drug
charges — can be questioned only if
"reasonably suspected of having committed an
offence".
Crown prosecutor
Andrew Tinney told Mr Couzens that
police wanted to interview Milad Mokbel on the
same terms as they successfully applied to
question him over Lewis
Moran's murder in Barwon Prison the week
before.
Senior Constable
Fitzgerald said police had obtained a signed
statement from a witness who was with Mokbel just
before Condello's murder.
He alleged that
Mokbel told the witness that Condello was
"going to be murdered and to make himself
scarce". "A short period of time after
the discussion Mario Condello was murdered,"
he said.
He would not
identify the witness, but said he was a
"close confidant" of Mokbel and was well
known to Mokbel's family.
Defence lawyer
Gerard Lethbridge submitted that the "mere
knowledge" that a crime was to happen did not
make someone guilty of it, and that there was not
a scintilla of evidence that Mokbel counselled or
procured the murder.
On
May 12, 2007, the Herald Sun reported that Mick Gatto
had hit out at claims he was behind the murder of Condello. Gatto's angry denial
came as the Herald Sun revealed for the first time a letter Mr Gatto wrote to Condello from his prison cell just hours after shooting dead Andrew "Benji" Veniamin.
Police sources had recently told the Herald Sun Mr Gatto had not been ruled out as being behind the shooting murder of the former solicitor.
But Mr Gatto said the idea that he could be a suspect in the death was ridiculous.
"It is complete and utter rubbish. I loved the bloke," Mr Gatto said.
"I wish they would just leave me alone."
A rare peek inside Mr Gatto's world in the hours after he shot Veniamin dead was revealed in a three-page letter
he penned to Condello from his cell at Port Phillip Prison's high-security Charlotte Unit.
"I tell you what Mario, it's changed a lot since the days of old," he wrote of his treatment in jail after being arrested.
"I have to be honest, they treat you with the greatest of respect. I feel a bit like Hannibal Lecter."
Mr Gatto asked Condello to look after his personal affairs while he is behind bars and take care of his family.
"I am good as gold Mario, I can't believe what has happened to me the last couple of days, but so be it.
"I can't believe for a bloke that prides himself on not getting involved in all the bullshit, I can't believe how trouble finds me."
Mr Gatto told police immediately after the shooting that he was forced to shoot Veniamin when the younger man pulled a gun on him – a story he stuck to in his letter to
Condello.
"I can't believe that little maggot tried to kill me, anyway he is in his place," Mr Gatto wrote.
"Mario give the old bloke my regards and all our team – tell them I am going alright and I will be in touch in the near future.
"Keep your eyes wide opened, you can't trust any of these rats. I would hate to see anything happen to any of ours."
One theory being investigated is that Condello may have been eliminated by his own Carlton Crew associates.
Detectives have sought to question the brother of fugitive crime boss Tony Mokbel over the alternative theory that rival gangland bosses were behind the killing.
They have been refused permission by a magistrate.
Mr Gatto was in Brunswick at the time of Condello's death.
Condello, a father of three, was also godfather to one of Mr Gatto's sons.
On August 24, 2007, a Supreme Court
jury was told the target of alleged contract shooters Gregg
James Hilderbrandt and Sean
Jason Sonnet was Mario Condello whom
Carl Anthony Williams had organised for
execution.
Gregg James Hilderbrandt
was driving near the intersection of North Road and Hawthorn Road on the morning
of the pair's arrests when he activated a two-way radio, the court heard.
"Is that him?" Hilderbrandt asked.
Sonnet, who was driving another
car, radioed: "Fuck, man, there's an awful lot of people around."
Hilderbrandt repeated "was that him back there?" before he realised
his radio was not turned up properly.
When he gave a description of a man, Sonnet said it wasn't him and replied:
"I'm not gunna get a … man, there's too many. I'm gunna have to walk up.
"I'm just gunna have to hang around and walk up beside him."
Sonnet, 38, lay in wait for
Condello, hoping to see him walking his
dog outside his Brighton home.
But prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, said if the
"money man" of the Carlton
Crew didn't show, Mr Sonnet planned to
attack him after he dropped his children
at school.
Mr Horgan
told the jury listening devices picked
up Mr Sonnet telling co-accused Michael
Thorneycroft they needed to find out the
name of the school.
"So
if he doesn't fuckin' come out tomorrow
morning we can go straight to the school
and get him there," Mr Sonnet is
recorded saying.
In his opening to the trial, at which Sonnet has pleaded not guilty to
conspiracy to murder, Mr Horgan said he planned to shoot Condello in the head.
The court
heard Mr Sonnet believed he was only
minutes away from executing Condello
when he was arrested outside the
Brighton cemetery on the morning of June
9, 2004.
He had a
fully loaded 9mm Luger Beretta down the
front of his pants, a ready-to-fire .38
Smith and Wesson in a bum bag and a
two-way radio to communicate with the
man who would drive the getaway car, the
court heard.
Mr Horgan said police waited "until almost the last possible
moment" to arrest the men, but "when the risk to the public became too
extreme", the Special Operations Group arrested them outside the main gates
of the cemetery.
The jury
was told Mr Sonnet was recruited by Carl
Williams and offered between $120,000
and $140,000 to carry out the murder.
Mr Horgan
said that Williams was keen to extract
revenge over the death of his friend,
Andrew Veniamin, killed by Condello's
mate and fellow Carlton Crew member Mick
Gatto.
The court
heard luck played a big part in saving
Condello.
Police
uncovered the plot by chance through
listening devices installed in a drug
operation, and Condello was not living
at his Brighton property at the time.
They activated telephone intercepts,
listening devices and tracking equipment
in cars and surveillance on the men.
Mr Sonnet
has pleaded not guilty to being involved
in a conspiracy with Williams,
Thorneycroft and Hilderbrandt to
murder Condello.
Mr Horgan
told the jury Mr Sonnet first approached
Thorneycroft about "driving for
him" in late May 2004.
Mr Sonnet
was watched by surveillance crews as he
staked out the streets surrounding
Condello's property, and organised for
Thorneycroft to steal a car to use on
the day.
But the
court heard in the days before the
planned murder, Thorneycroft was
drug-addled, unreliable and would not
return Mr Sonnet's phone calls.
Mr Horgan
said Mr Sonnet warned his accomplice to
lift his game and ordered a replacement.
"We
have got to be absolutely 100 per cent
spot-on. We can't afford to fuck
it," he allegedly told Thorneycroft.
"If
we get caught we get years and years and
years. This has got to be perfect. Think
of 20 years out of your fuckin' life.
"That
is why I am so fuckin' hard on ya
because I don't want to get
caught."
Thorneycroft,
who died earlier in 2007, supplied the
stolen car but was at home when Mr
Sonnet and Hildebrandt were arrested
outside the cemetery, the court heard.
But Mr Horgan told them that evidence
he gave to police in two statements and
evidence from him recorded at an earlier
court hearing would be used and played
in the trial.
In a direction of law to the jury, Justice Betty King told them not to view
any information on Google about people mentioned in the trial. "If you do
that you are going outside the oath you took as jurors," she said.
Justice King said it was not a matter of concern for them that Sonnet was not
present in court.
The jury spent the afternoon viewing the area where the men were arrested.
On August 27, 2007, the
court was told Sonnet never
intended to kill Condello, but was
acting out a ruse because he was
afraid of ending up like underworld figure
Lewis Caine who had been murdered after
failing to fulfil a similar
contract.Sonnett pretended to go along with Carl
Williams who had engaged him to murder Condello because he
owed Williams money and was in fear
of his life.
Barrister John Desmond, opening
the defence case for Sonnet, said
Melbourne's gangland was a world of
consequences where "for every
action or inaction, as in the case
of Lewis Caine, there is an equal
and opposite reaction".
Caine was engaged by Williams to
murder Condello and when he
did not follow through he was
executed.
"Sonnet was aware of this
and Sonnet was in fear of his
life," Mr Desmond told the
court.
"He said he would (kill
Condello) without intending to do
it.
"He wanted to get Williams
off his back for the significant
debt he owed Williams."
Mr Desmond said Sonnet was acting
out his ruse when he was arrested on June 9, 2004.
Sonnet knew Condello was not
living at the house at the time and
was residing at his city apartment.
But he convinced Williams and
Hilderbrandt that was not the case
and that Condello could be ambushed
while taking his dog for an
early-morning walk.
"Condello was never going to
be shot, certainly not by Sean
Sonnet," Mr Desmond said.
"Condello wasn't present and
Sonnet knew it. It was a sham. It
wasn't genuine at all."
Sonnet was trying to string
Williams and the others along and
drag out the plan because Williams
had told him Condello was about to
be arrested for conspiring to kill
Williams.
"Time was becoming of the
essence," Mr Desmond told the
jury.
Sonnet was so afraid that he had
been living in motels in the days
before his arrest.
Mr Desmond said police had
Sonnet, Hilderbrandt, Williams and a
fourth man, Michael Thorneycroft,
under constant surveillance in the
days leading up to the arrests and could have picked
them up at any time.
But the police waited until the
last minute to help strengthen their
case.
The trial, before judge Betty
King, is continuing.
The
Herald Sun reported that on
September 20, 2007, a court was told Condello bought an
arsenal of guns from a sex shop owner
during the height of Melbourne's
underworld war.
Adelaide
porn king Bill Nash's plea hearing
took place in the Adelaide District
Court after Nash earlier
pleaded guilty to several weapons
charges.
Nash
was introduced to a Condello gang
member by former Melbourne gun dealer
George Joseph.
Joseph
was convicted in 1984 of conspiring to
kill anti-drug campaigner Donald
Mackay, whose death was ordered by the
Calabrian mafia.
Mr
Mackay was executed in Griffith, New
South Wales in 1977.
Joseph
provided the weapon used to shoot Mr
Mackay and was jailed for seven years.
Documents
before the District Court in Adelaide
reveal Joseph introduced Nash to the
Condello gang member about five years
ago.
That
gang member bought guns for Condello
from Nash.
The
Condello gang member later became an
informer to the Australian Crime
Commission and Victoria Police,
codenamed 166.
Nash,
62, has admitted providing the weapons
and is awaiting sentencing in
Adelaide.
The
Herald Sun has seen the contents of
secretly taped conversations placed
before the court, in which Condello
organised to buy dozens of guns and
silencers from
Nash.
Condello's
purchases included an Uzi 9mm
sub-machinegun, a Colt .357 Magnum, a
Bentley 12 gauge pump-action shotgun,
several semi-automatic pistols and
ammunition for them.
There
were several gangland murders in the
nine months after Condello took
delivery of the first batch of
firearms in March 2003.
The
Herald Sun overturned a
suppression order in Adelaide's
District Court which had prohibited
identifying Condello's role in the gun
smuggling.
It did
so during Nash's plea hearing.
The
lifting of the suppression order has
enabled the Herald Sun to reveal
details of Condello's frantic
gun-buying spree.
Nash
owns two of South Australia's biggest
sex shops, has been a judge in the
Miss Nude Australia competition for
several years and used to operate
brothels.
166
told the ACC he bought 15 guns from
Nash for Condello and later arranged
for an undercover ACC agent to buy
nine more.
Many of
the guns bought by Condello were
seized by police before delivery, but
what hasn't been revealed until today
is that at least one shipment of
powerful weapons got through to
Condello.
166,
whose name is suppressed, told the ACC
in a statement tendered in court that
Condello asked him to buy guns for him
urgently in March and October 2003.
"He
told me he wanted me to get as many
revolvers that he could get,"
166's statement to the ACC said.
"He was desperate and agitated
and he made me promise that I would
get these guns for him."
Melbourne's
underworld war was at its bloodiest at
the time Condello began arming
himself.
There
were several shootings in the months
before March 2003, which police
believe prompted Condello's gun-buying
spree.
Some of
those murdered before and after
Condello tooled up were members of, or
associated with, Condello's Carlton
Crew -- or were rivals. And some who
did the killings had Carlton Crew
connections.
Nash's
plea hearing was adjourned to October
11.
On
September 26, 2007, after a
six-week trial, a jury found
Sean Jason Sonnet, 38, guilty of
conspiring with Williams and two other
men to murder
Mario Condello.
The jury deliberated for
more than two days before finding that
Sonnet was
hired by multi-murderer Carl Williams
to shoot Condello for between
$120,000 and $140,000.
Special
Operations Group police arrested
Sonnet near Condello's Brighton
mansion on the morning of June 9, 2004.
It was
the first step towards Victoria
Police's Purana Taskforce ending
Melbourne's gangland war.
SOG
officers removed a loaded, cocked
semi-automatic pistol from the front
of Sonnet's pants, and a loaded .38
calibre revolver from his bum bag.
The
police operation, codenamed Lemma,
ended in Carl Williams being arrested
and remanded in custody until he was
sentenced this year to life, with a
35-year minimum, for three murders and
the Condello plot.
"This
is the operation that took out a hit
team . . . and we had sufficient
evidence to arrest Carl Williams and
get him off the street," Purana's
Det-Insp Gavan Ryan said outside court.
"That
was pivotal and the rest is
history."
Sonnet was not present for most of the
six-week trial after being reluctantly
excused by Justice Betty King when he
admitted he may "explode" in
front of the jury and he was not in court as the verdict was
read.
Sonnett
had threatened
to cause a "circus" on the
last day of the trial.
He had recently reappeared to give evidence,
but left court again two bays before
the verdict was delivered after
outbursts in front of the jury and
against Justice King, in which he
described proceedings as a circus in
which he would have convicted himself.
Sonnet
is notorious for contemptuous
courtroom behaviour, having been a
part of the 2000 "trial from
hell" in which a jury member was
hit by a bag of excrement thrown from
the dock.
During
his recent trial, Sonnet repeatedly
defied Justice King in a series of
actions in and out of the witness box.
The
trial had heard Sonnet was carrying
the two loaded guns while waiting for
Condello, who was expected to be
walking his dog along North Rd that
morning.
 Unknown
to Sonnet (left), Condello was living in a
city apartment at the time.
The
jury dismissed defence claims that
Sonnet was pretending to act out a
murder plot to appease Williams, as he
owed him $80,000.
Sonnet's
first-choice getaway driver, Williams'
cousin Michael
Thorneycroft, gave
police two statements about the murder
plot but he died in May before he
could be cross-examined.
Sonnet
claimed Thorneycroft was a Williams
spy, and that Williams was not his
friend.
"I
wouldn't call him a mate," he
claimed while giving evidence.
"I
wouldn't call him an enemy. I'd call
him an associate."
But
police listening devices revealed
joking conversations between Sonnet
and Williams about pretty women and
sex.
In one
call, Williams referred to Sonnet as
"Mr Cool".
Bugs
also revealed Sonnet told Thorneycroft
he was being paid up to $140,000, and
Thorneycroft would make $40,000.
In one
police statement, Thorneycroft said:
"He asked me to drive for him.
"The
way he showed me the gun, he left me
in no doubt that he was indicating
that he was going to shoot someone.
"I
later found out from conversations
with Sean that the job he was
referring to was the killing of a
bloke called Mario, who was the money
man on the other side . . . Carl's
enemies."
The
court heard Williams was angry after
the fatal shooting of ally Andrew
Veniamin at the hands of Carlton Crew
identity Mick
Gatto.
Mr
Gatto shot Veniamin in self-defence at
a Carlton restaurant on March 23,
2004.
Thorneycroft,
described in court as a befuddled drug
addict, stole a car used in the
Condello plot but pulled out.
Prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, told the
trial Sonnet was the leader of
Williams' kill gang.
"It's
Sean who's in command," Mr Horgan
said.
Officers
arrested Sonnet and his new getaway
driver, Gregg
Hildebrandt, in North
Rd.
Williams
and Thorneycroft were arrested at
their homes.
Hildebrandt
was jailed for a minimum of nine years
after pleading guilty in February.
Thorneycroft
got a three-year suspended sentence.
The
investigation into Condello's killing
continues.
On
September 27, 2007, it was reported
that Carl
Williams was to be assassinated in
Lonsdale St with an Uzi sub-machinegun
fired from a speeding motorbike. (Audio
Surveillance tape
Audio
Would-be killers)
Secret
Victoria Police surveillance tapes
obtained by the Herald Sun
reveal extraordinary new details of a
foiled execution plot hatched by Mario
Condello.
Condello
was secretly recorded by the would-be
hitman, who was actually a paid police
informer.
In a
series of CBD meetings in May 2004,
Condello is heard offering $300,000
for the murder of Williams, Williams'
father, George, and a bodyguard.
"You'll
have the f---in' money to cover you,
150 a f---in' head. Do ya
understand?" he tells the hitman.
"We
don't want to go around hurting
innocent f---in' people . . . but some
of these blokes from the western
districts or western suburbs . . .
they just want to take action . . .
you don't f--- 'em around.
"Until
they're f---in' gone, mate, there's
always going to be trouble."
In one
meeting at the Myer city store
cafeteria, Condello urges the hitman
to use a disguise while carrying out
surveillance on the Marriott Hotel in
Lonsdale St -- a favourite haunt of
Williams and his crew.
The
following day, in the David Jones
basement-level food court, the hitman
boasts about walking undetected
through the city streets with an
arsenal of weapons. "I was
standing in Spencer St with more
f---in' guns than the f---in'
army," he tells Condello.
He
explains how he will use an Uzi
sub-machinegun to kill Williams while
on the back of an accomplice's
motorbike.
"I'll
f---in' do it. I will f----in' do it .
. . f---in' Uzi. I got (name deleted)
on the bike. I'll do it so don't doubt
me. He (Williams) is gone. He's as
good as f---ing gone."
The
tape recordings were used by Purana
Taskforce detectives to charge
Condello with conspiracy and
incitement to murder.
But the
trial never went ahead after Condello
was shot in the garage of his Brighton
home in February 2006. His killer has
not been caught.
The
wire taps also shed new light on the
character of the police informer,
known only as witness 166,
who remains under police protection.
Witness
166 was a
known drug dealer, extortionist and
gun runner, who was controversially
granted immunity in exchange for
testifying against Condello.
The
deal was struck after he was arrested
at an Adelaide train station with a
cache of illegal weapons including
five semi-automatic pistols, a .38
revolver, a shotgun and a 9mm Uzi with
silencer.
Police
had originally offered 166 and his
partner a $1 million protection
package, including relocation
overseas.
The
offer was withdrawn after 166 was
accused of unacceptable behaviour in
the protection program. He is
appealing against the decision in the
courts at taxpayers' expense.
The
failed attempt to use 166 as a star
underworld witness has come as a
severe embarrassment to police.
The
tapes also give an insight into
Condello's thoughts on the reasons
behind the underworld war.
In one
exchange, he appears to blame the
Moran family.
"It
was all about, ah . . . f---in', ah .
. . to let us know that we'd, ah,
f---in', that started with that
f---in' Moran," Condello says.
Lawyers
have since claimed Condello never
intended to go ahead with the murders
and was simply carrying out a charade
to obtain information about his
rivals.
On October 24, 2007, the Herald Sun reported
that a horse rated one of the favourites for
the Victoria Derby was bought as part
of a big money-laundering operation,
according to court documents.
The emerging star
was banned from the
Melbourne spring carnival.
Racing
Victoria ordered that
Pillar of Hercules be barred from
competition pending an investigation
into its possible connection with
accused drug dealer Horty
Mokbel, brother of Tony.
Racing
Victoria stewards interviewed
prominent Melbourne trainer Peter
Moody, whose wife Sarah was listed as a
25 per cent owner of Pillar of
Hercules. The owner of the other 75
per cent is listed as Irene Meletsis.
A police affidavit
claimed that Ms Meletsis, knows
nothing about racehorses and has never
been to a racetrack.
The Herald
Sun was also told that Irene
Meletsis has never
seen the horse.
Ms
Meletsis is the director of a loan
broking company called State Credit
Corporation.
Her
husband, Tom Karas, manages the
company, which has offices in La Trobe
St.
The Herald
Sun believes Mr Karas has links
to the Mokbel family and Mario
Condello.
On
December 3, 2007, an
Adelaide sex shop owner who sold an
arsenal of illegal guns including
high-powered semi-automatics - some to a
Melbourne underworld figure - was jailed for six months.
William
Nash has admitted to selling weapons at
the height of Melbourne's gang war to Mario
Condello through an associate
between October 2003 and May 2004.
The South
Australian District Court was told
Nash sold up of 22 firearms including a
9mm Uzi, a Colt .357 Magnum, a Bentley
12-gauge pump action shotgun and
silencers to two men.
The court
was told one of the two men was an
undercover police officer put in place
after Condello's associate turned police
informant following his arrest in 2003
during an arms sale.
Nash
pleaded guilty to four counts of taking
part in the supply of firearms and
possessing a silencer.
In
sentencing the 62-year-old Adelaide man
today, Judge Dean Clayton said Nash had
been reckless and demonstrated a
disregard for the safety of the
community.
Judge
Clayton said he accepted prosecution
submissions that Nash knew most of the
guns were illegal and he had little
knowledge or did not care whose hands
the arsenal would fall into.
"You
chose not to ask any questions,"
Judge Clayton said.
"In
so far as your knowledge, the weapons
would be returned in the community with
no safeguards or knowledge by you in
which way they would be used."
Nash also
was sentenced on 14 counts of giving
false or misleading evidence before the
Australian Crime Commission after his
arrest.
Judge
Clayton said Nash had told
"deliberate lies" to the
commission about how he came to own the
weapons when interviewed in October
2004, and had still not co-operated with
police.
Nash was
fined a total of $56,000 for the
firearms offences on top of a $15,600
earlier compensation payment.
He was
jailed for 18 months for lying under
oath to the crime commission.
Judge
Clayton ordered a reconnaissance release
term of six months with Nash to be freed
on a good behaviour bond in May next
year.
The last man to learn his fate over a
conspiracy to kill
Condello was waiting to be sentenced
early in the new year, as the Herald
Sun's Paul
Anderson reported in early 2008.
The prospects
of Sean Sonnet having a happy new
year were slim, considering that he was
awaiting a lengthy jail term over the
failed plot to assassinate Condello.
Sonnet was
yet to be sentenced by Justice Betty
King but, if police listening device
material was anything to go by, he was
expecting to be jailed for 25 years.
The
Condello kill plot reads more like a
Monty Python script than a criminal
gang's blueprint for murder.
Gunman
Sonnet is a volatile and dominating
career criminal who likes to play to a
crowd.
His first
chosen getaway driver for the Condello
hit, Carl Williams's cousin
Michael
Thorneycroft, was an amphetamine junkie
with appalling road map skills who would
later turn police informer.
In the
lead-up to the hit, Sonnet -- a
notorious bandit -- tried to coach,
mentor and even nurse the drug-addled
and paranoid Thorneycroft.
However in
the end, the only place Thorneycroft
managed to drive Sonnet was up the wall
in frustration.
Prosecutor
Geoff Horgan, SC, told the court Carl
Williams hatched the Condello murder
plot to avenge the death of another of
his gunmen, the maniacal Andrew
Veniamin.
Carlton
Crew identity Mick Gatto had shot
Veniamin in self-defence in a pasta
restaurant two months earlier.
Although
Sonnet once told Williams he would kill
Gatto by "putting five in his f---ing
head", it was Condello the Williams
crew would go after.
The
police operation to thwart the
assassination plan, codenamed Lemma, was
the one that nailed kingpin Carl
Williams.
Purana's
Det-Insp Gavan Ryan said of Operation
Lemma: "This is the operation that
stopped it (the gangland war). It took
out a hit team . . . and we had
sufficient evidence to arrest Carl
Williams and get him off the streets.
"That
was pivotal, and the rest is
history."
Between
May 29 and June 9, 2004, Purana
detectives monitored the Condello kill
crew via telephone intercepts and
listening devices. It soon became clear
to detectives that Sonnet was at his
wits' end trying to keep a befuddled
Thorneycroft in line.
On one
occasion police heard Sonnet tell him:
"I'm meant to get this c--- (Condello)
in two days. I can't have you like this,
mate.
"You
wouldn't even be able to drive away from
here. You don't understand, mate. This
is not a stick-up. I'd rather you on
smack (heroin) than like this. I'd
rather you stoned than like this,
mate."
On
another occasion, Sonnet said: "I
can tell you now, you're off your f---ing
3KZ (head). There's no way you'll be
right. F---, you can't even sit
still."
In trying
to suggest booze as a solution, Sonnet
told Thorneycroft: "Listen,
drinking's f---ing not good, but it's
the best of the worst. And smoking
bongs, they're the best of the worst. We
can't have heroin and you can't have
f---ing speed."
At one
time Thorneycroft said he needed his own
gun to shoot "anything and anyone
who tries to shoot me" during the
Condello hit.
Sonnet
stressed that was not a wise idea.
Thorneycroft's
incompetence was often glaring.
During
one reconnaissance run in Brighton,
while in charge of the Melway,
Thorneycroft had the hit happening in
the ocean. In court, defence lawyer John
Desmond recited Sonnet's likely reply to
the whacked-out wheel man: "On
these references, Mick, you've got me in
the middle of Port Phillip Bay. You've
got me in the water."
An
exasperated Sonnet often belted
Thorneycroft and even threatened to kill
him if he didn't get off the drugs.
Thorneycroft
often broke down in tears, leading
Sonnet to say on one occasion: "Oh,
f---ing hell. Do I need to hear these
f---ing waterworks again? You're pissing
me off by f---ing breaking down all the
time."
On June
7, after a public spat that could have
drawn police attention, it became
obvious Thorneycroft -- who had
successfully stolen a getaway car -- was
not up to driving it on the day.
Sonnet:
"Why the f--- did you ever agree to
do this?"
Thorneycroft:
"Dunno. 'Cos I'm a f---ing idiot,
that's why."
Sonnet:
"If we were robbing a bank or
something I wouldn't give a f---, you
know? We go look at a bank, run in,
bang! If I get caught, five or six
years. This, mate, forget about it. I'm
35 years old.
Thorneycroft:
"You get pinched, you're f---ed.
You never go home. That's all there is
to it."
Sonnet:
"Well, that's what I'm trying to
stress to you, Mick. That's why I say,
mate, I'll put holes in ya. I'll f---ing
shoot you if you're stupid enough to get
us all caught."
In the
end, former Noble Park schoolmate Gregg
Hildebrandt drove for Sonnet on June 9.
As an
armed Sonnet waited with Hildebrandt
near Condello's Brighton mansion,
special operations group and Purana
Taskforce detectives pounced.
Sonnet
ended up face down on the footpath with
police shotguns trained at his head.
To add to
the indignity, Sonnet would later learn
that Condello wasn't even living in his
Brighton home at the time.
Sonnet's
rap sheet is littered with crimes
including armed robbery, trafficking
drugs, possessing firearms, aggravated
burglary, making threats to kill and
recklessly and intentionally causing
serious injury.
Thorneycroft,
who gave Purana two full statements,
received a suspended jail term before
dying last year.
Hildebrandt
pleaded guilty and is serving a minimum
nine-year jail term.
 On March 19, 2008, an angry Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Simon Overland scoffed at rumours that he was closely associated with Condello in an interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell.
He says that "grubs" have been spreading these stories for several years and denied Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon for his alleged relationship.
But Overland did admit that his son has a friendship with Condello's twin boys.
The three boys all attend an exclusive private school, a fact which has been published and discussed previously.
In relation to the rumours that Overland had attended social functions with Mario Condello and 'car pooled' with the convicted criminal's family, he said that he was unaware whether or not Condello had been at any social function he had also been at and that he had never "met the man".
Overland said he had met Mario Condello's wife once socially but that their other meetings had been police related.
Overland said he had been aware of the rumours for several years and was sure he knew who was spreading them.
He also said that "they should know that I know they're doing it. I won't forget it".
The alleged association was forced into the light this week when Victoia Police announced a new Relationships Directive which requires associations between police and known criminals to be disclosed.
Of the Directive, Overland said that "it's not about having relationships, it is about being transperant about them".
On May 10, 2008, Age reporter John Silvester wrote that with Tony Mokbel's "Big Fat Greek Adventure coming to a close the alleged organised crime boss faced a clear choice — freedom or family".
He will have to give information on the murders of police informer Terrence Hodson and his wife Christine for authorities to even consider plea discussions. Detectives believe the double murder was set up by a corrupt former member of the drug squad.
Mokbel would have to give up the former police behind the Hodson murders to have a chance of receiving a sentence of less than 30 years. The deal will be simple — rat or rot.
A special taskforce, code-named Petra, is investigating the double murder. Convicted gangland killer Carl Williams has claimed a former policeman told him that Hodson was "a problem" and had to go. Williams claimed the former detective later said the matter had been "sorted". It was just before the double murder.
Taskforce investigators have secretly visited David Miechel in jail but he refused to co-operate with any investigation.
While Mokbel might have no issue in sinking bent cops to save himself there is a sticking point. He would have to name the actual killer and the star suspect is a man who is virtually related to him through marriage.
The suspect is a cold-blooded killer implicated in the murders of Mike Schievella, 44, and his partner, Heather McDonald, 36, at their St Andrews home in 1990.
Police said they were bound and tied and their throats slashed. One theory was they were killed because they were suspected of talking to police.
The suspect has been listed as a person of interest in three murders in the 1980s including standover man Brian Kane, who was shot in the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick in 1982.
The man has also been named as a suspect in the murder of Condello.
The former armed robber and gunman once formed a hatred against a policeman who had arrested him. His cell was covered with hanged stick-figures with the detective's name scrawled under each one.
On June 6, 2008, Rod
Collins, then 63 and of Northcote, was arrested and questioned by police over the execution-style killing of a
husband and wife more than 20 years before.
Petra Taskforce detectives arrested Collins in relation to
the double killing of Ramon Abbey, 40, and Dorothy Abbey, 39, who were
shot in their West Heidelberg home in July 1987.
Detective Superintendent Jack Blayney said the 63-year-old man
was connected to underworld identities.
"What I can say is there are connections between the man
we arrested today and other underworld identities,'' he said.
"It was referred to the taskforce in April 2007, to
review it.''
Detective Superintendent Blayney said information was received
from a Purana investigation.
"It relates specifically to another investigation (and)
there are some connections,'' he said.
Detective Superintendent Blayney said the double
murder was extremely callous.
"They were both put into a position where they were shot
in the head from behind in circumstances where it was extremely callous,''
Detective Superintendent Blayney said.
"We have a motive but that's something we'll leave for
the courts,'' Detective Inspector Blayney said.
"There was more than one offender involved in this
homicide, however two of those others have since passed away.''
Collins came to the attention of Purana taskforce detectives investigating Melbourne's gangland killings.
He escaped going to jail in February 2004 after allegedly being caught with a loaded semi-automatic gun.
A Herald Sun death notice after Jason Moran's 2003 murder read:
''Thirty pieces of silver. Respect to all the poor little kiddies. Mick Gatto (The Don), Rod Collins, Benji, Carl Williams and Dad, Victor Brincat, Alfie. Lest we forget. 2003''
It was not known if the letter was genuine.
Victor Brincat, Carl Williams and "Alfie" Traglia were later charged with Moran's murder and "Benji" Veniamin was suspected of being involved in several others before he was shot dead by Mick Gatto in March 2004.
Collins, also known as Rod "The Duke" Earl, is closely linked to Tony
Mokbel and is under investigation over a similar case connected to Melbourne's underworld war.
Collins was arrested by detectives from Taskforce Petra - the unit set up to investigate the murders of police informer Terence Hodson and his wife Christine, who were shot dead in their Kew home on May 15, 2004.
Collins was living with Joan McGuire, whose daughter Danielle is Tony Mokbel's partner. Danielle and Mokbel had a child together in Greece while the wanted man was on the run.
Police say Collins is part of Mokbel's extended family.
The Petra taskforce has been investigating links between Mokbel and Collins.
Police allege the Abbeys were killed as part of a failed drug rip-off after three men went to the house believing the couple had cash and heroin hidden in a safe in their garden shed. But they were wrong and the safe was empty.
One of the alleged team, Mark Andrew McConville, was initially found guilty of the murders but the conviction was overturned and he was acquitted at the retrial. He has since died. A second man involved has also died.
Police will allege that Collins was the gunman who killed the Abbeys. They will also allege he tortured Mrs Abbey and cut her throat.
Detectives believe the Abbeys knew their killers. Police also believe the Hodsons knew theirs.
While police would not publicly confirm links between the Abbey murders and the Hodson case, they acknowledge potential connections to ongoing investigations.
Detective Superintendent Jack Blayney, of the crime department, said: "What I can say is that there are connections between the man we've arrested with other key underworld identities.
"It relates specifically to another investigation we are conducting. There are some connections with (anti-gangland taskforce) Purana."
Collins has also been nominated as a suspect in the gangland murder of Mario Condello, who was shot dead in the garage of his Brighton home on February 6, 2006. He has also been listed as a suspect in several unsolved murders from the 1980s.
Superintendent Blayney said the Abbey murder investigation was reopened in April 2008.
"When we talk about execution-style killing, they were both put in a position where they were shot in the head from behind in circumstances where it was an extremely callous and calculating act," he said.
Taskforce Petra was set up to investigate the Hodson murders last year after detectives received new evidence linking the murders to police corruption.
Terence Hodson was a police informer and had agreed to give evidence against two drug squad detectives. Confidential police documents exposing him as a police informer were leaked to the underworld before he was murdered.
Mokbel is expected to eventually be questioned over the Hodson double killing and his links to Collins.
There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the Hodson murders.
Damon Abbey was five years old when his parents were killed but he remembers being awake in the house when they were murdered. Also in the house were his two elder sisters Elicia and Stacey.
"We have all been involved in the investigation. We've helped in terms of what we can remember of the events."
He said he "knew of the person" arrested over the murders.
Collins, of Holmes Street, Northcote, was remanded in custody to reappear on September 26.
Man arrested over double murder
By Reko Rennie
The Age
June 6, 2008
Mokbel man on murder charge
By John Silvester
The Age
June 7, 2008
|
Mario Rocco
Condello
Insiders later told the Herald Sun that Condello and
drug-lord 
On June 9, 2004, 
Two handguns
(one which a detective is shown removing) and a can of petrol were found in the men's car and police said
they believed they had thwarted the city's latest gangland hit "by
minutes."
Sonnet
(left) had been bailed over an earlier heroin trafficking charge just five days
before. 
