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It was later alleged that
disgraced drug squad head, Wayne Strawhorn's
informers sold two kilograms of methamphetamine to Mark Moran in May 2000.
Strawhorn was jailed
in 2006.
On Thursday June
15, 2000, Mark Moran was shot dead.
Mark was murdered
outside his luxury home in Combermere St, Aberfeldie, near Essendon, at 8.30pm,
seconds after pulling up in his white Commodore ute.
This was the day
after a series of raids on a network of amphetamine factories in which an
identity known as the' Penguin' was arrested.
In February 2002,
Melbourne coroner, Mr
Frank Hender, said Moran had spent the day "in the usual fashion",
taking his children to school, going shopping with his mother and having her car
repaired, and having lunch with his wife.
About 7.10 that night at the Gladstone Park
shopping centre, he met an associate, Darren Hafner, for a drug deal.
Mr Hender said that Moran had forgotten to bring
the cannabis he had promised Hafner, but said that he would bring it the next
day, along with some ecstasy tablets.
Hafner, the court was told, was concerned about
Moran "not being on the ball".
Hafner said he was "surprised
that Mark didn't have the smoke because when we make a meeting
like this he usually had what I need."
"We arranged to meet again the
next day at Westfield Shopping Centre. We normally would meet at
the fruit juice store in the food court. I asked Mark to get me
some eggies (sic) for the weekend and he said he would get them
for me."
"I asked him for about ten (!)
for my personal use. I was aware that Mark could get his hands
on the eggies no problem. I have previously purchased eggies
from him and on one occasion back in December (1999) or January
I bought a thousand tablets from him which cost me $19,000. When
I say eggies I am referring to ecstasy tablets."
After the Gladstone Park meeting
with Hafner, also known as 'Smurf', Mark Moran returned home.
He
made a phone call and then left for what
Paul Anderson described in his
book Shotgun City as another "shady rendezvous."
He told his wife he would be back
in fifteen minutes. She did not see him alive again.
As Moran climbed into his car he was hit
by two shotgun blasts and a round from a handgun and killed.
A neighbour who heard four loud bangs looked out
of her window to see Moran slumped on the front seats of his car.
Carl Williams
was the gunman and his
getaway driver would later be implicated in another
three murders.
Police later established
that Williams had only been waiting 10 minutes when
Moran returned.
It smelled of an ambush.
Local resident Sue Taylor said
she dismissed four gunshots she heard as just a car backfiring until her street
was swarming with police.
"There was a white utility.
Both doors were open and what I think I saw were some legs hanging out the
car,'' Ms Taylor said.
Mark had been shot
twice in the chest.
An ambulance was called immediately but he was
dead by the time it arrived.
An autopsy showed Mark had died from gunshot
injuries.
When his clothing was searched, a foil of cocaine and 1.2 grams
of methamphetamine in his pocket.
Neighbours roused by
the gunfire rushed outside to find his body slumped in the front seat of the
car. Moran was dead before ambulances arrived.
Paul
Anderson wrote in 'Shotgun City' that one friend who turned up to
the death scene demanded good things be written about his fallen pal.
"You write that
he had a good heart because he was the best fuckin' bloke," the aggrieved
friend told reporter Phillip Cullen.
"All he did all
his life was help people. He had a different heart to his brother."
Mark's stepfather, Lewis
Moran, was drinking in
a north-western suburban hotel when he heard of the
shooting.
Immediately he called for
a council of war at his home. The Moran kitchen cabinet
discussed who they believed was responsible, and how
they should respond.
The Morans, never short of enemies,
narrowed the field to three. Williams and his team was
by no means the favourite. "We still didn't know we
were in a war," a Moran insider later said.
There were seven men at
the meeting at Moran's home. Five are now dead.
The drug squad had been watching Mark Moran very
closely but, for reasons that have never
been explained, police removed surveillance only hours before he was shot.
Mark left two
children, Tayla and Josh.
The families of
slain mafia bosses Robert
Trimbole, Alfonso
Muratore and armed robber Frank
Valastro sent their condolences.
Police suspected Carl
Williams from the start, so much
so that his house was raided the next day.
But internal
police politics terminally damaged the investigation.
Members of the drug squad, who had worked on the Morans
for years, deliberately concealed information from the
homicide squad because they believed their investigation
was more important than a murder probe they thought
would fail.
Their prediction was
self-fulfilling.
It is understood Dennis Allen Reardon, a
long-time associate of the Williams family gave police an alibi for Carl
Williams after the shooting.
On June 16, 2000,
police seized more than 3kg of amphetamines from Jeffrey
Robert Milne's home in Intervail Drive, Airport West.
Milne,
president of Mark's former football club, claimed that the drugs had been
stored in his back yard bungalow by Mark Moran.
A death notice
placed in the Herald Sun
came from the family of armed robber Frank
Valastro while one was attributed to Carlton
footballer Wayne Johnstone who spoke of the victory lap he and Mark ran together after the
Blues 1982 premiership win.
There was even
one from the grave from Mark's natural father:
"Sadly you're with me now son."
In the days after
shooting it became apparent that the Morans believed that the father son team of
George and Carl Williams were responsible for killing Mark.
There were
reports of shots being fired around the North Fitzroy home of the major suspects
shortly after his death.
Shots were heard in
Rae Street Brunswick on the night of June 20, 2000 and a car was damaged by gun
fire in Brunswick Street near Rae St on the night of Marks funeral (June 22).
Another suspect
was body-building drug-dealer, Dino
Dibra.
He was to meet a
similar fate to Mark's four months later.
Homicide squad
investigations were headed by Detective Inspector, Brian Rix.
He said that Mark
"saw himself as a bit of a heavy."
Another policeman
said that "Jason was out of control, Mark was the brains."
Criminals told the
Herald Sun reprisals for Mark Moran's murder were inevitable.
"If one goes
down, you can be sure there will be others,'' one underworld figure said.
"The ball has
just started rolling. There will be a few more, you just watch. There will be a
few names we all know.''
Police called for
underworld calm, fearing more bloodshed.
Det-Det.-Insp. Rix
appealed to the Moran family to help investigators solve the killing.
In the days following Moran's
death, Darren Hafner received a visit from one of Moran's right hand
men.
"He came to my house to ask me
how much I owed," he said.
"He said to me five pounds. I
said that he had to be joking as I could never buy a pound of
speed. That would amount to about $300,000. He said he was just
passing on the message and he would let Lewis (Mark's
step-father Lewis Moran) know."
"He said that everything Mark
wrote down was in code and they couldn't work out who owed Mark
money and how much."
"The thousand ecstasy tablets I
purchased from Mark in December were purchased on credit - this
was $19,000. At the time Mark died, I had paid back $15,000 of
that debt."
"I have known Mark for a lot of
years and I considered him a friend of mine."
There is absolutely no way I had
anything involvement in Mark's murder or arranging anyone to
kill Mark. I agree that I owed him money but Mark was not
putting pressure on me to repay."
On June 22, 2000,
about 500 mourners dressed in black coats and dark sunglasses gathered to
farewell Mark Moran.
Jason Moran, granted day
leave from prison to be at the funeral at St Therese's Church in Essendon, sat
under guard with his head in his hands during the service.
He had hinted at
revenge.
"Words could
never, ever express the way I am feeling. This is only the beginning. It will
never be the end, REMEMBER, I WILL NEVER FORGET'', Jason wrote in a
Herald Sun death notice.
Jason was embraced
by a long-haired Hells Angel at the funeral.
Many bikies attended
the funeral wearing full colours whilst in church.
Death notices
included many from Australian Rules footballers including a former Carlton
captain who remembered them running a premiership lap in the 1980's.
Rumours
were also rife
that Mark may have been killed in revenge for the murder of Alphonse
Gangitano.
On February 3, 2001, Jeffrey
Robert Milne appeared in a County Court witness box to say more than 3kg of
the drug had been stored in his back yard bungalow by Mark Anthony Moran.
The court heard he
and Moran met through their love of football.
Milne
became president of the Kensington Football Club that Moran had
played for.
Prosecutor Mark
Rochford said the drugs were found at Milne's
house after Moran had been subjected to a surveillance operation by the drug
squad.
The seized drugs
included more than 2kg of methamphetamine, 1.3kg of ketamine, 990g of
pseudoephedrine, and 39 boxes of Sudafed containing 2010 tablets.
Weighing scales had
also been found in the house and glassware used to make amphetamines were found
in Milne's car.
On February 25,
2001, Milne,
37, pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking in a drug of dependence and
one of possessing a drug of dependence.
Being "as
generous as he could'', Judge Barnett sentenced him to three years' jail.
He
ordered Milne to serve two years before becoming eligible for parole.
On Christmas Day,
2002, a story in the Herald Sun told of new
rewards to help solve two murders, one of these being Mark Moran's.
Police had interviewed more than 500 people over Mark
Moran's murder and said they hoped $100,000 rewards would
help solve the murders of notorious gangsters Mark Moran and Richard Mladenich
one month apart in 2000.
Homicide detectives believe the slayings were
payback killings linked to a violent western suburbs crime gang.
The execution-style murders may have been
connected to a series of other unsolved crime-figure shootings in the previous
four years, which had seen the demise of gangsters Alphonse
Gangitano, Dino
Dibra and Paul Kallipolitis.
Police hoped the $100,000 rewards posted on
Christmas Eve would encourage people to come forward with information.
Detective Inspector Andrew Allen, of the homicide
squad, said police had identified links between the Moran and Mladenich
murders
and a drug-dealing gang operating in Melbourne's west.
But after a two-year investigation, they were no
closer to charging anybody over the deaths.
"We are looking at the possibility of a
connection between at least those three murders. We believe there are common
links," Det-Insp Allen said.
Det-Insp. Allen said police wanted to solve the
crimes to prevent further bloodshed.
"There's always concern that we've got
networks of criminals who are prepared to execute others in cold blood," he
said.
"There are obviously concerns that these
paybacks have been occurring for some time.
"We are concerned that someone innocent may
get caught up in it and for that reason we hope people come forward and give
information."
He admitted some people who could help
investigators might be afraid to contact police, fearing for their own safety.
"Yes, the shutters do go up because its
perhaps considered to be an underworld-type killing," he said.
"The information is always treated
confidentially."
Det-Insp. Allen said police could not guarantee
immunity to anybody who came forward with information that might incriminate
themselves.
On November
3, 2002,
Robert
Slusarczyk, a
died in an ultralight aircraft crash.
The dead pilot
had worked
as an amphetamines cook for Carl Williams when
he was supplying Mark Moran.
He
also made corruption allegations against former Victoria Police drug squad
detectives, which were
still being investigated.
Slusarczyk,
who died in the accident along with passenger and friend Vincenzo Maioramo, was
facing serious drug charges.
Police
believe Mr Slusarczyk was cutting Moran's speed to reduce the quality and was
then selling what he cut out of each batch.
After his arrest in
1999, Mr Slusarczyk accused a number of drug squad members of corruption.
His
trial was one of about a dozen prosecutions put on hold pending a police ethical
standards department investigation into allegations of corruption against the
drug squad.
His
trial was postponed because of a continuing Victoria Police ethical standards
department probe into the allegations made by Mr Slusarczyk and others.
Mr
Slusarczyk was charged after police raided his Beechworth home and discovered a
clandestine amphetamine laboratory.
He
and passenger Mr Maioramo, 72, died when their single-engine ultralight plunged
to ground in the state's northeast.
Mr
Slusarczyk, who turned 51 the day he died, had taken off from the Porepunkah
airfield near Bright, but his aircraft crashed in a vineyard at Gapsted, 6km
from Myrtleford.
The
Australian Ultralight Federation and the State Coroner investigated
the
crash.
The Herald Sun later
discovered it was Mr Slusarczyk who was rewarded for leading police to wanted
gunman Pavel "Mad Max" Marinof in 1986.
Although it ha d previously been made public that
an informer was paid a $50,000 reward for revealing where Mad Max was hiding,
the identity of the informer has remained secret.
Mad Max shot and injured four police officers in
June, 1985 at Noble Park. Police intercepted his panel van on the Hume Highway
at Kalkallo in February, 1986.
There was then a gunfight in which Mad Max died
and two police were wounded.
In February 2005, Carl Williams was charged with
Mark Moran's murder.
A court was also told Williams ordered that
criminal Jason Moran be murdered on the
anniversary of the killing of his half-brother Mark Moran.
Williams
allegedly wanted Jason Moran to be shot on June
14, 2003.
Mark Moran had been gunned down outside his Aberfeldie home on June
15, 2000.
It was alleged in court that Williams
ordered the hit in retaliation for being shot in the stomach by one of the Moran
brothers in 1999.
However, it is alleged the plan failed after Williams'
purported accomplice, Alfonso Traglia, failed to identify Jason
Moran at a junior football clinic on the intended day of the murder.
Williams and Brincat
were also charged with the murder of hot-dog vendor and drug dealer Michael
Marshall in South Yarra on October 25, 2003.
The two gangland murder hearings were being held
simultaneously because the case against the three accused relies on the evidence
of supergrass Mr X.
In January Mr X was sentenced to a minimum of 10
years' jail for his involvement in Marshall's
murder.
The court also heard that Mr X had provided
Purana taskforce detectives, investigating underworld murders, with a statement
connected to the murder of Mark Moran.
Mr X told police he had driven Williams
to and from an area close to Mark Moran's home on the night of the shooting.
During the hearing, the three accused sat in a
secure dock behind security glass and flanked by five armed guards.
Former drug squad head, Wayne
Strawhorn was convicted of
drug trafficking on October 18, 2006.
He sat in the box
of the Supreme Court as a 12-person jury found him guilty of trafficking 2kg of
pure pseudoephedrine to Mark Moran in
May 2000 for $13,900.
He arranged for a junior police officer to
purchase the pseudoephedrine from a pharmacy company, he then passed it on to
another police officer and it finally made its way to Moran.
On December 11, 2006 Strawhorn
was sentenced to seven years' jail.
Strawhorn - who
denied guilt - was stony faced as he was sentenced to a minimum four years
inside.
Justice David Habersberger said Strawhorn's
conduct undermined public confidence in the police force and betrayed police
officers.
Strawhorn,
a 29-year veteran of the force, stood stony-faced as the jury read out four
"not guilty" verdicts before convicting him of the most serious
charge.
The crucial witness in the case against him was
former colleague Sen-Det Stephen Paton.
Paton, jailed for
trafficking in 2003, told investigators he committed the crimes on Strawhorn's
instruction.
He said Strawhorn
ran a corrupt fiefdom at the squad in the
late 1990s.
Strawhorn
admitted during a covertly recorded
conversation in 2003 that his whole team appeared to have spun out of control.
On February
28, 2007, Carl Williams
appeared in the Supreme Court and
pleaded guilty to the murder of three rivals.
His former associates, friends and members of his extended family had
provided police with evidence which made a life sentence almost a
certainty if Williams
pleaded not guilty.
Williams
three times uttered the words "I plead guilty" to the charges
of murdering Lewis Moran, his son Jason
Moran and Mark Mallia whose burnt remains were found in a wheelie
bin.
As a
result of a deal prosecutors struck with Williams, he will never
be charged with another six murders police believe he
committed including that of Mark Moran.
Mark's murder is the only one in which police believe Williams
to have actually pulled the trigger.
On March 8, 2007, it was reported that
Darren Hafner, the man who met Mark Moran for a
drug deal shortly before he was killed, was claiming he
transferred a house into the name of Tony
Mokbel to stop his estranged wife from getting her hands on it.
Darren John Hafner has said his
grandparents gave the property in Virginia Court, Bulleen, to him
as a gift.But when he and his wife separated, Mokbel
suggested Mr Hafner transfer it into his name so the drug boss
could hold it in trust for him. A contract of sale was drawn up
valuing the property at $360,000.
Within months, the property --
along with other assets in Mokbel's
name -- was frozen by a court order.
Mr Hafner, of Westmeadows, is now
fighting to have the property excluded from the restraining order.
Hafner is now fighting to keep
his home from the state.
In an affidavit filed in the County
Court, Mr Hafner says he now realises the transfer of his property
to Tony Mokbel was
unnecessary.
He says that at the time (mid-2001) he was panicking about the
breakdown of his marriage.
He admits that the property was
transferred into Mokbel's name to
stop his wife from getting it.
"At that time I became
extremely concerned that there was a potential that I would lose
the subject house, gifted to me by my grandparents, to my
wife," Mr Hafner says.
He says he knew Mokbel
as a business associate and in "other contexts" and
spoke to him about the property.
Mokbel
suggested that Mr Hafner transfer the property to him to protect
it.
"At the time I thought it was
a good idea," he said. The Director of Public Prosecutions is
opposing Mr Hafner's application.
Mokbel's ex-wife Carmel Delorenzo
will also fight for what she says is her interest in restrained Mokbel
properties in Boronia and Kilmore -- including Kilmore's Red Lion
Hotel.
In an affidavit, filed in the
County Court on Ms Delorenzo's behalf, it is claimed that the
property is not tainted or subject to Mokbel's
control.
She acquired her interest lawfully
by reason of her marriage, the affidavit states.
It claims Ms Delorenzo has a 50 per
cent shareholding in the Red Lion Hotel and was a director with
George Joseph Taouk in the company that ran it.
Mr Taouk is also trying to have the
property excluded from the restraining order.
Ms Delorenzo's civil trial will
also be heard in the County Court in May.
The County Court restrained an
estimated $20 million in assets following Mokbel's
arrest in August 2001 on a drug importing charge.
Mr Hafner's lawyers would not
comment on the case.
The matter went to civil trial
in the County Court in May. (More on
Hafner on Tony Mokbel page)
On May 10, 2007, the Herald Sun reported that a major coronial inquest into Melbourne's gangland war could mark the final chapter in
the long-running saga.
Purana Taskforce detectives are compiling a report detailing each murder from the underworld
war era, police confirmed.
It is hoped an inquest might shake out vital pieces of evidence that could help police close
in on remaining players in the underworld.
Judy Moran hopes an inquest will formally resolve the slaying of her
son Mark.
"I want the person who shot my son dead to be incarcerated," she said.
She said Moran's young children, aged 12 and 13, deserved closure.
Gangland kingpin Carl Williams had been charged with murdering the drug dealer outside
Moran's Aberfeldie home on June 15, 2000.
But the charge was withdrawn in a plea deal that saw Williams locked up for at least 35
years over three other underworld killings, including Ms Moran's husband Lewis and other
son Jason.
Ms Moran believes other key players in the killing remain at large.
Initial investigations into Mark Moran's murder suggested Williams had not pulled the
trigger, but a key witness later gave police a version of events implicating Williams.
Police and State Coroner Graeme Johnstone have had lengthy talks about plans for an inquest.
Ms Moran wrote to the coroner appealing for an inquest.
A spokeswoman for the State Coroner said he would not comment on open cases.
On
August 5, 2007, the Sunday Herald Sun reported that
gangland widows had bagged a fortune in compensation for their
notorious underworld partners' deaths.
A "gangland
pension" of up to half a million dollars had been
paid to women who lived high on criminal profit.
Yet genuine victims of
crime had been denied compensation.
The jackpot, totalling
up to $493,000 for crime families, had been kept
secret from taxpayers, who paid the bill.
A Sunday Herald Sun
investigation uncovered public payouts to wives
and girlfriends of gangsters Alphonse
Gangitano,
Victor Peirce, and Mark,
Jason and Lewis
Moran.
Victim advocates were
angry and old-school gangsters sneer that those
claiming compo are soft.
Underworld matriarch
Kath Pettingill said: "In the old days you
wouldn't have dreamed of going to government for
money. Death was an occupational hazard."
The investigation found Judy Moran was paid up to $50,000 as part of a family
claim over Mark Moran's death.
The Victims of Crime
Assistance Tribunal refused to disclose payouts.
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Mark Moran
Mark and Jason
Moran (left) both attended Penleigh and Essendon Grammar.
A Herald Sun report named drug lord and
Moran family rival, 