|
The robbery was
discovered on January 7, 1997, when officers noticed a strongroom in the drug
squad's 12th-floor officers had been forced open.
The detective
who discovered the break-in said two separate underworld sources provided
information that corrupt police were responsible.
 By
the time of the break-in, E2/92 had already taken his family to Europe after
death threats were made against him.
He was woken at 3am by a phone call
from Victoria Police Superintendant Peter Halloran (left) telling him the
burglary had blown his cover and that he should move quickly.
Dragging his wife and children out
of bed, they fled to yet another European country.
A police taskforce,
code named Sentinel,
investigated the break-in and disgraced former
detective Kevin
Hicks and several other police officers became suspects.
"Another corrupt officer
deliberately sabotaged the investigation into the break-in by leaking sensitive
information to the media," former drug squad detective Sharon Stone told
the Herald Sun's Keith Moor.
"That scared off two good
quality informers who could have solved the case."
Ms Stone revealed the two sources
told investigators that corrupt officers were paid $250,000 to steal information
that would identify and locate E2/92.
She has no doubt it was a fellow
police officer - probably two - who penetrated the drug squad.
"To gain access you first have
to get past the security staff on the ground floor," Ms Stone said.
"They demand to see police
identification before allowing entry. When you step out of the lift on the 12th
floor there is an electronic security keyboard on the drug squad door. You have
to punch in a series of numbers before the door will open. Those numbers were
changed regularly."
"The squad is like a rabbit
warren inside, with interview rooms, offices and storerooms. Yet the burglars
were able to go directly to the storeroom containing information on E2/92 and
the gang he infiltrated. Among the hundreds of files from a lengthy
investigation, they were able to single out specific information on agent E2/92.
They were then able to carry a large amount of material relating to E2/92 back
out of the building without arousing the suspicion of the security guards."
She said two informers provided
precise details of what had been taken and why.
"We felt they would tell us
more that would lead to identifying the corrupt police involved, but they
clammed up when some of what they had been telling us was leaked to the media.
The break-in investigation was irreparably damaged by that leak. the crooks just
went to water, fearing everything they told us would get out and they would be
fingered by the gang as informers."
Ms Stone was so disgusted by the
break-in and broken promises by police to protect E2/92 that she resigned to
take up a job as a private investigator after 14 years in the force, the last
six in the drug squad.
Operation Sentinel obtained evidence linking up to eight
police with the break-in.
Sentinel detectives were able to determine the break-in occurred
December 25 and 29, and was likely to be an inside job.
At least two of the officers later changed
their duties and another resigned.
Operation Sentinel was wound down
after February 1998.
Drug trafficker David
McCulloch, a close associate of Higgs' was the prime suspect in the
drug squad break-in.
He was secretly caught on tape talking to an
associate about the burglary.
McCulloch said police files relating to a friend had been
stolen during the break-in at the police operations
centre.
"I'm the prime suspect for organising the break-in,''
McCulloch admitted.
McCulloch was named in a document
that led to the murder of police informer Terrence
Hodson.
Hodson and his wife Christine were shot dead in May 2004 after a secret report
detailing allegations he made to police was leaked to
the underworld.
The Hodson report identified McCulloch as a drug
dealer who was prepared to have people killed.
Hodson told police
McCulloch confessed that he was the leader in the St
Kilda Rd break-in.
In the report, Hodson is recorded as having told police
he discussed the drug squad burglary with McCulloch.
"It appears McCulloch still has files from St Kilda
Rd,'' the Hodson police report says.
McCulloch was taken to the St Kilda Rd drug squad office for questioning after
he was arrested on drug charges in 2001.
"We were taking him through the office to an interview room when he began
acting very strangely,'' Sen-Det Victor Anastasiadis
said.
"He was full of attitude and all of a sudden he shouts `Oh no, don't take me in
that room, not that room' while pointing at a particular door.''
Sen-Det Anastasiadis mentioned the outburst to a long-serving drug squad
detective.
"I took the detective and showed him which room McCulloch had pointed out,'' he
said.
"Turns out it was the room that was burgled during the 1996 drug squad
break-in.
"Very few people knew which room had been burgled, I certainly didn't know.
"Makes you wonder how McCulloch knew.''
The drug squad burglary remains unsolved.
despite the squad break-in and he threats, E2/92
did give evidence in Melbourne against crime gang members.
His damning testimony put seven major criminals
behind bars.
Sixteen separate police taskforces formed as a
result of E2/92's information resulted in a further 129 people being charged and
convicted.
On
April 17, 2007, a secret witness told the Supreme Court
that fugitive drug baron Tony Mokbel told him he had "something to
do" with the St Kilda Road break-in.
The witness, a confessed killer, said he supplied a van for Mokbel and
returned to find it had boxes in it, with a blanket over them.
"I still didn't realise that the white van I
had delivered to Tony had the papers from the drug squad in it," he said in
his statement.
The gangland killer, who is serving time for
helping organise the slaying of Jason Moran, was one of two men,
who
cannot be named, called by prosecuting
authorities to testify in an application by Tony Mokbel's sister-in-law, Renate
Mokbel.
Mrs Mokbel was seeking to vary a court restraining
order so she can sell her family home to pay a $1 million surety called in when
Tony Mokbel skipped bail in March 2006.
|
