In April 2005, 166 and his partner entered the witness protection program.

They were later expelled after warnings about their behaviour.

Magistrate Duncan Reynolds found there was enough evidence to send her for trial.

Ms Garde-Wilson was granted bail but was told to hand in her passport.

On June 28, 2007, 166 and his partner won the right to another hearing after being expelled from the state's witness protection program.

The couple successfully applied in the Court of Appeal to have Police Integrity commissioner George Brouwer re-hear their case.

They will remain under 24-hour protection for at least 17 days after the appeal court granted a two-week stay on the decision.

After that fortnight expires, Mr Brouwer has 72 hours in which to hear and decide the case.

166 will also be eligible with his partner for police escorts three times a week while they attend to domestic duties.

The Court of Appeal ordered a re-hearing after finding Mr Brouwer made a jurisdictional error in determining the appeal.

"But the director is scarcely to be criticised on that account," the three appeal court judges said.

"The risk of error was always going to be high once Parliament made provision for an appeal in novel circumstances without stating expressly what kind of appeal it had in mind."

The court's president, Justice Chris Maxwell, and Justices Marcia Neave and Robert Redlich upheld the appeal.

They adjourned an argument about legal costs.

On September 20, 2007, a court was told that Mario 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 informer 166.

Nash, 62, has admitted providing the weapons and is awaiting sentencing in Adelaide.

The Herald Sun reported it had 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 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 27, 2007, 166 and his partner were reinstated to the witness protection program after winning an appeal to the Office of Police Integrity.

The decision by OPI director George Brouwer is the eighth ruling by authorities in 15 months regarding the couple.

In a statement, Mr Brouwer said he upheld the couple's appeal against the original decision to terminate them from the program.

"I have been guided by the more recent decisions of the Supreme Court. I have also taken account of additional information which has come to light as part of the appeal process," he said.

Legal sources could not confirm whether 24-hour protection and police escorts three times a week during domestic duties would be returned to the couple.

Earlier this year, the Court of Appeal returned the case to Mr Brouwer for his second assessment, and restored round-the-clock protection pending his second decision.

The process is complicated by a legal requirement that the OPI determine an appeal within 72 hours of receiving it; all relevant evidence must be considered.

In June, the Court of Appeal granted a seven-day delay on its decision, so Mr Brouwer could read it without using part of the 72-hour allowance.

The appeal court said Ms Nixon had provided a number of primary materials to Mr Brouwer after deciding to terminate the couple from the program.

The material included threat assessments, diary notes by officers protecting 166 and his partner, and press clippings indicating 166 had provided certain information to the media about his involvement with the program.

Victoria Police had no comment to make about the case, a spokeswoman said.

On September 27, 2007, it was reported that drug boss 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 revealed extraordinary new details of a foiled execution plot hatched by rival underworld kingpin Mario Condello, who was himself later shot and killed.

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 166, who remained under police protection.

166 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.