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Desperate police admitted that Melbourne had become the amphetamines capital of Australia.

When notorious bank robber Hugo Rich was released on parole he wanted to leave his past behind.

He did it with a stroke of a pen: he changed his name to Hugo Rich and his criminal record disappeared.

A self-taught expert in the share market, Rich talked his way into a job with one of Victoria's most prestigious firms, Vinton Smith Dougall. Criminal checks came up clean.

He joined the firm as a trainee adviser in July 1990 and was promoted the following month.

Rich worked with the company until March 1991 as a client adviser.

While working as a stockbroker it is believed he started planning armed robberies.

Defrauder linked with Arena

Federal police charged a Mildura man over the alleged $350,000 fraud and linked him with Giuseppe 'Joe' Arena, the 'friendly Godfather'.

The arrest of Antonia Cufari, 54, of Irymple, followed more than a year of investigations by the National Crime Authority.

Cufari, 54, appeared in Mildura Magistrates' Court charged with conspiring with Arena and others to defraud the Federal Government.

Police told the court Cufari had opened 20 bank accounts in Adelaide between 1983 and 1986 in his own name and those of his children.

Det. Sen-Sgt Ernie Tyrrell said Cufari deposited more than $350,000 in the accounts to conceal alleged illegal transactions.

Peter Gibb, the man who in March 1993 staged a daring escape from the Melbourne Remand Centre,  had been on remand to face charges relating to the theft of $63,900 from an Armaguard van in Sunshine on this day. He was acquitted of the charges in March 1995.

Lachlan McCulloch transferred to the drug squad and became an undercover officer.

Bug discovered in ceiling on highly sensitive second-floor of St.Kilda Police station, Chapel St. IID claim it was placed there by an officer.

Laurence Joseph Sumner  was on bail on charges relating to an amphetamines lab when police learnt he was driving a stolen car. Walking up the driveway, Detective-sergeant Wayne Strawhorn  his experienced nose picked up the odor of amphetamine chemicals through the slightly opened door. It is believed Sumner paid several thousand dollars for the red-hot mail. In return, he was told to demand that all the drugs seized in his case be retested. The results, he was assured, would surprise. When Sumner's lawyer called for a re-analysis of the drugs seized at Sumner's home the prosecution thought it was just a shot in the dark. It proved to be perfectly aimed. What was found in drums and containers in Attwood bore no resemblance to the test results conducted earlier by forensic science. Containers filled with methylamphetamine had turned into Coca-Cola. Ten kilograms of an ingredient used in the manufacture of speed, red phosphorous, had been replaced with red tile grout. And yet the locks were secure and there were no signs of a break-in. It reeked of an inside job.

Condello on property charges

Mario Condello was charged with three counts of obtaining property by deception over an alleged $2 million property scam.

Tony Peluso ambushed, robbed and shot dead.

$1m worth of seized amphetamines disappears from the drug squads Russell Street Headquarters.
1.3kg of amphetamines had gone missing from an alarmed strong-room. No one was charged.

Kevin Hicks joins drug squad as property steward.

Peter Pilarinos bribed former drug squad detective Kevin Hicks between January 1992 and May 1993.

Robert Nancarrow, the founder of the Nancarrow supermarket chain beaten to death. 

At 1.22 pm, Detective Lachlan McCulloch received a message to ring the Selby Medical and Scientific Supplies. A man named James Sweetin had made some questionable purchases, he was told. McCulloch was able to trace Sweetin to Peter Pilarinos, a gangster-figure well known to police. His brother owned a St Kilda nightclub often used for detective functions and fundraisers. Off-duty policemen had worked on the door as security over the years.

Police announced a $100,000 reward for information over the murder of Giuseppe Arena. 

Tony Franzone was killed outside his Mount Waverly home at 8.45 pm.

He was gunned down in the driveway of his home in Wendover Crt.

A gunman approached Franzone as his de-facto wife and three month old son watched from the family car.

He was well known around then illegal casino's of northern Melbourne and gave the impression of being connected to organised crime. 

By 1992 he owed $35,000 to legitimate and underworld gambling establishments.

Detective Lachlan McCulloch went to Peter Pilarinos' home, spread over three big blocks on a hill in Doncaster. At 4.35am he sifted through his suspect's wheelie bin and found two recipes for speed that had been ripped up and stuffed in a tin of dog food.

Normy Lee shot dead during airport heist

Great Bookie Robbery suspect Norman Lee was was killed by police during an attempted robbery at Melbourne Airport.

Working with two other men - a fellow gunman and a wheelman - Lee had his sights on $1.25 million being handed over by Armaguard staff at the Ansett Freight Terminal at Melbourne Airport.

Victoria Police and National Crime Authority officers had been tipped off about the heist.

As Lee and his accomplice threw the money bags into the back of the van, five SOG members in an unmarked van swooped on the Ford.

As the black-clad officers moved, the getaway Ford driver sped off, causing Lee and his right-hand man to spill to the ground.

The two picked themselves up and in the blink of an eye all hell broke loose.

Lee and his fellow gunman were felled by SOG gunfire.

The getaway driver was arrested after police rammed his vehicle head-on.

SOG gunfire had hit Lee in the chest near his armpit, the back of his head and his left wrist.

Exit wounds had exploded from his right chest, left arm and head.

He died at the scene.

Alfonso Muratore was killed two we

eks after the fruiterer met with Coles-Myer executives. Left his wife who was daughter of Melbourne 'Godfather', Liborio Benvenuto. His son, Frank Benveuto, shot dead in Beaumaris May 8, 2000 was believed to have ordered the hit.

Muratore's father Vincenzo was shot dead in 1964.

Career criminal Christopher Dean Binse escaped from St Vincent's security ward using a smuggled gun left in the hospital.

He was arrested in Sydney.

Christopher Binse escaped from Parramatta jail.

A month later, had robbed the Commonwealth bank at Doncaster of $160,000.

After Operation Cane was compromised and closed, Detective Lachlan McCulloch discovered that fellow detective Kevin Hicks had known Pilarinos and was lying. He started to think the detective's interest in his case may have been more than passing.

Between 1993 and 1995 police officers were paid up to $300 each time they told window shutter companies about a broken window.

A three year investigation, known as Operation Bart, examined 1819 incidents which resulted in about 550 police being charged with disciplinary offences.

It was found that up to one in five of  Melbourne's front-line police and 56 police stations were linked to the pay-backs. Eventually, 100 officers resigned, 10 were sacked and 244 demoted, transferred, reprimanded or fined.

Gibb and Butterly blast out of jail, escape with warder

Peter Gibb and fellow prisoner Archie Butterly used explosives to blow their way out of the Melbourne Remand Centre with the help of Gibb's lover, then prison guard Heather Dianne Parker (left).

Butterly shot and seriously wounded policeman, Sen-Constable Warren Treloar, in Southbank Boulevard after the escapees had crashed both a getaway car and a stolen motorcycle.

He and Gibb then stole a police revolver and commandeered a police van before meeting Parker, who had organised the escape.

Gibb and Parker were re-captured six days later in north-eastern Victoria after a shoot-out with police. Butterly was shot dead.

Harland, Love and Chrimes instigate pub bashing

10 to 15 men ran out of the Flower Hotel, Port Melbourne and allegedly kicked and punched off-duty Springvale detective Tony Ross.

Two of Mr Ross's friends who came to his aid were also allegedly set upon and all three taken to hospital with injuries.

The three men charged over the assault were all footballers. One, Jason Love, had played at AFL level with North Melbourne and the Sydney Swans. He played with the two other accused at VFA club Port Melbourne at the time of the attack. They were Darren William Harland and Dean Anthony Chrimes.

They faced court and escaped jail in March 1996.

Harland would rise in notoriety over the years with another arrest for a similar assault in 1997 and then another one in 2000 for carrying a gun while visiting the notorious Jason Moran at Fulham Prison. Moran was serving time for his part in the 1995 Sports Bar brawl which was apparently instigated by the now dead Alphonse Gangitano. When Harland faced court over the gun charge, he was read a glowing character reference by AFL star and Footy Show panellist, David Shwarz.

Melbourne Remand Centre escapee, Peter Gibb and his accomplice, prison guard, Heather Dianne Parker were re-captured near Jamieson in north-eastern Victoria after a shoot-out with police.

A massive police search lasted six days before the three were located near the Jamieson River, 180km north-east of Melbourne, after a motel at Gaffney's Creek, where they had been staying, burned down.

Gibb was recaptured, together with Parker, after a shootout with special operations group police. Butterly was found shot dead.

Gibb and Parker were arrested as they tried to escape police by wading along the Goulburn River after an exchange of fire between Butterly and members of the special operations group.

Vernon defends hospital gunman

Robert "Rolls-Royce" Vernon defended Mercy Private Hospital gunman William Ernest Jolly in the Supreme Court.

Jolly killed a secretary by shooting her four times in the head and wounded the Mercy's radiology business manager.

Vernon had previously represented Peter McKevoy, one of the four men charged and later acquitted of the 1988 Walsh Street police shootings.

Ten serving and former police officers were charged with murder over the deaths of two men during police investigations. Another officer was charged with being an accessory to murder. Eight men are charged with the murder of Graeme Russell Jensen. Charged with his October 11, 1998 shooting were serving officers Robert John Hill, Glen Robert Saunders, Peter Leslie Butts, William John Coburn, Jeffery Forti, and Christopher Ferguson. The decision to charge the office rs was taken by Mr Bernard Bongiorno, the DPP.

Long-time drug squad target Joe Reading was reporting for bail at Magnetic Island's police station when a detective from the Victorian Drug Squad rang to check on him. He was told by a worried local policeman, that Reading had been in close contact with Inspector John McCoy who regularly holidayed on the island.

Donna Parker in warder attack claim

It was alleged that Heather Dianne Parker, the former prison guard who assisted in the March 1993 escape of in-mates, Peter Gibb and Archie Butterly, attacked a Fairlea Prison warder.

She pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing injury, assault by kicking, and unlawful assault after a court in March 1995 heard she kicked the warder.

Victoria's biggest armoured van robbery. $2.3m is stolen from a van in a Harcourt Pde, joining Punt Rd to the South Eastern Freeway. Five robbers, armed with a handgun, posed as street workers and stopped the van. In a well rehearsed heist, one of the robbers unlocked the back door of the van with keys the gang had commissioned a locksmith to cut. A report in the Herald Sun on June 21, 2001, reported that the alleged perpetrators were still living off their stolen riches as well as leeching off the government in the form of dole payment rip-offs.

The suspected mastermind who led the crew has been living comfortably in an affluent eastern suburb. He escaped jail in the late 1990's on minor drug charges.

Two of the other chief suspects are brothers who carry a fearsome reputation in criminal circles. The elder is living on a south-west Victorian property protected by Rottweilers. He has been arrested for guns and firearms offences but has recently managed to escape with suspended jail terms. He has also been questioned over an unsolved murder and has been linked to an amphetamine syndicate.

The younger brother served time on drug charges just before the robbery. Both brothers have connections in the nightclub and fashion industries.

A man working at the locksmiths from where the blank keys appeared was also a suspect . He is the son of a career criminal noted for his safe-breaking expertise and close links to Alphonse Gangiatano.

Kerry McNamara oversaw the famous 'Tasty' nightclub raid in which 43 officers converged on the commerce club in Prahran. Patrons were strip searched and abused as Police searched for drugs. Massive payouts were made to several of those who were violated.

The killing of criminal Greg Workman occurred outside a Wando Grove, St Kilda East party Alphonse Gangitano had attended on February 6, 1995.

Workman was shot seven times in the chest and once in the back.

Police officer Karl Konrad revealed police were receiving kickbacks from window shutter firms in return for giving them work. His evidence resulted in about 550 officers being charged on disciplinary offences, with 107 resigning and 224 being demoted, transferred or fined.

Victor John McCoy takes over the drug squad.

The killing of criminal Gregory John Workman (below) occurred outside an St Kilda East party Alphonse Gangitano had attended. Workman was shot seven times in the chest and once in the back.

Police had uncovered a jail drug dealing syndicate run by Peter Allen. He was sentenced to another six years for trafficking.

As mastermind of an elaborate syndicate involving female couriers, a corrupt prison officer dubbed "The Postie", and brother Victor Peirce, Allen sold drugs to inmates.

Stuart Lance Pink, heroin user, trafficker and thief shot dead in Park St, St Kilda at 1.00am. Pink had two assailants, one in a car, one on foot.

Peter Gibb acquitted of 1991 robbery

The Herald Sun reported that Peter Gibb, could be free 15 months before lover, Heather Parker, after his acquittal on an armed robbery charge in the County Court.

The acquittal means that if he hadn't blasted his way out of the Melbourne Remand Centre in March 1993, Gibb would be free today. His earliest release date had become March 1999, while Parker's was June 2000.

But in another twist, the mother-of-two pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing injury, assault by kicking, and unlawful assault after a court heard she kicked a Fairlea Prison warder on June 14, 1994.

Three police officers and a police dog were rewarded for their bravery during the pursuit of jail escapees Archie Butterly and Peter Gibb.

Sen-Constables Warren Treloar, Jan Schoenpflug, Trevor Berryman and police dog Shamus received bravery medals.

Gibb and Parker implicated in Butterly death

The Herald Sun reported that Peter Gibb and Heather Parker had been implicated in the death of escapee Archie Butterly.

A leaked legal opinion by the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Bernard Bongiorno, said "there is ample evidence that one or other of them killed Butterly...."

Detective Lachlan McCulloch was upgraded to acting detective sergeant and was able to start his own investigations. He immediately targeted heroin dealer Peter Pilarinos in Operation Austin.

McCulloch had enough information to have a tap put on Peter Pilarinos home phone. A man named Steve started to ring regularly. He was close to the target, but his identity was a mystery. They would talk in code but were clearly discussing drug deals. It became apparent that Steve was a Policeman.

Confidential files held in the drug squad's then Russell Street headquarters were believed to have been accessed. An investigation is believed to have been unable to determine whether the files were simply disturbed or an attempt was made to steal them.

Guns found in Pilarinos raid

Police discovered weapons during a raid on the Pilarinos home in St Clems Rd, East Doncaster. A cache of weapons was found at the home of Peter Pilarinos and his son Peter jnr, including a 44 Uberti revolver with a laser sight, a .22 pen pistol and a .22 Winchester rifle.

While waiting for Judge Geoff Byrne to enter the court, notorious bank robber, Hugo Rich turned to Crown Prosecutor (later County Court Judge) Carolyn Douglas and said: "One chance - one fuckin' chance. Watch your back. Every time you turn the car on of yours . . . I'm telling you, OK. I don't care how long it takes, 25 years, bitch. I'll have a go at you. One go, that's all I want."

Andrew Petrelis, a close associate of West Australian crime figure John Kizon, died of a drug overdose - one month before he was to give evidence in a committal hearing. Kizon and Perth identity Michael Rippingale were later acquitted of cannabis conspiracy charges.

Cook 'guilty' on heroin charges

Fred Cook, a former Port Melbourne Football Club and TV personality, pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates' Court to three counts of trafficking in heroin, amphetamines and cannabis and handling stolen goods.

Corrupt Sydney detective, Roger Rogerson was released from jail.

There was a wild brawl at the Sports Bar in King Street Melbourne at about 5.30am. This involved a group made up of Alphonse Gangiatano and foot-soldiers including Mark John McNamara and Jason Moran.

Police raid a Narre Warren farm house as part of an amphetamines operation. They discover a false wall concealing a small arsenal of weapons. Police netted six cans of mace, 17 pistols, shotguns and machine guns, silencers and false drivers licenses. Also seized was the printout of a giving information on alarm systems used in Melbourne buildings including police stations. 'Mad' Charlie Hegyalji's fingerprints were found on the list.

Barrel of cash found at train station

A fossicker has stumbled across more than $200,000 which could have been stashed under a railway station by drug-dealing gangsters.

Police said they were investigating the possibility the cash found buried in a plastic barrel at Balaclava station was part of a large drug deal gone wrong.

Police checks have indicated the wads of $100 and $50 plastic and paper notes were not the spoils of an armed robbery.

Sgt Lars Holden, of St Kilda police, said police could not release any details about the fossicker who found the cash worth "well in excess of $200,000" because of fears for his or her safety.

He said if the money was booty from a crime, there were also concerns about the "severe repercussions" on the person who stashed it.

"Considering the large amount of money . . . we can assume that it was not some small-time operation," Sgt Holden said.

Harland, Love and Chrimes acquitted over pub bashing

Three Port Melbourne footballers were acquitted of an affray charge over the Flower Hotel assault on three men in August 1993.

Darren William Harland, Jason Love and Dean Chrimes were each found not guilty of the charge by a County Court jury which had entered their fourth day of deliberation after a trial lasting nearly a month.

Defence barristers said the jury could not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt the three men on trial were involved. Chrimes also produced alibi evidence.

Coroners findings raise more concerns over Butterly death

The State Coroner, Graeme Johnstone, said forensic evidence presented at an inquest on escaped criminal Archie Butterly raised matters of concern for the administration of justice in Victoria.

Graeme Johnstone's findings were also critical of the crime scene investigation after Butterly's controversial death during the shootout beside the Goulburn River in March 1993.

More on Archie Butterly, Heather Parker and Peter Gibb

Mate of Gatto, Gangitano accused of murder

Mathew Thomas, who former detective Jason Wood believes was gangster Alphonse Gangitano's driver, was one of three men charged with murdering a teenager who was kicked and stomped to death in a Carlton restaurant.

Raymond Oueinati, 18, was killed in a savage attack at the Gatto Nero restaurant in Lygon St.

Tomas went on to become the director of Elite Cranes which is part- owned by underworld king-pin Mick Gatto.

Tomas, who was represented by prominent underworld lawyer George Defteros was acquitted in December 1998.

Detective Lachlan McCulloch had formed another investigative team, codenamed Redalen and arrested James Sweetin at an amphetamines lab in Bayswater.

Sweetin finally admitted that it was Hicks who was the corrupt policeman supplying information and drugs to Pilarinos. He said that  Hicks had supplied the keys to the drug squad lock-up and they had burgled the containers to steal back chemicals seized in earlier raids.

Grantley Cornell was also busted. Sweetin did a deal with Police and only received a suspended sentence for possession and trafficking. He went informant and the investigation into Peter Pilarinos began in earnest.

Out of nowhere, rumours started to spread that detective Lachlan McCulloch was corrupt, that he had been selling out jobs, trafficked heroin, sold guns to crooks and organised two murders.

Senior officers did not want Guardsman compromised so they decided to move McCulloch.

He was sent to a suburban CIB. Within days, he was confronted by an older detective who said he was a friend of the Pilarinos family and there was no place for McCulloch in his office.

Later, the inspector made it clear he should move on. The inspector was later told by a deputy commissioner that his actions were inappropriate.

But McCulloch was transferred to the rape squad. "They put me in a place where there was no corruption. We just investigated serial sickos."

A Victorian detective's lap top computer went missing while he was in Sydney. The computer had sensitive drug squad information on it including information regarding recent heroin and amphetamine busts. The hapless police man said that it simply disappeared.

Bora Alintas survives Adelaide shotgun attack

Bora Alintas was shot repeatedly at close range with a shotgun as he sat in his car in Adelaide after leaving a coffee shop.

Two masked men in a white Holden blocked a carpark exit before shooting Alintas in his small Hyundai.

He was the target of a well-planned hit but curled into a ball to make himself a smaller target.

The dashboard of his car helped protect him from some of the seven blasts.

The two gunmen escaped but have never been found.

Alintas was a South Australian drug dealer and the one time light-middleweight boxing champion of his state.

A break-in at St Kilda Rd Police HQ has been described as the biggest scandal to hit Victoria's police force. Confidential files on a protected witness known as E2/92 and evidence in the long-running investigation into amphetamines dealer, John Higgs, were stolen.

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. A police taskforce, code named Sentinel, investigated the break-in.

Disgraced former detective Kevin Hicks and several other police officers became suspects along with underworld identity David McCulloch.

A secret police informer later said he firmly believed that the robbery was organised by fugitive drug baron Tony Mokbel.

But no one was arrested, despite a lengthy police investigation.

Rumours circulated that a crime lord put a $120,00 contract on a criminal who "knew too much."

Sentinel detectives were able to determine the break-in occurred December 25 and 29, and was likely to be an inside job.

In August 1997, the Herald Sun reported that detectives were allegedly paid $100,000 by crime bosses.

Harland and Co. at it again

The three former Port Melbourne players accused of assaulting an off-duty police-man in 1993, later pleaded guilty to assaulting crowd controllers outside a Clarendon St pub.

Love, Dean Anthony Chrimes and Darren William Harland were videotaped punching and kicking crowd controllers soon after another man was ejected from the Star Bar about 1.15am.

On January 27, 1998, Darren Harland and two former VFL team mates admitted to assaulting a number of men outside the club.

Peter Gibb paroled

Heather Parker and career criminal Peter Robert Gibb spent their first time together. The pair, who figured in the 1993 break-out from the Melbourne Remand Centre, were reunited after four years.

Gibb, 42, was paroled from Barwon prison and within hours he was back "inside" another jail - the Women's Correctional Centre at Deer Park to visit Parker. He had been out of custody for only 22 months since the age of 17.

But the pair were unable even to hold hands.

Their two meetings took place in the women's prison, where they were kept apart by a glass screen and could speak only over a telephone.

He saw Parker, 32, on his first day out of prison, then again the next day.

Gibb wanted to visit Parker a third time but his application was turned down by the authorities.

Speed factory blows up next door to Mokbel House

Paul Edward Howden kicked over a bucket of solvents in an amphetamine laboratory in a quiet residential street in Brunswick.

The chemicals ignited and burnt the house down

It had pumped out 41.25 kilograms of pure methylamphetamine with a potential street value of $78 million until that day.

Prosecutors claimed the clandestine operation had produced enough speed for 1.3 million users.

"It is the largest seizure of methylamphetamine in Victoria and it's the largest detected manufacture of methylamphetamine in the state," the County Court was told.

Howden's barrister, Con Heliotis, QC, later told a court his client was just a minor player who agreed to the plan out of loyalty to a friend — the godfather to one of his three children — identified only as "Tony".

When he jailed Howden for four years, the judge took into account Howden's minnow status: "You were a factory roustabout rather than the managing director."

The managing director was Godfather Tony — who was never formally identified in court — but police needed only to look over the badly charred side fence to solve the mystery.

The house next door was one of many owned by the Mokbel family.

Tony Mokbel was said to have lost millions when the lab was discovered.

Marcus was a big punter at Crown Casino who was worried about gambling debts.

Referred to in The Age as a crime figure with legal connections.

He was shot six times in Box Hill North.

Mr Marcus' murder is unsolved.

Former office manager for George Defteros at since-disbanded law firm Pryles and Defteros.

Once involved in a fight with Defteros outside the old City Court building in Russell Street.

Kevin Hicks and Peter Pilarinos were arrested as a result of a Lachlan McCulloch established Ethical Standards Department taskforce, codenamed Guardsman.  It came as a surprise when  Hicks pleaded guilty. He thought Pilarinos would roll over and give evidence against him. If that happened, he would do 10 years. Now he will probably do less than half that. McCulloch, too, was a casualty. He could not go back to being an ordinary detective. He was drinking too much and brooding. The fun had gone out of policing. He no longer felt like he belonged. He had fallen out of love with "The Job''.

Darren Harland and former Hawk Collins in violent on-field brawl

A halftime brawl, involving Darren Harland, then a Werribee seconds player, led to VFA clubs Sandringham and Werribee being asked to explain why they should not be punished. 

The clubs were ordered to appear before the VFL Board.

At a three-hour meeting the VFL considered a report into the incident, sparked by a clash between Sandringham coach Andy Collins and Harland.

The VFL later released a brief statement which said the conduct of some players and officials was likely to bring the game into disrepute. If found guilty, the clubs faced fines or suspensions.

VFL chairman Ken Gannon said the league had sent copies of the report to both clubs and was treating the matter as extremely serious.

More on Darren Harland

Alleged murderer Alexander MacDonald - also a convicted armed robber, had been on the run for two years. He was arrested peacefully while walking along the Hume Hwy near Campbellfield. After being interviewed by Armed Robbery Squad detectives, he was sent to Perth to await a murder trial.

The Herald Sun reported that detectives were allegedly paid $100,000 by crime bosses to stage the break-in at the drug squad offices the previous Christmas. One of those alleged to have been involved was amphetamine baron John Higgs. Operation Sentinel, instigated to investigate the break-in and theft of sensitive files, obtained evidence linking up to eight police with the break-in. At least two of the officers later changed their duties and another resigned. Operation Sentinel was wound down after February 1998.

Detectives staged simultaneous raids on eight properties, arresting four men and a woman after an intensive two-month investigation, codenamed Operation Elat.

The properties were in Five Ways, East Keilor, Newport, Essendon and Yarraville and two storage sheds in Brooklyn.

Sen-Detective Stephen Paton, of the drug squad, told the hearing at the Melbourne Custody Centre the syndicate had set up a large, sophisticated amphetamines laboratory in Fisheries Rd, Five Ways, near Cranbourne.

He alleged a second laboratory was found in a warehouse in Geelong Rd, Brooklyn.

About 4kg of cannabis with an estimated street value of $89,000 was also discovered during the swoop - 1.5kg of compressed cannabis heads at a house in Henry St, East Keilor, and 2.5kg at the Five Ways property.

A new inquest was ordered into the murder of Adele Bailey. It ran for 23 sitting scattered over a year.

Jane Thurgood-Dove shot dead outside her Niddrie home.

The brutal execution was carried out in front of her three young children, then aged three, five and 10, who cowered inside the vehicle.

There were two suspects described, one, the shooter, a short, pot-bellied man, the other, the driver of a stolen get-away car, was younger and slim.

The pot-bellied man had chased Mrs Thurgood-Dove around her four-wheel drive after she arrived home after collecting her children from school.

Higgs's men jailed

In a committal hearing the informer known only as E2/92 gave evidence against two of amphetamine king John Higgs's drug distributors, David "Deadly" McLennan (Higgs' brother-in-law), and Ron "Strapper" Foster.

They, along with gang members Donald "Dozer" Worcestor and Bruce Alexander Wilson (left), pleaded guilty to drug offences.

Each received jail terms between 12 and 33 months, with the bulk of the sentences suspended for between 12 months and three years.

Richmond robbery suspect murdered

A man suspected of paying a peripheral role in the 1994 $2.3m heist from an Armaguard van in Richmond was murdered in  Brunswick.

The man, 41, was bashed to death with a wheel brace on a foot-path.

His killer left him lying unconscious in a pool of blood.

He was rushed to the Western General Hospital where he died later.

The man had been interviewed by the Armed Robbery Squad but was never charged.

In November 2001, the Sunday Herald-Sun revealed a police officer had been investigated over the 1997 destruction of a criminal intelligence data base.

The policeman was still serving in the force despite a high level inquiry by the Ethical Standards Department.

The incident wiped the Asian Squads computer records on criminals, their associates and investigations. The ESD was unable to determine whether the data base was wiped intentionally or by mistake.

The officer was transferred from the Asian Squad and was serving in Crime Command when the story went to print.

The incident happened at the time disgraced former Asian squad officer Kerry McNamara was standing over drug dealers.

Reward for info on Thurgood Dove murder.

The State Government offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Jane Thurgood-Dove's killers. 

A pardon was ordered for anyone who had played a minor role in the murder.

Thurgood-Dove suspects raided

At dawn police raided the home of two men living in the area of Jane Thurgood-Dove's murder

One was taken to St Kilda Rd, questioned and later released.

Stick-up merchant Billy Prideaux was the prime focus of a police operation named Albers.

Albers was formed after a string of banks in Melbourne's south-east were robbed netting the offender/s close to two million dollars.

All six crews in the Armed Robbery squad were hell-bent on a result.

He was on parole and had apparently slipped into his old ways.

Detectives believed Prideaux was running with a second ex-con named Leigh Torney and enlisting a third top-drawer crook named Fatty Smith as the getaway expert.

Shifts around the clock sweated on Torney and Prideaux.

One day detectives sat in an unmarked car watching Prideaux and Torney step through a dry-run on a Keilor bank.

Prideaux and Torney did everything but commit the crime, double-checking drop-off times, shutters, alarms, escape routes.

Surveillance detectives followed the pair back to Moorabbin.

Several weeks full-time, several crews full-time - but the pressure had not pinned the bank-job run on Prideaux and his associates.

The Albers team had more than a hunch that Billy was behind the bank heists but hunches don't convince judges.

Alphonse Gangitano was murdered in his Templestowe home.

Harland and co. escape jail again

Darren Harland and two former VFL team mates admitted to assaulting a number of men outside the Star Bar in South Melbourne on January 20, 1997.

Prosecutor Mark Rochford told the court a man was ejected from the club and was followed out by a group of people.

Mr Rochford told the court Harland threw a crowd controller to the ground before punching and kicking him.

Love, of Robert St, Spotswood, Harland, of Melbourne Rd, Williamstown, and Chrimes, of Clark St, Port Melbourne, pleaded guilty to two counts each of intentionally causing injury.

The men again escaped jail as they had when faced with similar charges shortly before the Star Bar attack.

Magistrate Wendy Wilmoth convicted Jason Love and fined him $500.

Ms Wilmoth also imposed a three-month jail term, but suspended the sentence for 12 months.

Chrimes was convicted, fined $500 and given a three-month suspended jail sentence. Harland was convicted, fined and given a six-month suspended sentence.

Rocky Iaria shot dead. 

Operation Sentinel, the investigation into the break-in at the drug squad offices the previous Christmas, was wound down. Police chief Neil Comrie had said "we have a very strong idea of who is responsible for what took place", but Sentinel was wound down without any charges being laid over the break-in, described by Police Minister Andre Haeymeyer as "the biggest scandal to hit the police force."

John McCoyand legal team successfully put paid to the ABC's Four Corners program from televising a story centred around drug squad corruption implicating McCoy and those investigating him.

The debut of McFeast Live on the ABC got off to a controversial start when Elle McFeast's first guest appeared on the show drunk.

Mark "Chopper" Read appeared bleary eyed and spoke with a slur. The glare of television lights seemed to bother him as he struggled to answer McFeast's questions about toe-cutting and other sordid criminal activities.

Pilarinos father and son duo warned on guns

Peter Pilarinos Senior and Junior and son had a close brush with jail yesterday after a cache of weapons was found at their home.
Magistrate Robert Langton warned Peter Pilarinos, 42, and his son Peter Adrian Pilarinos, 21, that "the roof would fall in on them if they stepped out of line again".
The two men pleaded guilty in Heidelberg Magistrates' Court to possessing illegal firearms, including a .44 Uberti revolver with a laser sight, a .22 pen pistol and a .22 Winchester rifle.
Prosecutor Sen-Constable John Ashton said police discovered the weapons during a raid on the Pilarinos's home in St Clems Rd, East Doncaster, on August 9, 1995.

Thurgood-Dove suspect a cop

The Herald-Sun carried front-page headlines stating that the prime suspect for the murder of Jane Thurgood-Dove was a well-respected serving policeman.

It was suggested that the officer was in love with Mrs Thurgood-Dove and that he became deeply depressed after her death.

The officer had been interviewed by the homicide squad.

Victoria Police said assertions that a serving policeman hired two hit men to kill Mrs Thurgood-Dove was 'pure fantasy'.

Detective took girlfriend to drug boss's home

The Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard a drug squad detective took his policewoman girlfriend to meetings with an alleged drug boss.

Constable Maree Davies told the court Sen-Det. Kevin Hicks took her to meetings at the East Doncaster mansion of alleged drug boss Peter Pilarinos on his motorcycle.

In a statement tendered to court, Constable Davies said she and Sen-Det. Hicks regularly met Mr Pilarinos and other members of the drug squad at a Bourke St bar.

Constable Davies said she knew another police officer named David Waters who "seemed to have a similar relationship with Mr Pilarinos to Kevin".

Sen-Det. Hicks and Mr Pilarinos were both facing charges over the manufacture of amphetamines from chemicals stolen from a police drug facility at Attwood.

Victor Peirce was released from jail after serving a six-year sentence for drug trafficking.

Charlie Hegyalji released from jail for a 1997 Prahran gun battle. Charges had been dropped and he spent just over a year in custody.

The police drug squad has warned that an imitation designer drug with the potential to kill or become addictive is being sold in Melbourne.
Chief Inspector John McCoy said there had been no deaths from the fake ecstasy drug, "but it could just be a matter of time".
He said the fakes, made by back yard manufacturers, cost the same as normal ecstasy tablets and looked similar.

Gary Silk and Rod Millar had been watching the Silky Emperor Chinese restaurant in Warrigal Road and followed a late-model Hyundai Excel which pulled into the restaurant car park just after midnight . The two police were shot dead.
It was revealed at the committal trial of two suspects on September 24, 2001 that Silk was shot three times by two revolvers and Miller, once.

More than 200 police carried out the drug raids on 32 houses in 19 Melbourne suburbs.
An amphetamine laboratory and big indoor cannabis crop were found and more than 20 people were charged. Drug Squad detective, Malcolm Rosenes later charged with drug trafficking himself, appeared in the Herald Sun with some of the spoils of the simultaneous raids.

Armed Robbery Squad detectives, in league with the Special Operations Group, swooped on armed robber Billy Prideaux's household at day-break.

Prideaux, a suspect in the shooting deaths of police officers Silk and Miller was less than cordial as the place was tossed for weaponry.

Cisterns were checked, air ducts, guttering.

Seized in a wardrobe cavity was a 9-millimetre pistol, plus rounds, a serious breach for a convicted felon.

The suspect was interviewed and processed at Moorabbin Police Station.

His alibi, later corroborated, would clear him of the murders.

Ironically, while Prideaux would do time for illegal possession of a firearm, he'd never serve a sentence on the Albers bank jobs he was hotly suspected of committing.

Smith had told police he was afraid of Mr Moran. "I am very scared for my own safety at the moment, as I know what Jason Moran is capable of," he said.

Alintas shot dead

Bora Alintas, an Adelaide criminal with links to Melbourne's drug trade, was on bail died after being shot several times as he walked down an Adelaide street.

He'd survived after being shot repeatedly at close range with a shotgun as he sat in his car in Adelaide in December 1996 but this time his luck had run out.

Underworld figure Mick Gatto publicly denied murdering Giuseppe Arena ten years before. Gatto said he was shocked at a news report he claims pointed the finger at him over the 1988 slaying of Arena. (Arena, known to some as "the friendly godfather", was shot dead in the driveway of his Bayswater home in an apparent gangland execution.)

The burly Mr Gatto, a friend of slain crime boss Alphonse Gangitano, said he contacted the Arena family after a newspaper report indicated he was prime suspect in the 1988 killing.

He said his father was a good friend of Mr Arena's and he had also been an acquaintance of the dead man.

Convicted triple murderer Greg Brazel was bashed by a revenge-driven group of prisoners.

While in Brazel was Barwon Prison's maximum security Acacia unit, a group of prisoners broke into the exercise yard after spending considerable time breaking a window with a rowing machine.

Brazel's attackers were Sean Jason sonnet, Matthew Charles Johnson and Jason Brian Paisley.

In 2004 Sonnet was arrested in Caulfield while allegedly waiting to murder underworld figure Mario Condello.

Brendon Abbott, a notorious escapee and master of disguise and the man dubbed "The Postcard Bandit", fled Brisbane's Sir David Longland Prison with four other inmates. Abbott came to Melbourne, where he was tracked to a rented Carlton house after his companion, Brendan Berichon, was allegedly involved in a shooting in Box Hill. Fled Victoria and eventually arrested in Darwin.

Charlie Hegyalji killed in the garden of his South Caulfield home. 

A Brunswick man gunned down in a gangland ambush is fighting for his life.

Convicted criminal Raymond Mansour, 37, was blasted five times.

Police sources said last night the seasoned criminal appeared to have been lured to a lane near his home in Albion St Brunswick.

Two security guards are shot outside Prahran's Dome nightclub by Dino Dibra. He was apparently a dealer in cocaine, ecstacy and steroids and an associate of known criminals and drug dealers Charlie Heglyaji and Mark Moran. Dibra and the two mentioned are all shot dead over the next 18 months. A former Footscray reserves player and convicted criminal Mick Dewhurst was jailed for the Dome fracas in mid 2001. He admitted bashing the bouncers and hitting one of them with a pole.