| February 6, 2006 |
Condello shot dead
In the early evening Mario Condello joined friends, including
Carlton identity 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.
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February 11, 2006
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Condello Buried
 Mario
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.
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March 20, 2006
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Mokbel shoots through
Drug lord Tony
Mokbel vanished just before being convicted of smuggling 1.93kg of pure cocaine into
Victoria from Mexico.
The man who always reported for bail
at the South Melbourne police station just disappeared.
Federal agent Jarrod Ragg later told a court police had information
Mokbel transferred $20 million overseas before fleeing the country.
He said it was believed Mokbel had several passports in false names and had
the contacts and finances to support a fugitive lifestyle overseas.
Mokbel left his three mobile phones, his
girlfried, his frozen assets, his city apartment and walked away.
He was living with Danielle Maguire when he
disappeared.
She was unable to help police in
their inquiries as to his whereabouts.
A court later heard
that Ms Maguire, the last person to see Mokbel, sent $272,000 offshore in the 18
months before Mokbel left.
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April 2006
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Thurgood-Dove suspect
dead
Jamie Reynolds, who police believe organised the
car used by the Jane Thurgood-Dove murder
team, drowned at in a boating accident at
Barwon Heads.
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| April
24, 2006 |
Mokbel's brother arrested
Tony Mokbel's
brother,
Milad, was arrested during police raids which allegedly uncovered a clandestine drug
laboratory.
Police allegedly discovered the lab in a shop in Strathmore.
They also swooped on properties in Brunswick, St Albans, Armadale and Highett.
Milad Mokbel, 38, of Brunswick, faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court
the following day charged with
two counts of trafficking a large commercial quantity of methylamphetamines
and one count of possessing methylamphetamines.
He did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody until July 19.
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| April 26,
2006 |
 Renate
loses surety
A judge ordered
fugitive drug lord Tony
Mokbel's sister-in-law,
Renata Mokbel (right), to forfeit $1 million she provided for his bail.
Renata provided $1 million worth of property as surety for her
brother-in-law's bail after he was charged with trafficking cocaine.
In the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bill Gillard said he was
satisfied Mokbel had failed to observe his bail conditions and ordered his $1
million bail be revoked.
Mrs Mokbel, who appeared in court for the judgement, was given 31 days to
pay the $1 million.
Justice Gillard said Mrs Mokbel would face up to two years jail if she failed
to pay the amount.
Her lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, told the court his client would be making an
application to appeal against the judgement.
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| April 27, 2006 |
Dibra associate murdered
Michael Phillip Dewhurst,
31, of Melton South, was killed during an argument in Melton about 3:15pm.
Dewhurst was stabbed in the stomach in the
altercation with two men in Palmerston St, which was believed to have been a
drug deal gone wrong.
Dewhurst was
charged, along with Dino Dibra and others, over the Dome nightclub shooting in 1998.
Police charged 41-year-old Melton resident, Craig
Vella, the day after Dewhurst's death.
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| May
17, 2006
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Biker killed Thurgood-Dove:
Police
It was reported that a 'violent' former
Victorian biker was the man police believe murdered Jane
Thurgood-Dove in November 1997.
Steven John Mordy was suspected by police of
being the bungling gunman who shot Mrs Thurgood-Dove
instead of a neighbour who was the intended target.
His former partner said Mordy was a close friend
of Jamie Reynolds, who police believe organised the car used by the Thurgood-Dove
murder team.
Reynolds, of Ballarat, drowned at in a boating
accident at Barwon Heads in April 2006.
Mordy died in bed at his North Geelong home on
September 27, 2000.
A Coroner's Court report found the most likely
cause of death was a heart condition and that amphetamines may have contributed.
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| May 22, 2006 |
Catania gets six
Damien Catania, then 30, was sentenced to a
minimum of six years jail for pouring petrol over a man who had annoyed him and
setting the victim alight, causing horrific burns.
Not surprisingly, Catania told the court that on
his eventual release from jail, he wanted to “pack up and travel out of
Melbourne”.
At about 6am on February 24, 1999 Damian Catania
was the victim of a drive-by shooting.
He was waiting outside his home in Hoppers
Crossing in Melbourne’s western suburbs for a regular lift to work when an
early model white Commodore slowed as it cruised by.
A guman in the car, reputedly Andrew
Veniamin, opened fire, hitting Catania at least four times in the legs
and groin. It was meant as a lesson.
Catania, a mid-level “player” in the
underworld was an ex boxer who had a string of minor convictions, mostly for
violence.
He almost lost a leg as a result of the shooting
and spent 12 months in hospital recovering.
Those in the car were never caught.
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May 31, 2006 |
Mokbel associate pleads guilty
Mark Lanteri pleaded guilty to being a go-between
on drug deals organised by Tony Mokbel.
Lanteri, then 33, of Bundoora, was charged with
several drug offences including trafficking methylamphetamine and ecstasy.
The Victorian Supreme Court heard Lanteri ferried
drugs from Mokbel to a police informer in November
and December 2000.
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June 2006 |
 Gatto
appears at Sent hearing
Mick Gatto was back
in court as a witness in a wrongful dismissal case and made a two-day cameo appearance
in the Supreme Court.
Ted Sent (right) had been the head of the huge
retirement village developer Primelife Corporation until he was sacked in 2000
from the $850,000-a-year job running the firm he had originally founded.
In the wrongful dismissal case, it was revealed
that sent had paid Gatto a monthly retainer to be his 'eyes and ears' in the
hope of encouraging industrial harmony on the company's building sites.
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June
29, 2006 |
Mokbel brother in court
Milad Mokbel, the
younger brother of fugitive drug baron Tony Mokbel,
appeared in the Melbourne
Magistrate's Court, charged with threatening to kill a
property developer.
Mokbel appeared via video link from Barwon Prison; he
was charged with
blackmail and two counts of making threats to kill.
In documents tendered to the court, police allege Mokbel
threatened to kill Douglas John Matthew Harle and his wife Barbara in
October 2003.
The two men were business partners in a failed
multi-million dollar resort development on the Gippsland Lakes.
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August 2006 |
Jason Ryan in trouble again
On August 5, 2006, Jason
Ryan, a member of the Pettingill crime
family and a witness in the Walsh Street murder
trial, was
released from a South Australian prison.
At 3am on August 21, 2006, Ryan
was thrown off an Adelaide-Melbourne bus at Stawell for bad behaviour.
Two hours later he was caught
trying to break into a car on the Western Highway, and threatened a woman with a
screwdriver when she tried to intervene.
On August 22, 2006, Ryan, 35,
faced Horsham Magistrates' Court and was convicted of assaults with a weapon,
attempting to commit a serious offence, theft and criminal damage and was jailed
for four months.
Ryan, who now goes by the
name Jason Brooks, intended to appeal in the County Court.
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October 4, 2006 |
Mokbel associate arrested
Police arrested Karmel Khoder, 30 and seized a
Ferrari during raids on two Melbourne properties allegedly linked to fugitive
drug lord Tony Mokbel.
Khoder was arrested and was expected to be
charged with money laundering, asset concealment and dishonesty offences.
Khoder faced Melbourne Magistrates' Court in the
afternoon charged with four counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception
and one of making a false document.
Purana task force detectives swooped on Mr Khoder
at his Coburg home before 9am and took him to the Sydney Rd business Equitycorp
Financial, where he is a director.
There they seized two filing cabinets of
documents and computer records.
Police found the Ferrari, registered to
Equitycorp, being repaired at a Brunswick garage and ordered it to be impounded.
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| October 14, 2006 |
Michael "Eyes" Pastras Shooting
Pastras, 36, was shot once in the buttocks and
once in the thigh at a house in Albion St, Brunswick.
He refused to tell police who shot him.
Mr Pastras underwent surgery.
A police statement said he was in a stable
condition.
The Herald Sun has been told Mr Pastras wouldn't
co-operate with police and refused to make a complaint about the shooting.
Detectives from the armed offenders taskforce
Emerald are continuing to investigate.
Police said no motive had been established.
A police source said there was no evidence to
suggest Saturday's shooting was connected to Mr Pastras implicating Veniamin in
wanting to kill Mr Gatto.
"But Veniamin's associates know about it and
would not be happy," the source said.
"It's a line of inquiry which will have to
be followed."
Pastras was given the nickname Eyes after two
gangland figures gave him a $25,000 pair of diamond-studded glasses.
Pastras gave evidence at Mick Gatto's murder
trial that he spoke to Veniamin on March 23, 2004, the day Veniamin was shot
dead by Mr Gatto.
He said that Veniamin never mentioned anything to
him about wanting to harm Mr Gatto.
But after testifying, he approached the Purana
gangland killing taskforce and made a statement refuting what he said in the
witness box.
Pastras told Purana detectives he saw Veniamin
with a gun when he went to meet Mr Gatto in Carlton's La Porcella restaurant and
that Veniamin told him he wanted Mr Gatto dead.
He claimed Veniamin told him: "I am f---ing
dirty on Mick Gatto. He has got to go."
That evidence was not presented to the jury in
the Gatto murder trial.
Pastras was named in a confidential Victoria
Police document that was blamed for prompting the executions of police informer
Terrence Hodson and his wife, Christine in 2004.
It contained details of what Hodson told police
and was leaked to Melbourne's underworld shortly before the Hodsons were shot
dead in their Kew home in 2004.
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October 18, 2006 |
Strawhorn convicted
The court convicted former drug
squad head, Wayne Strawhorn.
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.
Further drug convictions revealed
The completion of Strawhorn's
trial allowed suppression orders to be lifted and the results of drug-related
trials involving other police officers to be released to the public.
A trio of former drug squad detectives were
convicted of heroin trafficking (more),
while another former squad member had been found guilty of a burglary on a house
which police had under surveillance (more).
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| November 10, 2006
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Roberta Williams questioned
over Moran murder plot Detectives investigating
Melbourne's gangland killings took Roberta Williams in for questioning at St Kilda Road
Police headquarters, over allegations she attempted to plan the murder of Lewis
Moran. The investiation arose from the
discovery of a loaded .22 revolver in the cell of Kevin Andrew Farrugia at the time Lewis Moran was in
custody.
Cannabis, 11
vials of steroids, four syringes, a mobile phone, a file and a screwdriver were also found.
Roberta Williams
was released from police headquarters without charge.
She was represented by the gangland lawyer of
choice, Zarah Garde-Wilson. ABC
radio's PM program reported that it understood Kevin Farrugia had also been
interviewed over the alleged conspiracy, and had not been charged.
Police later investigated allegations the gun was
meant to be used to kill Lewis Moran, and that Roberta
Williams, wife of Carl, owned the gun found in the cell of Farrugia.
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| November 18, 2006 |
Man's body found after "drug
deal went wrong"
The body of Michael
Daou, 22, was found in the boot of a burnt out car at Narre Warren.
Police alleged that Mr Daou
was abducted from Red
Court Reserve, Scoresby, and died of gun-shot wounds and that Mr Daou's murder followed a
drug deal gone wrong.
Andrew Johnston, 25; Kevin Ng, 22; brothers Quoc
Minh Bui, 24, and Ngoc Quoc Bui, 21; and Adam Charles Hargrave, 26, faced court
after police raided several properties two months later.
Each man was charged with murder, kidnap and unlawful imprisonment.
Adam Hargrave's father, Garry Charles
Hargrave,
51, of Mooroolbark, was charged with kidnap and being an accessory to murder.
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| November 2006 |
 Zahroula
Mokbel bailed
A member of the Mokbel family was bailed over a $2.3 million fraud.
Zaharoula Mokbel, who is married to a brother of
runaway drug boss Tony Mokbel, is accused of
scamming loans from banks between 2002 and 2005.
Ms Mokbel, 39, wife of Horty Mokbel, appeared at Melbourne Magistrates'
Court is charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
The mother of three is accused of falsely
claiming she was an oil company manager or petrol station owner earning up to
$250,000 a year to get loans and credit cards, including a $1 million loan from
the National Australia Bank in 2004.
Her bail conditions included regular reporting to
police.
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December 11, 2006 |
Strawhorn locked up
Wayne
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.
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| December
19, 2006 |
 Zarah
prosecution fails
The Age reported that solicitor Zarah
Garde-Wilson walked silently from the Court of Appeal
after a prosecution challenge failed against a penalty imposed on her for
contempt of court.
Three appeal court judges found that the Victorian director of public
prosecutions had no right of appeal against an earlier decision made by a judge
who found her guilty of contempt.
They said the appeal against Ms Garde-Wilson, 28, was legally incompetent.
In November last year, Justice David Harper convicted Ms Garde-Wilson of
contempt of court after she refused to testify against Keith Faure and
Evangelos Goussis. The two men who were on trial for murdering her boyfriend,
Lewis Caine.
They were later found guilty.
Justice Harper imposed no further penalty after taking account of exceptional
circumstances in the case.
He acknowledged she was in "genuine fear" for her life from Faure.
The DPP argued that Justice Harper's sentence was manifestly inadequate and
that he had erred in law.
But the Court of Appeal President, Justice Chris Maxwell, and Justices David
Ashley and Bernard Bongiorno said the prosecution did not have a general appeal
right regarding sentences imposed when a person was convicted of contempt.
They said such appeals should be limited to cases where the law specifically
said the right existed.
Outside court, the Legal Services Board said in a statement that it has
refused an application by Ms Garde-Wilson to renew her certificate to practise
as a solicitor.
It said she could apply to have the decision reviewed. Under the law, she
could continue practising until her appeal rights had been exhausted.
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