Scarey Carey sprayed
January 29, 2008

Former football great and friend of drug dealer Jason Moran, Wayne Carey was subdued with capsicum spray after police attended his Port Melbourne apartment.

Carey had called police to have two women removed from his home.

According to 3AW commentator and Age crime writer John Silvester, Carey had a police officer under each arm and approached a third before being sprayed.

A small amount of white powder was found in Carey's apartment.

It also emerged that Carey had been twice arrested in the US, once in October 2007 for allegedly glassing his girlfriend.

Carey had earlier hosted a party there with former Carlton player Wayne' The Dominator' Johnston, his wife actress Kate Kendall and a convicted criminal among the guests.

Johnston was close to Jason Moran and his brother Mark when they were young men growing up.

Carey famously gave character evidence for Jason Moran after a brawl in 1995.

The Herald Sun also learned that a supergrass had told police that one his cocaine customers was a close football mate of Carey.

The supergrass, who helped bring down drug boss Tony Mokbel, made allegations about several celebrities.

The former AFL player identified by the supergrass has visited Carey's Port Melbourne apartment.

The supergrass was arrested in Europe in December during a police swoop that smashed a worldwide cocaine syndicate.

The Australian Government is in the process of extraditing him to Victoria to face charges.

John 'Sly of the Underworld' Silvester talks about Wayne Carey and the Underbelly TV series

The 911 call uncut

Ross and John translate the call

Video: Derryn Hinch slams Carey and his underworld connections

Phil Cleary talks about Wayne Carey and the Moran family on 3AW Drive

Police grab Mokbel millions
(Herald Sun)
January 28, 2008

Police have seized $55 million in assets and cash from Tony Mokbel and his crime network

Victoria's biggest blitz on one criminal group has netted 61 houses and businesses, vehicles worth more than $1.5 million and huge caches of cash.

And police promise more pain for those who aligned themselves with the underworld kingpin.

The Herald Sun can reveal that as recently as last month, police confiscated a $500,000 property in which a good friend of Mokbel had been living.

It is believed some of what was seized by police had been set aside for a war chest to pay for Mokbel's coming legal proceedings, which could cost millions.

Mokbel has been in a Greek jail since his arrest in Athens last June, more than a year after he skipped bail while awaiting sentencing on serious drug charges.

Police have seized 61 houses and businesses from him, his family, associates and others since the Operation Kayak raids of 2001.

In Kayak, police seized $2 billion in drugs and $25 million in assets, and 31 people were arrested in the dawn raids.

In total, 36 cars have now been confiscated, including eight Mercedes-Benzes and six BMWs.

Eleven motorcycles, including four Harley-Davidsons, have been grabbed, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewellery.

Cash totalling more than $1.5 million has been taken and bank accounts holding up to $250,000 each have been confiscated or frozen.

"We're confident we'll find more," said Det-Sgt Jim Coghlan, of the Purana anti-gangland taskforce. "There's more to come."

The house most recently seized was impounded just before Christmas.

A convicted criminal and former lieutenant of Mokbel is believed to have been living there.
The man has a conviction for trafficking ecstasy and amphetamines to a police informer on behalf of Mokbel.

Det-Sgt Coghlan, who led the asset confiscation team, said it had been a hard blow to dozens of people close to Mokbel.

"What's the point of (being involved in organised crime) if you can't have the cash and the toys that go with it?" he said.

"They don't mind doing five years, but they get pretty upset if you take their house from them."

Det-Sgt Coghlan said the Office of Public Prosecutions' asset confiscation unit and Australian Taxation Office officials had been key players in hunting and removing the hidden wealth.

The Purana leg of the assets crackdown has followed its successful attack on the gangland war that plagued Victoria and cost 29 lives.

Det-Sgt Coghlan has worked on the Mokbel case since Operation Kayak and said ostentatious displays of wealth by the key players were constant.

"It was nothing for them to go out at night and order a $1200 bottle of wine. Life was good," he said.

"They had the holidays, the cars, the kids went to the best schools and the alarm clock didn't go off in the morning to go to work."

Det-Sgt Coghlan and his team of three detectives, a solicitor and a forensic accountant have spent tens of thousands of hours following complex money trails.

Dodgy front men operating bank accounts for criminals, shady property ownership and crooked investment schemes have been uncovered.

Mokbel already owes a minimum of nine years' prison after being convicted and sentenced in his absence on serious drugs charges.

He is also wanted here on 20 other charges, which include two of murder.

Mokbel is fighting extradition from Greece to Australia, arguing he will not get a fair trial in Victoria because of his high public profile.

Mullett investigation halted
(The Age)
January 26, 2007

Police union heavyweight Paul Mullett has taken successful legal action to halt a bullying investigation against him.

Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon earlier this month advised Mr Mullett, the Police Association secretary, that she was reopening the bullying probe, after a scathing Ombudsman's report found that a WorkSafe investigation had been inadequate.

But Mr Mullett has managed to halt the police inquiry, due to resume next week, by claiming in the Federal Court that Ms Nixon's decision to reopen the investigation was linked to his legal counter-attack against suspension from the police force.

Ms Nixon suspended Mr Mullett on November 15 last year after a series of public hearings by the Office of Police Integrity into allegations a police officer was tipped off that he was the subject of a murder investigation.

The Police Association and the Police Federation of Australia issued a writ in the Federal Court in December claiming Ms Nixon and the State Government had acted unlawfully by suspending Mr Mullett as a police officer because of his union activities.

Mr Mullett's lawyers were yesterday granted leave in the Federal Court to amend court documents to include an allegation that Ms Nixon reopened the bullying probe as a result of the pending court proceedings.

For the Police Association, Herman Borenstein, SC, said Ms Nixon had waited eight months to act on Ombudsman George Brouwer's report, which was tabled in State Parliament in April.

Mr Brouwer's report accused WorkSafe inspectors of ignoring an internal police review that found a culture of bullying and harassment in the union.

Frank Parry, SC, for Victoria Police, said the force agreed to halt its investigation until a Federal Court hearing on February 4 considered an application for an injunction to stay the probe.

Defteros threatens Underbelly with writ
(Herald Sun)
January 26, 2008

Production of Channel 9s Underbelly series has been disrupted by high-profile gangland lawyer George Defteros, who yesterday threatened a Supreme Court writ.

Mr Defteros, charged but cleared of conspiracy to murder at the height of the underworld war, is a central figure in the 13-part TV drama due to hit the screens next month.

The series is expected to focus on his relationship with slain mafia kingpin Alphonse Gangitano.

Mr Defteros, who has since resumed his law practice, has engaged top Melbourne defamation specialist Stewart Gibson.

"Any attempt to depict me as a lawyer of low impropriety and unethical behaviour will be met with legal proceedings instituted by my lawyers," Mr Defteros said yesterday.

"I regard the depiction of the gangland wars, in particular my role as a lawyer acting for parties, as nothing more than farcical and pure pantomine. We'll be watching it very closely."

A Nine spokeswoman yesterday said there would now be no direct reference to Mr Defteros, despite earlier publicity to the contrary.

"There is no lawyer called Defteros in Underbelly," Michelle Stamper said.

But Mr Defteros said he could still be defamed by implication.

"It's already been advertised as me," he said.

Mr Defteros also took aim at the actor who will portray him, George Kapiniaris of Wogs out of Work fame.

"It is absurd to suggest that an actor with a comical background such as George Kapiniaris could have any appreciation of the legal obligations and very real stresses involved in representing people who have been charged with extremely serious criminal offences," he said.

Mr Defteros was charged with conspiracy to murder and incitement to murder in June 2004 for his part in an alleged plot by Mario Condello to execute three rival crime figures, including Carl Williams. At the time of his arrest, Purana detectives accused Mr Defteros of arranging a series of meetings between Condello and a supposed hitman, who was actually a police informer.

But Director of Public Prosecutions Paul Coghlan, QC, dropped the case due to a lack of evidence.

The charges against Condello proceeded until he was executed by a gunman in his Brighton driveway in February last year.

The police informer at the centre of the charges, identified as Witness 166, has since been forced out of Victoria's witness protection program.

He was axed because he was no longer considered at risk and for unacceptable behaviour while under protection, but he is appealing against the decision.

Mr Defteros' former clients include Tony Mokbel and underworld war victims Lewis Caine, Mario Condello, Graham "The Munster" Kinniburgh and Gangitano.

Judy Moran slams Underbelly
(Herald Sun)
January 20, 2007

Judy Moran has delivered her verdict on Nine's drama series Underbelly: It's rot.

But she applauded the depiction of notorious killer Carl Williams as a dim-witted "fat boy" driver.

"They got that right - he seems the village idiot and that is what he is," Ms Moran said.

Violent scenes depicting her family in brutal bar brawls and her son Jason's cold-blooded shooting murder of family friend Alphonse Gangitano were "disgusting lies", she said.

Ms Moran's husband Lewis and two sons, Mark and Jason, were among the 27 people killed during Melbourne's bloody underworld slayings.

She said the series, which airs next month, painted an inaccurate picture of what was once a "loving, caring family".

"To me it's just all too fictitious and stupid," Ms Moran said.

"As a mother I feel sick. I'm deeply offended. I'm worried for Jason's children. How are they going to think of their father . . . as a murderer?"

Mrs Moran said she was considering legal action.

"I haven't had advice , but I can assure you I will seek it," she said.

Gangster's lament on Nine
(The Age)
January 17, 2007

Alphonse Gangitano always wanted to be famous.

He based his life on the characters he watched and worshiped in gangster movies, played by actors such as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Marlon Brando. He even fantasised about Andy Garcia playing him in a Hollywood blockbuster.

Always well presented in expensive suits, Gangitano could be as chilling as he was charming. Dubbed the "Black Prince of Lygon Street", he was fascinated with violence and earned his reputation as a feared standover man running protection rackets around Carlton and the CBD.

While the private schoolboy turned notorious criminal might not have lived long enough to see all his wishes granted, he certainly would not be disappointed with Vince Colosimo's portrayal of his life in Underbelly, a dramatisation of the city's gangland feud.

The 13-part drama, to be aired on Channel Nine, provides a realistic re-enactment of the city's gangland feud between 1995 and 2004, which claimed more than 30 lives.

Script writers Greg Haddrick, Peter Gawler and Felicity Packard have used dramatic licence to introduce characters, shift timelines and reduce Victoria Police's specially created Purana gangland taskforce to a handful of people, on the evidence of the first two episodes shown to the media yesterday.

Searing violence and some well-placed jokes remind the viewers they are not watching a documentary, while several cast members playing underworld identities — particularly Carl Williams (Gyton Grantley) — would struggle in a line-up against the real thing, if he wasn't already locked away for 35 years.

The series was shot at more than 150 Melbourne locations, without once heading inside a studio. A day on set attended by The Age showed the murder of Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro, which occurred during a children's football clinic in 2003. It was filmed where they were killed, in the car park of the Cross Keys Hotel in Essendon North, echoing the television reports and newspaper photographs of the day.

Roberta Williams, wife of Carl, arrived on set one day in an attempt to meet the actress playing her, while Carlton Crew member Mick Gatto, who was acquitted of murdering hitman Andrew "Benji" Veniamin, even offered to play himself in the series — "for a fee".

The 13-part series was championed by Eddie McGuire long before the 1 vs 100 host became the short-lived chief executive of the Nine Network. Now contracted to the network, but not currently on air, Mr McGuire could not be contacted yesterday to confirm speculation he had helped Gatto see early episodes of the series.

The first one-hour episode of Underbelly will be launched next month, with the embattled network expected to use it to kick off its battle in the official ratings period. The Age understands the first will screen at 8.30pm on Sunday February 10, the time-slot after 60 Minutes. The date is the first day of official 2008 ratings.

And while the bullets and the blood featured in the mini-series might not be real, police were always on set during filming.

After all, they were among the only people left who could detail how the bloodshed unfolded. Some of the criminals are in jail and will not be stopped from watching the series by Corrections Victoria, unless they have lost their privileges. Most of the others are dead.

Roberta avoids jail
(Herald Sun)
January 15, 2008

A TV series about Melbourne's underworld wars made it hard for the ex-wife of multiple gangland killer Carl Williams to get "closure", a court has heard.

Roberta Williams, 38, was spared a stint behind bars for pleading guilty to a string of driving offences, after her lawyer told the court Williams was affected by the soon-to-be aired series Underbelly.

"It is difficult for her to put the past behind her and move on with her life,'' lawyer Theo Magazis told Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Mr Magazis said the television show was about Williams' family and she "has to deal with that on almost a daily basis and it makes it difficult to have closure''.

The court heard the mother-of-three was on a pension, received an income of about $485 a week and suffered anxiety and depression.

He told the court that his client had suffered emotionally in the past two years as the result of being evicted from her family home and the deaths of her mother and sister.

"She was evicted from her family home in Essendon last year," Mr Magazis said.

"She is someone who has overcome some significant personal difficulties over the past 12 months."

He also told the court that as well as caring for her own children aged six, 14 and 16, Williams also had some responsibility for the children of her sister, Sharon, who died from cancer in November last year.

Williams was sentenced to a two-month prison term, fully suspended for a year, after police twice caught her driving without a valid licence in April and May 2006.

Williams also had her drivers' licence suspended for one month and was fined $700 as she also admitted to driving 25km/h above the speed limit in a 100km/h zone, diverging left without signalling, using a mobile phone while driving and failing to inform Vic Roads that she had changed address.

She had pleaded guilty to six driving charges.

In sentencing Magistrate Elizabeth Lambden said she took into account Williams' circumstances but said the speeding change was an aggravating factor.

Williams, who was dressed in jeans, a white cardigan and a blue and white T-shirt, did not comment to the media as she left the court.

Carl Williams pleaded guilty last year to the murders of crime patriarch Lewis Moran, his son Jason Moran and Mark Mallia, and is serving a 35-year jail sentence.
January 15, 2007

Bail justice 'misses' Alphonse
(Herald Sun)
January 12, 2007

The controversial bail justice investigated over her closeness to Alphonse Gangitano and Mick Gatto has broken her silence to defend the executed crime boss.

This week marks a decade since Melbourne's gangland war started with Gangitano's execution in his Templestowe home.

Rowena Allsop has spoken out on behalf of the man many regarded as a cruel, violent psychopath.

"I get criticised every time I say he was a friend, but that's what he was," she told the Sunday Herald Sun.

"I'm not blind to the fact there was a side to Alphonse that he was not proud of. But the side I saw was the side of a friend."

The friendship between the bail justice and the crime figure prompted an investigation, which was dropped, by the Attorney-General.

Ms Allsop said her friendships with Carlton identities were appropriate.

"I think whenever there's a male-female relationship people are always fascinated," she said.

"I think the fact the wife (of Gangitano) asked me to give the eulogy certainly puts paid to the claim I was his mistress. But I was a female friend and I met him always in public places."

Ms Allsop said they became close friends over coffee after a late-night court hearing.

"I dealt with him through the courts. He came before me on a couple of occasions," she said.

Allegations Ms Allsop had an "inappropriate relationship" with Gatto were referred to the Solicitor-General in 1998. Ms Allsop said she still spoke to Gatto.

Gangsters still at large
By Paul Anderson (Herald Sun)
December 14, 2008

Gun runners and getaway car drivers are still being hunted for their involvement in Melbourne's gangland war.

While most of the key players in the underworld war are now dead or behind bars, the Purana taskforce is still hunting several men who are believed to have supplied weapons or driven getaway cars for gangland killers.

In an exclusive interview, Purana taskforce boss Det-Insp Gavan Ryan (left) said unsolved murders in Melbourne's underworld war would not be sent to inquest while accomplices of gangland killers were still on the run.

Nine underworld killings remain unsolved, including six believed to have involved hitman Andrew Veniamin who was shot dead by Mick Gatto in a Carlton restaurant in 2004.

Gatto was acquitted of murder in June 2005, after claiming he acted in self-defence.

The killings Veniamin is believed to have been involved in are the shootings of fruiterer Frank Benvenuto, former drug-trafficking mates Dino Dibra and Paul Kallipolitis and underworld identities Nik "The Russian" Radev, Victor Peirce and Mark Mallia.

Det-Insp Ryan said the Purana taskforce was still investigating the murders and would go after Veniamin's accomplices before pursuing inquests. "It's complicated because in most cases he (Veniamin) wasn't by himself. He usually had a driver and in some cases people supplying guns," he said.

"If we've got information about who the co-offenders are we're obliged to go after them. They're all murderers under the law. We're still looking at them and going after them," he said.

One of Veniamin's alleged co-offenders was arrested by Purana detectives in June.

A 25-year-old man has since faced Melbourne Magistrates' Court charged with murder.

Purana has alleged he acted as Veniamin's getaway driver when Peirce was shot in Port Melbourne five years ago.

Another man who killed three men for Carl Williams before turning Purana informer admitted he aided Veniamin during the Radev murder.

In a statement he told Purana detectives: "I drove Veniamin to murder Nik Radev."

The other as yet unsolved gangland murders are those of Mokbel mate Willy Thompson, underworld elder statesman Graham "The Munster" Kinniburgh and Carlton Crew money man Mario Condello.

"We have a lot of information we're still working our way through," Det-Insp Ryan said.

"All those old murders are not forgotten and are still being worked on."

The taskforce has solved seven underworld murders.

Drug fugitive Tony Mokbel, who is in an Athens jail, is fighting his extradition to Australia to face charges relating to two of those -- the murders of underworld heavyweight Lewis Moran and drug dealer Michael Marshall.

Sonnet awaits sentence for alleged Condello plot
January 3, 2008

The last man to learn his fate over a conspiracy to kill gangland boss Mario Condello is waiting to be sentenced early in the new year, as the Herald Sun's PAUL ANDERSON reports.

The prospects of Sean Jason Sonnet having a happy new year are slim, considering that he is awaiting a lengthy jail term over the failed plot to assassinate Carlton Crew money man Mario Condello.

Sonnet is yet to be sentenced by Justice Betty King but, if police listening device material is anything to go by, he is expecting to be jailed for 25 years.

The Condello kill plot reads more like a Monty Python script than a criminal gang's blueprint for murder.

Gunman Sonnet is a volatile and dominating career criminal who likes to play to a crowd.

His first chosen getaway driver for the Condello hit, Carl Williams's cousin Michael Thorneycroft, was an amphetamine junkie with appalling road map skills who would later turn police informer.

In the lead-up to the hit, Sonnet -- a notorious bandit -- tried to coach, mentor and even nurse the drug-addled and paranoid Thorneycroft.

However in the end, the only place Thorneycroft managed to drive Sonnet was up the wall in frustration.

Prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, told the court Carl Williams hatched the Condello murder plot to avenge the death of another of his gunmen, the maniacal Andrew Veniamin (left).

Carlton Crew identity Mick Gatto had shot Veniamin in self-defence in a pasta restaurant two months earlier.

Although Sonnet once told Williams he would kill Gatto by "putting five in his f---ing head", it was Condello the Williams crew would go after.

The police operation to thwart the assassination plan, codenamed Lemma, was the one that nailed kingpin Carl Williams.

After his arrest on June 9, 2004, Williams was remanded in custody until being jailed last year for life with a 35-year-minimum for the Condello kill conspiracy and the murders of Lewis Moran, Jason Moran and Mark Mallia.

By that stage Williams had been convicted and sentenced for ordering the killing of alleged drug identity Michael Marshall.

Purana's Det-Insp Gavan Ryan says of Operation Lemma: "This is the operation that stopped it (the gangland war). It took out a hit team . . . and we had sufficient evidence to arrest Carl Williams and get him off the streets.

"That was pivotal, and the rest is history."

Between May 29 and June 9, 2004, Purana detectives monitored the Condello kill crew via telephone intercepts and listening devices. It soon became clear to detectives that Sonnet was at his wits' end trying to keep a befuddled Thorneycroft in line.

On one occasion police heard Sonnet tell him: "I'm meant to get this c--- (Condello) in two days. I can't have you like this, mate.

"You wouldn't even be able to drive away from here. You don't understand, mate. This is not a stick-up. I'd rather you on smack (heroin) than like this. I'd rather you stoned than like this, mate."

On another occasion, Sonnet said: "I can tell you now, you're off your f---ing 3KZ (head). There's no way you'll be right. F---, you can't even sit still."

In trying to suggest booze as a solution, Sonnet told Thorneycroft: "Listen, drinking's f---ing not good, but it's the best of the worst. And smoking bongs, they're the best of the worst. We can't have heroin and you can't have f---ing speed."

At one time Thorneycroft said he needed his own gun to shoot "anything and anyone who tries to shoot me" during the Condello hit.

Sonnet stressed that was not a wise idea.

Thorneycroft's incompetence was often glaring.

During one reconnaissance run in Brighton, while in charge of the Melway, Thorneycroft had the hit happening in the ocean. In court, defence lawyer John Desmond recited Sonnet's likely reply to the whacked-out wheel man: "On these references, Mick, you've got me in the middle of Port Phillip Bay. You've got me in the water."

An exasperated Sonnet often belted Thorneycroft and even threatened to kill him if he didn't get off the drugs.

Thorneycroft often broke down in tears, leading Sonnet to say on one occasion: "Oh, f---ing hell. Do I need to hear these f---ing waterworks again? You're pissing me off by f---ing breaking down all the time."

On June 7, after a public spat that could have drawn police attention, it became obvious Thorneycroft -- who had successfully stolen a getaway car -- was not up to driving it on the day.

Sonnet: "Why the f--- did you ever agree to do this?"

Thorneycroft: "Dunno. 'Cos I'm a f---ing idiot, that's why."

Sonnet: "If we were robbing a bank or something I wouldn't give a f---, you know? We go look at a bank, run in, bang! If I get caught, five or six years. This, mate, forget about it. I'm 35 years old.

Thorneycroft: "You get pinched, you're f---ed. You never go home. That's all there is to it."

Sonnet: "Well, that's what I'm trying to stress to you, Mick. That's why I say, mate, I'll put holes in ya. I'll f---ing shoot you if you're stupid enough to get us all caught."

In the end, former Noble Park schoolmate Gregg Hildebrandt drove for Sonnet on June 9.

As an armed Sonnet waited with Hildebrandt near Condello's Brighton mansion, special operations group and Purana Taskforce detectives pounced.

Sonnet ended up face down on the footpath with police shotguns trained at his head.

To add to the indignity, Sonnet would later learn that Condello wasn't even living in his Brighton home at the time.

Sonnet's rap sheet is littered with crimes including armed robbery, trafficking drugs, possessing firearms, aggravated burglary, making threats to kill and recklessly and intentionally causing serious injury.

Thorneycroft, who gave Purana two full statements, received a suspended jail term before dying last year.

Hildebrandt