|
Lebanon
joins fight for Mokbel
(Herald Sun)
September 28, 2007
Lebanese authorities have lodged a surprise
request to have crime boss Tony Mokbel
extradited to Lebanon instead of
Australia.
If the
request is granted it could mean
Mokbel, a Lebanese citizen, never
returns to face justice in Australia.
Australia
has no extradition treaty with
Lebanon, and Lebanon almost never
extradites its citizens.
The
request, lodged with Greek police in
recent days, says Lebanon's government
wants Mokbel to face various criminal
charges there.
Australian
authorities have as yet been unable to
establish what those charges are.
The
Lebanese request could delay, and
possibly stop, attempts by the
Australian Government to ensure Mokbel
is brought back to Victoria to face
two counts of murder and 16 drug
charges.
Though
Mokbel, 42, was born in Kuwait he
holds Lebanese citizenship because his
parents are Lebanese.
Australian
authorities are hoping an existing
order by a Greek court that Mokbel be
returned to Australia will trump
Lebanon's request.
But
they fear the Lebanese move will at
least delay Mokbel's return to
Victoria, even if it fails to stop it.
A
spokesman for the federal
Attorney-General's Department said he
could not comment on Lebanon's
extradition request, because it was a
matter for the Greek authorities.
Australian
National University extradition expert
Prof Don Rothwell said there was
nothing in international law to
dictate which country's extradition
request would have priority.
He said
Greek authorities would make the
decision, taking into account Greece's
relations with Lebanon and Australia.
He said
the seriousness of the charges Mokbel
faced in Australia, and its earlier
lodging of an extradition request,
were major factors in Australia's
favour.
"Unless
there was something absolutely
extraordinary in play here, then
Australia's extradition request will
not necessarily be derailed,"
Prof Rothwell said.
"But
it could certainly be delayed."
Prof
Rothwell said he didn't expect
Lebanon's extradition request would be
granted over Australia's, but if it
was the ramifications could be
disastrous.
"If
Mokbel is extradited to Lebanon then
Australia's ability to get him back
will be significantly compromised,
given Lebanon's record of not
extraditing its citizens," he
said.
Mokbel
is already delaying his return to
Victoria by appealing against the
Greek court's July 26 decision to
grant Australia's extradition request.
His appeal is due to be heard in
Greece's Supreme Court on October 9.
Mokbel
was caught in Greece after 15 months
on the run.
He is
accused of murdering underworld
heavyweight Lewis Moran in 2004 and
drug dealer Michael Marshall in 2003.
Mokbel
will face 16 drug charges if he is
extradited to Victoria and will also
be charged with conspiracy to pervert
the course of justice and attempting
to pervert the course of justice.
He will
also start the 12-year jail term he
was sentenced to in his absence on
March 31 last year.
Mokbel
absconded just before he was convicted
in the Supreme Court of smuggling
1.93kg of pure cocaine into Victoria
from Mexico.
Benvenuto
denied bail
(The Age)
September 27, 2007
A
gangland shooting suspect and the
brother of a Melbourne gangland murder
victim has been denied bail after
appearing at the Melbourne Magistrates
court on drug trafficking and firearm
charges.
Vince
Benvenuto, 54, of Black Rock,
appeared before Deputy Chief
Magistrate Paul Smith during a bail
application, charged with trafficking
large commercial amounts of cocaine,
methylamphetamines, ecstasy and
possession of an unregistered firearm.
Benvenuto,
whose brother Frank
was shot dead outside his Beaumaris
house on May 8, 2000, was arrested on
September 14 at Glen Eira Road,
Caulfield.
After
his arrest police searches located a
firearm, a taser gun, cash, a small
amount of drugs and computer
equipment, which was seized.
As a
result of a Purana Taskforce
investigation into the 2002 death of
Melbourne gangland hitman and armed
robber Victor Pierce, police began
gathering intelligence on Benvenuto in
2006, by telephone intercepts,
listening devices and camera
surveillance.
Purana
Taskforce Senior Detective Dale
Fitzgerald said as a result of the
investigations Benvenuto was found to
be trafficking large amounts of
cocaine, methylamphetamines and
ecstasy.
"We
established over nine months Mr
Benvenuto was trafficking three to
four ounces (of cocaine) per
week," Detective Fitzgerald said.
Detective
Fitzgerald told the court this is
evident from Benvenuto's own
admissions.
"We've
(also) established he's trafficked
over nine months, five or six ounces
of methylamphetamine."
Detective
Fitzgerald said Benvenuto had also
trafficked up to 30,000 pills of
ecstasy over the same period.
"His
trafficking was on a daily basis.
"Everything
he talks about is quantity and
quality."
Detective
Fitzgerald said there were more than
20,000 telephone calls intercepted
during the investigation and some
calls recorded Benvenuto boasting
about his relationships with other
Melbourne gangland identities,
including Nik
Radev, who was murdered in Coburg
in 2003.
The
court heard Benvenuto, a licensed
finance broker, conducted alleged drug
deals from his Caulfield office.
Senior
Detective Fitzgerald told the court
Benvenuto's father was involved with
the market gardeners.
The Age
has reported Benvenuto's father, Liborio
Benvenuto, was the undisputed
Godfather of Melbourne for more than
20 years before his death from natural
causes on June 10, 1988.
When
Andrew McKenna, for Benvenuto, asked
Detective Fitzgerald if Benvenuto came
to police attention as result of
Purana activities, he replied:
"He's a suspect in relation to
the murder of Victor
Pierce."
Benvenuto's
sister (who asked not to be named)
told the court her mother's house,
valued at $1 million, could be used as
surety for her brothers bail.
Mr
Smith did not grant bail to Benvenuto
and remanded him in custody to
reappear in December 2007.
Informer
regains protection
(The Age)
September 27, 2007
A key
underworld informer and his partner
have been 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, who cannot be identified.
The
informer, known as 166,
gave evidence against slain gangland
boss Mario
Condello.
In
April 2005, 166 and his partner
entered the witness protection
program. They were later expelled
after warnings about their behaviour.
In January this year, police Chief
Commissioner Christine Nixon confirmed
a decision six months earlier to
remove them from the program.
Mr
Brouwer then dismissed their appeal
against Ms Nixon's decision. The case
has since moved between the OPI and
the court system.
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.
Williams
hit plan on tape
(Herald Sun)
September 27, 2007
Audio
Surveillance tape
Audio
Would-be killers
Crime boss Carl
Williams was to be assassinated in
Lonsdale St with an Uzi sub-machinegun
fired from a speeding motorbike.
Secret
Victoria Police surveillance tapes
obtained by the Herald Sun
reveal 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 the police informer,
known only as witness 166,
who remains under police protection.
Witness
166 was a
known drug dealer, extortionist and
gun runner, who 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.
Sonnet
convicted
September 26, 2007
The arrest of a
Carl Williams hitman that
blew open Melbourne's gangland war has
ended in his being found guilty of
conspiring to murder.
After a
six-week trial, a jury found
Sean Jason Sonnet, 38, guilty of
conspiring with Williams and two other
men to murder Carlton Crew money man
Mario Condello.
The jury deliberated for
more than two days before finding that
Sonnet was
hired by multi-murderer Carl Williams
to shoot Mario Condello for between
$120,000 and $140,000.
Special
Operations Group police arrested
Sonnet near Condello's Brighton
mansion on the morning of June 9, 2004.
It was
the first step towards Victoria
Police's Purana Taskforce ending
Melbourne's gangland war.
SOG
officers removed a loaded, cocked
semi-automatic pistol from the front
of Sonnet's pants, and a loaded .38
calibre revolver from his bum bag.
The
police operation, codenamed Lemma,
ended in Carl Williams being arrested
and remanded in custody until he was
sentenced this year to life, with a
35-year minimum, for three murders and
the Condello plot.
"This
is the operation that took out a hit
team . . . and we had sufficient
evidence to arrest Carl Williams and
get him off the street," Purana's
Det-Insp Gavan Ryan said outside court.
"That
was pivotal and the rest is
history."
Sonnet was not present for most of the
six-week trial after being reluctantly
excused by Justice Betty King when he
admitted he may "explode" in
front of the jury and he was not in court as the verdict was
read.
Sonnett
had threatened
to cause a "circus" on the
last day of the trial.
He had recently reappeared to give evidence,
but left court again two bays before
the verdict was delivered after
outbursts in front of the jury and
against Justice King, in which he
described proceedings as a circus in
which he would have convicted himself.
Sonnet
is notorious for contemptuous
courtroom behaviour, having been a
part of the 2000 "trial from
hell" in which a jury member was
hit by a bag of excrement thrown from
the dock.
During
his recent trial, Sonnet repeatedly
defied Justice King in a series of
actions in and out of the witness box.
The
trial had heard Sonnet was carrying
the two loaded guns while waiting for
Condello, who was expected to be
walking his dog along North Rd that
morning.
Unknown
to Sonnet, Condello was living in a
city apartment at the time.
The
jury dismissed defence claims that
Sonnet was pretending to act out a
murder plot to appease Williams, as he
owed him $80,000.
Sonnet's
first-choice getaway driver, Williams'
cousin Michael
Thorneycroft, gave
police two statements about the murder
plot but he died in May before he
could be cross-examined.
Sonnet
claimed Thorneycroft was a Williams
spy, and that Williams was not his
friend.
"I
wouldn't call him a mate," he
claimed while giving evidence.
"I
wouldn't call him an enemy. I'd call
him an associate."
But
police listening devices revealed
joking conversations between Sonnet
and Williams about pretty women and
sex.
In one
call, Williams referred to Sonnet as
"Mr Cool".
Bugs
also revealed Sonnet told Thorneycroft
he was being paid up to $140,000, and
Thorneycroft would make $40,000.
In one
police statement, Thorneycroft said:
"He asked me to drive for him.
"The
way he showed me the gun, he left me
in no doubt that he was indicating
that he was going to shoot someone.
"I
later found out from conversations
with Sean that the job he was
referring to was the killing of a
bloke called Mario, who was the money
man on the other side . . . Carl's
enemies."
The
court heard Williams was angry after
the fatal shooting of ally Andrew
Veniamin at the hands of Carlton Crew
identity Mick
Gatto.
Mr
Gatto shot Veniamin in self-defence at
a Carlton restaurant on March 23,
2004.
Thorneycroft,
described in court as a befuddled drug
addict, stole a car used in the
Condello plot but pulled out.
Prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, told the
trial Sonnet was the leader of
Williams' kill gang.
"It's
Sean who's in command," Mr Horgan
said.
Officers
arrested Sonnet and his new getaway
driver, Gregg
Hildebrandt, in North
Rd.
Williams
and Thorneycroft were arrested at
their homes.
Hildebrandt
was jailed for a minimum of nine years
after pleading guilty in February.
Thorneycroft
got a three-year suspended sentence.
In
February last year, a gunman shot
Condello dead in his garage. Condello
was on bail for inciting to kill
Williams, his father George and a
third man.
The
investigation into his killing
continues.
Crims
in WorkChoice ads
(Sunday Age)
September 23, 2007
A pro-WorkChoices
television advertisement featuring
"union thugs" was pulled off
air last night after The Sunday Age
revealed that two actors featured in
the advertisement were notorious
criminals.
The
coalition of 19 business groups that
funded the advertisement — part of a
$10.5 million campaign — released a
statement yesterday stating the series
had been "planned" to end at
10.30 last night.
The
statement was released within hours of
The Sunday Age informing the
Business Coalition for Workplace
Reform that two extras in the
advertisement had extensive criminal
records on serious drug and dishonesty
charges — and that one had been
charged with sexual offences against
under-age girls. Police, criminal
lawyers and an associate of one of the
pair identified Brendan Piper and Mark
Lesser as the "union thugs"
flanking another beefy actor wearing
the Eureka flag arm patch of the CFMEU
union. (There is no suggestion that
the third actor is a criminal or
associated with Piper and Lesser.)
Piper,
the man with the shaven head on the
left, has served several prison
sentences for drug trafficking and
possession and crimes of violence and
dishonesty.
Mark
"Porky" Lesser, on the
right, has served time for drug
offences committed with his brother,
Ian Lesser, well known to police as a
St Kilda drug dealer. Mark Lesser also
faced sex charges, of which he was not
convicted.
The
advertisement purports to show three
burly union officials marching into a
small dress-making business. As they
approach, the background music turns
gloomy and the colour fades to
black-and-white. A voice-over says:
"Every small business in
Australia will have to stand back if
unions get new legal powers to tell
them how to run their business."
Then the union officials turn off the
lights.
ACTU
president Sharan Burrow yesterday said
the advertisement was demeaning and
unsavoury, and called for it to be
pulled off air.
"I'm
offended by this on behalf of all
union officials who spend their daily
lives standing up for working
people," she said.
Under
WorkChoices legislation, officials
convicted of crimes of violence and
damage or offences against industrial
law cannot enter a workplace.
Australian
Workers Union national secretary Bill
Shorten believes the new revelation
will further embarrass business
leaders behind the advertisement.
"I
talk to CEOs of companies who belong
to these employer associations who are
funding these ads, and they are
privately embarrassed, and this will
just embarrass them further," he
said. A senior union source said it
was common knowledge among her members
that recruiters had trawled pubs
looking for "rough" acting
talent for the ad.
The
campaign was commissioned by the
Business Coalition for Workplace
Reform, which turned to the Liberals'
research and polling firm Crosby
Textor to produce the ads. A spokesman
said the actors in the five ads were
recruited "at arm's length".
More
Condello
bought guns from SA porn king court
told
(Herald Sun)
September 20, 2007
Murdered
mafia mobster Mario Condello bought an
arsenal of guns from a sex shop owner
during the height of Melbourne's
underworld war, a court has been told.
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 an
informer to the Australian Crime
Commission and Victoria Police,
codenamed 166.
Nash,
62, has admitted providing the weapons
and is awaiting sentencing in
Adelaide.
The
Herald Sun has 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,
whose name is suppressed, 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.
Prominent
Carlton Crew member and close Condello
associate Mick "The Don"
Gatto shot dead underworld hitman
Andrew Veniamin at Carlton's La
Porcella restaurant in March 2004.
Mr
Gatto was charged with murdering
Veniamin, but was acquitted after a
jury was told he shot Veniamin in
self-defence.
Condello,
53, was shot dead on February 6 last
year as he was parking in the garage
of his luxury Brighton East home. His
murder remains unsolved.
Nash's
plea hearing was adjourned to October
11.
Defteros
back at work
(The Age)
September 20, 2007
More
than three years after he quit beneath
a black Melbourne underworld cloud,
prominent lawyer George
Defteros has re-emerged into the
legal limelight.
Mr
Defteros, 51, walked into the Law
Institute of Victoria's offices last
week to reclaim the practising
certificate he surrendered more than
three years ago.
Mr
Defteros had been arrested and charged
in 2004 with incitement to murder and
conspiracy to incite murder.
He had
maintained his innocence, and after
being ordered to stand trial the
charges were dropped by the Director
of Public Prosecutions.
After
earlier filing an application with the
institute and paying insurance and
other fees, Mr Defteros last Friday
retraced his steps from 2004 and was
handed back the certificate he had
held for 26 years.
"I've
recharged my batteries and I'm raring
to go," he said yesterday.
"It's what I do best."
Mr
Defteros has joined as an equal
partner with Tracey Rothwell in the
West Melbourne firm Rothwell Lawyers.
He has
returned immediately to criminal law
in which he had represented
high-profile clients, who included
fugitive Mexican banker Carlos Cabal,
several AFL players and a
"cross-section of the community
who came through my doors".
The
father of two speaks of the
murder-based charges he faced as a
"difficult period", but adds
that "I always believed in the
legal process".
Comfortably
behind his desk, he said: "It's
great to be back, it really is, but
I'm just easing myself back in.
"I've
kept my reading up of case law and the
profession and have already undertaken
one of the courses the institute now
requires us to do."
He is
relieved that not only have former
clients showed faith, but also
colleagues and friends.
The
lawyer who once thrived on pressure,
but then crashed after his arrest, has
rebuilt his enthusiasm for defence
work.
The
long walk back to his profession is
now just a short walk from Melbourne's
legal precinct.
Roberta
turns up at Underbelly set
(Herald Sun)
September 19, 2007
Gangster divorcee Roberta Williams has turned
up at the set of Underbelly,
searching for the actor who will play
her in the drama about Melbourne's
underworld.
Kat
Stewart was not on set that day, but
it's been rumoured Williams -- the
former wife of serial killer Carl
Williams (played by Gyton Grantley) --
wanted to give her a few tips on
gangland life.
Williams,
a convicted drug trafficker herself,
apparently stumbled upon the western
suburbs set of television drama Underbelly
last month, and asked
to be let in, but left without
argument when told that filming was
closed.
It is
believed other underworld people
portrayed in the series have also
visited the set of the big-budget
Channel 9 show.
Stewart
declined to comment on Williams'
impromptu visit, but said she felt the
pressure of playing a real person.
"In
terms of meaty scripts and a rich
full-blooded character, it doesn't get
much better than this," she said.
"Roberta
Williams is a dream role. It's a huge
responsibility to do justice to
her."
More on Underbelly
Benvenuto
brother questioned over Peirce killing
(The Age)
September 18, 2007
The
brother of a Melbourne gangland murder
victim has been questioned by the
Purana taskforce as a suspect over
alleged links with a separate
underworld execution.
Vince
Benvenuto, whose brother Frank
was shot dead outside his
Beaumaris house on May 8, 2000, was
arrested in a Caulfield Street last
Thursday by the Special Operations
Group.
He has
since been charged with possessing
cocaine, amphetamines and an
unlicensed pistol.
After
his arrest Benvenuto, 54, was
interviewed by Purana detectives over
the murder of notorious underworld
gunman Victor
Peirce, who was shot dead sitting
in his car in Bay Street, Port
Melbourne, on May 1, 2002.
It is
believed Benvenuto was formally
cautioned and gave a "no
comment" record of interview on
legal advice.
Police
have established that Peirce was
waiting to meet Benvenuto when he was
killed.
They
believe the killer was a Melbourne
hitman now dead.
Frank
and Vince
Benvenuto are the sons of Liborio
Benvenuto, who was the
undisputed Godfather of Melbourne for
more than 20 years before his death
from natural causes on June 10, 1988.
His
sons were major identities in
Melbourne's wholesale fruit and
vegetable market. In the later 1990s,
Frank Benvenuto hired Peirce as
protection after a series of disputes
at the market and they became close
friends.
Peirce,
a career armed robber and drug dealer,
was acquitted of the murders of
constables Damian Eyre and Steven
Tynan in Walsh
Street, South Yarra, on October
12, 1988.
Detectives
have been told that after Benvenuto's
murder a well-known underworld figure
rang Peirce to tell him of the
death. They remain intrigued as to how
the figure knew of the hit before the
information was made public.
Following
the shooting, the hitman asked Peirce
for a meeting. According to Peirce's
wife, Wendy, the hitman wanted an
assurance that Pierce would not seek
revenge for his friend's murder. Mrs
Peirce said (the hitman) "wanted
a meeting with Victor and they met in
a Port Melbourne park. He wanted to
know if Victor was going to back up
for Frank. He was his best mate.
Victor took a gun and (the hitman)
would have been armed."
Mrs
Peirce said both gunmen agreed there
would be no more violence. But police
say those who organised the hit on
Frank Benvenuto remained concerned
that Peirce might decide to strike
back and ordered his death.
On
June 22, Purana detectives arrested Faruk
"Frank" Orman and
charged him with Peirce's murder. They
allege he was the driver of the hit
team.
Detectives
are now investigating claims that
Vince Benvenuto was asked to assist on
behalf of a senior gangland identity.
The
head of the Purana taskforce,
Detective Inspector Gavan Ryan, said:
"We are progressing on a number
of gangland murders. We will keep
going no matter how long it
takes."
 Zaharoula
Mokbel sent to trial
(Herald Sun)
September 17, 2007
The sister-in-law of runaway drug boss
Tony Mokbel has been ordered to stand
trial over claims she committed frauds
totalling more than $2.2 million.
Zaharoula
Mokbel, 40, who is married to Tony's
brother Horty
Mokbel, is accused of
scamming loans by lying about her
employment.
Melbourne
Magistrates' Court heard Mrs Mokbel
falsely claimed she was earning
salaries of up to $250,000 in order to
secure mortgage loans from banks and a
finance company.
Documents
tendered to the court allege Mrs
Mokbel claimed she earned more than
$80,000 a year as the state manager of
an oil company in order to get a $1
million loan from the National
Australia Bank in December 2004.
Mrs
Mokbel also claimed she earned an
annual salary of $250,000 to secure a
$487,500 loan in July 2002 and said
she earned $130,000 annually to get an
$800,000 loan in October 2005, the
prosecution allege.
But the
court heard Mrs Mokbel's taxable
income was about $33,000 in the year
ending 2002.
Magistrate Jane Patrick ruled there
was sufficient evidence to send Mrs
Mokbel for trial on three charges of
obtaining financial advantage by
deception.
She
discharged a fourth count. Mrs Mokbel,
who is on bail, pleaded not guilty to
each charge.
Mrs
Mokbel's lawyer, Phillip Priest,
argued the mother of three should have
her bail requirements lifted.
Sen-Det
Tammy Chippindall gave evidence Mrs
Mokbel should continue to report to
police twice a week, as there were
concerns Mrs Mokbel would abscond.
Sen-Det
Chippindall said Mrs Mokbel had no
source of income, massive loans to
service and her husband was in prison
on remand.
"I
am concerned that now she has been
committed to trial she has to find
money for legal fees for trial,"
she said.
Sen-Det
Chippindall said Mrs Mokbel had also
come to police attention and was being
investigated over other alleged
offences.
The
magistrate ruled it was "entirely
reasonable" that Mrs Mokbel
continue to report to police twice a
week, saying "if she wanted to
abscond there would be greater
incentive now".
Mrs
Mokbel, of Preston, was ordered to
appear in the County Court in
November.
Court
reveals reasons for dismissing Renate
appeal
(AAP)
September 14, 2007
The
jailed sister-in-law of recaptured
drug trafficker Tony Mokbel has lost
another bid for freedom - because she
never owned the house she put up as
surety for him.
Renate
Mokbel (right) had challenged last December's
Victorian Supreme Court decision
dismissing her appeal against an order
she pay the $1 million surety she
provided for her brother-in-law's
bail.
She was
arrested by Purana Task Force
detectives on March 15 for failing to
pay the surety and remains in the Dame
Phyllis Frost Centre women's prison at
Deer Park, in Melbourne's west.
Victorian
Court of Appeal justices Chris
Maxwell, Frank Vincent and David
Ashley rejected her argument that her
financial circumstances had changed
because of an order from the Director
of Public Prosecutions preventing her
from selling her suburban Brunswick
home.
They
concluded that she did not own the
property she had put up as surety for
Tony Mokbel.
"There
may have been a significant change in
her circumstances if the effect of the
order had been to deprive her of the
ability to dispose of an asset and so
pay the amount of the surety,"
they said in the judgment, which was
published today.
"But
she had never been the owner of the
property, and she had never had an
ability to immediately access its
value to her benefit.
"The
argument that the appellant once had
the ability to pay the amount of
surety, but that a change of
circumstances precluded her doing so,
was an argument that lacked substance.
"Accordingly,
there being no substance in any of the
grounds argued before us, the court
dismissed this appeal."
Renate
Mokbel is married to Tony Mokbel's
brother, Milad Mokbel.
Tony
Mokbel went missing in the final days
of his cocaine trafficking trial in
Victoria last year and was convicted
and sentenced in absentia to nine
years' jail.
He has
since been recaptured in Greece and is
now serving a one-year jail sentence
in Athens for identity fraud.
 Four
arrested in Purana raids
(Herald Sun)
September 14, 2007
Purana taskforce arrested four men in
an operation targeted at drug
trafficking in early morning swoops
around Melbourne.
In the
raids at Black Rock, Doncaster, Moonee
Ponds and Watsonia, investigators
seized five vehicles, including two
BMWs, as well as two handguns and two
Taser guns.
The
also confiscated drugs including
methamphetamines, cannabis, cocaine
and ecstasy.
Detective
Inspector Gavan Ryan said the arrests
showed that police were continuing to
pursue organised crime.
"These
arrests show that we are committed to
tackling organised crimes and the
illicit drug trade that surrounds
it" Det Insp Ryan said.
Vince
Benvenuto, 54, was charged with
trafficking a large commercial
quantity of amphetamines and was
remanded in custody to appear at the
Melbourne Magistrates Court today.
Dino
Troy Cantone, 31, Frank John Gileno,
41, and Troy James Maclean, 33, were
each charged with trafficking a
commercial quantity of amphetamines
and remanded in custody to appear
today before the same court.
Detectives
arrested two other men, a 34-year-old
Brighton man and a 24-year-old from
Oakleigh, but released them pending
further investigation.
Police
tied to underworld hit
(The Age)
September 14, 2007
A
senior Victorian detective is under
investigation over his alleged ties to
a contract killing carried out by a
notorious underworld hitman at the
height of the gangland
war.
The
hitman has told a secret police
taskforce that Detective Sergeant
Peter Lalor gave him the address of
his target, male prostitute Shane
Chartres-Abbott, an investigation by The
Age has found.
Chartres-Abbott
was shot dead outside his Reservoir
home in June 2003.
It is believed his
killing was ordered by crime figures
to avenge the rape of one of his
clients.
The
hitman has also alleged that Detective
Sergeant Lalor, in an attempt to
confuse homicide officers, arrested
him for unrelated crimes on the
afternoon of the murder.
The
Age has confirmed that Detective
Sergeant Lalor arrested the hitman for
driving offences at Prahran police
station eight hours after the killing.
The
taskforce, codenamed Briar, is also
investigating ex-detective David
Waters, who the hitman claims was
aware of the murder plan. The hitman
claims that he, Waters and Lalor met
at a Carlton hotel a few weeks before
Chartres-Abbott was killed.
Mr Waters
left the force in 2002. He was
a drinking partner of the hitman, now
in jail for unrelated gangland
killings.
The
allegations will reopen the debate
about links between police and
organised crime, and whether the state
now has the right system in place to
investigate corruption.
In a
major concession, Victoria Police
yesterday for the first time
acknowledged the existence of alleged
links between corruption and
underworld murders.
"I
am happy to concede there is now
evidence allegedly linking police
corruption and organised crime
killings. But we have found it and we
are following it," Deputy
Commissioner Simon Overland told The
Age.
At the
height of the Melbourne gangland
killings between 2003 and 2005, police
and the State Government publicly
dismissed such links and resisted
calls for a royal commission to
investigate them.
Mr
Overland told The Age that
Victoria Police and the Office of
Police Integrity were on top of
corruption, and defended force
command's previous denial of links
between the underworld and police. He
said to confirm such links would have
been irresponsible. "We have to
work on hard evidence," he said.
The
secret taskforce investigating
Detective Sergeant Lalor and Mr Waters
is one of two taskforces now probing
connections between serving and former
police and underworld killings.
The
other, Taskforce Petra, is
investigating the murder of police
informer Terence Hodson and his wife
in Kew in 2004.
Hodson
was killed after agreeing to give
evidence against police accused of
drug trafficking. Taskforce Petra's
suspects, who include a former
detective, are unrelated to the Briar
investigation.
Detective
Sergeant Lalor is a prominent police
union delegate who has campaigned
against the state's powerful police
watchdog, the Office of Police
Integrity (OPI), which was created by
the Government in late 2004. Taskforce
Briar is a joint police-OPI operation.
Detective
Sergeant Lalor has publicly railed
against corruption reform. Late last
year, he urged all union delegates to
support the Police Association's call
to shut down the Office of Police
Integrity, labelling it "the
office of public idiocy".
Detective
Sergeant Lalor and ex-detective Waters
were both stationed at the St Kilda
police station in the 1990s.
Mr Waters
was acquitted of drug trafficking
charges with three other ex-detectives
in 2005.
Mr
Waters' fraternisation with organised
crime figures, including Mick
Gatto,
was also aired in late 2002 at a royal
commission in Western Australia. Mr
Waters declined to comment last night.
Waters was a colourful policeman known throughout the
force as "Docket".
Waters recalled the
significance of his nick-name to a royal commission.
"I was charged by
the homicide squad in 1982 as a 22-year-old policeman, I
was involved with a girlfriend and another policeman; we
were off duty and we were attacked by 15 people in Lygon
Street, Carlton, and, as a result, a fellow was stabbed.
I was charged by the
homicide squad and subsequently I spent two nights in Pentridge
Prison on remand, and I was acquitted before a jury
at the County Court in Melbourne."
"In Melbourne,
people who've got records are called dockets, because
before they had computers they used to have pieces of
paper called docket sheets."
Detective
Sergeant Lalor was suspended from the
police force this week. He could not
be contacted last night.
In a
brief statement, OPI assistant
director Graham Ashton said the two
taskforces into corruption were
"precisely why the OPI was set
up".
The
Chartres-Abbott murder made
sensational headlines at the time. The
male prostitute was on trial for
viciously raping a female client, who
claimed he had told her he was a
200-year-old vampire.
Mokbel
challenge fast tracked
(Herald
Sun)
September 12, 2007
The Australian arm of
Tony
Mokbel's fight
against extradition will be fast-tracked
so it doesn't interfere with his appeal
in Greece next month.
Mokbel's
lawyers appeared in the Federal Court in
Melbourne and were granted an
urgent hearing date of September 27.
Outside
court Mirko Bagaric, for Mokbel, said he
hoped the matter would be resolved
before the October 9 date of his
client's appeal in Greece.
"It
is our submission that the extradition
request by Australia is invalid on two
central grounds," he said.
"Firstly,
it wasn't signed by the person that has
the authority to do that; and also, that
the process has been tainted as a result
of some communications, which we say
didn't conform with the formalities
required in the extradition
treaty."
A Greek
court ordered that Mokbel, 41, arrested
at a seaside cafe on June 5, be returned
to Australia. He faces two murder
charges and multiple drug charges in
Victoria.
A
ride through the underworld
(The Age)
September 8, 2007
A
dream dinner party hosted
by actor turned barrister turned crime
author Susanna Lobez would bypass the
usual Hollywood stars and Nobel Prize
winners. Her hypothetical invitation
list would instead sparkle with the
colourful personalities of the
Australian criminal demi monde. There
would be flash underworld lawyer Zara
Garde-Wilson at one end, opposite
murdered Carlton Crew member Alphonse
Gangitano — "he has to get an
invite, because he was so pretty"
— while high-class brothel madam
Sarah Fraser could regale the table
with tales of servicing the visiting
Prince Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, on
his 1867 tour of the colonies.
"She was very
entrepreneurial," says Lobez of
the woman known as "Mother
Fraser".
Rounding out the crowd would be
Charlie Wootton, a one-time Mr Big of
Melbourne, but a shadowy figure so
effective in keeping his nose clean
and his head below the parapet that no
one seems to know what became of him.
Yet Wootton holds the key to a
long-standing fascination with crime
that has guided every phase of Lobez'
varied career, culminating in Gangland
Australia, an exhaustive and
rollicking history of 180 years of
organised crime.
It was at the Zorro Club, also
known as Charlie's Place, that Lobez
first came into contact with Wootton
and Melbourne's flourishing illegal
gambling dens. It was the early 1980s;
| 
