 Troy
Desmond Mercanti
Mercanti resides in Perth.
He is the sergeant-at-arms of the Coffin Cheaters bikie gang.
In October 2001, it was reported that Perth police
were poised to read the riot act to rave promoters and venue managers - and may
scrap several events planned for the summer.
Perth Entertainment Centre management were also to
be quizzed about widespread drug abuse at a rave event there.
In addition, they were concerned by allegations that
security staff were given instructions to let top-ranking Coffin Cheaters Eddie
Withnell and Troy Mercanti enter and leave as they pleased at the all-night
bash.
One doorman, who was unaware of the alleged
instruction, was punched by Mr Mercanti after trying to stop him entering
without a ticket.
The doorman suffered a broken nose, but declined to
press charges.
 In November
2002 Melbourne drug dealer and millionaire property developer, Tony
Mokbel (left) was invited to
a "business meeting" in Carlton with a crime faction known as the
"Carlton Crew".
Mokbel
was kidnapped and savagely beaten by associates of the notorious
criminals and another freelance drug dealer, Nik "The Bulgarian"
Radev.
It is believed that one of the men
to deliver the beating was Troy Mercanti who was then acting as a bodyguard for
Radev.
Mokbel
was savagely punched and kicked to the head, and needed more
than 60 stitches.
The beating is considered by many to
have signalled the start of the most bloody stage of Melbourne's
gangland war which would see many criminals, including
Radev, shot dead in the ensuing three and a half years.
In 2003 the West
Australian reported that a special police operation had been launched in a bid
to stop payback attacks after Raimond Fazio was viciously bashed and his
Northbridge gymnasium firebombed.
Police feared a
potential violent turf war could erupt following a brawl outside a Subiaco
restaurant between a Coffin Cheater and an associate of Perth
"identity" John Kizon.
Coffin Cheater Troy Mercanti
allegedly took on the gym owner and former Golden-Gloves boxer in a toe-to-toe
street fight, which escalated when associates of both men joined in.
 They had been dining together
with other friends, including Mr Kizon (left), who did not
join the fight.
Eyewitnesses to the night melee
claimed strong words were exchanged between Mr Mercanti and Mr Fazio inside
trendy Funtastico restaurant about 11.30pm.
They went out on to Rokeby Rd and
got stuck into each other.
Fazio was kicked
and stomped on.
Police from the Outlaw Motorcycle
Gang Taskforce attended the scene of the fight to back up local officers.
Mr Fazio and Mr Mercanti declined
to provide statements to police.
Kizon,
Fazio's long-time friend, denied reports that he had stood by and watched as he
was bashed.
Kizon
refused to comment
specifically on the incident or acknowledge that a fight had occurred but said
he was loyal and would never watch any friend being bashed without trying to
stop the violence.
"I would not
let any of my friends hurt each other without trying to help," Mr Kizon
said.
Witnesses described
how Kizon
tried to hold back Mr Fazio's
attackers but did not throw a punch himself.
He also encouraged
friends of Mr Fazio to take him from the scene before the dispute escalated.
Mr Fazio was treated at Royal
Perth Hospital for serious facial injuries.
He had gashes on his forehead,
ears and scalp and was believed to have had extremely bad bruising on his torso
where he was kicked and stomped on.
Organised crime detectives were
watching developments closely to see if the incident would shatter the supposed
"harmonious" relationship between the Coffin Cheaters and Mr Kizon's
group.
Kizon
said Mr Fazio was in "good spirits" and he stressed that he was
friends with all sides.
"I am disappointed that my
friends were involved in an altercation," he said.
"I have a very good
relationship with the Coffin Cheaters, ...Greeks...Italians. They are not my
enemies and if any of my friends got into an altercation at Funtastico, if they
did, all those people who were there are still friends of mine."
Codenamed Radix, an
operation was set up amid police fears that the feud which saw Mr Fazio bashed
by the Coffin Cheater bikies could escalate to a violent war.
Bikies, their
associates and Mr Fazio's friends and associates would be approached by police
in a bid to gauge the level of animosity between the groups.
Police described
Radix as a risk-management operation.
Intelligence was
being gathered and police had begun formulating tactics on ways to solve
outbreaks of violence between the groups.
Several key
witnesses to a violent brawl had been approached by police.
Organised crime
detectives were to run the operation with specialist arson detectives, Wembley
detectives and the bureau of criminal intelligence.
Federal agencies
were also involved.
Mercanti was
part of a violent gun and knife fight at the Metro City
nightclub, in inner-city Northbridge, on January 23, 2005.
Mercanti said he pulled a gun on
Nahil Dabag, a member of rival bikie gang, the Scorpion Boys
after Dabag slashed and stabbed him up
to 10 times.
John Kizon and three other men –
David Morris, Adam Lloyd and
Paul Martino – were
also tried alongside Mr Mercanti, and cleared of
covering up the fight.
Police later alleged that
Kizon, Martino, Lloyd and
Morris tried to "clean up" the scene,
including hosing blood from floors, erasing a security
tape and disposing of the gun used to shoot Dabag.
Mercanti needed 90
staples to close his wounds after being slashed across the neck, chest and
arms.
His lawyer later told a
bail hearing Mercanti had been "slashed to within an inch of his
life", and his chest looked like "something from a Freddie Kruger
movie".
The court was told
Mercanti responded by firing five shots from a pistol into an arm and both
legs of a member of another West Australian bikie group, the Scorpion Boys.
Mercanti, a 35-year-old
father of two, was charged with acts causing
grievous bodily harm and attempting to pervert the course of justice, and is
remanded in custody.
Nabil Dabag, was charged with assault
causing grievous bodily harm and is also remanded in custody.
John Kizon was in the club at the time and
was accused of helping dispose
of the gun allegedly used by Mercanti.
Kizon was charged with
being an accessory after the fact and attempting to pervert the course of
justice, and was released on bail.
West Coast Eagles footballers
Michael Gardiner and Ben Cousins, who had been linked to Kizon
previously, became the
centre of media attention after the brawl when it was revealed the pair had been
in contact with Coffin Cheater,
David Morris, immediately before and
after it occurred.
Morris faced a charge of being an accessory after the fact.
Both players had since
been recorded on telephone calls made by Mercanti in jail.
 Gardiner was also filmed
allegedly making a "handcuffs" gesture to Mercanti as a show of
support during the Wizard Cup grand final at Telstra Dome in March 2005.
Mercanti's lawyer, who asked
not to be named, confirmed that Mercanti knew Cousins and Gardiner,
but said they were not friends.
(Click
here for Andrew Rule's story on the connections between footballers and the
underworld)
The lawyer said that
Mercanti was an infrequent visitor to Melbourne but "did go there once to
see a Robbie Williams concert".
The lawyer had heard
rumours about Mercanti's alleged involvement in an incident in Melbourne
involving a well-known underworld figure.
Melbourne police
sources said the knife attack on Mercanti may have been a payback for the 2002
Carlton
bashing.
"It's a long time
to wait to square off, but that's the way things are done in some
circles," the Herald Sun was told.
On May
10, 2006, Mercanti was cleared by a West
Australian District Court jury of unlawfully wounding
another man, with the gun, during a fight at the
nightclub.
The jury accepted Mr Mercanti's defence that he shot Dabag four times in the legs to disarm him.
Mr Mercanti was also acquitted of perverting the
course of justice by trying to cover up the shooting.
Mr Mercanti's defence at the trial was that he shot Mr
Dabag in self-defence in a bid to disarm him.
John Kizon,
David Morris, Adam Lloyd and Paul Martino were all cleared after being accused
of perverting the course of justice by trying to cover up the shooting.
Prosecutor Dave Dempster told the jury that
minutes after Mr Mercanti had fired four shots, Mr Kizon,
a company director, began covering his friend's actions.
Kizon picked up the
.38 gun, which has never been found, and then placed it in a plastic bag held by
Mr Morris to attempt to cover up the fight, the prosecution alleged.
He said Mr Lloyd, the nightclub's operation
manager, then cleared up the blood from the passageway.
Mr Dempster said Mr Martino rushed to hospital
after learning of the fight, where he wiped gunshot residue off the fingers of
the wounded Mr Mercanti.
Kizon's lawyer
Phillip Dunn accused police of "hotting up" evidence and suggested to
the jury anyone could have taken the gun because police had failed to secure the
crime scene.
The jury accepted Kizon's
version, that he picked up the gun and took it to the nightclub office to
prevent another outbreak of violence.
"I wasn't leaving no gun on no floor with
those gentlemen," Mr Kizon told the court.
Speaking outside court, Mr Kizon
said he had only been charged with perverting the course of justice because of a
police vendetta against him.
"The (police) will do anything (to get me),
they are sick people," Mr Kizon said.
"They (police) have secret meetings in
little rooms, they are manipulators, they corrupt witness, they lie and they are
out there doing it all the time."
On May
24, 2006, Mercanti was charged with carrying a
firearm after police conducted a review of the nightclub
fight.
"Further information has come to hand and, as a
result, police have charged him with carrying a
firearm," a police spokeswoman said.
Troy Mercanti was
among three men charged over a vicious brawl at
Fremantle's Harbourside Hotel on August 5, 2006.
He was charged with two
counts of common assault in relation to the fight.
Lee Michael
Holmes, 27,
from Embleton, was charged with six counts of unlawful
wounding, while Isaac Peter
Taylor, 31, of Spearwood, faced two
counts of common assault and assault occasioning bodily
harm.
A further search of
Taylor's house by Cockburn detectives led to further
charges, including possessing an unlicensed firearm and
possessing ammunition.
The three men were bailed
to appear at Fremantle Magistrates Court on Tuesday,
September 19.
Police were to allege the
three men were involved in an altercation with bouncers at
the Fremantle night club, in which one crowd controller
was stabbed.
At the time, witnesses said
the brawl erupted when four people who appeared to be gang
members or associates wearing club colours walked into the
nightspot and were told to leave by security staff.
The fight erupted inside
the club, spilling out into the car park.
Three security staff,
injured in the melee, were taken to Fremantle Hospital.
One underwent surgery for
stab wounds to his stomach and chest.
On October 12, 2006, in
a final slap in the face to the detectives who
investigated the Metro City nightclub incident, a
magistrate threw out a charge against Mercanti of
possessing the unlicensed gun, despite the bikie’s
lawyer admitting his client used the revolver to shoot
Nahil Dabag.
Magistrate Steven Malley
ruled in Perth Magistrate’s Court that the charge be
permanently stayed because there was no reasonable chance
of a conviction.
“If I was to allow the
matter to proceed it would, in my view, be an abuse of
process,” he said.
Police argued that they had
not pursued the charge at the original trial because
crucial evidence only surfaced during the trial.
Mr Mercanti’s lawyer
during the unlawful wounding trial on May 10, Robert
Richter, said at the time it was not disputed that his
client took a revolver from his bumbag and shot Mr Dabag.
But police still needed
evidence that this occurred to be confident of gaining a
conviction against Mr Mercanti for possessing the weapon.
Mr Dabag was acquitted in
January of unlawfully wounding Mr Mercanti with a knife
during the brawl.
Police submissions relied
heavily on a statement by Metro City employee Gregory
McIntyre in March that he saw Mr Mercanti with the weapon.
But Mr Malley ruled that
the statement changed nothing from the trial because Mr
McIntyre only saw Mr Mercanti with the gun after shots
were fired.
Even though security
footage “was consistent” with the Coffin Cheater
reaching into his bumbag it was still possible that
someone had passed the gun to him.
Outside court, Mr
Mercanti’s lawyer Laurie Levy was critical of police.
He said his client was
being unfairly targeted.
“You don’t just charge
somebody because his name is Troy Mercanti,” he said.
Police Acting Assistant
Commissioner Kevin Looby said police were considering an
appeal.
“It’s disappointing
that a person can make admissions in relation to taking a
firearm they are carrying, shooting someone with it and
then not being accountable by law,” he said.
Mr Mercanti would not
comment.
Mercanti was charged with causing grievous
bodily harm to a man in Northbridge in May 2007.
It was alleged he punched and broke the jaw of a
26-year-old man at the Geisha Bar on James Street.
He was due to appear in court in November.
On June 20, 2007, the
Sunday Times reported that Western Australian police had
issued a state wide arrest alert for two Coffin Cheater
bikies following a brutal bashing at the Coolbellup Hotel
the previous Friday night.
Arrest warrants were issued for Troy Mercanti,
who faces assault occasioning bodily harm and Warren
Geodhart, 32, for an
unlawful act with intent to harm (formerly grievous bodily harm).
Police allege the pair were with a group of
Coffin Cheaters in the hotel when Mercanti punched a 36-year-old customer who is
not a bikie.
He was knocked unconscious and Geodhart then
allegedly smashed him over the head with a bar stool.
The pair stood over the injured victim,
preventing medical aid and he lost two litres of blood.
Police said he could have died if the bikies had
not finally left the hotel and medical help could be called.
Inspector Tom Clay said the Gang Crime Squad had
been undertaking a "heavy investigation'' since the attack.
They searched the Coffin Cheaters Fremantle
property on Friday and charged a bikie with minor cannabis offences.
Other premises were raided including the gang's
Bayswater headquarters where a small amount of ammunition was discovered.
Mercanti failed to appear as best man at the wedding of his good friend
David Marapodi on Saturday June 23.
Insp Clay
said: "These two people have created their destiny. Now it's up to the
police to control it.
"The people we are chasing . . . these
people work in different ways to normal individuals and it's our job to take
control.
"It's fair to say they are in hiding
otherwise we would have them in custody at this point in time.
"What we can't have is people from these
overt criminal groups who are willing to cause distress and harm to the
community.
"It's our role to take control of this and
we certainly will.
"The concern we have is consideration that
they have an unwielding power over the community, they create a level of fear.
"We have arrest warrants for them so it
would be in their best interest if they turned up immediately at the nearest
police station where they will be placed under arrest.
"We have a strong case. We have spoken to
the DPP and they support our case.''
Mercanti is on bail for previous alleged assault
nightclub assaults in Fremantle and Northbridge.
On November 13, 2007, Mercanti pleaded not
guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to a man in Northbridge.
It was Mercanti, punched and broke the jaw of a
26-year-old man at the Geisha Bar on James Street in May.
The District Court has granted him home detention
bail and reminded him not to contact any witnesses connected to the case.
He was due to appear in court again in 2008.
On November 15, 2007, it was reported that
fallen football star Ben Cousins had
been keeping a low profile in Sydney and staying at a luxury Manly apartment
belonging to a friend who is closely linked to Western Australian bikies.
The apartment belongs to Fabian Quaid who is a
long time friend of Cousins and the godfather of a son of Troy Mercanti.
Cousins is also close to Mercanti's brother
Tyrone who counselled him after he was banished by the Eagles for drug use
earlier this year.
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