Police in drug ring swoop
Nick McKenzie, Tom Arup and Cameron Houston
August 9, 2008
Pasquele Barbaro's father, Francesco, arrives during the raid.
A UNIT in Little Palmerston Street, Carlton, was allegedly a crucial safe house for an international drug syndicate broken yesterday after a year-long Australian Federal Police investigation.
In a series of dramatic raids across the country, some of Australia's most notorious alleged underworld figures were arrested in connection to the seizure in Melbourne of the world's largest shipment of ecstasy.
Police arrested 20 people, eventually charging 19 with various drug and money laundering offences relating to the seizure of 4.4 tonnes or 15 million ecstasy tablets from Italy.
The drugs, hidden inside tins of tomato shipped from Italy to Melbourne, are valued at $440 million.
Key figures in the syndicate include its alleged mastermind, Pasquale Barbaro; the suspected drug baron and founder of the Black Uhlans Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, John Higgs, and Rob Karam, of Kew, who is alleged to have used a corrupt network of Melbourne dock and freight workers to facilitate importations.
Mr Barbaro, 46, and Sharon Ropa, 37, were arrested at the Carlton unit in the early hours of Friday morning. AFP sources told The Age Mr Barbaro travelled frequently between his home town of Tharbogang, near Griffith in New South Wales, and the Carlton unit.
Mr Barbaro is the son of Francesco "Little Trees" Barbaro, who was named in the Woodward royal commission as a member of the Griffith-based Calabrian organisation behind the disappearance of anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay in 1977.
In Griffith, about 100 AFP officers swooped on four properties at 4am. Homes were cordoned off as a team of customs officers arrived with sniffer dogs.
The focus of operation was Pasquale Barbaro's sprawling Italianate mansion. His father Francesco remonstrated with AFP officers when he arrived at the property about 6.30am.
"I have no idea what's happening. I don't know anything about drugs, leave me alone," Mr Barbaro told The Age.
Also arrested and charged yesterday was Francesco Madafferi, 47, of Greenvale, a Melbourne fruit and vegetable market identity who the immigration department sought to deport in the '90s after discovering he had been investigated for "Mafia conspiracy" in Calabria.
Thirteen of those charged in relation to the raids appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday, with all remanded in custody except for Madafferi, who was granted bail without appeal.
Prosecutor Brent Young told the court there were 187,000 hours of telephone intercept evidence and 3600 hours of listening device recordings. He asked for six months to prepare the prosecution case.
AFP Chief Commissioner Mick Keelty said the syndicate represented 60% of all ecstasy imports into Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania.
"This is a major disruption to transnational organised crime, both for this country and abroad." The investigation was the largest ever undertaken by the AFP, Mr Keelty said. Police executed more than 45 search warrants in Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands
Federal police and customs officers found the ecstasy in a shipment that arrived in Melbourne on June 28, 2007, after gathering intelligence from Australian and European agencies.
The AFP then made a tactical decision not to reveal the raid. After secretly substituting inert pills for the tablets and resealing each tin, it mounted an elaborate surveillance and phone-tapping operation.
A key operational coup was the discovery of the crime network's alleged Carlton safe house, which the AFP wired with listening devices.
Pasquale Barbaro was yesterday charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of MDMA (ecstasy), trafficking MDMA, and aiding and abetting the importing of cocaine. He was remanded appear in court again on March 26.
AFP sources said Ropa frequently used the safe house, travelling between it and her Werribee home. She is alleged to be one of three people involved in a $9 million money laundering ring, which allegedly provided funds for drug syndicate.
She appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with laundering money worth more than $1 million, trafficking MDMA, and aiding and abetting the importing of cocaine. She was remanded to appear on March 26.
Windows and doors of the alleged safe house, a double-storey brick townhouse, were boarded up last night and smashed glass covered the entrance. The front garden had also been dug up.
Neighbours spoke of waking at 4am to hear armed police forcing their way inside.
"I was woken by an awful lot of noise and shouting and banging and breaking glass," said one.
On July 24 this year in Melbourne, customs and AFP officials also seized 150 kilograms of cocaine alleged to have been imported by the syndicate.
In yesterday's raids the AFP also seized $140,000 in cash and a bounty of weapons at a Griffith property.
Melbourne Magistrate Amanda Chambers yesterday granted bail for Madafferi, who was charged with trafficking MDMA, but remanded all other accused in custody.
Mohamed Abdul Nazeer, 24, and Tanesh Dias, 34, both of West Footscray and both charged with money laundering, were remanded until February 4. All others are due back in court on March 26.
Alan Saric, 34 of Werribee, charged with various drug offences, and Abdul Nazeer are expected to make bail applications early next week.
John Higgs, 61, of Taylors Lakes, has been targeted by state and federal police for two decades. He remains a suspect in the theft of secret police files detailing the activities of a police informer from the Victorian drug squad offices in 1996.
Yesterday he was charged with conspiracy to import MDMA.
Another Melbourne figure, Rob Karam, was charged with conspiracy to import MDMA, trafficking MDMA, aiding and abetting the importing of cocaine and importing a precursor chemical to manufacture drugs.
Karam is an associate of alleged drug baron Tony Mokbel and was one of Crown Casino's top 200 gamblers before being banned from the casino by Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon.
Others across four states arrested and charged with various drug offences included: Saverio Zirilli, 51, of Tharboganag, NSW, Carmelo Falanga, 43, of Bungle Bungle Ranges, SA, Pasquale Sergi, 45, of Griffith, NSW, Gratian Bran, 51, of Cheltenham, Graeme Potter, 50, of Launceston, Severino Scarponi, 39, of Glenside, SA, Antonio Di Pietro, 41, of Nar Nar Goon, Pino Varallo, 39, of Eltham, Dominic Barbaro, 31, of Lake Wyangan, NSW, Tony Sergi, 34, of Sydenham, and Salvatore Agresta, 40, of East Keilor.
With SARAH-JANE COLLINS, ANDREA PETRIE and AAP