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Melbourne gangland victim the 23rd
The World Today ^ | 1 April , 2004 | Rafael Epstein

Posted on 04/01/2004 3:05:17 AM PST by gd124

HAMISH ROBERTSON: Melbourne's 23rd underworld murder has shocked the Police Force in Victoria, with the state's top commanders saying that the two murders in the past 8-days have taken the criminal turf war to a surreal and unprecedented level.

Police have revealed that they're now reviewing the way organised crime is investigated, and they fear that the current spate of killings, over the lucrative amphetamine trade, may produce a long running feud.

As Rafael Epstein reports from Melbourne, police suggest the gang war may be continued by the children of the men executed over the last six years.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The long list of murders began with Alphonse Gangitano, the Robert De Niro of Carlton, killed wearing only his underpants in his own home in 1998.

It escalated to Graham 'the Munster' Kinniburgh being shot outside his home last year, the eighth execution that year, confirming the participation in the war of criminals linked to Melbourne's waterfront.

Now just 30 hours after Andrew 'Benji' Veniamin was buried after being killed at lunchtime in a restaurant in the inner city suburb Carlton, Lewis Moran, the crime patriarch who'd already lost two sons to this war, was also killed in full public view, a few kilometres north, in a club in Brunswick.

The Victorian detective supervising the 50 officers of Taskforce Purana, Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland, says the killings they are investigating have reached new levels.

SIMON OVERLAND: Well, it's April the 1st today, but unfortunately it's not April Fool's day and what we're dealing with here is a desperately serious situation.

I think there is a degree of the surreal about this. Certainly from my own point of view it is the first time I have genuinely been shocked by what has occurred. Last night was the first time that I was really shaken.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: And the Assistant Commissioner say many people in Melbourne and around the country don't understand this level of violence has never been seen before in Australia.

SIMON OVERLAND: What is surprising in some ways is the timing, that this has happened so soon after the last killing, and this is quite unprecedented in terms of this type of thing happening, certainly in Victoria and in Australia. It's not part of the Australian way of life, it's not something we want, but unfortunately here it is and we have to deal with it.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The major problem is police cannot confirm what they think they know because underworld figures, suspects and potential victims won't talk, and won't accept police protection, even when it is offered.

As well, investigations into corruption within the former drug squad have derailed some criminal trials, and that in turn has delayed other trials. As a result some of those involved have been out of jail, when normally they'd be in prison, more protected from attack and less able to direct any aggression.

The unique investigation has already prompted a review.

SIMON OVERLAND: We do need to go back and review the way we deal with organised crime, yes. My belief is that we need a capacity to continue to run investigations like Purana indefinitely, because that is the way you are ultimately successful in dealing with organised crime.

That's the level that we need to move to. We need to make sure we focus on organised crime and that it's not just a matter of taking individual players out of circulation, it's about dealing with the structures that support them, it's about dealing with the groups and taking the group out, because that is the only way you will ever really be successful.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Police did have one win today. The next potential victim, alleged drug trafficker Carl Williams, has been ordered by a court to answer questions about what he knows of the events leading up to the execution of his friend Andrew Veniamin last week.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: Rafael Epstein reporting in Melbourne.


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amphetamines; australia; corruption; drugs; drugwar; gangland; organizedcrime; police; war; wod

1 posted on 04/01/2004 3:05:17 AM PST by gd124
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To: gd124
So, where does Spiny Norman fit in to theis?
2 posted on 04/01/2004 3:24:56 AM PST by Renfield
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To: gd124
This story is obviously all lies.....Australia outlawed guns a few year back.
3 posted on 04/01/2004 3:41:05 AM PST by taxed2death (A few billion here, a few trillion there...we're all friends right?)
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To: Renfield
The 23 murder was the shocker eh?

I wonder were the Pirrhanas brothers fit into this tale.
4 posted on 04/01/2004 5:12:17 AM PST by mylife
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To: taxed2death
And in any case, this is a bad thing, how? Dead mobsters with no innocent bystanders sounds like a good thing to me.
5 posted on 04/01/2004 5:13:48 AM PST by Rifleman
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To: mylife
"Graham 'the Munster' Kinniburgh being shot outside his home last year ..."

And then he nailed my head to the floor ...

6 posted on 04/01/2004 5:15:18 AM PST by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsënspåånkængrüppen ØberKømmååndø (EMØØK))
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To: Rifleman
.....sorry, I forgot my sarcasm tag...
7 posted on 04/01/2004 5:54:36 AM PST by taxed2death (A few billion here, a few trillion there...we're all friends right?)
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To: BlueLancer
Somehow I just cannot connect "Australia" and "mobsters". It's like "Rwanda" and "opera".
8 posted on 04/01/2004 6:12:22 AM PST by Renfield
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To: BlueLancer
Dinsdale was a fair man...But cruel
9 posted on 04/01/2004 8:43:53 AM PST by mylife
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To: Renfield
Back in the early 70's,20 Chicago mafia henchman were ordered to Sydney to muscle in on the poker machine industry through a Sicilian connection there.Only one of them left alive.The mobsters let him go only so he could let the Chicago bosses know that compared to Sydney,Chicago was small time and a small town.There was a movie made which was roughly based on it.Sydney and Melbourne were built exactly the way New York was,by Irish and Italian immigrants who wanted to get rich quick by any means neccessary.People who get their education through movies ofcourse think Australia is all crocodile dundee and Steve Irwin,when in fact it is the most urbanized country in the western world.
10 posted on 04/01/2004 9:02:56 AM PST by browsin
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