Calabrian mafia looses 14.5 million ecstasy tabs to aussie cops. Again.

[dpayne]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...9-2862,00.html

5.6 tonnes or 14.5 million or so pills....... omg swim wonders how long or often would australia consume 14.5 million pills lol

[Alfa]

Officers seize 5.6 tonnes of ecstasy pills in probe

Keith Moor

August 09, 2008 12:00am

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police have foiled repeated Calabrian mafia attempts to flood Australia with world record amounts of ecstasy worth $600 million.

During a three-year investigation, they seized two separate shipments in Melbourne with a total weight of 5.6 tonnes.

AFP agents yesterday arrested 19 men during the busting of the Australian arm of an alleged international drug gang, which allegedly smuggled almost 20 million ecstasy pills and large amounts of cocaine into Melbourne.

Simultaneous raids were carried out in Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, and more arrests are expected overseas and in Australia.

The global syndicate is alleged to be dominated by an Italian organised crime gang of Calabrian origin, but it also involves other organised crime gangs.

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty said yesterday the latest police intelligence suggested the syndicate was allegedly involved in 60 per cent of all drug importations into southeast Australia.

The latest shipment of 150kg of cocaine, worth $37 million, arrived at Melbourne's docks on July 24. It was hidden in a load of coffee and came from Colombia.

AFP evidence obtained during this operation allegedly revealed an increasing willingness by the Calabrian mafia to work with criminals outside its group and in various parts of the world.

Hundreds of AFP agents have worked on the three-year probe and several overseas police agencies have been involved in evidence gathering.

Among those arrested yesterday was Griffith-based Pasquale "Pat" Barbaro, 46, who has been charged with trafficking ecstasy, conspiracy to import ecstasy and aiding and abetting drug importations.

The 1979 Woodward Royal Commission report named four of Mr Barbaro's close relatives as being members of the Calabrian mafia cell responsible for ordering the 1977 death of Griffith anti-drug crusader Donald Mackay. None were charged.

It said the New South Wales Riverina city of Griffith was a major Calabrian mafia power base.

AFP agents will allege Mr Barbaro was one of the most influential members of the Australian arm of the Calabrian-dominated worldwide drug network.

Also arrested and charged yesterday was Crown casino high-roller Rob Karam, 41, of Kew.

Mr Karam was one of Crown's top 200 gamblers until Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon banned him from the casino.

The AFP also arrested John William Samuel Higgs, 61, and charged him with conspiracy to import amphetamines.

Mr Higgs, of Taylors Lakes, is the founding member of the Melbourne chapter of the Black Uhlans bikie gang.

Also arrested yesterday was Tony Sergi, 34, of Sydenham.

Mr Sergi was shot and wounded during an attempt on his life in 2005, and police believe they foiled another attempt to kill him in 2006.

The Herald Sun became aware early last year that the Calabrian mafia was allegedly working with other criminal groups to ship massive amounts of ecstasy into Melbourne.

It agreed to an AFP request not to reveal the allegations over an Italian organised crime gang's role until after arrests had been made.

AFP agents feared that revealing the Calabrian connection earlier would jeopardise their investigation into the syndicate's connections with other organised crime gangs around the world.

It alleges the same Calabrian mafia-dominated gang was responsible for at least two ecstasy importations from Italy to Melbourne.

The first was the 2005 then-world record seizure in Melbourne of 5 million ecstasy tablets weighing 1.2 tonnes.

That seizure was extensively reported, but the Italian connection was withheld by the Herald Sun so as not to jeopardise the continuing AFP investigation into the Calabrian mafia's links to the international drug smuggling network.

The existence of an even bigger 2007 ecstasy seizure in Melbourne was revealed yesterday on the Herald Sun website.

AFP agents secretly seized a 4.4 tonne container of 14.5 million ecstasy tablets in June 2007.

That is still the largest single seizure of ecstasy in the world, and it had a street value of $450 million.

It was not made public by the AFP as it believed announcing the seizure then would alert the Calabrians and their associates that they were the prime suspects.

The Herald Sun agreed to an AFP request not to reveal that bust until after arrests had been made, which ended up being more than a year later.

AFP intelligence suggests Calabrian mafia cells in Melbourne, Adelaide, Griffith and Sydney allegedly paid about $10 million to buy the shipment of 14.5 million tablets from the Calabrian mafia in Italy -- giving the Australian cells a potential profit of more than $400 million.

"The searches in Europe are going on as I speak," Mr Keelty said yesterday.

"They have already seized half a billion euro dollars as well as a large cache of firearms.

"All the intelligence we have gathered here in Australia, all the intelligence about the methodology, will be shared with our European partners so we can shut this syndicate down."

Calabria is the world headquarters of the Italian organised crime gang N'Dranghita.

N'Dranghita is known by some Italians as L'Onorata Societa (the Honoured Society) or La Famiglia (The Family).

It is simply called the mafia by most in Australia, or the Calabrian mafia to differentiate it from the Sicilian mafia.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...9-2862,00.html

5.6 tonnes or 14.5 million or so pills....... omg swim wonders how long or often would australia consume 14.5 million pills lol

Watch the video's:
http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/?rid=40300
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4482803.ece

[terrapinzflyer]

Ecstasy Committal Hearing Postponed

Lawyers prosecuting one of Australia's biggest drug cases, involving a number of Riverina men, have been ordered to resubmit their brief of evidence against the 31 accused.

It is alleged those charged over the nation's biggest ecstasy haul were involved in a conspiracy to import 4.5 tonnes of the drug into Melbourne in tomato tins.

Defence lawyer Colin Lovett QC, told the Melbourne Magistrates Court the 10,000 page Crown brief was "gobbledegook".

He said it was a pathetic exercise in futility and should be resubmitted, because some defendants still had no idea what the case against them consisted of.

He also said he could not install the Australian Federal Police computer program needed to access files of evidence.

Magistrate Simon Garnett postponed the committal hearing and said he would issue further orders about the new brief.

The alleged ringleader, Pasquale Barbaro, remains in custody after yesterday's hearing.

The other Griffith men, Saverio Zirilli, Domenic Barbaro, Pasquale Sergi and Giovanni Polimeni, are on bail.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...?site=riverina

[Synchronium]

I'd laugh if they turned out to be mCPP.