Photo: ABC
Dangerous
liaisons: Mafia lawyer Joseph Acquaro represented some of the
Calabrian community's most dangerous men, including Pasquale Barbaro
and Frank Madafferi, who were jailed for the importation of 1.2 million
Ecstasy tablets
'Tell him to get his f***in' coffin ready'
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Joseph 'Pino' Acquaro gunned down outside his gelati shop Gelobar
Assassinated lawyer Joe Acquaro fell out with violent mafia drug bosses
Acquaro's friend Frank Madafferi once threatened to behead a man
He also defended Pasquale Barbaro in 1.2 million tablet Ecstasy ring
Both men were jailed and then Acquaro fell out with Madafferi
If Acquaro murder was outside hit Calabrian mafia would have hit back
Slain gangland lawyer Joe Acquaro is
believed to have fallen out with two of the most dangerous members of
the Calabrian mafia before he was shot dead outside his Melbourne
gelato bar, including a vicious, volatile leader from one of the 31
Calabrian mafia families who control the Australian drug trade
Acquaro, who was shot dead in the early
hours of Tuesday morning outside his East Brunswick gelato bar, was
once the trusted legal representative and a lifelong friend of jailed
Francesco Madafferi, a feared figure in Melbourne's drug trade who once
threatened to cut the head of an associate who had crossed him and
chop up his body.
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Madafferi's preparedness to commit
savage violence was shown in a conversation in a police phone tap he
had with fellow mafia boss, Pasquale Barbaro.
In the exchange bewteen the Australian
mafia top two bosses, Madafferi told Barbaro: 'Tell him that he can go
get his f***ing coffin, get it f***ing ready'.
In the conversation, revealed by former
NSW Police Asistant Commissioner and author of a recent about abut the
mafia in Australia, Clive Small, Madafferi threatens to cut off an
associate's head and tells Barbaro that in terms of mafia patches:
'Melbourne is mine'.
Enemies:
Once his trusted legal adviser and lifelong friend, Joe Acquaro
allegedly fell out with mafia drug boss Pasquale Barbaro (left) and
Melbourne mafia don Frank Madafferi (right)who he represented at their
trials for the importation of 1.2 million Ecstasy tablets
One
of Joe Acquaro's clients was Ecstasy importer Pasquale Barbaro,
pictured (left) under police surveillance in Melbourne, who comes from a
Calabrian Italian family one of just 31 in Australia who control the
drug trade
Slain
lawyer Joe Acquaro had also been the lawyer for Rocco Arico (pictured)
an alleged organised crime figure, but he had fallen out with his
former client and friend, Frank Madafferi
Joe Acquaro represented both Madafferi
and Barbaro at their trial resulting from the phone taps, for
Australia's largest-ever ecstasy drug importation.
Police arrested more than 30 members of
the drug ring involved in the 2007 importation of 1.2 million Ecstasy
tablets stamped with kangaroo symbols and hidden in tomato tins.
Madafferi received ten years in prison
and Barbaro, the former boss of the Griffith-based mafia, was sentenced
to life behind bars.
Victorian police detectives
investigating the suspected mafia killing of Acquaro are crossing the
border to interview members of the Calabrian mafia, N'Drangheta, from
Griffith, the south-western NSW town regarded as Australia's drug
capital.
Griffith has been an N'Drangehta's
power base for decades since notorious mafia godfather 'Aussie Bob'
Trimbole allegedly murdered anti-drugs campaigner, Donald Mackay in
1977.
Over a decade from 1995, Joe Acquaro
helped Madafferi fight deportation back to his Calabrian homeland in
Italy, where he had allegedly committed crimes.
Joseph
Acquaro had once been the 'go to' lawyer for Melbourne's Calabrian
community early in his career (pictured) representing witnesses to the
1992 mafia hit on Melbourne fruiterer Alfonso 'The Fonse' Muratore
Police spent
tens of thousands of hours keeping Pasquale Barbaro (second from
right) and his gang under video and phone intercept surveillance,
meaning Acquaro could not prevent Barbaro from getting life in prison
The Ecstasy importation of 1.2
million tablets (pictured) organised by Joe Acquaro's clients, Frank
Madafferi, and Pasquale Barbaro was uncovered by the Australian Federal
Police in 2007
Griffith
drug baron 'Aussie Bob' Trimbole (above) was the cannabis kingpin in
Australia's drug capital which became infamous after the mafia hit on
anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay
When the Federal Liberal Immigration
Minister Amanda Vanstone granted Madafferi citizenship in 2006, he
began planning with Pasquale Barbaro the tomato tin Ecstasy
importation.
The Herald Sun reported
that Joe Acquaro had spoken recently of falling out with Madafferi
who had been a lifelong friend, and he felt isolated.
Acquaro had once been the 'go to'
lawyer for Melbourne's Calabrian community after, early on in his
career, representing witnesses to the 1992 mafia hit on Melbourne
fruiterer Alfonso 'The Fonse' Muratore.
More recently he defended alleged
gangland boss Rocco Arico. Detectives had warned Mr Acquaro there was a
$500,000 contract out on his head.
The Herald Sun
reported that reported that after that members of the gangland task
force went to a friend of Frank Madafferi about the contract and warned
him he would be spoken to again if anything happened to Mr Acquaro.
'I cannot understand why the police would do that,' Clive Small told Daily Mail Australia. 'There's something wrong with that.'
Mr Small whose recent book Evil Life revealed
explosive details of the relationship between the Australian mafia and
local politicians, said the only alternative possibility to Mr
Acquaro's presumed mafia assassination was an outside hit.
Police
conduct aerial surveillance of an orange orchard in 2011 near
Griffith,NSW, known for decades as the drug capital of Australia and a
power base for Calabrian mafia families who control the drug trade
Among
Jose Acquaro's early clients were Calabrian witnesses to the mafia
murder of Melbourne fruiterer Alfonso Muratore (pictured) who was shot
dead outside his home 28 years after his father was killed in similar
circumstances
Police
discovered 1.2 million Ecstasy pills (pictured) imported from Italy by
Pasquale Barbaro's drug ring and concealed in tomato tins which sat on
the wharf while detectives watch the members of the gang
'But if that had been the case, the
Calabrian mafia would have been forced to protect [Aquaro] and gone and
killed the person who put the bounty on Aquaro's head,' he said.
'That only leaves the option that
Acquaro did something to offend the mafia boss and that he has been
killed ... as a means of conveying that there are consequences to
breaching the mafia code.
'It's to show discipline and of the
three main mafia groups, the Camorra, the Sicilian mafia and the
Calabrian mafia, the N'Drangheta, who come from the the region in the
far southern 'boot' of Italy, known for its rugged territory and its
secret societies.
'It is is the Calabrians who are most disciplined. Their approach to betrayal or disobedience ... is go convey their authority.'
Clive Small revealed the phone tap
conversation between Frank Madafferi and Pasquale Barbaro, which took
place when the their 1.2 million Ecstasy tablet importation scheme was
coming unstuck.
Ecstasy
king pin and mafia boss, Pasquale Barbaro, (pictured, left) who is
serving life in prison for the importation of 1.2 million Ecstasy
tablets which saw the arrest of 30 men including Black Uhlans bikie gang
founder John Higgs (right)
Police
arrested more than 30 members of the drug ring involved in the 2007
importation of 1.2 million Ecstasy tablets stamped with kangaroo
symbols (pictured) and hidden in tomato tins
The
tomato tins filled with Ecstasy tablets that Pasquale Barbaro imported
into Australia and sat on the Melbourne wharf for six months while the
drug syndicate wondered if police were surveilling them
In July 2008, Madafferi was highly
agitated about one of the drug syndicate's underlings called Pino
Varallo, who he was threatening to 'chop into little pieces' and eat
'one bite at a time'.
Caught on Australian Federal Police
telephone intercepts, Madafferi was talking down the phone to Ecstasy
drug syndicate boss, Pasquale Barbaro, complaining that the tablets he
had sold cheaply for $8 each had been onsold by Varallo for $8.50.
When Barbaro put Varallo on to talk,
Madafferi claimed the right to set the price of Ecstasy in his home
city, although acknowledging that the other states were under Barbaro's
control.
'[I'm] responsible fo Melbourne...
Melbourne is mine,' he yelled at Varallao, warning him not to 'break my
f***ing balls on my f***ing turf'.
In the ensuing days, Madafferi did not
let up telling Barbaro: 'I'm going to pull his f***ing head off ... I'm
going to eat him alive. Tell him that he can go get his f***ing
coffin, get it f***ing ready.'
Police
burn part of a $23 million cannabis crop uncovered in 2011 raids at
Griffith, NSW, Australia's notorious drug capital and home to the
Calabrian mafia
A terrified Varallo told Barbaro that
Madafferi was 'going off his rocker... off his tree' and had threatened
to slit Varallo's throat or shoot him.
Evil Life, which is co-authored by
journalist Tom Gilling, also recounts the history of the mafia in
Australia, beginning in the 1920s when shootings, bombings and
extortions began among Italian immigrants to a new life.
Mr Small said the relationship between the Federal Liberal Party and Francesco Madafferi was interesting.
Senior Liberal politician and then
immigration minister Philip Ruddock ordered Madafferi's deportation on
the grounds he was unsuitable because of offences against him in Italy.
Madafferi had married an Australian
woman and they had children while he fought the order. Then Senator
Amanda Vanstone replaced Ruddock as the minister and in 2005 she
personally stepped in to quash the deportation.
Vanstone said she did it on
'humanitarian grounds'. Thereafter Calabrian families in Victoria
raised a $140,000 donation to the Liberal Party.
Vanstone was appointed ambassador to Italy in June 2007. There is no suggestion that Ms Vanstone acted improperly.
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