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Organised crime and terrorism: Their size, extent
and threat
Presentation to Year 12, Legal Studies Class,
Ryde Secondary College
Clive Small
November 2011
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Opening observations
Organised crime is not a new phenomenon. To greater and lesser
degrees organised crime affects all countries.
The extent to which it is a threat to a country is largely dependent on the
extent to which governments
- acknowledge the problem and aggressively tackle it,
- are apathetic towards the problem and/or
- are, to some degree at least, complicit.
Critical tipping points in the emergence of organised crime
In the late 1920s-30s the Calabrian mafia formed in the cane fields of
Queensland; the razor gangs emerged in Sydney and Melbourne
The 1950s and ‘60s saw the increasing emergence of organised crime
and violence in Melbourne; perhaps the most infamous being the Victoria
Market murders.
In Sydney the gang war of the late 1960s saw organised crime transform
with McPherson, Freeman and Stan Smith emerging as the big three
A few years later McPherson and Freeman invited Middle Eastern crime
figures to share in the organised crime pie and mentored them.
The 1960s also saw the emergence of outlaw motorcycle gangs, though
they were not to emerge as crime gangs for more than another decade
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The late 1960s-70s also saw the explosion in the illegal drug trade,
particularly heroin and cannabis and arguably, most notoriously Bob
Trimbole’s transformation of the Calabrian mafia into a modern organised
crime operation and his later membership of the Mr Asia syndicate,
leading to multiple murders.
1974 we had the Moffitt Royal Commission into Allegations of Organised
Crime in Clubs
Late 1970s we had the NSW Woodward Royal Commission into Drug
Trafficking (various others commissions followed in the early-mid
1980s---Stewart, Williams.)
1984-5 saw another gang war in Sydney and the gradual change of
leadership in gang bosses in Sydney
Mid 1990s Wood Royal Commission---impacts and opportunities
Late 1990s---explosion of middle-eastern crime and formation of new
alliances.
In the late 1990s-early 2000s Melbourne also saw a gang war that has led to
a new landscape in the state.
Size of the problem today---costs (ACC assessments)
ACC recently estimated organised crime costs Australia $15 billion a
year. (This does not take into account the costs of policing it; the courts,
jails, the costs to business, and the like.)
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Several billions in drug money alone being sent offshore each year
Laundered organised crime money is invested and reinvested in
Australia
In the mid 1990s the Queensland Advisory Committee on Illicit Drugs
estimated 71 tonnes of cannabis was cultivated in Queensland each
year. Its wholesale value was estimated at $283.6 million while its street
value was estimated at $632.8 million. It was Queensland’s second
biggest cash crop. Queensland was part of a national distribution
network.
Recent seizures, eg, in 2007 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy – 14 million tablets,
have had no identifiable impact on the drug market – no shortage and
price increase.
Seizures are just part of the cost of doing business and are outweighed
by successful importations.
Recently, the nephew of Ita Buttrose described cocaine use amongst his
social set in the eastern suburbs as being "just like a glass of wine".
For every drug sold, at least a few cents of every dollar goes to
organised crime
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Some short stories---both humorous and serious,
demonstrating organised crime is not always that organised
Chris ‘Mr Rent-a-kill’ Flannery
A spoilt child.
Failed thief and robber – kept getting caught – Had to try something
different – became a hitman.
Before a hit would listen to classical music and snort cocaine.
Murdered by his own bosses because he could not be controlled.
Michael Sayers
Melbournian. Mate of Flannery. Came to Sydney set up an illegal starting
price bookmaking operation, also a drug trafficker and hopeless gambler.
Owed George Freeman and Danny Chubb large amounts of money and
another bookmaker $120,000. At Double Bay as Sayers approaches
Albert Tabone, Sayers is grabbed by two men, whisked away. Half an
hour later returns with an empty suitcase saying the two men who
abducted him were police and they had stolen both the money he owed
Tabone and a kilo of heroin. One of the police was Flannery.
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An argument over $2 grew to involve crime ‘godfathers’, the police
commissioner, corruption, and an appearance before the District Court.
In 1977 one of Louie Bayeh’s brothers, Fred, was bashed when he entered
a Kings Cross without paying the two dollar entrance fee. A fight with the
bouncers followed and Bayeh’s brother lost.
When Louie heard about it he was not happy. He confronted one of the
bouncers and bashed him. The bouncer was one of Saffron’s bodyguards.
Bayeh knew he was in trouble and wanted the problem settled. He went to
Frank Hakim, the Lebanese Godfather, who went to certain police at
Darlinghurst, but they couldn’t help.
Hakim then went to the Police Commissioner, Merv Wood, who spoke with
Saffron, who wanted Louie punished and he was charged.
Three years later Louie says he pleaded guilty to a broken down charge of
malicious wounding and was placed on a bond. He paid $6,000 to police for
his lenient treatment.
What had started out as a failure to pay a two-dollar cover charge had
dragged in people at the highest levels of both the police and organised
crime.
Shayne Hatfield and Tom
Shayne Hatfield was a vicious and violence criminal. He was drug
distributor and in the 1990s headed a widespread drug network in
Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
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By 2000 Shayne Hatfield’s partner was Tom – a pseudonym given by
law-enforcement authorities.
Once Tom kidnapped another dealer who had ripped off his South
Australian bikie drug suppliers and put him in a car for delivery to the
Adelaide gang. Tom told a court that he never saw the drug dealer again
but that he didn’t consider it a kidnapping because ‘He never asked to
get out [of the boot].’
Arrested several times, Tom bribed police in the ‘tens of thousands of
dollars’ to reduce or beat the charges and at other times bribed them for
information they might have had about his activities or the activities of his
associates.
Over six months Hatfield and Tom sold 200 kilograms of cocaine.
Hatfield and Tom made around $30 million cash. Of that they paid the
importer, Aunty, $24 million and kept about $6 million for themselves.
Tom is an indemnified witness who kept around a million dollars that he
made ‘honestly’ through gambling.
So who is ‘Aunty’?
‘Aunty’ is a Colombian woman in her fifties who came to Australia with
her family in the 1980s. She is the face of a syndicate that has been
operating for almost two decades. Her husband stays in the background
but has the necessary power and influence with Colombian cocaine
barons.
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The syndicate imports around half a tonne to a tonne of cocaine every
eighteen months. It is estimated to have carried out at least ten and
possibly as many as fourteen importations (totalling between 10 tonnes
of the drug).
The cocaine is sold in bulk, primarily to networks in Sydney, but it also
makes its way to other state capitals.
The retirement of some distributors and the arrest and jailing of others
enabled an eastern suburbs professional surfer and dealer Shane
Hatfield to progress up the drug chain. By the early 2000s he was
dealing directly with Aunty.
Aunty has no criminal record. She is currently in ‘retirement’ and runs
several business including a financial investment company.
Darwiche and Razzak crews and the Telopea Street Boys – their drugs
and guns networks---the United Nations of the drug trade
The Darwiche and Razzak crews and Telopea Street Boys, all Muslim
Lebanese, but their drug and weapons networks looked like the United
Nations – they were not limited by race or religion and included
Caucasian Australians, Greeks, Pakistanis, Chinese, Turks, Philippinos,
Italians, Vietnamese, 5T gang; outlaw motorcycle gangs, and licensed
gun dealers. The purchase of rocket launchers – nine of which are still on
the streets – were stolen from the Australian Defence Force by Shane
Della Vedova.
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Examples of miss hits – shooting up the wrong apartment block; shooting
up the wrong car, running into a parked car while driving away from a
drive by.
The rollover who was driving a Lambourgini and having his lawns
mowed.
Some findings on terrorism and terrorists
Around 200 attacks (in Australia or against Australians overseas) going
back to the mid 1960s have been identified.
Despite around 150 of these terrorist acts occurring between 1966 and
2001 there was very little legislative action. Since 2001 there have been
more than 50 separate pieces of terrorist related commonwealth
legislation and 40 pieces of state legislation.
Around 2000 changes began to emerge with Australian based individuals
and terrorist groups training overseas and undertaking attacks in other
countries. This was paralleled with an increase in attacks within
Australia.
Many terrorists were
o small time criminals
o funds for their acts were raised from relatively small time criminal
activities
o quite a few were relatives of known middle eastern crime groups or
families
o a number converted to radical Islam while serving time in jail
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o jails are a major place of recruitment for radical Islam – this is a
worldwide pattern.
In one case we found a terrorist who later rolled had been receiving
social security benefits when convicted in 2002 of fraud he was living in a
luxury townhouse and employed a butler.
The problem is political
Political apathy to the problem
- The Moffitt Royal Commission---despite the findings little action
- Justice Athol Moffitt later pointed to political wrangling, point scoring
and buckpassing as the reason (eg Costa and Carr on guns – porous
borders)
- Justice Woodward – Four Corners interview in 1986 – treated by the
government as a Claytons’ royal commission to satisfy the public.
Lack of genuine books and investigative journalism on the broader
problem
The main points:
o Australia’s federal system of government and Constitution creates
turf wars and poses the question, ‘Who is responsible for
organised crime and for what aspects of it?’ There has been a
long tradition of rivalry and blame-shifting. In the case of
organised crime, jurisdiction belongs primarily to the states rather
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than the commonwealth. There is little incentive for the Australian
Federal Police to devote valuable resources to areas that are low
on their internal list of organisational priorities. The same
questions that undermine commonwealth-state co-operation also
bedevil interstate investigations: Whose turf? How much is it going
to cost? Who pays? Who gets the credit? Who gets the blame if
something goes wrong? The ability to overcome this tradition will
be the real measure of Australia’s seriousness in the fight against
organised crime and terrorism. Arguably this is the most
fundamental challenge facing the investigation of organised crime
in Australia.
o In a culture focused on future elections, ongoing financial support,
and repayment of past debts, politics carries more weight than
principle.
o Flow on implications for police – focus is quick arrests, reduced
costs, etc.
o When it comes to organised crime, Australian governments have
said much and achieved little.
Spin over substance and political buckpassing: a few examples
At one point the NSW Police Minister, Michael Daley, announced 16
kilograms of cocaine was seized in NSW in the first nine months of 2009,
compared with 9 kilograms in the whole of the previous year. What he
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did not say was that in just six months in 2004, the violent eastern
suburbs criminal Shayne Hatfield and his offsider ''Tom'' between them
sold 200 kilograms of cocaine.
The seizure in Melbourne of 15 million ecstasy tablets had little or no
impact on the Australian market. AFP said the group was responsible for
60 per cent of ecstasy trafficked on Australia’s east coast. The seizure
and its cost was more than covered by successful importations.
After the fatal bikie bashing at Sydney Airport, the State Government
rushed to announce 975 people had been charged by police during a
two-year crackdown on bikie gangs. However, just nine were charged
specifically with being members of a criminal gang, and only 40 were
charged by the Gang Squad. Most charges were laid by local police for
traffic offences, breaching bail, and property and street offences.
As gang violence raged across south-western Sydney early this decade,
the Carr government blamed the Commonwealth for the number of illegal
guns. "There's no point our police chasing their tails on Sydney streets
trying to get handguns off those streets," then police minister Michael
Costa said, "if the Federal Government is letting down the side by not
dealing with the question of the source, and that is the illegal handguns
that come across our porous borders." However, most of the handguns
used in these crimes had not been illegally imported, but had been stolen
from licensed gun dealers; they were a state responsibility.
The NSW Government isn't the only one guilty of duping the public on
organised crime. In South Australia, the Premier, Mike Rann, declared in
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2005 that a four-year crackdown on bikies had resulted in almost 3000
arrests, the seizure of 300 firearms, large quantities of cannabis,
amphetamines, ecstasy and fantasy, and assets worth $2.7 million.
Capturing 300 illegal guns in four years might have struck South
Australians as less of a triumph had Rann mentioned that more than 500
weapons, including handguns, were stolen in a single home invasion of a
firearms dealer north of Adelaide in 1999.
A final word
In February 2001 the Toronto Post newspaper ran the following job
advertisement. It read:
Having successfully completed a ten year sentence, incident-free, for
importing 75 tons of marijuana into the United States, I am now seeking
a legal and legitimate means to support myself and my family.
Business Experience: Owned and operated a successful fishing
business -- multi-vessel, one airplane, one island and processing facility.
Simultaneously owned and operated a fleet of tractor-trailer trucks
conducting business in the western United States. During this time I also
co-owned and participated in the executive level management of 120
people worldwide in a successful pot smuggling venture with revenues in
excess of US$100 million annually. I took responsibility for my own
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actions, and received a ten year sentence in the United States while
others walked free for their cooperation.
Attributes: I am an expert in all levels of security; I have extensive
computer skills, am personable, outgoing, well-educated, reliable, clean
and sober. I have spoken in schools to thousands of kids and parent
groups over the past ten years on "the consequences of choice," and
received public recognition from the RCMP for community service. I am
well-traveled and speak English, French and Spanish.
References available from friends, family, the U.S. District Attorney, etc.
O’Dea received 600 responses. He considered six offers of employment.
He went on to become a successful television producer in Toronto and
wrote a number of successful books; one of which was called
Confessions of a Pot Smuggler.
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