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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