|
 
Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! Please  login or  register to post messages and view our members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, encrypted messages, file attachments, board customizations, and much more!
|
 xk3m_indica
Seafarer
 
Registered: 08/17/05
Posts: 8,883
Loc: Tasmania
|
 'Puppeteer' acquitted of $350m ecstasy haul
#7163760 - 07/11/07 11:02 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Tony Mokbel
A CASINO high-roller and mate of Tony Mokbel walked free yesterday two years after being accused of masterminding the world's biggest ecstasy shipment into Australia.
Rob Karam, one of Melbourne's Crown casino's top 200 gamblers, was portrayed in court as the "puppeteer" pulling the strings in the 1.2 tonne ecstasy operation.
He was one of four men acquitted yesterday in a blow to the Australian Federal Police.
The County Court heard the seizure of more than five million pills with a street value of $350 million was believed to be the world's largest ecstasy bust.
Two Victorians caught unloading a container when police swooped were convicted.
The four acquitted men hugged each other after the not guilty verdicts were read out.
One of them, an emotional Antonio Sergi, shouted out his thanks to the jury.
The pills were in a container of tiles that was shipped from Italy to Melbourne.
Those cleared were alleged to have been involved in organising the shipment and attempting to get it through Customs.
Details of the 2005 bid to flood Australia with the drug were suppressed until yesterday.
Karam was arrested with drug boss Tony Mokbel in 2001 and charged over the importation of 550kg of ephedrine, which could make $2 billion of amphetamines.
He was also charged in 2001 over a three-tonne hashish shipment worth $147 million, which Victoria Police believe was organised and financed by Mokbel and murdered underworld heavyweights Lewis Moran and Graham "The Munster" Kinniburgh.
The trafficking and possession charges against Lebanese-born Karam, 40, over the 2001 ephedrine seizure were dropped in 2005 and he was found not guilty over the three-tonne hash haul.
A County Court jury yesterday cleared him of conspiring with others to import the five million ecstasy tablets.
Cleared with Karam of conspiracy yesterday were Antonio Sergi, 33, Christopher Stavreff, 38, and Anton Claite, 30.
Sergi, who used to work as a courier delivering shipping industry documents, was shot and seriously wounded in Moonee Ponds in November 2005 while on bail awaiting trial.
During the 30-day trial, prosecutor Gavin Silbert said: "While Sergi is doing the hands-on work, Mr Karam is effectively pulling the strings in the background."
Karam and Sergi denied being involved in the ecstasy importation and were found not guilty.
Stavreff and Claite both worked for a Melbourne freight forwarding company at the time of the ecstasy importation, and the prosecution claimed they were the drug gang's inside men.
Two other men, Mark Aisbett and Antonio Giampaolo, were found guilty at an earlier County Court trial in May of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of ecstasy.
Details of their convictions were suppressed until yesterday.
Australian Federal Police agents caught Aisbett, 38, and Giampaolo, 54, red-handed as they unloaded a container they thought contained the ecstasy.
What the two men did not know was that police had intercepted the container, removed the ecstasy, and replaced it with fake tablets.
Karam, of Derby St, Kew; Sergi, of Dundee Way, Sydenham; Claite, of Gowanbrae Drive, Gowanbrae; and Stavreff, of Lorimer St, Docklands, were last night celebrating.
Giampaolo, of Konagaderra Rd, Clarkefield, and Aisbett, of Stanhope St, Black Rock, will be sentenced by Judge Michael Bourke on a date to be fixed.
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22053637-922,00.html
--------------------
RIP
Dr. Albert Hofmann
|
 iseeyou
Stranger
Registered: 05/02/07
Posts: 87
Last seen: 22 days, 15 hours
|
Re: 'Puppeteer' acquitted of $350m ecstasy haul [Re: xk3m_indica]
#7164772 - 07/12/07 03:09 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Wow... so pretty much everyone walks free, huh?
I like the Australian justice system.
|
xk3m_indica
Seafarer
Registered: 08/17/05
Posts: 8,883
Loc: Tasmania
|
Re: 'Puppeteer' acquitted of $350m ecstasy haul [Re: iseeyou]
#7164782 - 07/12/07 03:17 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Fuck oath. Tony Mokbel for president!
--------------------
RIP
Dr. Albert Hofmann
|
usefulidiot13
Higher Than Ive Ever Been.
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 4,272
Last seen: 6 hours, 26 minutes
|
Re: 'Puppeteer' acquitted of $350m ecstasy haul [Re: xk3m_indica]
#7167176 - 07/12/07 05:37 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
this dude is a motherfuckin baller
id love to have an infinite amount of free drugs at my disposal for life
wait...who wouldnt?
--------------------
mmmm, weed.
|
xk3m_indica
Seafarer
Registered: 08/17/05
Posts: 8,883
Loc: Tasmania
|
Re: 'Puppeteer' acquitted of $350m ecstasy haul [Re: xk3m_indica]
#7168434 - 07/12/07 09:34 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
I've been following this Melbourne Underworld thing for a couple of years now and it's really quite intriguing (especially since I used to live there and came in contact with a few shady characters associated with the underworld).
Tony Mokbel got done for trying to importsomething like 3 kilos of pure cocaine (not a lot, but that would have barely even been the tip of the ice berg) and he skipped bail and disappeared out of the country. They only just caught him last month (he'd been gone nearly a year) in Greece in the dodgiest fuckin disguise of all time
The Melbourne gang wars have been raging for quite a long time ever since the Docklands was taken over by the Italian Moran family and run fairly loosely by them, controlling a lot of what got through the Melbourne ports and customs.
As with all underworld wars, the 'hits' have been mostly related to control of the fucking raging amphetamines trade that's absolutely booming in australia now, and pretty much half of these latest killings (i think 26 is the official number) are revenge attacks for attempted murders or murders of super-ego heads.
Melbourne is damn near the most corrupt city in Australia. The tentacles of these organisations runs deep within customs, police (especially very high up in command), politicians, ports, the lot. It's a good ol' fashion 100% gangster style gig happening.
no amount of police work is ever going to curb this activity, nor is it going to limit the amount of drugs or work these pepole manage to distribute. They are lucrative, highly intelligent organised criminals with great skills in business and leadership, their only downfall is their ego and lust for power.
A very interesting story, I'd love to see a movie made about the melbourne underworld. I've had a few brushes with it and it's a pretty exciting side of 'the most liveable city in the world'
Andrew Veniamin (left), hitman murdered last year and Carl Williams (right) head of crime family distributing massive amounts of drugs. Was intercepted trafficking large amounts of ecstacy and put on trial for ordering the murders of Lewis Moran, Mario Condello & others, most of which were 'revenge killings' and attempt to take control of Melbournes amphetamine trade. Pig headed spoilt little cunt in my opinion.
Lewis Moran, murdered by order of Carl Williams
Mario Condello, left, murdered in his Brighton home by order of Carl Williams, right, in attempt to take control of Melbourne meth trade. Condello was head of the 'Carlton Crew' who cooked and distributed a lot of melbourned meth/speed.
 
Andrew Veniamin (left), shot dead by Dominic 'Mick' Gatto (right) apparently in self defense, in a Brunswick restaurant.
Mick Gatto has a lot of power in local governments, owns a multimillion dollar construction company and has desparately tried in vain to distance himself from his underworld roots, because everyone knows he's a mobster motherfucking psychopath.
 
Mobsters
Anyway, I could go on for hours, it's a really interesting read and I thikn only in the past few years has it really come to surface just how powerful and enormous this underworld trade is. I believe the press have barely scraped the surface of how far out into australia these tentacles spread, and although it seems 'small time' in comparison to organised crime in the US, I think you'll find it goes a lot deeper and more influential, and for it's seemingly young age, the Melbourne Underworld will fast become ever more powerful over the years.
IKnteresting shit.
--------------------
RIP
Dr. Albert Hofmann
| |
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit 
Reply 
Quote 
