Free The Gangland War by John Silvester Page B

the rest of his life in jail must have been repugnant. He had once shot a policeman and had lied and cheated to save himself for years.But the move to deal with him showed that police and prosecutors were prepared to deal with the hands-on killers to gather sworn evidence against those who pull the strings.
    It was a move that brought an unexpected dividend. After he was sentenced, The Journeyman confessed to a senior Purana detective that he had carried out another gangland murder — calmly dropping the bombshell that police were allegedly directly linked to an organised crime hit. His allegations were serious enough for a special taskforce to be set up to investigate his claims, which ultimately led to the explosive public hearings by the Office of Police Integrity in November 2007 that resulted in the disgrace of an assistant commissioner and a senior public servant, and internal divisions in the powerful police union. But that was later.
    The Journeyman came to the negotiating table with another powerful bargaining chip. He was prepared to talk of Tony Mokbel’s alleged direct connection to one of the murders.
    According to The Journeyman, his hit team was to be paid $150,000 by Carl Williams and Mokbel to kill Lewis Moran. A few days after the killing, he was paid $140,000. He planned to get the remaining $10,000 later. It is now unlikely he will ever collect his debt.
    In sentencing him, Teague said Moran’s murder, ‘was a callous, planned, premeditated execution for money. To some people, life is not as sacred as it should be. To some people, life is cheap’.
    Police were confident they could make a case against Mokbel for murder. But they had to find him first.
    Teague said: ‘In your case, the indications are that the benefit from the co-operation will be extremely high.’
    The Journeyman was reminded that if he tried to renege on the deal, he could be re-sentenced less sympathetically.
    Others have also turned. At last count, eight underworld witnesseshave been hidden away from the public glare to give evidence at a later date.
    One Melbourne gang built on unquestioned loyalty and drug money has been destroyed. One of their hit men is dead, three have been jailed and other key figures are believed to be co-operating with police.
    There can be no doubt that underworld solidarity has ruptured. Purana detectives and homicide investigators claim they have laid charges or have made inroads in seventeen recent underworld killings.
    They say that in seven cases, the gunmen responsible were later themselves killed in the underworld feud.
    Detective Superintendent Richard Grant, the head of police tasked operations, said, ‘Our aim is to destroy the code of silence so the crooks can’t trust each other.’ So far, so good.
    WITH The Runner, The Journeyman, The Cook, The Driver, The Lieutenant and many others lining up to tell tales on him, Mokbel was under siege. His asset base was frozen, his brothers jailed, he was under investigation for murder and he had a nineyear jail sentence waiting for him. And he was losing his hair.
    But he had another powerful enemy — a man he had never met. A Melbourne figure with close connections to a famous northern suburban football club had been watching the underworld war develop in the streets of the city where his family lived and he wasn’t happy. And this Melbourne man controlled one of the most feared gangs in Australia.
    His name was Peter Costello, then the Treasurer of Australia and ultimate overseer of the tax department.
    ALMOST twenty years earlier, when the tax department completed a secret investigation into a drug dealer who had evadedpolice for years, they hit him with a bill for $1,348,048.60. But instead of jail and certain financial ruin, the dealer was able to cut a deal.
    The Australian Taxation Office ultimately negotiated a settlement of $440,000 as full payment for the period 1984—87. To the drug dealer, it was