Smack express: how organised crime got hooked on drugs

304 Pages·2010·1.975 MB·English

by  Gilling, Tom;Small, Clive

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Every effort has been made to find the copyright holders of the photographs
used in this book. Please contact the publisher should there be any issues of
ownership of the photographs. The authors and publisher would be pleased
to make the necessary corrections in any future edition.
First published in 2009
Copyright © Clive Small and Tom Gilling 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher. TheAustralianCopyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a
maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever
is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for
its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or
body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright
Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Small, Clive.
Smack express : how organised crime got hooked on drugs.
ISBN 9781741756364 (pbk.)
Bibliography
Includes index.
Drug traffic—Australia.
Organized crime—Australia.
Drug control—Australia.
Drug abuse and crime—Australia.
Crime—Australia—History.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Gilling, Tom.
364.1770994
Index by Trevor Matthews
Internal design by Lisa White
Set in 11.5/15.5 pt Sabon by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To all the honest cops past and present who
have fought the good fight against
organised crime
In memory of Sandra Harvey
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
About the Authors xii
Cast of Characters xv
1 Bob Trimbole: 1
The `ndrangheta and the Mr Asia gang
2 The Big Three of Organised Crime: 33
Lennie McPherson, George Freeman and
‘Stan the Man’ Smith
3 Murray Riley: 41
The gentleman gangster
4 ‘Snapper’ Cornwell: 54
A big fish in a big pond
5 Chris Flannery: 65
Mr ‘Rent-a-Kill’
6 The 1980s Sydney Gang War: 78
‘We only kill each other . . .’
7 ‘Neddy’ Smith: 109
A life of crime and doing time
8 ‘Stan the Man’ Smith and Lawrence McLean: 137
Mates to the end
9 ‘Mikel’ Hurley: 162
From Balmain Boy to head honcho
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SMACKEXPRESS
10 The Coogee Mob: 176
The head honcho’s new gang
11 Cabramatta: 204
Rise and fall of a heroin capital
Afterword 241
What Happened to . . .? 244
Bibliography 250
Index 256
viii
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Preface
In his 1979 book The Godfather in Australia, Bob Bottom
surveyed organised crime’s rise and coming of age. Drawing
together the findings of a series of inquiries into aspects of
organised crime, evidence previously hidden in the records of
state and federal law-enforcement agencies, and crucial new
information, Bottom demonstrated the growing power and
reach of organised crime in Australia and detailed its
attempts to form alliances with the American Mafia. A year
later, Alfred McCoy’s Drug Traffic focused on the scale of
Australia’s surging drug trade.
Bottom and McCoy exposed a situation that retired
Justice Athol Moffitt, in his own book, A Quarter to Mid-
night, described as ‘the Australian crisis’. In a damning swipe
at governments and the police, Moffitt denounced the
‘constant political wrangling and point-scoring on matters of
organised crime and corruption, coupled with political
apathy and fancy side-stepping in the face of an unrestrained
escalation in organised crime’.
That escalation has continued. Organised crime has adap-
ted its methods, but its focus on secrecy and self-protection
is unchanged. So is the willingness to use violence, intimi-
dation, and the corruption of state and federal politicians,
police, and Customs, taxation and immigration agents. Crim-
inals are becoming ever more adept at sheltering behind
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SMACKEXPRESS
lawyers and hiding their profits and their investments—both
legal and illegal—with the aid of accountants and business
advisers. Occasionally investigators will break through one
of these protective walls, but the edifice remains.
Despite the difficulties, our knowledge of organised crime
has grown significantly in recent decades. Intelligence comes
from ‘rollovers’, informants, telephone intercepts and covert
listening devices, physical surveillance, the detailed tracking
of financial transactions and court cases, the investigation of
crime figures and their associates, and occasional media
exposés.
Though imperfect and incomplete, all of this information
is valuable. The picture it gives us may be obscure in parts,
but it tells us much about the business of organised crime.
And without studying where organised crime has come from,
it is impossible to predict where it might go.
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