AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan accused of racial vilification

A prominent barrister says the AFP made a “slur” on the entire Calabrian community and wrongly stereotyped the group as criminals.

Members of the Calabrian community have hit back at the federal police saying they are being racially vilified by law enforcement attempting to crack open mafia networks on Australian soil.

The Australian Calabrese Cultural Association president, commercial barrister Vincent Morfuni, QC, says the AFP stereotyped the Calabrese community as criminals during a press conference held in early June as part of its ongoing Operation Ironside investigation.

“I don’t deny a minority of Calabrians and Italians commit crime,” Mr Morfuni told the Herald Sun.

“But this flies in the face of Italians everywhere who have contributed to the development of Australia.

“I think it is racist. I think in terms of a press conference it was not evidence based.”

Mr Morfuni, in a letter dated June 27, said statements made by AFP assistant commissioner Nigel Ryan were a “slur’’ on the Calabrese community.

“We consider that the statements made by Assistant Commissioner Ryan are in breach of, among other laws, racial vilification legislation at both state and federal level,’’ he wrote.

“He asserted that there were 51 Italian crime families, of which 14 were Calabrese. He did not state the evidence of which those statements were made.

“The Assistant Commissioner made no attempt to draw the distinction between the law-abiding majority and the criminal minority.

“His statements are a slur on the entire community.’’

AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan has been accused of racial vilification. Picture: AFP

It was also alleged by Mr Morfuni that other “ethnic groups’’ arrested as a consequence of Operation Ironside were not stigmatised.

“In our view the statements by assistant commissioner Ryan constitute racial vilification,’’ Mr Morfuni said.

“That is indicated by the fact that individuals from other ethnic groups were arrested as a consequence of Operation Ironside and yet their communities were not targeted and labelled as criminals in the way that the Italian community in general and the Calabrese community in particular have been.’’

The letter was sent to the AFP, federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and the Herald Sun.

The AFP responded to Mr Morfuni’s complaint by saying it was targeting several groups involved in transnational crime.

“The AFP targets criminality, not countries,” an AFP spokesman said. “Transnational serious organised crime (TSOC) – whether it be outlaw motorcycle gangs, Mexican cartels, Asian triads or Italian organised crime – are being targeted by the AFP.

“These criminal gangs are trafficking illicit drugs into Australia on an industrial scale. The effect they are having on Australians is devastating. The violence they cause is being played out in Australian suburbs.”

The AFP says Operation Ironside has provided “invaluable” insights into how TSOC works in Australia and overseas and it is using it to disrupt and arrest criminal gangs undermining Australia’s national security and economy.

“The ’Ndrangheta is a global threat and the AFP is working with partners in Australia and offshore to bring offenders to justice.”

The AFP detailed during the June press conference how the ’Ndrangheta used legitimate businesses as fronts for its criminal operations.

Originally published as AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan accused of racial vilification