Pasquale Barbaro: A bloody ending to a brutal, sordid life
EXECUTED crime boss Pasquale Barbaro loved to frequent the Cosmopolitan restaurant in Double Bay and stalked the clubs of Kings Cross like a lion seeking its prey.
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EXECUTED crime boss Pasquale Barbaro loved to frequent the Cosmopolitan restaurant in Double Bay and stalked the clubs of Kings Cross like a lion seeking its prey.
Dressed in an expensive pin-striped suit the 35-year-old, who was gunned down while sitting in his luxury car in Earlwood on Monday, loved to do “business deals” while sipping expensive coffee at Macchiato coffee shop in the city.
When the sun went down you could often find him at Dollhouse strip club, where he partied with a high-ranking Hell’s Angel bikie.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that during his jail time, Barbaro actually declared himself a full member of the notorious gang.
Even with a drug trial looming in December, Barbaro went about building his “business”.
He would strongarm people using Brothers For Life members as extra muscle and intimidation.
His involvement in the construction business brought him into conflict with members of the Melbourne fraternity including Mick Gatto.
According to underworld sources, Barbaro had little respect for the older guard in either city.
Eventually, his lack of respect would lead to a meeting between Gatto and Barbaro in Sydney to “sort things out”.
A mediator trusted by both sides was there for security.
In November 2015, while in a laneway in Leichhardt, someone took six shots at Barbaro.
His lucky escape involved running down a laneway while dodging a hail of bullets.
No one was ever charged with the attempted murder.
But one of the top suspects, another cocky criminal on the rise named Hamad Assaad, was recently slain in his frontyard.
YOU DIDN’T SAY NO TO A MAN LIKE BARBARO
IT’S New Year’s Eve 2014 and if you’re young and “connected” there’s only one party to be at.
And this $8000-a-night luxury boat is playing host to a rogue’s gallery of Sydney’s underworld.
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Adam Freeman, son of the city’s infamous “Mr Big of Crime” George Freeman, was enjoying his last few months of freedom before being incarcerated for his part in manufacturing a massive amount of methamphetamine.
Also on board was Hells Angels boss Suat Sarimsakli with his lieutenants.
There were even Brothers for Life members on the guest list.
The luxury boat was booked under the name of businessman Elias “Les” Elias.
But it was organised by a brash up-and-coming criminal with links to one of Australia’s oldest Italian crime families.
Pasquale Barbaro had been released on bail in May, 2013, after being charged with manufacturing 2kgs of ice in 2012..
Without so much as a flinch, he swapped his life behind bars for ritzy digs at Darling Point.
The apartment the then 33-year-old moved into was owned by Elias.
Elias was no stranger to police either.
He was shot at in the ’90s during a Greenacre incident orchestrated by a ruthless Middle Eastern street gang.
Yet that near-death experience paled in comparison to trying to say no to the short-tempered gym-junkie Barbaro. Insiders said the New Year’s Eve boat, like the Darling Point apartment, was done as part of a classic “stand over” technique by Barbaro.
READ MORE: Blood-soaked dynasty: Executed Sydney crime figure Pasquale Barbaro’s links to Mafia
When he wanted something he demanded it.
You had one choice — to give him what he wants or get out of his way. New Year’s Eve 2014 ended in bloodshed when Brothers For Life member Farhad Qaumi was shot in the shoulder.
It was a sign of things to come.
BLOOD-SOAKED DYNASTY
Barbaro’s gangster pedigree has deep roots. His grandfather and namesake Pasquale Barbaro was shot during a gangland hit in Brisbane in 1990.
And a cousin, also named Pasquale Barbaro, was shot dead during the Melbourne gangland wars in 2003 while in the company of underworld figure Jason Moran.
Moran was also murdered in that shooting.
And yet another Pasquale Barbaro was sentenced in 2012 to 30 years’ jail over the world’s biggest ecstasy bust in Melbourne.
Retired Mafia godfather Pasquale “Peter” Barbaro lived a remarkably quiet and nondescript life in the Brisbane suburbs until hitmen came calling.
Barbaro’s neighbours thought the unassuming 58-year-old was a retired council employee from Canberra who had settled in Brisbane for a relaxing life with his young Filipino bride.
Everything was not as it seemed though.
Barbaro had been the boss of the Calabrian mafia’s Canberra cell until he ran afoul of the criminal organisation.
Fearing for his life, he started giving information to the National Crime Authority in 1989 in secretly recorded interviews.
The following year, after rising at 6am to get his daily newspaper, he was greeted on his front lawn by an ‘‘Italian’’ man who, after a short argument, stabbed Barbaro then shot him through the chest.
It was later reported Barbaro had extensive links with organised crime in Australia and Italy.
He was part of a multimillion-dollar crime syndicate with tentacles stretching around the world, though he lived a remarkably humble lifestyle.
EXTRA PRECAUTIONS
After his near-miss, Barbaro started wearing a bulletproof vest almost everywhere he went.
He only took it off for meetings with people he knew well or trusted.
But, as a source told The Daily Telegraph last night: “If you play with fire you were going to get burnt.”
Family and friends farewell to gunned-down assassin Hamad Assaad
Barbaro wasn’t wearing his vest when he was shot dead, execution style, about 10pm on Monday outside the Earlwood home of construction identity George Alex. There’s nothing to suggest Alex, who found the dying Barbaro, had anything to do with the now-infamous death.
A neighbour said she believed Barbaro was shot inside his car and then stumbled on to the footpath where he died lying facedown.
It was a brutal end for a brutal figure.
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