Suspect in hit on mafia lawyer Joe Acquaro says ‘I didn’t do it’
A KEY suspect in the murder of mafia lawyer Joe “Pino’’ Acquaro says there is “no way’’ he pulled the trigger on the marked man, as detectives say an arrest is near.
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A KEY suspect in the murder of mafia lawyer Joe “Pino’’ Acquaro says there is “no way’’ he pulled the trigger on the marked man.
The Herald Sun can reveal Calabrian-born man Vince Crupi has been a target of the investigation into Mr Acquaro’s murder on March 15, 2016.
Detectives continue to make inroads in the case and it is understood an arrest is near.
Mr Crupi, who the Herald Sun is not suggesting was involved in the murder, confirmed he had been a suspect and had been questioned by homicide detectives within weeks of Mr Acquaro’s murder.
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Investigators have also interviewed other persons of interest, including influential fruiterer and alleged Calabrian mafia boss Tony Madafferi.
Mr Crupi was known to the lawyer through Melbourne’s Italian community, and worked on renovations to Mr Acquaro’s Lygon St Gelobar.
Asked whether he had shot Mr Acquaro outside the restaurant as retribution over a dispute about money, and for being blamed for an arson attack on the Gelobar, Mr Crupi laughed. “Me?’’ he said.
“Why should I?
Asked again whether he was the gunman, Mr Crupi laughed: “No, no way.’’
But Mr Crupi confirmed Mr Acquaro had blamed him for the fire deliberately lit at the Gelobar, and reiterated that, less than two months before the shooting, the lawyer had attacked him outside the Gelobar, injuring his hand.
“The police know everything … he blamed me for lighting the fire. It wasn’t me.”
Mr Crupi and his wife, Cath, said they were at home when Mr Acquaro was gunned down, and do not believe that he is a suspect any longer.
I WAS AT HOME DURING SHOOTING
MAFIA lawyer Joe Acquaro knew his life was in danger.
“Pino” was involved in a risky, ill-attempted play to take the top chair in Melbourne’s Calabrian mafia. And he was staring down accusations he had turned rat.
When he emerged from his Gelobar cafe in Lygon St, East Brunswick, at 12.50am on March 15, 2016, he walked into the end of a gun.
Who was holding that gun remains unsolved.
Vince Crupi, a labourer who worked at the Gelobar less than two months earlier, had been blamed by the lawyer for setting fire to the cafe and had been assaulted by him near the very spot where the shooting happened.
Acquaro’s death ended long-running feuds that had destroyed his legal career and led to his estrangement from his three sons.
Mr Crupi was immediately identified as a suspect, though he denies any involvement in Acquaro’s murder.
Others who had feuded with Acquaro included Tony and Frank Madafferi, his former clients and long-time friends. The brothers are also alleged to be mafia bosses — a description Tony rejects.
The brothers — Tony, an influential fruiterer and Frank, a jailed drug trafficker, have been investigated over the killing and their connection to Mr Crupi.
On Friday, Mr Crupi defended the Madafferis.
The tradesman, aged in his 60s, said he had not been asked by the Madafferis to kill Mr Acquaro, who at the time of his shooting had an alleged $200,000–250,000 mafia contract on his head.
“Yeah, I know all of them, yeah. They’re just friends,’’ he said of the Madafferis. But he said those who speculated they had paid him to pull the trigger were wrong. “Nah, they’re idiots. F---kin’ people f---kin’ tell you whatever they want, you know,’’ he said.
Mr Crupi and his wife, Cathy, said they were at home at the time of the murder.
Less than two months before Acquaro’s murder, Mr Crupi was investigated by police over a fire at the restaurant, lit in the early hours of January 23, 2016, which caused extensive damage to the area above the cafe. No charges were laid.
Acquaro had told the Herald Sun that security cameras captured a man at the door of the restaurant just before the fire.
He suspected a labourer who worked for him for “free beer’’ after a disagreement over a small sum, which was settled with $1000 cash.
Mr Crupi would not elaborate on the rift, but said he had been shown footage by police and he did not appear on it: “There’s nothing there. You can’t see nothing.’’
The fire compounded pressure on Acquaro, who had been involved in a bitter falling out with the powerful Madafferi brothers over several years. Animosity peaked in June 2015 after police, becoming aware of allegations that a contract had ben taken out on Acquaro, raided Tony Madafferi’s Moorabbin grocery.
Complicating things, Acquaro’s three sons had, years earlier, taken sides with the Madafferis.
Until 2013, the Madafferis had been Acquaro’s clients and friends. He had been involved in winning a long legal battle to avert Frank Madafferi’s deportation.
In 2005, Frank Madafferi, a known criminal with mafia links in Calabria, Italy, was granted a permanent visa after then immigration minister Amanda Vanstone reversed his imminent deportation on humanitarian grounds. Within two years, he had become embroiled in the largest importation of illicit drugs in Australian history.
The killer ambushed Acquaro in narrow St Phillip St, which intersects with Lygon St. Multiple rounds were fired into his chest at point-blank range.
The 54-year-old had stepped out of the restaurant’s side door opposite where he parked his Mercedes Benz, activating the restaurant’s alarm, just before 1am.
The .22 calibre pistol used raises questions about how the gunman obtained it and whether the execution was the result of a conspiracy.
CCTV was seized by police on the morning of the murder.
Mr Crupi said police had also seized his utility, which he has since sold. A ute-like vehicle, being driven with its lights off, was seen in the area about the time of the shooting.
Footage may also have captured grainy images of the ambush itself.
The homicide squad has been secretive about its investigation, which has been complicated by the contract alleged to have been taken out on Acquaro and the possibility that his murder may have been the result of a conspiracy.
It is believed that Acquaro told police about a murder contract after associates he described as “Albanian market growers’’ informed him that they had been approached about the hit.
Detectives told Mr Madafferi, who has political associations despite multiple police probes into his activities, they would seek him out if anything happened to the lawyer. Mr Madafferi, however, has denied any knowledge of any contract on Acquaro’s head.
Acquaro, who had been labelled a police informer by the mafia, was warned by police to enter witness protection.
But he refused, and also ignored advice that he change his routine.
Mr Madafferi also suspected his former lawyer was leaking information to the media, and had begun legal action to identify the source of a series of reports.
It is understood that Mr Madafferi was among those who believed Acquaro was providing Victoria Police with information.
The relationship between Acquaro and the Madafferi brothers had become a bitter power struggle.
A fist fight between Acquaro and Frank Madafferi erupted at the Gelobar in 2013 after Acquaro dumped a pallet of legal files at Mr Madafferi’s fruit shop in Sydney Rd, Brunswick.
It followed a series of disputes over the Gelobar, legal fees, and family matters.
The toxicity of the relationship deepened after Frank Madafferi was jailed over drug trafficking charges linked to the huge 2007 “Tomato Tins’’ ecstasy importation probe.
Acquaro, who feared for his life, used two phones before his death and regularly consulted psychics.
His last phone call, more than two hours before he walked from his restaurant to be shot, was to a psychic known as the “white witch’’.
Sources have claimed Acquaro, who represented gangland criminals while also an office bearer of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Reggio Calabria Club in Parkville, was stalked for several days before being shot.
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Originally published as Suspect in hit on mafia lawyer Joe Acquaro says ‘I didn’t do it’
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