Inside Melbourne’s secret gangland war: Carl Williams V Rocco Arico

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Rocco Arico was propelled from Carl Williams’ foot soldier to mafia boss thanks to a mega-haul of drugs, stolen from crooks by corrupt police. Mistrust between the pair would ultimately lead to Williams’ murder.

GANGLAND figure and Carl Williams hit suspect Rocco Arico is believed to have made a multi-million-dollar fortune from a secret alliance with a crooked ex-cop.

Underworld sources have told the Herald Sun the mafia-linked Arico was the recipient of several drums of precursor chemicals stolen in rip-offs of Melbourne drug dealers.

The chemicals — allegedly stolen by a corrupt former policeman — were later converted to methylamphetamine worth millions of dollars.

Rocco Arico is believed to have made a multi-million-dollar fortune from a secret alliance with a crooked ex-cop.

This allegedly helped Arico move from being a part of Williams’ team of drug dealers to one of the state’s top organised crime targets — with an estimated wealth of $10 million in the space of a decade.

It granted him the kind of power and influence that helped make him a strong suspect in the killing of Williams, bashed to death in maximum security Barwon Prison by Matthew Johnson.

Williams had already given detectives statements detailing what he knew about the 2004 execution of prosecution witness Terry Hodson and wife Christine at Kew.

One strong theory is the ruthless Arico feared Williams might go on to also implicate him in the shooting murder of standover man Richard Mladenich at St Kilda’s Esquire Hotel in May 2000.

Carl Williams had already given detectives statements detailing what he knew about the 2004 execution of prosecution witness Terry Hodson and wife Christine at Kew.

A witness told a 2003 ­inquest into Mladenich’s death he believed Arico was responsible.

Arico’s empire now looks to be in tatters, facing the prospect of deportation to his native Italy at the end of a long jail sentence.

On Friday, a jury found the self-described property developer guilty of gun and drug possession. Purana Taskforce detectives, who raided his Eureka Tower apartment in 2015, later found a Vespa motor scooter in a storage unit with a pistol, ammunition and 55.7g of a drug called Liquid G.

Arico was already behind bars he was convicted in the County Court in November on charges of extortion, intentionally causing injury and trafficking methylamphetamine.

During the proceedings, it was alleged a failed hit on ex-Bandido bikie Toby Mitchell was ordered by Arico in revenge for a drug rip-off in which he was made to look like “a goose”.

Ex-Bandido bikie Toby Mitchell. Picture: Jay Town

It was alleged Mitchell had agreed to pay $350,000 for cocaine, but ended up taking the drugs and handing over a bag of men’s magazines instead of cash.

The days of big deals, prestige wheels and designer clothes were a long way from Arico’s former bit-part role in Melbourne’s underworld.

When he was sentenced to prison for a minimum seven years in 2001 over a road-rage shooting, he was regarded as a low to mid-level crime figure.

His hands-on style was shown in 1999 when he, Dino Dibra and two other men dragged a man off a Sunshine street, pistol-whipped and kicked him before bundling him into the boot of their hire car, all for a $5000 ransom.

“There’s no doubt he was a bit of a hardarse with a really nasty edge, and had some handy mates, but there was nothing to say he was more likely to kick on than a lot of others,” a police source said.

Within a few years of his ­release, he had amassed wealth estimated by investigators to be in the region of $10 million.

State and federal law enforcement bodies have shown considerable interest in properties linked to Arico, ­including a luxury Moonee Ponds home which has been the subject of lavish renovations.

The Australian Taxation Office is looking to seize some of his assets as the proceeds of crime.

Arico once put his lifestyle down to hard work and being a lucky punter.

“I work every day at the Lygon St cafe and I work as a builder, “ he told the Herald Sun at the time.

“I’ve had some good fortune with gambling.

What’s wrong with that?”

Rocco Arico arrives at the County Court in Melbourne in October last year. Picture: David Crosling

Although he was undoubtedly an enthusiastic gambler, police are believed to have found the explanation implausible.

Arico’s wealth was accumulated after he emerged as one of great survivors of the gangland war.

Some police believe he would have been killed had he been free during all of that era of gun carnage.

Mate Dibra, a hot hand who also worked for Williams, died in an ambush at Sunshine in 2000.

Another associate, Andrew “Benji” Veniamin, was shot dead by Mick Gatto in 2004, a jury later ruling the killing was in self-defence.

One friendship that did survive was the long-time bond with old Brunswick buddy Tommy Ivanovic, another once aligned to Williams.

“Little Tommy” called Arico from the Acacia unit soon after the murder of Williams to pass on the news.

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