$440 million ‘Tomato Tins’ drug sting convictions could be crushed
Convictions resulting from one of the world’s biggest drug busts are under threat due to a major police scandal that became public today.
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Convictions resulting from one of the world’s biggest drug busts are under threat due to a major police scandal that became public today.
The celebrated Tomato Tins-importation sting — in which 32 criminals were sentenced to almost 300 years in jail — is one of dozens of cases compromised due to systemic police misconduct.
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It has been described as one of the biggest scandals in Australian legal history and could embroil former chief commissioners Simon Overland and Christine Nixon.
The Herald Sun has followed the matter for years, but has until today been prevented from revealing extensive details of what occurred between 1999 and 2014.
Among those involved in the Tomato Tins smuggling scam who are hoping to get out of jail early as a result of the police misconduct scandal are Griffith-based Calabrian Mafia boss Pasquale Barbaro, the ringleader, and Black Uhlans bikie gang founder John Higgs.
In June 2007, police secretly intercepted 15 million ecstasy pills with a street value of $440 million hidden in tomato tins shipped from Naples to Melbourne’s dock, then infiltrated the organised crime syndicate as it desperately sought to find the drugs.
Gang members were under surveillance for 10,000 hours and 185,215 telephone conversations were secretly recorded before eventual raids across four states in August 2008.
It was the world’s biggest drug bust at the time, heralded as a “success story” in beating “transnational crime”.
The Herald Sun revealed on Saturday that drug lord Tony Mokbel, now 53, is among several other jailed criminals hoping for an early release due to the police scandal. Mokbel was sentenced in 2012 to a minimum of 22 years in prison over a series of drug importation and trafficking charges.
He was extradited from Greece in 2008 after 15 months on the run. The Herald Sun revealed on Saturday that Mokbel claims a close confidant at the centre of the scandal urged him to flee Australia in 2006, sparking the global manhunt.
He hid in a Bonnie Doon farmhouse before being whisked across the Nullarbor to Fremantle and put on a yachtto Athens. A bewigged Mokbel was eventually arrested there in June 2007.
The revelation of the police scandal could prompt a royal commission. Premier Daniel Andrews said in 2014 when he was Opposition leader that it should be considered.
Hundreds of convictions are expected to be called into question, with talk of compensation claims in the millions of dollars. The fallout over the “unethical” scheme, which some senior officers feared was endangering lives, will also embroil high-ranking police at the time, as well as government agencies and politicians.
Whittlesea Council CEO Simon Overland, who as a senior police officer presided over the Purana taskforce set up to end the gangland war, is expected to face scrutiny. His then boss, Christine Nixon, who he followed as chief commissioner, will face questions.