Lawyer X: Murdered mob lawyer revealed as police snitch
Slain mafia lawyer Joe Acquaro was one of six informers recruited by Victoria Police who all had “obligations of confidentiality” to clients. The revelation is the latest in the ongoing Lawyer X scandal.
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Slain mafia lawyer Joe Acquaro was one of six informers recruited by Victoria Police who all had “obligations of confidentiality” to clients.
Acquaro was in regular contact with detectives until executed by a gunman outside his Lygon St restaurant in March 2016.
The dealings of Lawyer X, Acquaro and the other four informers will be examined by a royal commission, which begins hearings next Friday.
Acquaro worked closely with Lawyer X, particularly while representing mob boss Pasquale Barbaro — leader of the 32-strong mafia-led syndicate that imported 15 million ecstasy pills in tomato tins from Naples to Melbourne in June 2007.
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Before the $440 million cargo arrived, Lawyer X handed a shipping document, known as a “bill of lading”, to Victoria Police, leading them to the container. She had obtained it from one of the syndicate members, then acted as an “agent provocateur’’ to sting members of the cartel.
The politically connected Acquaro — who told the Herald Sun in 2015 that he was aware of Lawyer X’s duplicity — represented most of the syndicate after their arrests.
Barbaro, Melbourne mob boss Frank Madafferi and many other members of the Tomato Tins gang are preparing to launch appeals against their convictions based on their involvement with both lawyers.
Acquaro and Lawyer X were called to Australian Federal Police headquarters on August 8, 2008, following national raids on the underworld cartel in relation to the Tomato Tins ecstasy shipment.
The Lawyer X royal commission was ordered late last year after the High Court ruled that the Director of Public Prosecutions should alert criminals represented by her that their cases might be tainted.
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy this week revealed Victoria Police had told the commission it had recruited as informers six people with obligations of confidentiality. The High Court said the police use of Lawyer X to inform on her clients was “reprehensible”.
It is not clear why Acquaro was shot, but a $200,000 contract had been taken out on his life prior to his execution.
Calabrian man Vince Crupi, a labourer who worked for Acquaro on a renovation at his Brunswick East restaurant, is charged with the homicide.
Acquaro was a family friend to Melbourne’s key mafia figures, including Madafferi and his older brother, multi-millionaire fruiterer Tony.
But disputes over business — including Acquaro’s Gelobar restaurant — legal fees and his sons led to a physical confrontation with Frank Madafferi at the cafe in 2013. Acquaro, enraged, wiped Madafferi’s blood on his own face.
It came after Acquaro had dumped a pallet of legal files outside Madafferi’s Sydney Rd fruit shop, Mondo Fruit, with legal papers flying down the street.
Madafferi and his older brother would later become convinced Acquaro was providing intelligence to police about them.
Witness protection was offered to Acquaro by the force, but he refused to enter the program or change his routine.
In mid-2015, after Acquaro warned police of the contract taken out on his life, police confronted Tony Madafferi at his Noble Park fruit shop, warning him he would be a suspect if Acquaro was harmed.
Police sources have suggested this tactic was shortsighted, and confirmed to the mob he was an informer.
It came as (Tony) Madafferi began suing a media organisation over a series of articles identifying him as a mafia figure and highlighting his political ties and donorship.
Through his lawyers, Madafferi attempted to publicly “out” Acquaro as a source for the stories.
After Acquaro’s murder, Tony Madafferi was among those questioned by homicide detectives. It did not stop him, however, joining three of his relatives to dine with then Liberal leader Matthew Guy in 2017 at the Lobster Cave in Beaumaris — a dinner later notoriously tagged as Guy’s “Lobster with a Mobster’’.
Acquaro was key to helping mobster Frank Madafferi — serving a 10-year prison sentence in connection with the massive Tomato Tins ecstasy shipment — overturn a federal government order to deport him in 2005.
Madafferi will seek to appeal his conviction and current deportation order, arguing Acquaro was a police informer.
Another jailed mafia figure Rocco Arico, a one-time associate of Carl Williams who was investigated over ordering Williams’ murder in Barwon Prison, will likely follow suit.
Arico, serving a 12-year jail sentence over extortion and drug offences, faces deportation unless he overturns his conviction.
Acquaro had declared Arico would be his last case. He told the Herald Sun before he was shot he was planning to ‘’topple the king’’ — a reference to destabilising Tony Madafferi.
Arico was the only notable mafia figure to attend Acquaro’s funeral.
Acquaro regarded himself as the “consigliere’’ to Melbourne’s mob and his clients included various crime figures, including the infamous “Black Prince’’ Alphonse Gangitano.
Years before being branded a traitor by Italian crime figures, Acquaro was bashed in 2002 by Carlton Crew members Mick Gatto and Mario Condello in a pizza restaurant after attempting to pull a pen gun on them.
Condello suspected Acquaro to be a police informer.
It is not known when, or to what level, Acquaro aided police or whether he breached privilege.