Police feared Mick Gatto had a mole in Purana Taskforce
Police feared Mick Gatto had a mole inside the taskforce charged with ending Melbourne’s gangland war at the height of the bloody conflict.
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It was suspected underworld survivor Mick Gatto had a mole in the elite anti-gangland Purana Taskforce at the height of Melbourne’s gangland war.
The Lawyer X Royal Commission has heard disturbing claims that the taskforce charged with ending Melbourne’s underworld conflict had been compromised in the early 2000s.
The Purana Taskforce was credited with bringing hostilities to an end with the high-profile arrests of Carl Williams among others.
But officers from the Source Development Unit (SDU) — which managed high-risk sources — believed Mick Gatto had a contact within the Purana taskforce and was close to unmasking Victoria Police’s prized gangland informer, barrister Nicola Gobbo.
Police intelligence reports record Gatto told Williams’ wife, Roberta Williams, that Purana had a female source. Another underworld figure said Gatto had told him he believed Purana had a female informer.
An SDU officer giving evidence under the pseudonym Sandy White said the leak was never “definitively proven.”
But Mr White said it was concerning that Gatto had information that suggested the Purana Taskforce had a female source as it “perfectly described” Gobbo.
Much of the 5500 information reports Gobbo generated during her four years as a police informer were disseminated to the Purana Taskforce.
Peter Collinson QC for Gobbo, said intelligence report suggested Gatto was either “directly or indirectly getting information from the Purana Taskforce.”
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Mr White said Purana Taskforce detectives were spoken to about their “loose connections” to the underworld and taskforce head Jim O’Brien was satisfied there was no leak.
“Purana investigators were informed about our suspicions that there might have been a leak and they believed that there wasn’t a leak and they spoke to the people who had been tenuously nominated and they were very satisfied it wasn’t the case.”
The inquiry also heard that drug boss Carl Williams had suspected Gobbo was an informer and had told a jailed associate that he had proof that Gobbo was a “dog.”
Mr Collinson said Williams had discovered the secret location where a witness was giving a statement against him.