Property developer Rocco Arico emerges as new figure in tangled web of underworld characters
PROPERTY developer Rocco Arico has come a long way since police used capsicum spray on him in a Footscray motel in 1999.
Law & Order
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ROCCO Arico was sitting on the bed of Room 23 in the Footscray Motor Inn when the door flew open.
It was 1999 and the boy who grew up in Brunswick West was on the move and making his way on the hard streets of Melbourne’s western suburbs.
With him was Dino Dibra, a man who would not last long as a gangland hitman, dying in a hail of bullets himself, a relative unknown associate, Bill Resolani, and the unpredictable Terrence Chimirri.
As police entered room 23, Rocco, a thin but feisty young Calabrian, would struggle with them before being doused with capsicum spray.
It is a long way from the Footscray Motor Inn to grand digs in Melbourne’s beachside suburbs, but somehow Rocco made it.
In the intervening 16 years, he has negotiated a tangled web of hard nuts to make his fortune, estimated to be in the millions.
After being charged with blackmail, extortion, assault and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm in March, Rocco appeared unfazed.
The man who had been a mysterious figure, and had avoided the media’s glare for so long, had finally emerged — a slick, handsome sort of figure all in black, albeit trendy tracksuit black.
Two years ago, Rocco told the Herald Sun his success was earned through hard work, good friends and even better gambling. (He’s been known for abrupt manner at the TAB in Southbank).
His friends, however, have stuck thick.
Most of them were at his wedding in June 2012, although for some reason his best man couldn’t make it.
Among the wellwishers was Mick Gatto, who along with 700 other guests who attended the Docklands reception, enjoyed the lavish Italian-Croatian affair wall-to-wall with gangsters.
A court heard this year his wife has since become gravely ill, requiring heart surgery and has ongoing kidney problems.
But gambling isn’t something Rocco does when it comes to protecting his interests.
People in Arico’s circle were connected with police officer Paul Dale as the gangland war truly heated up.
Those associations would ultimately lead to one of Australia’s most intensive criminal investigations involving crooks and cops, robberies and murders that remain largely unsolved to this day.
Most importantly, Dale would be scrutinised for years over the murders of police informer Terry Hodson and his wife Christine because they were killed after Terry made statements against the alleged corrupt cop.
Dale became a target of police through his associations with people linked to Arico.
And six years after the Hodsons were murdered, Carl Williams was murdered after he made statements against the alleged corrupt policeman.
Unbelievably, in what has to be one of the greatest bungles in the nation’s policing history, Williams was granted his choice of cell mates because he was helping police with their highest priority case.
He wanted to be housed with Ivanovic — a funny, staunch character — and dangerous prison gang leader Matthew Johnson, ultimately signing his own death warrant.
It’s believed Little Tommy and Johnson spread the word about Williams’ dealings with police.
On April 19, 2010, as Little Tommy turned his back and Johnson unleashed his might on Williams with the stem of a gym bike seat — despite months of inaction about his cooperation with police — he did not flinch or look around.
The fallout from Williams’ decision to inform is still playing out, with Roberta and George Williams the targets of this month’s shootings and firebombings in Broadmeadows and Essendon.
Those accused of the attacks and shooting a police officer how followed them during a patrol near Roberta’s home, are allegedly linked to the Prisoner of War gang Johnson leads.
Many with knowledge of Melbourne’s underbelly claim Johnson, who told police he acted alone and in self-defence back in 2010, had his child set up for life in return for the audacious murder, knowing all would be caught on CCTV cameras.
Sources close to the case believe a betting account of a relative was used to transfer the money.
A taskforce codenamed Driver would investigate Williams’ murder, but would not lay a glove on anyone else who had a reason to be involved in killing Williams.
Neither Corrections Victoria nor Victoria Police have explained why dangerous associates were allowed to be on the approved phone lists of its most influential prisoners housed in its highest-security Acacia Unit in Barwon Prison.
Johnson’s associate, known as “Capable”, was also recorded speaking to Ivanovic on the phone, warning him people were not happy with them as Williams continued to inform.
He would later be a key suspect in several underworld shootings in 2011-2012, one involving the audacious daylight attempt to kill then Bandido enforcer Toby Mitchell outside Doherty’s gym in Brunswick.
At the time of the shooting, “Capable” was being groomed as a boom recruit for the Bandidos through his mate, Sav Tsivicos.
Things turned nasty once he cottoned on Mitchell had been dealing with Christopher “Badness’’ Binse — his lifelong arch nemesis.
Binse, on behalf of Mitchell, would attach a tracking device to Capable’s car and follow him to his house in Melbourne’s southeast.
Binse even had a photo of Capable’s girlfriend leaving a magistrates’ court.
With a loaded gun in his car, he watched as the Victoria Police special operations group stormed Capable’s house, and he fled — leaving his car and gun behind.
Capable, who had become an ice addict, would eventually be stopped by police outside Melbourne Town Hall with a gun under the seat of the Mercedes Benz in which he was travelling.
It is believed he was on his way to kill Gatto outside a Bourke St restaurant.
Capable would end up being the victim of a stabbing attack in Barwon Prison, which he survived.
Binse, another ice user, would eventually wind up involved in a siege in Keilor that would put the career criminal behind walls for another 16 years.
Johnson received a monster 35-year sentence and has spent much of it so far in solitary confinement.
Mitchell, who quit the Bandidos because the gang had not responded to him being shot on two separate occasions (Brunswick in 2011 and Melton in 2013), befriended an influential Mongol named Kaz Hamad, a close associate of Johnson’s.
Both are currently facing charges — Mitchell over an assault in which he allegedly threatened a man and his child with a gun over money.
Ivanovic is being investigated over a historic crime.
Dale is suing the police force and refused to give evidence at last year’s inquest into the Hodsons’ deaths.