Graham Potter arrested after decade on the run

Despite being a callous killer — the tubby, greying, ­bespectacled Graham Potter seemingly faded into the background and managed to pass as an ordinary bloke.

Graham Gene Potter was an odd choice to be part of a mafia-organised drug importation ring.

The gruesome murder of 19-year-old woman Kim Barry on his bucks night in 1981 should have made him an outlier to most in Australia’s ­underbelly.

But more than two decades after his horrific crime, Potter found himself among 30-odd men and a woman who stood to share $440m from the biggest ecstasy drug importation ring in history.

He was now playing with the “big boys’’ who were ­attempting to smuggle 15 million ecstasy pills jammed into 3000-plus tomato tins through Melbourne’s docks midway through 2007.

But though the container with their cargo arrived on schedule from Naples aboard the MV Monica, it was ­immediately seized by federal police.

The 4.4 tonne seizure was a boon for law enforcement, and the catalyst for the blame game between underworld figures who had lost their loot and owed their overseas connections $10m.

Potter, police allege, would become the go-to hit man.

During 15-months of covertly surveilling the syndicate, it is likely police used technology to stop the prospective hits.

*Graham Potter was convicted of the 1981 murder of Wollongong teenager Kim Barry.

It was alleged Potter was hired to assassinate two men, but neither hit went down.

The targets were underworld figures Fedele D’Amico and Michaeli Barbaro.

Police investigated two kill plots on D’Amico – one allegedly organised to occur outside Mick Gatto’s son’s wedding and another outside a kickboxing tournament, both in 2008, at Docklands.

Barbaro, it was believed, was to get a bullet in the carpark of the Reggio Calabria Club in Parkville in July the same year.

No hit went down. Instead, it was alleged Potter was frustrated by misfortune.

At one point he is captured on film trying to work out what is wrong with his broken down car unaware police have disabled it.

For a killer who dismembered his teenage victim by cutting off her head and fingers, the tubby, greying, ­bespectacled Potter passes as an ordinary bloke.

The callous murder of Ms Barry, just 19, occurred at his flat after she spotted him at a bar in the town.

She knew Potter, then aged 23 and a coalminer, from dance classes they both took.

He denied killing Ms Barry, instead claiming two men broke into his flat and murdered her, then forced him to mutilate her body and dispose of the parts. A jury took just over an hour to reject his bizarre claim, with Potter serving 16 years of a life sentence in prison.

It’s alleged he made connections during his time in prison, including “Tomato Tins’’ mafia ringleader Pasquale Barbaro.

Murder victim Kim Barry.

Oddly, for a man facing drug trafficking and conspiracy to murder charges, Potter got bail after his arrest. It was despite Victoria Police opposing his 2009 bail bid in court.

But on February 1, 2010, he skipped bail and fled. Inside police circles it was touted Potter was given his freedom only because he was co-operating with federal police.

Potter was a master fugitive. But even a skilful fugitive like Potter gets spotted from time to time.

There were sightings in the NSW Riverina before police almost nabbed him in northern Queensland.

During his 11 years on the run he was thought to have been living rough by camping and staying on the move.

Another theory was that he had been eaten by crocodiles after running through a swamp to evade capture.

Much like one of his other former criminal associates who infamously skipped bail, Tony Mokbel, Potter tried to make himself invisible by donning disguises and for the most part stayed a step ahead of the law. Among the best was a fat suit he wore.

Potter was capable of blending in, especially in small towns. His skill set included farming, electronics, hydroponics, welding, bookkeeping and gold prospecting.

Arrest video captured how the fugitive had been living.

A $100,000 police bounty was offered for information leading to his capture in 2011.

By 2013, the fugitive ran from police in one near-capture after a routine intercept.

A police search recovered camping gear at a nearby caravan park where he had been staying for about six weeks. Police say Potter not only changed his appearance often, but had aliases ­including Josh Lawson, John Page, Jim Henderson and Peter Adams.

Potter abandoned his ­mobile phone, vehicle, credit card and every other vestige of his old life when he vanished.

“He had no electronics. We knew that. If he did have those things he had totally rebirthed himself,” one investigator said.

Police hunting Potter knew to be wary of him and the risk he might have posed to anyone who stood between him and freedom.

“He had the propensity for extreme violence. He had the runs on the board,’’ an investigator said. “He had that very nasty prior conviction.”

There are suspicions Potter was helped through his years on the run by organised crime mates who owed him.

But it was known Potter was wary about almost everyone he came across and would have been aware of the risks those from his old life posed.

Now, the man who knows so much about their activities sits alone in a Queensland prison cell.