NCA bombing: Legendary undercover police officer ‘The Curator’ reveals Mafia-busting techniques used in investigation

A legendary undercover cop, whose exploits inspired the Underbelly TV show, has revealed the tricks of his trade – and how they duped the NCA bombing suspect.

Alleged NCA bomber Domenic Perre following his arrest, in 1996, as a result of the undercover operation.

On the outskirts of Melbourne was a nondescript factory – a pile of bricks and steel barely distinguishable from the dozens surrounding it.

It seldom received visitors but, on the rare occasions someone stepped inside its lobby, a friendly receptionist greeted them and politely sent them on their way.

No one made it past the receptionist, and with very good reason – she was, as the Supreme Court heard this week, protecting much more than patents.

The factory was, in the 1980s and ’90s, Australia’s largest database of covert criminal intelligence, staffed by the country’s finest, most skilled undercover police officers.

“We had a reputation of being the best in the southern hemisphere – the elite team of this side of the Earth,” the factory’s former officer-in-charge told the court.

“At that time, we were equal to anyone else, particularly in Los Angeles or the Drug Enforcement Administration in America.”

And, in 1995, the unmatched resources of this unknown team were directed at a single target – alleged National Crime Authority bomber Domenic Perre.

Perre has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder. Picture: Nine News.

THE CURATOR

Perre, 63, has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder over the March 2, 1994, incident.

Prosecutors allege that, motivated by “festering hatred”, Perre built and sent a parcel bomb to the NCA’s Adelaide office.

They allege almost three decades worth of police investigations prove Perre’s guilt.

Among those is 1995’s Operation Zoom, a plot to bust South Australia’s methylamphetamine labs.

When detectives realised Perre was involved, they alerted their peers working on the NCA case.

At that time, SA lacked undercover capabilities – but across the border, the practice had been well-honed by the factory team and its boss, who cannot legally be named.

By 1995, he and the team had investigated the 1988 Walsh St murders of police constables Steven Tynan and Damien Eyre, and the child-abducting murderer known as “Mr Cruel”. They had also foiled an attempt to kidnap business magnate Kerry Packer.

Their greatest success – disrupting the Calabrian Mafia in Griffith, NSW – was immortalised as the 2009 TV series Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities. “I went to Griffith to have a ‘look-see’, get a feel for the town, and got probably the luckiest break in my career,” the factory’s boss said.

“I stumbled onto an informer who was, over a long period of time, able to introduce me to members of Italian organised crime.”

To survive the world of men like Robert “Aussie Bob” Trimbole, the officer would need to transform into someone else.

“Cover stories are what we did and one of the fundamentals is to relay as much on the truth, or aspects that are truthful, as you can,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say ‘I came from a family of five siblings and lost my parents in a tragedy’ – that’s too hard to remember.

“You stick with the facts and rely on the truth, which is easier to remember if you’re under pressure.”

From that point on, the officer became “the curator”.

“I created the role of being a money-laundering dealer in, and curator of, Australian art because I knew, back then, quite a bit about it … Australian art was my hobby,” he said.

“The day after the NCA bombing, I was on an aircraft with one of our targets, Rosario Trimbole, flying from Cairns to Cape York to buy a plane-load of drugs.

“I took the opportunity to talk to him about the bombing … a year later, in March 1995, I got the call to come to Adelaide.”

Mafia godfather Robert “Aussie Bob” Trimbole.

Actor Roy Billing as Trimbole in “Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities”.

THE SLEEPERS

Having learned of Perre’s involvement with meth, SA Police needed a covert operative to join Operation Zoom to shake loose any details – or confessions – about the bombing.

“Zoom was always about drugs, it was only about drugs, but we thought and hoped we could get closer to Perre through drugs,” he said.

Given his high profile within the Mafia, the curator could not undertake the operation himself. Instead, he would play “controller” for three “sleeper” agents – “the hothead”, “the cook” and “the glassware man”.

As per the factory’s rules, each sleeper was a police officer whose cover stories matched up, more or less, with their real lives.

“The cook” was an officer of Maori descent, so his cover story wove through underworlds of both Australia and New Zealand.

He was taught to cook methylamphetamine by Victoria Police’s own forensic scientists and was backed up, at all times, by his partner, “the glassware man”.

“We know how dangerous clandestine labs are. They are usually isolated and the operative is required to be inside the lab for days on end, cooking,” the curator said. “So, you try to build in a second operative who is indispensable.”

Their ticket into the lab came through the work of the “hothead”, an officer of Calabrian-Australian descent.

He adopted the persona of an aggressive law-breaker who moved to Adelaide in search of his estranged wife.

That motivation served as the lure for one of Perre’s closest associates – a private investigator who, prosecutors allege, investigated and intimidated witnesses.

The investigator was both the operation’s way into the lab and the single greatest threat to its success.

“The resources of a private investigator are wide and varied, and they certainly have the ability to get into government databases,” the curator said.

“So, we really needed to get right down to the bottom and take an extraordinary amount of time, burrow down harder than normal, to prepare (the hothead’s) cover story.”

The NCA bomb was, prosecutors allege, built using the chemical red phosphorous – which could also be used to cook methylamphetamine.

POINTY END

After hiring the private investigator to find his wife, the hothead had, by August 1995, won the older man’s respect.

“His role was carefully designed to sprinkle in a small amount of crime talk as each meeting occurred. We were trying, obviously, to get to Perre,” the curator said.

“You can’t do it quickly, you have to do it a bit by stealth. We’re not accountants sitting down having a chat, we have to give it out that we have chequered backgrounds.”

Now trusted, the hothead was able to offer the services of the cook and the glasswareman – which were accepted by one of Perre’s cousins.

The group’s lab was using a highly volatile substance called BMK to cook the drugs.

“The alternative to using BMK was red phosphorous and that, to me, was perfect for what we were trying to achieve,” the curator said.

Red phosphorous was, on the prosecution case, a major component of the NCA parcel bomb.

One of the few sources of the substance in SA, prior to the explosion, was a chemical company that Perre was known to frequent.

“We were getting right down to the pointy end of the operation and we needed to see if Perre would discuss red phosphorous openly,” he said.

“Of course, it wouldn’t look right for an operative to start talking about stuff related to the bombing, so I had to come up with a strategy (to cause) the conversation.”

When the cook sent word the lab needed more red phosphorous, the curator ensured it was supplied – in a broken carton, sodden and completely useless.

That, prosecutor Sandi McDonald SC alleged, sparked the conversation for which the sleepers had been waiting.

“Perre was asked if he could obtain red phosphorous and responded that he would ‘rather stick his dick in a chopping block’,” she told the court.

“He pointed to his chest region with his left pointer finger and mouthed the word ‘bomb’.”

Unfortunately for the criminals, their next best option was the hothead and, when he brought the chemical in January 1996, SA Police sprung their carefully-set trap. Perre, his cousin and their crew were jailed for drug offending, allowing the prison informant network to take over the NCA investigation.

Their work done, the curator and his sleepers returned to the factory and prepared for future missions.

He retired in the late 1990s, moved overseas and now works as a writer and documentary filmmaker – but his targets have not changed.

“I’m currently working on a manuscript about the mid-19th century, and how the Mafia came into existence,” he said.

The trial, before Justice Kevin Nicholson, continues.

Originally published as NCA bombing: Legendary undercover police officer ‘The Curator’ reveals Mafia-busting techniques used in investigation