Top Australian enforcer accused of being a mole was investigated 20 years ago

More information has emerged about a top Australian law enforcer now suspected of being a mole for the Italian Mafia.

The top Australian law enforcer now suspected of being a mole for the Italian Mafia was first stood aside from duty almost two decades ago amid suspicions he was consorting with high-calibre members of Italian organised crime in Australia, it can be revealed.

Red flags had been raised by numerous people about the man who was also said to be pushing his way into cases and seeking information about investigations that were not within his remit.

He was also seen regularly dining in restaurants known to be linked to mafia interests.

But the potential case against the alleged mole was dropped in the weeks after he was formally interviewed by investigators.

It was declared his seemingly suspicious “consorting” was part of an undercover intelligence gathering brief.

Such was the opaqueness of his work in the early 2000s, investigators could not make the case either way and simply warned him to limit his contact with persons of interest, and informants and or be accompanied by another officer.

News Corp Australia has learnt since that time however, both the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and fore runner Australian Bureau of Crime Intelligence have been left stunned when several operations “failed” with targets tipped off or evidence disappeared.

As reported last week, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) has launched an investigation into the veteran officer with fears his suspected close association with the mafia may have compromised hundreds of cases.

That investigation has been going for several months with evidence purportedly uncovering suspicions he had a long time association with the ’Ndrangehta mafia in Australia.

It is understood the alleged mole was involved in some of the biggest criminal investigations in Australia specifically related to well-known Italian identities nationally across at least four states.

Dr Anna Sergi knows about the Italian Mafia’s links to Australia.

It is understood on at least one occasion one formal critical interview he took from a mafia figure became “lost”.

“It is the AFP’s understanding that the matter referred to in the media over the weekend, under the heading, Top Cop a Mafia Mole for Decades, does not relate to a current AFP member and that the matter solely relates to an individual’s time while at another federal agency,” the AFP said in a statement on Friday.

“Any suggestions the AFP would not investigate suspected criminality is inherently false and absurd.”

The suspected mole’s investigations and reports related to the trafficking of commercial quantities of drugs including cannabis and amphetamines, working with state police squads nationally and included interviews he himself had conducted with high level gangster suspects.

This includes a high profile Operation targeting Italian organised crime in the 1990s.

Leading Italian criminologist Dr Anna Sergi said this was how the ’Ndrangheta rolled and if such a person was unearthed, reasonable doubt could be thrown over any case they touched.

She said knowing Australian policing as it is, there are many elements were sitting with information but no-one was “joining the dots”.

“They are all connected,” she said of Mafia cases in Australia.

Originally published as Top Australian enforcer accused of being a mole was investigated 20 years ago