Former lawyer Nicola Gobbo wasn’t first snitch ex-cop Wayne Strawhorn dealt with

Lawyer X, Nicola Gobbo, wasn’t the first snitch retired Victoria Police drug squad detective senior sergeant Wayne Strawhorn had dealings with. Among his informers was a respectable businessman with a hatred of drugs.

Double-crosser Nicola Gobbo isn’t the only important police snitch former drug squad detective Wayne Strawhorn used.

Strawhorn spent Tuesday giving evidence at the Lawyer X Royal Commission about his dealings with Gobbo during the time she was representing various criminals.

The former Detective Senior Sergeant would presumably have much preferred being grilled about E2/92, who was less controversial than the ethically compromised Gobbo — but just as valuable to police as a source.

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Unlike most police informers, E2/92 was not a criminal seeking favours. Instead, he was a respectable businessman with a hatred of drugs.

Strawhorn was one of Victoria Police’s most prolific crook catchers.

Former drug squad detective Wayne Strawhorn at the Lawyer X Royal Commission.

There are many in the force who still doubt he was guilty of the corruption charge he was convicted of in 2006.

However, it is a fact that he was jailed for a minimum of four years for trafficking 2kg of pseudoephedrine to the since murdered criminal Mark Moran.

It is also a fact that had Strawhorn not persuaded E2/92 to become an informer in 1993, several years before Gobbo became one, then hundreds of criminals would not have been caught — including former AFL star Jimmy Krakouer and drug gang boss John Higgs.

Gobbo and E2/92 have another thing in common, apart from being prized informers — they were both very close to Higgs and regularly dined with him.

E2/92 — who was one of Australia’s most effective undercover police agents — died of natural causes at a secret location in 2008.

Despite his death, his name is still suppressed by the courts to protect his wife and children.

E2/92 agreed to a request from Strawhorn to work as a spy for police inside the drug gang run by Higgs, who was the founding member of the Black Uhlans bikie gang.

He did so partly because he hated the thought of his own kids getting involved in drugs.

Evidence suggests the sole purpose of the 1996 Victoria Police drug squad burglary was to discover E2/92’s whereabouts so he could be killed before he could testify against Higgs and others in Higgs’ gang.

Nicola Gobbo, aka Lawyer X, pictured with Gangland boss Carl Williams (right) and underworld hitman Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin (left).

The then drug squad detectives Strawhorn and Sharon Stone spent years trying to catch those responsible for organising the break-in at their squad office.

Strawhorn and Stone had information provided by two separate underworld sources that corrupt police were paid to carry out the burglary and that Higgs and other heavy crooks provided the money.

The informers also told them a $250,000 contract had been placed on E2/92’s life and that it would never be lifted — that’s how much Higgs ended up hating the man who had been his mate.

By the time of the break-in, E2/92 had already taken his family to Europe after death threats were made against him.

He was woken at 3am by a phone call from then Victoria Police Superintendent Peter Halloran telling him the burglary had blown his cover and that he should move quickly.

Dragging his wife and two children out of bed, they fled to yet another European country.

Despite the drug squad break-in and the death threats, E2/92 did give evidence in Melbourne against Higgs and other Higgs gang members. His damning testimony put seven major criminals behind bars and stopped amphetamines worth $400 million hitting the streets.

Former Victoria Police Superintendent Peter Halloran rang secret witness E2/92 to warn him his enemies wanted him dead and knew where he was hiding.

Sixteen separate police taskforces formed as a result of E2/92’s information resulted in a further 129 people being charged and convicted.

He exposed Higgs’ Australia-wide drug syndicate with links to the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam.

Knowing there was still a price put on his head by drug barons who don’t forgive and forget, E2/92 spent the last years of his life finding it hard to relax anywhere. He liked to sit facing the entrance of coffee shops and restaurants. He chain-smoked. He trusted very few people.

I lunched regularly with E2/92 and he never relaxed during any of our outings. There is little doubt the stress of being a man hunted by Higgs and other killers shortened his life.

Despite E2/92’s damning evidence against Higgs, who was the leader of Australia’s biggest amphetamine gang at the time, he got out of jail in 2003 after serving just four years as a result of plea bargaining in Victoria between Higgs’ lawyers and the Office of Public Prosecutions.

That legal wheeling and dealing resulted in Higgs eventually admitting guilt only to conspiracy to traffick a non-commercial quantity of amphetamines, putting him in a much lower penalty bracket than if the original charge of trafficking in a commercial quantity had been pursued.

Secret police spy E2/92, whose identity has been suppressed by the courts, was caught on camera about to board an international flight with drug gang boss John Higgs (right)

The detectives who charged Higgs — including Strawhorn — with the commercial trafficking charge were angry prosecutors allowed Higgs to plead guilty to the lesser charge despite the fact that when police raided a Higgs gang property at Mooroopna in Victoria in April 1994 they found seven tonnes of chemicals capable of making 226kg of amphetamine with a street value of $406 million.

Bizarrely, a Higgs gang underling, disgraced AFL footballer Jimmy Krakouer, served far longer in jail than Higgs did.

E2/92 was recruited by police to infiltrate and smash the Higgs gang. He and his family were angry they never got the protection promised by senior police and legal officials.

“My family and I were used up and spat out,” E2/92 told me shortly before he died.

Eight operations by various law enforcement agencies between 1984 and 1991 failed to do what E2/92 did, which was put Higgs behind bars. E2/92’s evidence was vital because he worked undercover for police inside the Higgs gang for three years.

The chemicals seized by police during a raid on drug boss John Higgs.

Infiltrating a drug gang and secretly taping members is obviously not without its risks. Particularly when the leader of the syndicate is a violent man like Higgs, who was jailed for 12 years in 1970 for manslaughter after being found guilty of being present during an armed robbery when another man killed the homeowner.

E2/92 had almost daily dealings with Higgs for three years. He was wired during many of his meetings, knowing that discovery of the tape could lead to his death.

One of E2/92’s most frightening experiences came when police provided him with a different tape recorder to the one he had been using to secretly tape Higgs and other gang members. It was a hot day and he only wore a thin shirt over this concealed recorder.

“I was sitting there talking to Higgsy when I became aware the red light indicating the tape was recording was clearly visible through my shirt. I had to sit there, manoeuvring myself as best I could so the light was obscured, while Higgsy chatted away,” E2/92 told me.

In one of his statements to police, E2/92 said convicted murderer and Carlton-based Italian organised crime figure Eris Censori told him he was owed $500,000 by Higgs as payment for killing a man Higgs wanted rid of.

County Court Judge David Jones described E2/92’s role in smashing the Higgs gang as laudable and courageous. Such was the danger to E2/92’s life when he gave evidence during the 1997 committal hearings; he became the first witness allowed to give evidence by video link from different locations in Victoria.

E2/92’s life as an undercover spy began in 1993 when Strawhorn asked him to use his professional and legitimate relationship with Higgs to inform on the crime boss. Higgs, who was keen to establish legitimate companies to launder drug money, had been introduced to E2/92 in 1992 as a successful businessman who could provide valuable advice.

“I agreed because I felt at the time it was the right thing to do,” E2/92 told me.

“It was my chance to do something about the drug problem.”

Drug dealer David McLennan (left) and drug gang leader John Higgs (beard).

Despite feeling Victoria Police bosses were not giving him the protection and support he was promised, E2/92 was still prepared in 2002 to help out the drug squad — because he trusted Strawhorn — in what ended up being a failed attempt to have Higgs and two of his gang members extradited to Perth to face charges of supplying drugs to former AFL player Jimmy Krakouer.

E2/92 told Strawhorn he would come out of hiding to again testify against Higgs and fellow gang members David “Deadly” McLennan and Ronald “Strapper” Foster if the extradition attempt had been successful.

Krakouer was secretly taped by E2/92 discussing drug deals with Higgs’ gang members.

E2/92 also prepared statements for police about Krakouer’s involvement with Higgs and his gang.

Krakouer was originally jailed for 16 years in October 1995 after being found guilty of trafficking amphetamines.

The High Court quashed the conviction in June 1998, finding the trial judge had misdirected the jury. A new trial in February 1999 found Krakouer guilty a second time and he was again given a 16-year sentence.

Six months later, the WA Court of Criminal Appeal rejected the former North Melbourne and St Kilda rover’s appeal against the severity of the sentence.

His lawyer argued Krakouer should have received a sentence similar to those imposed on his fellow Victorian gang members. Higgs was sentenced to six years, with a minimum of four.

Krakouer was supplied with amphetamines by the Higgs gang. It was E2/92 — with the permission of police — who provided the white Datsun Bluebird sedan that was trucked to Perth for Krakouer in January 1994.

Amphetamines weighing 5.3kg — with a street value of more than $8 million — were packed into 12 plastic bags which were hidden in the car’s two front doors before it left Melbourne.

WA drug squad members were tipped off by Victoria Police and they intercepted the car before it reached the transport yard where Krakouer was due to pick it up. Officers removed the drugs, filled the plastic bags with flour, reassembled the car and sent it on to its destination.

North Melbourne footballer Jimmy Krakouer was convicted of drug trafficking.

The Datsun was under police surveillance as Krakouer and a friend picked it up and took it to a house in the Perth suburb of Hilton. Krakouer and his friend were caught red-handed, with police moving in to arrest them immediately after they dismantled the car doors and started removing the bags of flour they thought was speed.

The friend co-operated with police and told them Krakouer had made at least seven similar deliveries of amphetamines to Perth. Police established Krakouer had paid $30,000 in cash for a Holden Statesman in Melbourne on February 10, 1993, and that it was freighted to Perth and then back to Melbourne.

Higgs’ brother-in-law David McLennan, a fellow Higgs drug gang member, spoke to E2/92 soon after Krakouer’s arrest, not knowing he was talking to an informer.

“David was panicking over the arrest,” E2/92 said.

“He was in fear Krakouer would co-operate with police. David was satisfied that the police involvement originated in Krakouer telling so many people about the shipment.”

Krakouer trusted Higgs enough to give him $140,000 to invest in a rock concert. Higgs had grand plans to stage the concert to launder a couple of million dollars of dirty drug money into $15 million of clean money.

Drug boss John Higgs was convicted following the world’s biggest ecstasy bust.

American band Santana would be the headline act for the concert, which was planned for the Calder Park Thunderdome over Easter 1994. But the concert was cancelled and Krakouer lost his $140,000.

Krakouer — who played 134 games for North Melbourne between 1982 and 1989 and seven games for St Kilda before retiring in 1991 — walked free from jail in WA in August 2004 on a work-release program after serving just nine years of the 16-year sentence he was given after being found guilty of conspiring to possess 5.3kg of amphetamines with the intent to sell or supply it and a second charge of attempting to possess the amphetamines.

Police provided E2/92 with huge quantities of chemicals to make amphetamines and kept them under surveillance as E2/92 delivered them to the Higgs gang. He ended up having almost daily contact with Higgs and fellow gang members for three years.

Higgs, who left school at 13 and was married at 17, progressed rapidly in the illegal drug trade, eventually becoming the Victorian boss behind Australia’s biggest known amphetamine syndicate.

In conversations with E2/92, most of them secretly taped, Higgs revealed:

A detective with hitman Christopher Dale Flannery outside Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.

HE was involved in the killing of two people over a drug deal involving undercover NSW policeman Michael Drury. Notorious Victorian hitman Christopher Dale Flannery is believed to have shot Mr Drury in 1984 to prevent him giving evidence against an associate of Higgs — Melbourne drug dealer Alan Williams. Mr Drury survived the attack.

HE was involved in the lucrative illegal abalone fishing industry.

HE was arranging to buy steroids to use as stimulants to fix horse races.

HE and gang member Donald Worcester travelled to Amsterdam to arrange the importation into Melbourne of 150kg of hash with a street value of $7.5 million.

WORCESTER and he also arranged to import 300,000 ecstasy tablets worth $24 million from a man Worcester met during his time in a Thai jail.

You would have thought that after getting jailed as a result of E2/92’s evidence that Higgs would have given up his criminal ways on his release in 2003, but he got straight back into drug dealing.

Higgs was recruited into Calabrian mafia boss Pasquale Barbaro’s gang because Barbaro knew of Higgs’ corrupt painter and docker contacts on the wharves and Higgs’ strong links to bikie gangs.

Calabrian mafia boss Pasquale Barbaro was convicted over the world’s biggest ecstasy bust in Melbourne.

Bikies would have become major buyers of some of the 15 million ecstasy tablets Barbaro’s gang shipped to Melbourne in tomato tins if they hadn’t been seized by the Australian Federal Police in 2007.

Shortly after what was the world’s biggest ecstasy bust, but before arrests were made in August 2008, AFP surveillance officers watched as Higgs held meetings with senior members of the Hells Angels, as well as Comancheros bikie Mohammed Oueida.

Oueida was later jailed for drug trafficking.

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The AFP discovered Oueida had his own plane, $6 million in a Swiss bank account and a $2.8 million fortified property in Greenvale, Victoria. That property came with its own golf course.

Higgs wasn’t fully trusted by Barbaro and other Calabrian mafia gang members, largely because of his fondness for sampling the illegal drugs he was supposed to be selling and his rampant sex life, often with very young prostitutes.

Senior Barbaro gang member Jan Visser was secretly taped by the AFP telling Barbaro’s cousin Saverio Zirilli about Higgs: “He is the way he is. We have to accept the way he is and now and again the speed and the ice is just a little bit too much for him. He f---ing hallucinates and he sees things and has 24-year-old girlfriends and stuff like that”.

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