Antonietta Mannella’s purchase of a $2.9m luxury Mickleham property has been torpedoed
The girlfriend of a notorious underworld figure paid a deposit for a $2.9m property in Melbourne’s north but the sale quickly derailed.
Police & Courts
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A luxury property purchase by the girlfriend of crime kingpin George Marrogi has collapsed in the aftermath of a major police investigation.
A court has heard Antonietta Mannella bought the $2.9m Mickleham house in March this year, one month before she and Marrogi were hit with high-level drug trafficking charges after an Australian Federal Police operation.
Ms Mannella paid a deposit, believed to be six figures, but this has been forfeited after the sale was torpedoed.
The Rangeview Close home is described online as a four-bedroom, four-garage “modern ranch-style acreage”.
The sale was made shortly before the sprawling AFP operation dubbed Fuji became public.
Within weeks, both Marrogi and Ms Mannella were charged with importing a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs.
Marrogi, 33, has also been charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation from inside Barwon Prison.
It is alleged he was giving coded instructions to Ms Mannella from the maximum security jail, near Geelong.
Marrogi is serving a long jail sentence for the 2016 execution-style murder of crime figure Kadir Ors at Campbellfield Plaza shopping centre in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
He and Ms Mannella, 28, have been charged in connection with the importation of 56kg of methamphetamine and 13kg of heroin and by the Victoria Police Echo taskforce over a 356-litre haul of 1,4 butanediol seized from a truck near Horsham in January.
The AFP on Wednesday brought an application to remove a restraining order relating to the Rangeview Close home.
This was because the sale had fallen through and there were no circumstances under which to restrain the property.
This was not opposed by Ms Mannella, who was the signatory in the aborted purchase.
Marrogi said he had not been able to speak with his lawyers and, while he didn’t have any views about it, he still wanted legal advice.
He said material about the hearing was only given to him that morning, even though prosecutors said they tried to hand it over last Thursday.
Prosecutors said the matter did not seem to affect Mr Marrogi “in any material way”. Justice Jacinta Forbes said she would write an order allowing the restraint to be removed, but would wait for Marrogi’s advice before she signed it.
The home is back on the market.
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