Deadline: The flashy rides favoured by Melbourne’s gangsters

Underworld figures have long had a passion for flashing their wealth on the roads — but smart crooks take a dim view of ostentatious transport.

Andrew Veniamin’s Mercedes-Benz parked outside the Carlton restaurant where he was killed. Picture” AAP

Mark Buttler and Andrew Rule with the latest scallywag scuttlebutt.

Driving a hard bargain

A gangland big wheel who loves his prestige cars has been having something of a fleet clearance sale.

But if you were looking for a $3000 Camry with low kms, this bloke was not your man.

High-powered German and Italian models, a Rolls-Royce and glitzy SUVs are said to have gone to market since he and his mates found themselves hitting some law enforcement potholes in recent months.

“It’s been like Car City,” one source said.

Of course, there is a long line of underworld figures to have had a passion for flashin’ their wealth out on Melbourne’s roads.

Tony Mokbel’s prized Ferrari was packed on to the back of a truck during one of the police raids which would eventually strip him of his assets.

Mokbel’s red Ferrari is seized during a raid on his Pascoe Vale home in 2001. Picture: Digital Image

Andrew Veniamin double-parked a Mercedes outside Carlton’s La Porcella restaurant on March 23, 2004, to bolt in and see Mick Gatto.

No trouble with a fine because Veniamin never made it out alive after he was fatally shot by Gatto in what a Supreme Court jury later ruled was a case of self-defence.

Nik Radev paid $100,000 – quite a sum back then – for a black Mercedes just weeks before he drove it to a deadly 2003 ambush at Coburg.

One senior Mafia figure has well and truly thrown off his humble beginnings in Italy and is said to favour a Rolls-Royce

Former Mongol Sam “The Punisher” was sitting in his Mercedes G-Class four-wheel-drive when gunmen made a bungled attempt to kill him at a cousin’s funeral in June.

A coked-up Nabil Maghnie was driving a Range Rover Sport when he almost killed himself in a high-speed smash at Woodstock, northeast of Melbourne, in 2019.

Sam Abdulrahim’s bullet-scarred Mercedes G-Class four-wheel-drive sits at Fawkner Police. Picture: Brendan Beckett

But there have been other smarties who took a dim view of ostentatious transport.

Graeme Kinniburgh, regarded as one of Melbourne’s better gangsters until his murder during the last gangland war, was not a man short on a buck.

Kinniburgh wasn’t keen to let the world know that and favoured a second-hand Ford Falcon.

George Williams looked nothing like a big-time drug dealer in his crumpled threads and used a Holden Vectra to complete his Uncle Arthur look.

Others didn’t even bother with a car.

For many years, one of the Melbourne underworld’s most formidable figures used a bicycle to get the job done.

What’s killing the swans of Ballarat?

A police investigation has found swans dying in the Ballarat area are not being deliberately killed.

There have been more reports in recent months of the much-loved birds being found mutilated in the Lake Wendouree area.

In May, it was revealed nine swans had been euthanised or killed in the previous five months.

One was found decapitated and there were claims some of the deaths were the result of human cruelty.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said reports had been received in the past several months about swans being found dead in Ballarat.

“Police have made inquiries, but at this stage it has been determined that the swans were not deliberately killed,” the spokeswoman said.

Most of the deaths have reportedly been caused by vehicle strikes, dog attacks and fishing line entanglement.

One bird was earlier this year found to have been decapitated with a knife, either before or after a dog attack.

The VIPER taskforce is disrupting Melbourne organised crime figures in more ways than one.

VIPER reveals unloaded weapon

The VIPER taskforce has spent the past few months making life uncomfortable for all manner of organised crime figures and their hangers-on.

They appear to be operating on a disruption model and that’s certainly what they’ve done with the sex life of one former OMCG figure.

He’ll face court down the track after VIPER made a search of his home using a firearms prohibition order.

There, they found, among other things, erectile dysfunction medication.

Not so long ago, one of this fellow’s former associates had his stash of Viagra confiscated in another police operation.

Stolen meat peddled on the street in St Albans.

Meat me at St Albans

The St Albans kerbside meat market is back in business, to what must be the horror of local germaphobes.

Police from the Safer Community Taskforce arrested a 37-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man flogging cut-price cuts a couple of weeks back.

The pair is the latest to be scooped up on the footpaths of Alfrieda St, where enterprising locals stuff meat in their pants at nearby supermarkets then get to work selling it.

They were allegedly offloading expensive cuts including Scotch fillet for the canny buyer who likes some dysentery with dinner.

Comanchero bikie boss Allan Meehan. Picture: Instagram

Rugby league hero Ben Hunt. Picture: Getty

A Meehan resemblance

Comanchero bikie boss Allan Meehan and Queensland State of Origin rugby league hero Ben Hunt have two things in common.

The first is they look very much alike.

The other similarity is that they are both affiliated with organisations which are feared and disliked by many in the community.

Not one of us

Some consternation at the Melbourne Club about an item we ran last week.

We’re instructed the fellow referred to is not a member of the club and never has been.

Would have been quite easily resolved if the club had not dismissed our phone inquiry on the matter.