How AFP’s dedicated team took down crime boss George Marrogi from inside Barwon Prison

George Marrogi would spend up to six hours a day on the phone to his “lawyers”, orchestrating a series of drug imports from inside Barwon Prison. He didn’t know the AFP were listening.

Jailed crime boss George Marrogi thought he had hatched a cunning plan to import $55m worth of illicit drugs into the country from inside prison.

But while Marrogi used coded language on the jail’s phone system to orchestrate the shipments, he didn’t realise federal authorities were listening to his every word.

Marrogi told prison officers he was talking with his legal representation on the phone, but he was actually co-ordinating various meth and heroin imports with his girlfriend on the outside.

It was the AFP’s target development team (TDT) who had the crucial task of gathering intelligence and listening to “hundreds of hours” of his phone calls that saw him sentenced for a total of 22 years.

George Marrogi will be eligible for parole in 2049.

George and Jesse Marrogi.

Marrogi, a convicted murderer and head of the Notorious Crime Family, was one of five “priority targets” in the organised crime trade identified by the TDT.

The small crew of investigators endured the painstaking task of carefully piecing together Marrogi’s wide reaching crime network before pouncing on him inside Barwon Prison.

AFP Detective Superintendent Raymond Imbriano said the TDT examined countless amounts of phone calls Marrogi made to girlfriend Antonietta Mannella, who would later plead guilty to a raft of drug charges.

Detective Superintendent Imbriano said his crew picked up on a series of irregular conversations with codewords that wouldn’t add up.

“He was prolific on the phone, it was hundreds of hours,” he said.

“Obviously he was very mindful of what he was saying.

“For ice, (criminals) will use the word eye, they’ll use different sorts of things to reference the type of drugs.

“They sometimes use numbers to represent a stamp on a cocaine brick, they’ll use logos like Versace (on the brick) so they might use that terminology in reference to cocaine.

“They’ll sometimes use random words that you can tell from the patterns that they just don’t fit with the remarks and sentencing, so it becomes clear over time.”

George Marrogi and his girlfriend were charged with major drug importation offences. Picture: AFP

56kg of methamphetamine and 13kg of heroin were identified in a consignment of green tea and magnets sent from Thailand in March 2022. Picture: AFP

The TDT began honing in on Marrogi after an attempt was made to import 69kg of meth and heroin hidden in tea bags in a shipment from Thailand to Melbourne in early 2022.

But the TDT’s job is to examine the entire criminal network and their dealings with other crooks before jumping to make any arrests.

Crucial intel from commercial real estate companies and storage shed businesses forms part of the multi-agency investigation.

“There’s a lot of groundwork to be done,” Det. Supt. Imbriano added.

“The TDT has a lot of intelligence feeds through private partnerships and we rely on them to be our eyes and ears within the community.

“We give them an understanding of what to look for and identify, and they will often contact us to advise that they’ve got some suspicious people we may want to look into.

“They have often referred matters to us that have led to successful arrests and prosecutions of people involved in large importations of border control drugs and tobacco.”

A months-long investigation by the TDT and other agencies also saw Altona man Liam Moody charged for his alleged role in the largest ketamine haul in Australian history.

Liam Moody, 37, was charged over a mass drug importation after an AFP raid in Lara. Picture: Facebook

Mr Moody was allegedly seen unloading 80kg of ketamine from a rental truck in Lara, with a further 80kg of the drug allegedly buried in eskies in a backyard.

They uncovered three syndicate members in July last year that saw Mr Moody named as the accused ringleader of the import.

He is still before the courts and is facing a potential life sentence.

“For a very small team, they punch well above their weight,” Det. Supt. Imbriano said of the TDT.

“It’s very satisfying, and when you eventually arrest someone like Marrogi or someone of that ilk, you’re very satisfied with result.”