Melbourne mafia figure Frank Madafferi locked in legal fight to avoid jail time in Italy

Frank Madafferi could face four years in prison in his home country if he cannot avoid deportation through a high-stakes court battle.

Melbourne mafia figure Frank Madafferi would be at risk of being thrown straight into an Italian jail if he cannot avoid deportation through a high-stakes court fight.

The Herald Sun revealed last week that the Calabrian-born Madafferi had been freed from a Victorian prison but was immediately detained and moved to a secure immigration facility.

He is in line to be deported for his role in the infamous 2007 Tomato Tins drug importation, which entangled some of the biggest names in the Australian ndrangheta.

If that happens, Madafferi could face serving four years in jail in his home country.

Frank Madafferi may go to jail in Italy if he cannot avoid deportation. Picture: David Crosling

He was sentenced in absentia for those crimes but did not do any of the time.

In December, 1986, the Civil and Criminal Tribunale of Monza convicted Madafferi of receiving stolen property.

Those charges related to him acquiring a car with a stolen chassis and engine four years earlier, a crime for which he was sentenced to 16 months in prison and fined 800,000 lire.

In June, 1993, the Civil and Criminal Tribunale of Reggio Emilia convicted Madaferri of assaulting a fellow prisoner in 1985.

He was given a three-year stretch after the court found he and another inmate attacked the victim, leaving him with facial injuries, a lost tooth and two loosened teeth.

Madafferi had previously done stretches behind bars in Italy for kidnapping, mafia conspiracy, theft and offences against the person.

The 63-year-old last week completed a 10-year term for his role in the huge bust in which Calabrian mafia identities imported 15 million ecstasy pills concealed in tomato tins.

Australian Border Force officers immediately took the unlawful non-citizen into immigration custody

Despite serving his sentence, Madafferi is appealing the Tomato Tins verdict.

He says his former lawyer, Joe Acquaro, was secretly giving evidence against him to police.

Over-turning the Tomato Tins conviction would help his chances of being sent back to Italy.

Madafferi came to Australia in 1989 on a visitor’s visa.

He later married and had four children.

Police here came to view him as a violent figure who was well-connected in Australia’s Italian organised crime networks.

A previous attempt to have him deported, in 2005, was torpedoed when Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone ruled he could stay.