Mafia violence at Victorian jail as key figure bashed

Inmates have ambushed a feared Mafia figure linked to international drug smuggling and violent crimes amid escalating underworld tensions.

A feared Mafia figure has been bashed in a Victorian prison in the latest episode of high-level instability in Italian organised crime.

The criminal, linked to international drug smuggling and crimes of violence for decades, was set upon recently in what is believed to have been a pre-planned ambush.

The Herald Sun has been told the victim has been moved to another jail as a result of the onslaught, described by one source as a “hiding”.

There are underworld rumblings that the assault may have had some connection to a Melbourne contract hit that came unstuck more than a decade ago.

The victim of the assault has been moved to another jail as a result of the onslaught. Picture: iStock

The intended victim in that case was another formidable figure in the Italian organised crime sphere who is well-connected within and outside of the ‘Ndrangheta.

It is believed he did not carry out the attack and that it was the work of “third-parties” with a history of violent offending.

The onslaught would not have been dished out lightly as the victim has in the past been regarded as a highly influential Mafia man.

It has been a period of major turbulence in the “Honoured Society”.

In April, the Herald Sun revealed that a new Godfather had taken over the organisation, replacing the previous top man who had been in charge for decades.

That transition took place without the bloodshed which marred previous takeovers.

The Australian Mafia was hit two years ago by the Australian Federal Police’s sprawling Operation Ironside.

Senior figures and allied outlaw motorcycle gang powerbrokers were left exposed by their use of the Anom app, what they thought was a surveillance-proof communications platform which was actually being monitored by law enforcement.

The fallout from the Ironside episode is expected to run for years.

There is also ongoing intrigue surrounding last year’s arrest of fugitive Melbourne man Graham Gene Potter, who was detained in north Queensland after more than a decade on the run.

Potter was allegedly plugged into the highest echelons of Italian organised crime before going on the run while on bail in February, 2010.

He was at the time facing charges of taking a contract to kill an underworld figure at a wedding.