Potential motive emerges for John Latorre murder outside Greenvale home

A new theory of how mafia captain and greengrocer John Latorre angered his bosses in Italy has emerged as a potential motive for his execution.

Calabrian mafia dons’ anger at a senior Melbourne soldier doing business outside their networks has emerged as a motive for his murder.

Well-connected underworld sources say John Latorre had been involved in drug trafficking beyond the “right channels” in the period before he was murdered outside his Greenvale home on March 12.

Latorre was regarded as a captain in the Melbourne Honored Society, an organisation which takes a dim view of its leading players working outside of its structures.

“They’re pretty strict on that. He paid the price,” a source said.

“They don’t like to miss out on getting their lick of the Icy Pole.”

The Herald Sun has been told an influential Melbourne representative of the Ndrangheta had flown to Italy in recent months to “make the peace”.

Australian members of the Calabrian mafia are heavily accountable to their superiors in the old country.

Fruiterer John Latorre was gunned down outside his Greenvale home as he left in the early hours to head to work at Melbourne Markets. Picture: Supplied.

One interstate group was ordered to make amends after a major drug importation was foiled by police in recent years.

That left Calabrian investors out of pocket for many millions of dollars.

Another senior player, who is now in jail, had to travel to Italy to smooth the waters after a huge importation came undone more than a decade ago.

Latorre had for years been the subject of police scrutiny over his mafia connections.

He was suspected of involvement in a 2020 “black flight” importation of $80m in cocaine, which went sour when an overloaded plane carrying the drugs crashed in Papua New Guinea.

Victoria Police declined to comment on the Latorre case.

It’s believed the shooter in the well-organised hit left the scene on a small motorcycle. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Police try to comfort family at the scene of the crime. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Melbourne’s underworld was abuzz in March with talk that the suspected contract killing was the work of a fly-in fly-out triggerman.

It was carried out in the style of many other Italian organised crime ambushes in Melbourne over the decades.

The shooter was clearly well-briefed on his target, sitting off his Buchanan Place house in darkness and pouncing at 4.30am.

That person would have known Latorre left at around that time to get to work at the Melbourne Markets by 5am.

Police believe the killer then escaped on a small motorcycle.

It has shaped as a highly challenging inquiry from day one because of the apparent professionalism with which it was carried out.

Melbourne has a long history of unsolved mafia killings, the shooters and those who commissioned the crimes protected by the code of silence known as omerta.

Latorre was well-connected in the underworld and liked by many.

He was friendly with prominent mafia figure Frank Madafferi, who was released from prison in August after serving time over the colossal Tomato Tins drug bust of 2007.

Madafferi went straight from prison to immigration custody, pending deportation.