Top crime influencers running Melbourne’s underworld turf wars
Melbourne’s “Underbelly” gangland war may have ended in 2006, but now another generation is battling to control rackets, turf and influence.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Just before his curfew deadline, the target turns into his Brighton driveway.
He knows people want him dead but he’s distracted because he’s due in court next morning on charges of conspiring to murder Carl Williams.
Now he’s in the safety of his own garage.
But before the door closes, the hit man darts through and shoots.
That’s how it ended for Mario Condello on February 6, 2006. His execution was the symbolic end of the “Underbelly” gangland war.
That string of 28 deaths from 1998 to 2006 was an intense wave of underworld killings.
Now, another generation is murdering and maiming in the struggle to control rackets, turf — and influence.
MICK GATTO
Mick Gatto knows about influence. The most notable survivor of the “Underbelly” bloodletting deals in it.
Gatto looms large among those who have weight in the underworld — and, in his case, in the middle ground - an intermediary between crime figures and business.
A few, like him, have survived the “dog eat dog” world for decades. The new boys are younger, emerging from juvenile and ethnic gangs with growing reputations for ruthlessness, contacts and planning ability.
It’s a fluid group, names added and subtracted by funerals and trials. With the huge rise of bikie gangs and Middle-Eastern organised crime groups, some players exert big influence but are unknown to the wider public.
Some cannot be named for legal reasons. They are either “cleanskins” with no convictions or they face charges. Some cannot be named because the people who know them have to keep it vague for fear of repercussions.
Gatto had respect in his own circles before he became widely known. He might have stayed obscure, like his brother John, if hadn’t shot prolific hit man “Benji” Veniamin.
It is 18 years since the day “Big Mick” stepped into the spotlight by shooting little Benji in a Carlton restaurant.
Gatto had been an influencer since he was a journeyman heavyweight boxer providing muscle at Charlie Wootton’s illegal card game in St Kilda in the 1970s. He navigated the no man’s land between crime, illegal gambling, police, security companies, unions, hotels, restaurants, the construction industry, boxing, racing and the wholesale fruit and vegetable markets.
The wider public hardly knew of him then but he was collecting debts, “mediating” disputes and acting as a go-between in deals that dictated whether big developments proceeded profitably or not.
Like flashy standover man Gangitano and bent lawyer Condello, Gatto ran with the so-called Carlton Crew, linking him with mainstream “Aussie” crooks like Graham Kinniburgh, the Morans and others, whose interests ranged from safe cracking, drug dealing, SP bookmaking and meat rackets.
He was never shy to cause pain for profit. But he was smart enough to graduate from being “muscle” to being a negotiator who could sit down with millionaires.
Until recently, some whisper, Gatto had regular private lunches with two of the city’s biggest business names, both Toorak millionaires whose influence is nationwide.
Those two rich old men are ailing, but Gatto is still standing. His surname means “cat” in Italian. Which figures, because he has at least nine lives.
NABIL MAGHNIE
Nabil Maghnie’s unpredictable nature earned him a reputation as one of Australia’s most dangerous men but the full extent of his activities is unknown.
Though never a Comanchero member, Maghnie was a feared asset for the gang as its influence grew in Melbourne after 2010. He was suspected for many non-fatal shootings and drive-by attacks, drug trafficking and stand over work.
Maghnie was close to another underworld wild man, Gavin Preston. Word is that the pair were behind the ambush of Toby Mitchell at Brunswick in 2011.
Months later, police grabbed Maghnie and Preston outside Melbourne Town Hall. One scenario, publicly denied by Preston, is that they were heading to shoot Mick Gatto at a restaurant.
In 2019, it was revealed Maghnie was under investigation by police task force Sector over the double-fatal drive-by shooting at Love Machine nightclub.
Maghnie’s teenage son Jacob Elliott and a mate, Allen Fares, were this year convicted of those murders.
Maghnie survived being shot twice, once by rival gangster George Marrogi, but there was no third time lucky.
In early 2020, Maghnie was angry that his daughter was assaulted in a road-rage incident and went (with his son and another man) to the Epping house of those he believed responsible.
The trio demanded compensation and assaulted someone, before someone emerged from inside and shot Maghnie in the head, killing him.
“Negotiations have broken down,” one detective later remarked.
HASAN TOPAL
Hasan Topal was never the wealthiest or most powerful in Melbourne’s underworld but he had an appetite for doing dirty work.
Topal first drew attention in 2013 after a vicious nightclub brawl and a sighting linking him to the Comanchero gang.
Within four years, he was tied to some 10 shootings, two fatal.
As a hit man, Topal made a good model. His blunders allegedly killed Muhammed Yucel at Keysborough and Zabi Ezedyar at Narre Warren, homicides in which the intended targets were believed to be Mongol-linked figures. He’s also suspected of wounding several others, including formidable bikie targets.
Not all the blunders were with a gun. Topal is believed to have supported using the disastrous AN0M app, a supposedly surveillance-proof communications platform which was actually created for and monitored by law-enforcement agencies.
Those who used the app were actually watched as they sent incriminating messages.
The AN0M debacle, plus police interest in unsolved shootings, makes it unlikely he’ll return from overseas voluntarily.
MATTHEW CHARLES JOHNSON
Matthew Charles Johnson is feared in the underworld, both sides of prison walls.
His violent reputation was amplified by his brutal 2010 murder of drug boss Carl Williams inside Barwon Prison.
No one seriously entertained Johnson’s claims that he beat Williams to death because he felt under threat and had to make a pre-emptive strike.
Johnson had been top dog for years in jail as leader of the ultra-violent Prisoners of War gang. The amazing thing was that Williams was put with someone so dangerous.
The jailhouse killing smelt like an organised hit on a man whose underworld knowledge and co-operation with police was potentially lethal.
Johnson’s reach is not confined to the corrections system and he is suspected of being behind attacks in the general community.
Rodney Phillips, 25, and Sam Liszczak, 23, had been out of jail only days in 2015 when they shot at a house they believed belonged to Carl Williams’ father George and firebombed another property they thought was that of his wife, Roberta.
The pair then shot and hurt a police officer trying to intercept them.
Johnson’s philosophy was made clear in poetry he published on social media:
“Problems are solved with mayhem and violence.
Surrounded by concrete and a code of silence.
People live and people die.
We operate on an eye for an eye.”
GAVIN PRESTON
Gavin Preston once tried to explain how it felt not to be an active criminal.
For a short time, while working in construction, he was “like one of the people on the tram”, he told his lawyer.
Working for a living didn’t last, which didn’t surprise those who know Preston as intelligent, impulsive and vengeful.
“He definitely believes in swift retaliation,” one former associate says.
Preston, once dubbed a “wrecking machine” by a senior cop, will soon have another chance at living like the people on the tram. He is due to get out of jail after serving time for shooting Adam Khoury dead at a North Melbourne apartment in 2012.
The Khoury killing was a few months after Toby Mitchell almost died when shot in Brunswick.
There is talk Preston played a part in plotting the murder of Carl Williams by Matthew Johnson in Barwon Prison.
Johnson and Preston were founders of the Prisoners of War gang but fell out in the period Preston was stabbed in Barwon in 2014.
GEORGE MARROGI
George Marrogi is the first prisoner in Victoria to be charged with operating a criminal organisation from behind bars.
Marrogi’s Notorious Crime Family gang is small but potent, with members of mostly Assyrian background.
NCF claims strong overseas connections and is implicated in international drug trafficking and violence. It was born relatively recently but quickly caught up with more established underworld outfits.
Marrogi is accused of issuing orders from inside Barwon Prison — including one to commit a murder. His girlfriend Antonietta Mannella has been charged as part of the same investigation.
Marrogi is serving time for the 2016 murder of fellow crime figure Kadir Ors at Campbellfield Plaza.
Ors was meeting associates when Marrogi pulled up in a stolen car and shot him multiple times.
Those in the know took Marrogi seriously long before the Ors murder. He was suspected of being involved in several shootings and was well-connected among bikie gangs and Sydney Middle-Eastern crime syndicates.
When gangland danger man Nabil Maghnie was shot and wounded in 2016, Marrogi was a prime suspect.
MARK BALSILLIE
Mark Balsillie is no one-dimensional bikie. Not only is he a hard man but is regarded as possessing smarts and diplomatic skills.
When the Mongols patched over the Russian chapter of the Comanchero, it was Balsillie who went there as the gang’s emissary. It was a strategic move that helped consolidate the Mongols’ reach in a place where money talks, rackets flourish and the threat of violence looms over everyone.
When Balsillie and others left the Mongols this year following Toby Mitchell’s exit, the Russians reportedly also exited, a tribute to Balsillie’s influence.
Balsillie is fortunate to be around at all after a run-in with former Comanchero Hasan Topal in 2017.
The pair were allegedly involved in debt collection about five years ago but that ended when Balsillie was shot multiple times in inner-Melbourne.
Topal is said to have been the shooter that night. The story goes that there was a sequel a year later when Balsillie mounted a heated confrontation with Topal in a King St strip club.
TOBY MITCHELL
Toby Mitchell left the Mongols bikie gang in April but is close to being Victoria’s most recognisable organised crime influencer.
He has been shot twice, has flagrantly flouted the law and been involved in high-profile skirmishes caught on film.
As an influencer, Mitchell represents the changing face of bikie gangs.
The old-school “one percenters” mostly kept out of the public eye wherever possible.
Mitchell, whose outlaw days started with the Bandidos, is different. Others have followed his lead.
He revels in his profile and flamboyance, magnified by an Instagram account with nearly 400,000 followers.
The 47-year-old regularly posts from the best seats at major sporting events while wearing expensive designer gear.
He lives in a swank inner-city apartment and has access to an array of prestige vehicles. Some police have previously viewed this as a recruitment tactic aimed at convincing potential followers that if they sign on, they’ll be in the money.
The bleak reality of gang life, investigators say, is vastly different for newcomers.
Mitchell knows first-hand the downside. In 2011, he was wounded in a near-fatal ambush outside the Bandido Brunswick clubhouse and was two years later shot near the Diablos’ Melton clubhouse.
THE WHISPERER
The Whisperer is probably Melbourne’s most powerful crime influencer but doesn’t look it. If you saw him on a train you might offer him your seat.
Most days he can be seen walking the aisles of his business, in a plain shirt with pants pulled up high.
There’s no outward sign of wealth and no one would suspect he is a man police believe is a senior Honoured Society figure.
His phone is filled with high-profile connections including underworld figures, politicians and lawyers.
He shuns the spotlight but has been under police scrutiny for decades.
The Whisperer says his is a rags to riches story.
He owned the winner of a prestigious Australian horse race and loves the punt. His name has appeared in high-level reports stamped “protected” and he has been named as a suspected triggerman in two inquests.
TOMMY IVANOVIC
Tommy Ivanovic spent most of the gangland war behind bars. It didn’t curb his influence. While in prison, he shaped some of the most significant events in the underworld war.
“Little Tommy” stands a shade over 170cm but his power came from information, not size.
It was his alleged relationship with a suspected corrupt cop that made Ivanovic a juicy prospect for police to roll. But, in the end, he proved too slippery.
Among his associates past and present are his Brunswick childhood friend, gangland and mafia player Rocco Arico, jailhouse enforcer Matthew Johnson, wrecking ball Gavin Preston and former kingpin Carl Williams.
Williams even made Ivanovic the godfather of his only child, Dhakota.
In the end, Ivanovic would be in the Barwon Prison unit when Williams was bashed to death. Moments later he was on the phone, telling Arico.
In 2019, Ivanovic was arrested, but not charged, over the murder of “Mad Richard” Mladenich at the seedy Esquire Motel in St Kilda in 2000.
Gangland detectives have long suspected Arico was the gunman and Ivanovic knew.
Ivanovic was released from prison in 2018 after serving 17 years for shooting dead a motorcyclist outside his family’s Brunswick home.
The final years in prison were his hardest, marked by a nasty 2017 stabbing.
Some connected the attack to his suspected role in Williams’ murder and rumours swirled that Ivanovic failed to organise payment for Johnson.
Days after getting parole he visited an old friend in Lygon St. After dinner, in a scene worthy of The Sopranos, they sat on the street and listened to a busker belt out Nessun Dorma.
ROCCO ARICO
Rocco Arico was jailed in 2000 for firing six shots at another driver in a road rage incident at Taylors Lakes.
At that point, he was a soldier for Carl Williams. A decade later, Arico was free, a well-connected Mafia figure and had somehow accumulated a fortune estimated at $10 million.
Williams had been bashed to death in Barwon Prison and there has always been suspicion Arico knew in advance.
One theory was that Arico had a lot to lose because Williams was talking to police and would have had inside information on the murder of Richard Mladenich at a St Kilda hotel in May, 2000.
The new-look Arico had built a broad property portfolio and business interests and a court would later indicate the business he was in.
It was told that Toby Mitchell bought cocaine from an Arico middleman but, instead of paying $375,000, he stiffed the seller with a bag full of porn magazines.
Months later, Mitchell was shot and almost killed in an ambush at Brunswick, a crime some believe may have been linked to the cocaine stitch-up.
Arico has spent recent years in prison for drug offences and extortion and faces deportation to Italy at the end of his sentence.
AMAD “JAY” MALKOUN
Amad “Jay” Malkoun is smooth. It took suaveness to run the Victorian arm of the Comanchero while living in a penthouse from which he could watch police headquarters. That’s when he wasn’t with his Arabian horses on his Donnybrook property or at his Dinner Plain chalet.
That was before 2013 when Malkoun suddenly left for Dubai. Somehow, he seemed to know about a police undercover operation linking him to a worldwide gun smuggling operation.
Since then, the former world champion kickboxer has helped the Comanchero expansion in Europe, a long way from humble beginnings in Reservoir.
As a young man he had swagger and drove a yellow Lamborghini carrying the number plate EASY10, a reference to his time in jail.
Malkoun, then a Perth nightclub owner, fell to a sting involving a drug trafficker who sold them out in 1987.
A court would hear the Malkouns had climbed onto the “bottom rung of the top tier” of the drug cartel.
They were buying heroin in big weights and supplying middlemen below them, the official figure put at $5.5 million.
A Pentridge Prison chaplain would tell a court of “Amad’s contrition and his desire for reform.”
The “reformed” Malkoun nonetheless said to a detective he was showing around the Comanchero clubhouse in 2012 that he would keep his bikie members in order but it came with a proviso: if police harassed them “your guys will be murdered.”
The now veteran underworld figure told the Herald Sun almost a decade ago his rags to riches story was due to “good friends.”
They included his backers in the Spearmint Rhino strip club. Although Malkoun owned the club, his name was not on company records.
In Europe, he didn’t enjoy the same security as in Melbourne. As he turned the ignition of his Mercedes in 2019 after a gym workout in the luxury Athens suburb of Glyfada, it exploded.
Malkoun was dragged to safety suffering extensive burns in what was another close escape. During his time overseas, he’d slept through the abduction and murder of Australian Hells Angel Wayne Schneider, after masked men raided their Thai villa in 2015.
More recently, Malkoun has fallen out with a sports doctor over the importation of thousands of rapid antigen tests.
When the $1 million dollar deal went sour it was the doctor who got a house call. The Malkouns won’t be paying his bill.
“THE GENERAL”
The General is the type that police used to call “a good crook,” referring to an ability to commit crime profitably without getting caught.
Hardly anyone would know his face in the street but there’s no doubt he exerts plenty of pull in the underworld.
It’s hard to say everything he gets up to these days but he was once the architect of massive armed robberies, including the 1994 Richmond Road Gang heist. He and his associates are suspected of three gangland murders.
The General does not live the kind of flashy life his apparent success in the crime world might fund.
He is a fitness fanatic known for being intelligent, disciplined and a student of police methodology.
Detectives who once pulled him in over an armed robbery left him to stew in an interview room, a tactic which might have some success with lesser suspects.
They returned to the room to find The General stretched out over two chairs doing the splits to pass the time.
Motorbike rider killed in collision in Melbourne’s CBD
A motorcyclist on an allegedly stolen bike has died in a collision with a car on Elizabeth St in Melbourne’s CBD in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Police probe woman’s suspicious death in Ascot Vale
Police are probing a possible homicide after a woman’s body was found inside an Ascot Vale property on Friday, with detectives saying her death is being treated as suspicious at this stage