John Nikolic’s pay phone calls before Les Samba execution
The secrets of Les Samba’s execution-style killing could lie in the Fiji prison cell of former horse trainer John Nikolic.
Police & Courts
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The secrets of the Les Samba murder trap lie in the Fiji prison cell of former horse trainer John Nikolic, police suspect.
Nikolic remains a key figure of interest to investigators in the execution-style killing of Samba a decade ago this month.
The Saturday Herald Sun can reveal Nikolic made calls to Samba from a St Kilda pay phone the day before he was murdered.
Those calls sparked the interest of homicide squad detectives due to their timing and that Nikolic owned a mobile phone which he could have used to make contact.
The calls were made from a Telstra phone in the Acland St area on February 26, 2011.
A day later, Samba was ambushed and shot as he tried to run away from two gunmen on Beaconsfield Parade.
It was the fatal culmination of what later took the appearance of being a set-up which was weeks, maybe months, in the making.
John Nikolic is in jail in Fiji after being busted on an international drug smuggling run.
He and wife Yvette were intercepted in the holiday paradise in 2018 as they made their way to Australia with 13 bars of cocaine valued at $30 million, guns and other drugs aboard their vessel, Shenanigans.
John Nikolic was sentenced to 23 years in prison while Yvette went free and is back in Australia.
The Fiji bust sparked hopes in some quarters that it could lead to a breakthrough in the Samba probe.
It is unclear whether Victorian investigators have been able to visit Nikolic to again talk about the case.
Nikolic – whose champion jockey brother Danny was once married to Samba’s daughter Victoria – came under fierce scrutiny as a person of interest from the earliest stages of the murder inquiry.
Checks on the victim’s mobile after his murder uncovered the incoming phone booth calls, which immediately aroused suspicion someone was trying to make camouflaged contact with him.
It is believed CCTV confirmed Nikolic was the caller.
John Nikolic has previously publicly and to police denied involvement in the deadly conspiracy.
His home on the Gold Coast was raided by Victorian detectives within weeks of Samba dying.
He and Yvette had met Samba for dinner the night before he was shot.
Samba had earlier told a friend that he was in Melbourne to buy horses for wealthy Malaysian buyers at the annual Inglis yearling sales.
The 60-year-old, a horse trainer whose eye for quality animals was well-known, anticipated his cut would be in the vicinity of $150,000.
But the businessmen almost certainly did not exist and Samba had blundered into a set-up which was weeks, maybe months, in the making.
Some of those who investigated the case suspected Samba may have left his digs at the Crown Metropol to meet a woman.
Instead of a romantic after-dark rendezvous, he was ambushed by two gunmen.
They chased him down Beaconsfield Parade, shooting him in the back several times.
A final round was fired into the back of Samba’s head as witnesses looked on agog.
A $1 million reward remains in place for the Samba murder.
Homicide Squad detectives are appealing for anyone with information about who is responsible to come forward.
“It’s believed a number of people are likely to have information that could help solve the case,” a Victoria Police statement said.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 33 000 or visit the website crimestoppersvic.com.au.
SECRETIVE SAMBA CLOUDS INVESTIGATION
The Les Samba murder inquiry shaped from day one as deeply challenging.
It was clear this was most likely a clinically planned hit carried out by the kind of people who would give investigators no free kicks.
The cagey Samba had been lured to Melbourne on a false pretence, then persuaded to visit Middle Park for a fatal after-dark rendezvous.
Who he was there to meet was a key element for investigators but that is where Samba’s discreet nature provided a major challenge.
As with much of his life, the 60-year-old with the keen eye for horse flesh had said nothing to anyone about why he was heading to the bayside suburb that night.
Samba’s closed book approach was, more broadly, a major challenge for investigators.
One former homicide officer said victimology was important to crime investigation and those who kept secrets left behind fewer clues.
“When you’ve got someone who is so secretive, it’s very difficult,” the ex-detective said.
Samba was a man with a vast array of connections but those he trusted with the kind of information that may have helped the inquiry were not necessarily individuals who would assist or trust detectives.
One thing he had let slip was that he was in Melbourne to buy bloodstock for some Malaysian businessmen at the Inglis yearling sales.
The deal was almost certainly a ruse that was the linchpin of a plot to get Samba to Melbourne and kill him.
As misinformation was peddled by figures with dubious motivations early on, it was not long before police came to look at Samba’s links to the Sydney businessman Ron Medich.
The ruthless Medich organised the 2009 contract murder of standover man Michael McGurk.
One theory, which emerged years later, is that Samba supplied some of the $500,000 cash required to have McGurk wiped and may have been a “loose end” for Medich.
In 2015, Purana taskforce detectives were sent to Perth to talk to 18 people and to Sydney to catch up with another six.
No arrests resulted from that push.
Aside from wanting Samba dead, the other puzzle was who had pulled the trigger.
There was talk of him blueing with three men at a nearby pub shortly before being shot but police were able to dismiss he had been at the venue.
Former Group One-winning jockey Gavin Eades publicly denied involvement in the period after the murder, a position which appears to have been vindicated.
A former footballer with strong gangland connections and a violent rap sheet also came under the microscope.
But, a decade on, it has been impossible to make a case against anyone.
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