Tomato tins drug trafficker Saverio Zirilli loses bail bid over Lawyer X
A drug trafficker serving a 26-year jail term over a record-breaking ecstasy importation in tomato tins has lost his bid for bail after claiming his case was compromised by Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo.
Police & Courts
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A senior Calabrian mafia figure fighting to overturn his infamous drug trafficking conviction in the wake of the Lawyer X scandal has lost his bid for bail.
The Court of Appeal on Friday rejected Saverio Zirilli’s bid for freedom, ruling he had not proved his appeal prospects were “so strong” to warrant his immediate release.
It comes as police continue their fight to restrict access to material which could potentially determine whether he was hoodwinked by not one, but two snitching lawyers.
Zirilli is seeking to quash his 26-year sentence for his role in the world’s then biggest ever ecstasy importation arguing barrister-turned-police informer Nicola Gobbo supplied “the foundation upon which the whole case against (him) was erected”.
In June 2007, Gobbo, dubbed Lawyer X, handed over key shipping documents from her client, Rob Karam, to police, alerting them to the upcoming record breaking drug shipment from Naples, Italy.
Zirilli argued Gobbo’s double dealing actions “infected” the police investigation and his consequent convictions.
The 63-year-old is also seeking documents to determine whether his solicitor, Joseph “Pino” Acquaro, played any role in dobbing on him to police.
Acquaro represented several key Tomato Tins figures, including Zirilli and ringleader Pasquale Barbaro.
At the bail application, Barrister Mark Gumbleton, for Zirlli, said if it was found Mr Acquaro had acted as a secret police agent against his client “then we have a web of informers who have completely and utterly fundamentally abused the court’s independence”.
Zirilli is among a handful of jailed gangland figures seeking documents from police to illuminate Mr Acquaro’s role as a potential informer.
Earlier on Friday the court heard the Chief Commissioner of Police will seek to have parts of that hearing heard in closed court.
Justices Stephen McLeish and Mark Weinberg said the issue involving Mr Acquaro was not yet resolved and therefore could not be taken into account when considering this bail application.
Victoria Police has refused to “confirm or deny” the allegations.
Mr Gumbleton had said the process of police redacting and handing over the sought material could take months, if not years and argued Zirilli should not remain behind bars while he waits for the documents.
“The Chief Commissioner (of police) has form, they’re not just going to hand it over,” Mr Gumbleton said.
Zirilli and gangland figure Francesco Madafferi will return to court in November to address, among other things, the issue of releasing material related to Mr Acquaro.
And late on Friday, the Royal Commission into the legal scandal called on more than 800 people who may have been indirectly affected by Gobbo’s double dealing to come forward.
Counsel Assisting the Comission have identified 887 individuals who may have been represented by Gobbo while she was a police informer in a “more indirect” way, and urged anyone who thinks they may have been affected to write to the commission.
Mr Acquaro was shot dead outside his Gelobar restaurant in Lygon St in 2016.
A man who worked for him casually at the Gelobar, Vincent Crupi, has been charged with his murder.
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