Alphonse Gangitano saw suspected head of Australia’s Italian Mafia before NCA bombing occurred

A leaked memo has revealed how Melbourne’s most notorious “hitmen” can be linked to the NCA bombing in Adelaide after the ‘Black Prince of Lygon St’ met with an Italian Mafia don.

Exclusive: Three of Melbourne’s most notorious “hitmen” visited the suspected head of Australia’s Italian Mafia before he later authorised the mail bomb murder of a police detective, an intelligence memo has revealed.

But despite evidence of the visit including by the so-called “Black Prince of Lygon Street” Alphonse Gangitano to Mafia don Bruno “the Fox” Romeo, detectives probing the bombing murder of the officer ruled it coincidental.

This was despite an unrelated police snitch also revealing a Mafia high council meeting confirmed discussions on Romeo having sanctioned a hit.

The evidence is contained in a trove of documents now being sorted to launch a pardon bid for Domenic Perre, the man convicted over the 1994 National Crime Authority bombing murder of detective sergeant Geoffrey Bowen.

In October 2022 Perre was sentenced to 37 years for the parcel bomb murder of Det Sgt Bowen and attempted murder of his NCA colleague lawyer Peter Wallis.

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Adelaide NCA headquarters bombing victim Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen and his infant baby son, Simon.

Domenic Perre who was found guilty for the NCA bombing.

Perre died last year from a heart condition as he was preparing an appeal which was to include an alternate hypothesis of the alleged involvement of the Fox and Black Prince.

The alternate hypothesis of the bombing being a Mafia-led hit comes as reported yesterday new unrelated evidence emerging post-trial that casts doubt on Perre’s conviction.

Top Sydney silk Andrew Tokley KC who was leading the appeal and now a post-death petition for mercy (pardon), said the Fox evidence was compelling and in his view the wrong man was convicted.

Two documents emerged late in the Perre trial, including a message from WA Major Crime squad to South Australian counterparts about the visit by the Gangitano-led trio, categorised as “hit men”, with Romeo who was in Casuarina Prison in WA.

Such was the visit, police emphasised in their flash message in full-caps the fact one of the men was an expert with EXPLOSIVES.

The bomb explosion at the National Crime Authority (NCA) office on the 12th floor of the CPS Credit Union building in Waymouth Street, Adelaide in 1994. Picture: Supplied

The trio visited the prison with aliases and registered the visit with two criminal brothers who were associates of Romeo. What was discussed remained unknown. Gangitano, a feared Melbourne kingpin, was murdered during an unrelated incident in 1998.

The WA police missive on the brief visit was only revealed a day after the bombing as a potential lead as was a second unrelated memo from NCA’s own intelligence team which revealed an informant had told them the ‘Ndrangheta council held a meeting and confirmed Romeo had authorised the Bowen hit to be carried out by another named suspect.

A ‘Ndrangheta boss in Melbourne had reportedly told an undercover officer: “One of our guys had done the bombing in Adelaide because they had hit one of their guys (’Ndrangheta) hard.”

Bruno ‘The Fox’ Romeo, migrated to Melbourne with his family in 1951. Picture: Supplied

Alphonse Gangitano. Picture: Ben Swinnerton

The order to murder Det Sgt Bowen came after Bowen had months earlier visited Romeo in jail to demand he co-operate with the NCA which had mapped out his Calabrian network and would be targeting them as part of their brief to smash the mafia.

“It makes quite compelling evidence,” Mr Tokley said.

“Putting those things together amount to, I think, not only a reasonable hypothesis consistent with (Perre’s) innocence but I think it fairly and squarely pointed at the involvement of the Calabrian mafia in the hit, it seems just too coincidental.”

Mr Tokley said the two police memos did emerge during Perre’s trial, but too late to cross examine witnesses on.

Romeo was behind large scale cannabis crops all over Australia and Papua New Guinea and was given the ‘Fox” moniker for having for 25 years evaded police including the NCA, AFP, NSW Police and Queensland Criminal Justice Commission.

The scene of the National Crime Authority building after the bombing.

He had set up his first criminal enterprise in Griffith NSW in the 1950s before moving to Sunraysia and Melbourne in Victoria and then South Post on the Gold Coast before settling in Adelaide.

After years on the run, he was arrested in a caravan in Lismore on the NSW north coast surrounded by a cannabis crop.

While awaiting trial in 1993 and according to an NCA affidavit, Romeo – who died in 2016 – was suspected of taking out contracts on two witnesses who were to testify against him in a drugs matter.

His mafia boss status was first cited by ASIO and the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence in 1965 and in 1981 was suspected of being behind Victoria’s biggest ever 5.8 tonnes cannabis busts. Perre was related to Romeo’s wife.

Originally published as Alphonse Gangitano saw suspected head of Australia’s Italian Mafia before NCA bombing occurred