How George Marrogi’s sister became ‘the brains behind’ the family’s crime empire

When Meshilin Marrogi died of COVID-19 in 2021, aged just 30, it marked the beginning of the end for the Notorious Crime Family.

The founder and boss of the NCF might have been the infamous career criminal George Marrogi, but the chaos inside the billion-dollar drug empire following his sister’s death proved “Mesh” was the brains behind the operation.

Clockwise from top left: Meshilin Marrogi’s crypt and memorial at Preston General Cemetery; with brother George Marrogi; and stills from CCTV footage of the break-in at the cemetery on July 30.

Meshilin’s central role in the Marrogi criminal empire has been documented by The Sunday Age through interviews with police investigators, information from four underworld sources who cannot be named, financial and telecommunication records tendered as evidence in multiple criminal proceedings and published court judgments.

When she died in September 2021, Meshilin had held in her mind a “blueprint” that detailed a complex portfolio of tens of millions of dollars of illicit profits hidden in property investments, artworks, yachts, jewellery, cars and cash stashes.

George, who was running the NCF from inside a maximum security jail cell while awaiting his trial for murder, was seriously caught out when his de facto vice president died.

“[Meshilin] had it running extremely well. She had it running as a business even though it was illicit money, an illicit business driven by drugs,” said Victoria Police Senior Sergeant Nathan Toey, who oversaw the Marrogi money laundering investigation, Operation Steelers.

“She was aware of the money trail, she was the contact point for all the associates. Even though it was at George’s drive and behest, she was the brains behind it all.”

The underworld take is more direct. “Once she died, it all turned to shit,” said a source, who cannot be publicly identified.

The siblings’ relationship – both personally and in the NCF “business” – was so tightly intertwined that it would ultimately result in a gangland rival ordering Meshilin’s body be stolen and desecrated years later in the ultimate act of revenge against the Marrogi family.

Two peas in a pod

George and Meshilin were bound not just by blood and business but were the best of friends, which is somewhat ironic given he has spent less than a year of his adult life outside of prison.

George was the hothead gangster who wanted to be a kingpin. Meshilin, by outside appearances, was the glamorous younger sister and entrepreneur who ran a beauty salon.

Meshilin “Mesh” Marrogi, also known as “Mish Moshey”.

“She was a proper, healthy-looking individual, who is a businesswoman. She had a successful shop; she was looking at opening another one. And she had a few good investments,” the underworld source said.

But she was never far from George as he orchestrated crimes and waged his bloody feuds.

Meshilin was a wizard at washing dirty money clean, deploying tried-and-true money laundering techniques such as property investments, and more sophisticated schemes including trading in paintings, digital artwork and diamonds.

Even the siblings’ romantic lives were enmeshed with their underworld business.

George and Meshilin often dated associates and friends that each had drawn into their joint criminal circle, creating a tight-knit “family” from love interests turned co-conspirators and vice versa.

Many of George’s girlfriends, both on the street and after he went to prison, were introduced to him by Meshilin.

This included Jessica Homa and Antonietta Mannella, both of whom have pleaded guilty over their involvement in the Marrogi money laundering syndicate.

Court documents detail how Meshilin lured Mannella – her friend and employee – into the syndicate by introducing her to her crime boss brother while he was in prison.

Mannella, otherwise a “cleanskin” – although she was the daughter and niece of Italian crime figures, Vincenzo and Gerardo Mannella, both murdered in 1999 – fell in love with George even though rules in his high-security prison meant the relationship could never be consummated.

“Ms Mannella knew that the Marrogis were involved in dubious activity and she soon became involved herself through her close friendship with Mesh,” the judge in George and Antonietta Mannella’s drug case found.

Mannella received a 13-year prison term in February 2023 for her role in the drug trafficking operation. Next week, she will be sentenced over her involvement in the money laundering syndicate.

George Marrogi’s partner Antonietta Mannella (left) and late sister, Meshilin.Credit: Instagram

Mannella had grown so close to Meshilin that the 30-year-old made her the executor of her will – which has been obtained by The Sunday Age – five months before her death, leaving her and George a $1.7 million property portfolio.

Meshilin, in turn, became involved with several of George’s hardcore criminal associates. When setting up companies to help launder money for the gang, Meshilin used the alias “Mish Moshey”, which was a nod to one of George’s mates and a former love interest, convicted cocaine trafficker Moshey Youkhana, according to police and underworld sources.

She also had an affair with a convicted drug trafficker and one-time Marrogi ally who cannot be identified because they are currently awaiting trial on a massive methamphetamine importation.

By all accounts, George was shattered by Meshilin’s sudden death caused by COVID-19 in 2021.

Her funeral, which was recorded and posted on the internet, was marked by scenes of profound grief. The siblings’ mother, Madlin Enwiya, had the coffin opened at the viewing in order to give her a kiss from “Georgie”.

Meshilin would be buried in an extravagant white dress and veil, wearing a diamond ring worth an estimated $100,000 and in a coffin that included a viewing window.

She was then interred and memorialised with a more than $800,0000 private family alcove inside the mausoleum of the Preston General Cemetery.

Fall of the empire

Meshilin’s death caused massive problems for the operations of the Notorious Crime Family.

The siblings had kept in constant contact by setting up a phone diversion that appeared to prison authorities to be connected to George’s lawyers, where the calls were protected and immune from interception, court documents show.

Despite being isolated in an almost 24-hour lockdown, George had also allegedly paid a guard to smuggle in an internet dongle for his prison computer, according to police sources. Meshilin sent a constant stream of emails and images of encrypted chats with associates detailing plans for drug importations and the laundering of the ill-gotten proceeds.

The grave of Meshilin Marrogi, the sister of convicted killer and Notorious Crime Family boss George Marrogi.

But Meshilin’s death cut George’s central trusted conduit to his empire and caused the loss of a wealth of inside information about the NCF’s operations that she had organised.

“After Mesh died from COVID-19, Mr Marrogi asked [his girlfriend] Ms Mannella to assume the role previously played by Mesh in his criminal activities,” the judge in George’s drug trafficking case found in 2023.

In some cases, Mannella even attempted to impersonate Meshilin because they were effectively flying blind.

“No one knew the structures of the business and knew where the money had been loaned and pushed and invested in,” Victoria Police’s Toey told The Sunday Age.

“He didn’t really understand the arrangements Meshilin had set up. Antonietta didn’t have a business brain on her either, she was hopeless and reckless.”

George and Mannella took bigger and bigger risks attempting to uncover and claw back funds, setting up sloppy front businesses to fund the family’s lifestyle and operation and issuing wild threats against those who were allegedly holding or laundering their money.

”Once Mesh had died, that was it – George wanted it all back and wanted it now,” Toey said.

In an intercepted conversation in April 2022 – seven months after her death – between George, his brother Jesse and Mannella, George raised concerns about how slowly money was being moved through company and personal bank accounts.

Meshilin Marrogi’s resting place.Credit: Facebook

“We need to get the zuzi [money] back, I’m telling you,” George said.

“Come on, it’s like, this all the zuzi that’s been saved up? All I’ve given to Mesh has gone to the banker, they still haven’t given it back yet. I don’t want to wait, it’s $10 million.”

In April 2022, the hammer fell on the NCF organisation following major operations by Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police.

More than $55 million worth of assets were frozen. George and Mannella were convicted for their part in the drug operations. George’s brother Jesse, his mother and Mannella have pleaded guilty to money laundering.

But the ultimate punishment was yet to come.

On July 30, two men broke into the Preston cemetery and attempted to steal Meshilin’s body. When the scheme was foiled by a broken lift, the casket was cracked open and a $100,000 ring was believed to have been stolen.

Long-time gangland rival Kazem “Kaz” Hamad is suspected of orchestrating the attempted theft of the body, with plans to ultimately desecrate and dismember Meshilin’s corpse as a “f--- you” to the Marrogi family.

The unprecedented act has shocked the underworld, except for some who know the inside story of Meshilin and George’s joint rise to power – and Mesh’s ability to make her own enemies.

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.