Police seize $2m cash, drugs and foil kill plots

Notorious Crime Family boss George Marrogi may have been behind bars, but police say he was still in charge of syndicate.

Fifty-six kilograms of methamphetamine and 13 kilograms of heroin were identified in a consignment of green tea and magnets sent from Thailand in March 2022. George Marrogi and his girlfriend, Antonietta Mannella have been charged with major drug importation offences. Picture Australian Federal Police

Victorian detectives have smashed a crime syndicate allegedly being run from inside a high-security jail, seizing more than $2m in cash, a $400,000 stolen Porsche, 6kg of heroin, 25.5kg of amphetamine and 5.6kg of cocaine.

Police allege jailed gangland boss and convicted murderer George Marrogi, the head of the Notorious Crime Family, was directing drug deals and plotting attacks on his rivals while in Barwon prison.

Police said detectives had received details of people in prison planning to “allegedly kill a number of people”.

Echo Taskforce detectives arrested two more people on Tuesday morning after swooping on several suspects at the weekend while executing dozens of warrants on homes in Point Cook, Greenvale and Gladstone Park.

A Point Cook man, 32, was set to be charged with trafficking a large commercial quantity of drugs while a 43-year-old Gladstone Park man faces drug possession charges.

Police started investigating the Middle Eastern organised crime syndicate in October 2020 and allege that Marrogi, 33, who is awaiting sentence for the murder of a gangland rival in 2016, was directing many of the crimes from Barwon prison.

Marrogi would pretend to call his lawyer, police allege, but was actually speaking to his girlfriend and issuing instructions during the conversations, which were bugged by police.

At the weekend, police arrested a 31-year-old Ringwood North man and 27-year-old Mickleham man over an alleged murder plot. Twenty-seven ­people allegedly involved in the syndicate have been arrested.