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Australian police trap gangsters on way to hit

"Drug barons compete for the distribution rights to sell drugs to our children in Melbourne. People well-known to the police apparently live in luxury with no visible means of support or explanation as to how they maintain their lifestyles."

Peter Costello, Australian treasurer

Australian police said yesterday the arrest of alleged mobsters on their way to a gangland hit had ended a bloody turf war over control of Melbourne's drugs trade that has claimed 27 lives in six years.

Four men appeared in court charged with conspiracy to murder after being arrested in a series of raids on Wednesday that police said foiled a plot to kill an alleged underworld rival.

Heavily armed officers arrested two of the men outside a cemetery in the city's southeast, where they were allegedly on their way to kill ex-lawyer Mario Condello.

Two handguns and a can of petrol were found in the men's car and police said they believed they had thwarted the city's latest gangland hit "by minutes."

Witnesses said one of the would-be assassins wept after being apprehended by armed police.

Victoria Police chief commissioner Christine Nixon said the arrests were a turning point in the gang war that has raged in Australia's second largest city since 1998 and seen her own force accused of corruption and complicity in underworld killings.

"I believe we are on top of this matter and we'll bring it hopefully to a conclusion in the not-too-distant future," Nixon told commercial television, saying she expected more arrests.

One of the accused, Carl "Skinny" Williams, is allegedly the leader of a gang that has challenged Melbourne's established drug lords, sparking the bloody conflict.

At the time of his arrest, Williams was on bail for a US$14 million amphetamines haul and charges of threatening to kill police.

Williams appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court flanked by armed guards, with a police helicopter hovering overhead.

The underworld war was sparked in 1998 with the murder of Alphonse Gangitano, known as the "Robert de Niro of Carlton" thanks to his impeccable attire.

A colorful roll-call of dead gangsters has followed in a turf war police describe as unprecedented in Australia.

Melbourne residents have been mesmerized by the growing body count, which has so far not included any innocent bystanders, with Treasurer Peter Costello saying the saga illustrated society's "moral decay."

"Drug barons compete for the distribution rights to sell drugs to our children in Melbourne," he said recently.

"People well-known to the police apparently live in luxury with no visible means of support or explanation as to how they maintain their lifestyles."

Costello has threatened to use federal tax authorities to rein in the gangsters, in the same way that Elliot Ness and his "Untouchables" in the US Treasury convicted Chicago racketeers such as Al Capone in the 1930s.

The Victoria state government has resisted calls for a royal commission into allegations corrupt police were involved in the gangland war.

It did, however, order an investigation into how a police report identifying an informer was circulated to the underworld shortly before the man and his wife were murdered last month.

Police investigating allegations of corruption have received bullets engraved with their names in the post and had their families followed and intimidated.

The intended victim of the latest alleged murder plot, Mario Condello, is an associate of Dominic "The Don" Gatto who is in jail charged with murdering Andrew "Benji" Veniamin, Williams' bodyguard.
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