Mario Rocco Condello

Mario Condello was born on April 12, 1952, in Carlton to Calabrian parents.

He practised law until he was struck off the Supreme Court roll in 1982 while facing drug and conspiracy charges.

He was jailed for six years for conspiracy and trafficking Indian hemp later that year.

A senior member of the Carlton Crew, Condello had convictions for arson, fraud and drug matters.

Seen as bright, big, ruthless and well connected, he was good friends with Mick Gatto - who was acquitted of the murder 2004 of Andrew "Benji" Veniamin.

In their book, Mugshots 2, Herald Sun journalists, Geoff Wilkinson and Keith Moor wrote that intelligence suggested Condello rose high up in the Calabrian Mafia chain to be an organiser of major drug importations and Australia-wide drug distribution networks.

In 2006 Italy's Anti Mafia commission chairman Senator Roberto Centaro revealed that Condello was a truly international Calabrian Mafia figure.

"His criminal ties are not limited to the Australia context but turned out to be associated with the Calabrian N'Dranghita with its connections all across Europe and North America," Senator Centaro said in a letter to Melbourne journalist Nick McKenzie.

A law enforcement source said Condello was senior enough to get others to do the dirty work.

By keeping his distance, it was difficult to gather enough evidence to charge him.

The source said that Condello's early crimes were drug and fraud related, such as arson to gain insurance.

He used to own a property in country Victoria where marijuana was grown.

Wilkinson and Moor also suggest that Condello was a money laundering expert who's skills were called on by the Calbrian Mafia for decades.

Some wanted to legitimise themselves by starting businesses. Others simply wanted advice from Condello on how to launder cash.

He received cash-in-hand payments for his services and led an extravagant lifestyle.

Many of the Victorian businesses he helped set up were funded with marijuana money.

He was also a lender of last resort, someone who would hand over large sums of money to people who had been refused loans by banks.

He charged exorbitant rates and used some very heavy characters to convince bad payers to cough up.

One of those Condello regularly used to intimidate people was murdered thug Alphonse Gangitano.

Condello's intelligence files also link him to a Griffith-based businessman recognised as one of Australia's most powerful Calabrian Mafia bosses.

This Godfather was one of the men who ordered the death of Donald Mackay in 1977.

Condello is believed to have given him financial advice for many years.

Condello also acted as a go-between in Calabrian Mafia dealings with other crime gangs, including a Melbourne-based Romanian drug syndicate.

In the 1980s a taskforce, called Operation Zulu was formed to investigate Condello.

In 1980 a detective from Stawell received information that Condello was involved in a Calabrian Mafia marijuana crop in the area.

The detective took his information to Victoria Police command.

Having heard allegations that Condello had friends in the Victorian Police Criminal Investigation Branch who might tip him off, police command decided to give the job of investigating Condello to the secretive Zebra taskforce which acted independently of the CIB.

The two-year Zulu investigation was launched and centred on a various criminal activities connected with Condello that included drug trafficking, arson, fraud and an attempted murder.

"We discovered Condello was basically running a Crim for Hire service", a Zulu taskforce member told Mugshots 2.

"If you wanted an arson done, he had an arsonist. If you wanted to grow a marijuana crop, he could supply people with expertise to do so."

"And if you wanted somebody harmed, he had the necessary contacts. He was very well connected in the Italian Mafia community"

When members of the taskforce travelled to southern Italy to investigate the arson and $1.4 million art fraud, they saw posters in one of the villages honouring Condello's father.

The Zulu team investigated an allegation that Condello employed two men to break the legs of businessmen Richard Jones who refused to release his rights to the name of a printing business.

But the standover men - one a murderer, the other an armed robber - preferred guns to baseball bats.

On January 27, 1982, they went to the victim's Box Hill home at 6am and checked the man's sleeping children before blasting him with a double-barrelled shotgun as he lay in bed with his wife.

The man was saved only because he was shot in bed and the doona cushioned the blast, leaving him with a deep wound embedded with feathers.

Edward John "Teddy" King was convicted of the shooting.

He pleaded to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to 12 years' jail.

Condello was also charged but key evidence against him was deemed inadmissible.

After Condello's arrest on arson charges, armed robbery squad detectives grabbed a suspect, who was armed with a high-powered U.S sniper rifle.

The 1982 raid on the man, who was a notorious criminal and had been jailed with Condello, turned up a handwritten list of names, all with the same surname.

The surname was that of the Stawell detective who initiated the Zulu investigation.

The same detective was later given the pleasure of arresting Condello.

Police established the criminal had been ringing people on the list trying to track down the policeman.

Also found in the raid was a piece of paper hidden behind a television set with a list of numbers scrawled on it.

Police quickly established that the numbers were a simple code that contained the name of the Stawell detective, the name of the main prosecution witness against Condello in relation to the arson charge and the name John Hassett.

Police wasted no time placing Crown prosecutor John Hassett under protection amid fears Condello had hired the hitman to kill or intimidate him.

An unmarked police car was placed outside his home for several days.

Mr Hassett had been working with Operation Zulu detectives on Condello's case.

A search of his home revealed damage to a window frame leading police to believe that someone had attempted to break in.

There was also a break-in at the home of the man who was due to testify against Condello.

This man was a chemist who had hired Condello to burn down his pharmacy and destroy records which he believed police were to going to use against him with regard to minor breaches.

Condello charged the chemist $10,000 and after an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the shop the pharmacy burned to the ground the following evening.

The arsonist hired by Condello was badly burnt and both he and the chemist eventually agreed to testify against the crime figure.
Condello also set up an associate to be killed in the early 1980s.

This associate was given the task of taking $150,000 to a prominent Calabrian Mafia figure in South Australia to pay for 200kg of cannabis.

Fortunately the man checked the contents of the case given to him by Condello prior to delivery and discovered much of the money to be counterfeit.

The man sensibly decided not to deliver the money and instead became star witness for Operation Zulu.

During his arson trial, Condello was investigated for contempt when he whispered in Italian to an Italian-speaking detective: "You're dead."

Condello was convicted on two counts of arson and jailed in 1983.

In 1986 Condello was back in court charged with conspiring to defraud an insurance company of $1.4 million.

The Supreme Court was told Condello's company bought 120,000 art prints for $2.50 each.

The judge said a sham sale was then arranged in Italy for $1.4 million.

He said the prints were insured with the intent of having them burned.

Condello claimed the prints had been destroyed by a fire in Naples.

The court was told a claim was lodged with Vanguard insurance weeks later, stating the prints had been deliberately set on fired by rioters.

Condello was jailed for four years with a minimum of two.

Age crime reporter John Silvester wrote that after Condello was released, a senior police investigator sitting in his family car in Lygon Street with his wife and children was shocked when a big hand thrust through the open driver's side window.

He was even more surprised when he looked up to see the owner of the hand, who was smiling down on him.
It was Mario Condello.

With him was the feared Carlton Crew boss Mick Gatto.

The off-duty policeman did not need to search his memory to recall Condello.

He had spent more than two years working on him as part of  Operation Zulu.

Although the investigator's evidence had helped get Condello a jail term , the big man beside the car showed no malice.

The fist turned to a handshake and Condello greeted the policeman as a long-lost friend rather than a long-time adversary.

But the policeman left feeling uncomfortable that his family had been involved.

Condello was again charged in 1991 with three counts of obtaining property by deception over an alleged $2 million property scam.

A law enforcement source told the Herald Sun that after these early run-ins with the law Condello became smarter and graduated to organising and financing crimes.

"He had enough money to play a bigger role, but a hands off role," the source said.

Police claim that the man who filled in his occupation as 'Funeral Director" when completing forms while travelling overseas, was able to buy a property on the French Riveria and lend associates millions of dollars when he didn't appear to have a legitimate income.

It was also claimed he owned a unit in Nice and that he had been left a holiday property in Calabria by a relative.

In 1998 Condello changed his name by deed poll to Michael Oliver.

As Oliver he made himself a decade younger.

Under both guises, he was director or secretary of 11 companies and owned three Audis and a Holden Caprice as Oliver.

Insiders later told the Herald Sun that Condello and drug-lord Tony Mokbel (left) were fierce business rivals.

Mokbel's wealth came from the drug trade.

Although Condello's reputation was as a moneylender and launderer and standover man, insiders were convinced he too was still involved in drugs, despite his regular denials.

Condello Mokbel fell out in late 2002, when Mokbel was bashed after Condello invited him to a "business meeting" in Carlton.

Until then Mokbel had been associated with the so-called Carlton Crew, but switched his allegiance – and involvement in his drug business – to a rival faction after the beating.

Mokbel and Condello were seen shaking hands and exchanging apparent pleasantries several times in the days before Condello's 2006 death.

Both had lawyers with offices in Lonsdale St near the courts precinct, and both enjoyed being part of the cafe society at nearby coffee shops.

But an associate of Condello and Mokbel said they "hated each other with a passion".

"There was no love lost there at all, although they made a point of making it appear to the outside world that they were good mates," he said.

Police were told Condello was present in 2002 when a solicitor was invited to a Lygon Street restaurant by an underworld figure.

The solicitor was taken down to the basement and pistol-whipped in front of Condello.

The beating was a means of persuading the solicitor to advise a client, who was thinking of telling police about a protection racket, to think again.

Condello loved to gamble and was a member of Crown Casino's ultra exclusive Premium Club.

As Crown member 2068, Condello was punting at least $7.5 million a year.

He played baccarat in the exclusive Mahogany Room and regularly gambled upto $10,000 a hand.

In 2004, Victoria Police Cheif Commisssioner Christine Nixon used her powers under the Casino Control Act to ban Condello, and several other underworld figures from Crown.

A rare peek inside the world of Mario Condello's close Carlton associate Mick Gatto in the hours after he shot hitman Andrew Veniamin dead in March 2004 was revealed in a three-page letter he penned to Condello from his cell at Port Phillip Prison's high-security Charlotte Unit.

"Keep your eyes wide opened, you can't trust any of these rats. I would hate to see anything happen to any of ours."

A court was later told that an earlier victim of the gangland war, Lewis Caine - found dead on May 8, 2004 - had allegedly taken a contract to kill Condello.

Keith Faure and Ange Goussis were later charged and jailed over Caine's murder.

One of the most boring jobs in a long investigation is monitoring police bugging devices.

The Purana investigation virtually dominated the technical capacity of the crime department. Detectives in other areas quietly grumbled that their investigations were put on hold after police Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland ordered that Purana detectives be given priority.

The investigation would log a staggering 500,000 telephone conversations, most consisting of the inarticulate ramblings of would-be-gangsters. They used listening devices to bug suspects for 53,000 hours and conducted 22,000 hours of physical surveillance.

Police found that listening to the Williams crime family was cruel and unusual punishment. "It was like being subjected to the Jerry Springer show 24 hours a day," one said.

But amphetamine dealer and gangland murderer, Carl Williams always assumed his phone, house and cars were bugged.

When he wanted to talk business he chose parks or noisy fast-food restaurants, where he could also indulge his penchant for chicken and chips. .

But trying to trap the Williams crew through bugging operations was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

But in late May 2004 police found it. Two of Williams' soldiers, sitting in what they thought was a clean car, discussed their plan to kill a man.

Details of the case remained suppressed but detectives subsequently launched a massive covert operation, codenamed Lemma.

Detective Inspector Gavan Ryan was in charge of the 170 officers needed to surround the area without spooking the hitmen.

But the would-be killers were not punctual. Twice they slept in on the designated day. The second time one of the team had chatted up a woman and preferred a one-night stand to an early morning killing.

On June 9, 2004, Carl Williams (left), Michael Thorneycroft, Sean Jason Sonnet and Gregg Hildebrandt were charged with conspiring to murder Mario Condello.

Police swooped at 7.00am arresting Hilderbrandt and Sonnett, just a few hundred metres from Condello's Brighton home.

Police later alleged that the men, charged with conspiring to kill Condello, had planned to shoot him while he walked his dog.

It seemed like a good plan and they had established his movements.

But there was a problem - Condello moved from his Brighton home days after Andrew Veniamin's death in March 2004.

He had not been there for two months, which police knew.

Police had offered him protection, which he has refused.

Two handguns (one which a detective is shown removing) 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."

Of the men arrested near Condello's home, a witness said: "One was prone with his hands cuffed behind his back and on his stomach and the other was sitting up with his face against the - away from the footpath."

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

Sonnet (left) had been bailed over an earlier heroin trafficking charge just five days before. Williams and Thorneycroft were picked up in simultaneous house raids in Essendon and Wantirna. Thorneycroft's cousin, Williams was arrested at his mother's house.

Opposing bail, Mr Horgan said police had taped conversations about the planned murder and surveillance of a "dummy run" by Sonnet and Thorneycroft past Condello's house the day before the attempted hit.

Hildebrandt was enlisted by his friend of 30 years, Sean Sonnet, to murder Condello.

The key witness against the three, Thorneycroft told the court that Sonnet planned to shoot Condello in the morning while he was walking his dogs, but if that fell through he would then go to his children's school and perform the shooting there.

"He said to me: 'I have to find out what school Condello's kids were in 'cos if we miss him walking his dogs ... than we can shoot him at the school in front of his kids'".

Thorneycroft said Sonnet was going to ring Williams' wife Roberta to get this information.

"He said: 'I have to find out what school the kids go to, I will ring Roberta'," Thorneycroft said.

Thorneycroft told the court he was offered $30,000 to be the driver in the hit and Sonnet was going to be paid about $120,000 to be the shooter.

Sonnet, an amateur boxer as a youth,  reportedly bashed convicted murderer Greg "Bluey" Brazel in prison.

Shortly after the alleged attempt on his life, ABC radio reported that Condello made an indirect peace offering to his enemies, saying he's prepared to forgive - once.

Elanor Hall: Mario Condello offered the olive branch via the media, during an interview aired on Channel 9, and while some fear the media is a dangerous place for negotiations between police and underworld identities, others say it's completely understandable, as Rachel Carbonell reports from Melbourne.

Rachel Carbonell: In an interview with Channel 9, Mario Condello, has said he's grateful to police.

Mario Condello: I felt something was not right, that something was not right and thanks to the, to the squad, the Purana squad there, who did an excellent and sterling job in assessing the situation, whatever resulted, resulted and I'm very, very grateful for it.

Rachel Carbonell: He later intimated that it would have been others whose lives were at risk had they got close enough.

"I have my fingers on the pulse and I was pretty about matters that were going on," he said.

"Once they reached the other side of the road from where my place was, they would not have been able to walk back to the car, I can assure you."

But underworld bravado aside, Mario Condello also made what sounded very much like a peace offering.

Mario Condello: I hope it just doesn't continue to happen to others or to myself for that matter because, as I said, I'm prepared to forgive – once – and that's as far as it goes. No more. Stay away from me. I'm bad luck to you people.

Condello told Sunday's Adam Shand he hoped the foiled plot would end the gangland wars: "For the first time, I've heard the birds singing in the trees."

He also told Sunday that Carl Williams lacked the vision to make good decisions.

"People who believe they are untouchable sometimes it happens that a certain amount of paranoia creeps in, and when paranoia creeps in as we all know it breeds fear, and fear breeds contempt and then decisions are made again without vision and what happens … the wrong decisions are made and then consequences follow, so you work that one out and see what answer you get from it. I know what answer I get from it."

On June 13, 2004 Condello was arrested during a series of police raids.

Members of the Purana taskforce arrested Condello and prominent criminal lawyer George Defteros at separate locations in the city.

Police also searched several properties including Condello's Brighton East home, his city apartment and an office in the city's legal precinct.

An artists image of Defteros
and Condello in court

They were placed behind bars after being accused of offering a $500,000 contract to murder his main rivals in Victoria's gangland wars, Carl Williams, Williams's father, George, and an unnamed minder for the father-son team.

It was also alleged Condello was planning to obtain a false passport and join his family in Europe after the killing was done.

Condello was also charged with possession of a handgun.

A Purana taskforce member, Detective-Sergeant Martin Robertson, told the court the arrests were part of the taskforce's Operation Fared.

He said police had been contacted by a registered police informer who revealed allegations of the planned murders.

"He [the informer] alleged he had been approached by the defendant, Defteros," Detective Robertson told the court.

"He was asked at that time if he had any work. He was told by Defteros that there was work for him on behalf of Condello and that they needed people they could trust."

It is alleged that Defteros then set up an initial meeting between Condello and the hitman which led to subsequent meetings where the pair discussed the intended killings.

"During these meetings ... the informer was given the job to kill Carl and George Williams and people that were described as minders," Detective Sergeant Robertson said.

The court heard the police informer wore an electronic wire during the meetings was now in a "secure location".

He told the court Condello and the informer discussed the Williams's movements, getaway vehicles to be used and the need to obtain false passports. He said the pair allegedly also talked about the use of disguises for the killings.

Detective Sergeant Robertson said police had intercepted phone calls between Defteros and the alleged hitman and between the hitman and Condello.

For each murder the hitman was to be paid $150,000 with $50,000 paid up-front. After the killings the hitman would flee overseas using a false passport.

The court heard that Condello had become the leader of the Carlton Crew since the arrest of Mick Gatto for the shooting if Andrew Veniamin March 23, 2004.

He was denied bail after the court heard that the last contact made between Condello and the man hired to kill Carl and George Williams was two weeks before.

Condello was remanded in custody and ordered to reappear with Defteros the following September.

Another of the Williams team, Terrence Chimirri told Chanel 9 he believed he was also the target of the alleged Condello conspiracy:

"Personally, I reckon 90 per cent they were trying, but I'm still here so I think the people that were trying haven't got balls."

Chimirri is one of the last of the team still standing or not in jail: "I use paranoia as an awareness so I'm aware of things.

If they are going to come, be prepared to fucking put me off."

And of his old lawyer and Condello's co-accused, George Defteros, Chimirri said: "His services were shit. He's a piece of shit. Seriously he's just a money-hungry bloke ... He got me for 10 large, the cunt. I got a new solicitor, a better one, much better."

"I'll die for them [the Williamses]. No worries, you know what I mean. On the regards as I know they would do it for me."

"I mean personally I'm not plotting on anyone so, you know what I mean. But if they come, that's a different situation."

Condello was bailed in March 2005 on charges of incitement to murder three underworld figures, but refused police protection.

Magistrate Jelena Popovic agreed to bail Condello after being told by prison psychiatrist Daniel Sullivan that the suspect was struggling with life in a high-security division and "in layman's terms, Mr Condello could be considered stir crazy".

Condello was grateful for the decision. "Thank you very much, your honour. I can assure you of one thing: I won't let you down," he said.

In a five-hour taped interview with detectives from Victoria Police's ethical standards department on August 19, 2005, former chief superintendent Kerry Milte claimed Condello and another underworld figure stripped a solicitor naked and beat him in a Lygon St restaurant basement as a warning not to speak about their activities.

"They stripped the solicitor naked . . . held a pistol to his head, broke a plate on his head and wanted to know how much he'd told me about what was going on,'' he said.

Mr Milte also:

NAMED an Italian organised crime boss who was allegedly involved in five murders.

IDENTIFIED a Lygon St crime figure who had allegedly paid $4 million in bribes to senior Victorian police.

CLAIMED corrupt police "green-lighted'' the illegal activities of several Italian organised crime bosses.

ALLEGED the Italian syndicate had put gang members in positions of authority in immigration, customs and the police.

Mr Milte told ESD why he was recruited by Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon.

"Because of some old connections, I had the means of getting information on particularly Italian organised crime,'' his 

"And to a lesser degree, Chinese operations and to another degree, some Lebanese people and that principally involved Mick Gatto, Mario Condello, Mokbel (fugitive crime boss Tony Mokbel).''

In the interview Mr Milte also named allegedly corrupt police and identified several organised crime figures.

Mr Milte, 61, a former Commonwealth police officer and barrister, was recruited by Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon in 2002 to help tackle organised crime in Victoria.

He was later committed to stand trial on charges including bribery and conspiring with a Victorian police officer to disclose confidential information.

Mr Milte told the Herald Sun he was horrified his ESD record of interview was being circulated.

He claimed a small faction of Victorian police was trying to undermine Ms Nixon and suggested circulating his ESD interview was an attempt by these officers to discredit her.

In the early evening of February 6, 2006, Condello joined friends, including Mick Gatto, at the Society Restaurant in Bourke St.

He was last seen alive at 9.40pm when he left a restaurant in Hardware Lane in the city to drive home after dining with a lawyer.

Condello, then 52 was gunned down at his heavily secured home in North Road, Brighton East, where he had returned to live.

He arrived there just on 10pm under the conditions of his bail.

When Condello believed he was at risk, he moved house.

But on this night, he drove into his driveway, opened the garage door and was shot dead before it closed.

His killer is thought to have run into the garage when Condello activated the electronic door, fired at least three shots and fled before the door finished closing.

The Herald Sun reported that a terrified woman was a telephone witness to the murder.

The woman, a friend of Condello, heard him shot while she was talking to him on the phone.

The secret witness was interviewed by police who hoped she may have heard the voice of Condello's killer.

She refused to comment when approached by the Herald Sun and said she knew nothing that could help police.

The woman is believed to have driven to the scene after hearing shots, but left when she saw police at the house.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed the woman had been interviewed and that investigations were continuing.

One of Condello's neighbours, who wished to remain anonymous, was watching the TV show Prison Break when he heard "bang, bang, bang, bang" from across North Road, North Brighton.

"It was really quite loud, six to seven shots," he said.

"It was repetitious gunfire, there wasn't any pause, just one shot after the other. It sounded like the same gun."

Detectives know the killer monitored Condello's movements.

It is unlikely the gunman followed him home, as Condello was experienced in anti-surveillance.

Eighteen months after police foiled a plot to kill Condello, police said they had no information there would be another attempt.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland said police were not watching Condello's home and had "no prior intelligence or inkling that he was currently at risk".

But he warned would-be revenge killers: "Don't do it. You either finish up dead or in jail. It's not a good option either way."

Police could not discount the possibility that jailed underworld figures or new players on the organised crime scene were behind Condello's murder, Mr Overland said.

Investigators checked phone records from prison to see if any coded messages were sent relating to attempts on Condello's life.

Police say it "is difficult but not impossible" for prisoners to pass instructions through visitors to associates on the outside.

Mick Gatto went to the Condello house shortly after his friend had been killed, and police were concerned he may also be at risk.

Overland said, "The events of last night indicate to us that there may be, and I say may, be some heightened risk to Mick Gatto.

We have spoken to Mr Gatto already. We've made arrangements to speak to him again, and we will be making offers of assistance and protection to him.

I have to say, though, our experience in the past is when we make these offers they're not accepted.

We have actually offered Mario Condello protection in the past, and those offers have not been taken up.

Overland said that police may also offer protection to the Condello family.

When police spoke to Gatto he told them he had no idea who killed Condello.

"I know nothing about it. I don't believe it is gangland connected … no way. I believe whatever the reason, it will come out in the wash."

Mr Condello's solicitor, Anthony Brand, said after the murder: "I am shocked by this. I had no doubt he probably would have won this trial.

He was totally besotted with his children and concerned for his wife. His wife and children will be devastated."

Police suspect the man who ordered Condello's murder set a deadline on the hit that was due to expire within weeks.

Condello's trial for incitement to murder was to begin the next day with legal argument, before the empanelling of a jury, and was expected to finish within two weeks.

Condello was charged with incitement to murder three men - one, a prominent figure in Melbourne's gangland wars.

While Condello was confident of an acquittal, detectives say his killer could not afford to wait.

If convicted, he was certain to be jailed in maximum security and could not be reached for years.

Condello's trial should have marked a major milestone for Victorian police.

After all, they'd brought another senior member of a leading criminal gang to court.

Anthony Brand, says his client was certain he could defeat the charges.

"We were very confident, he was extremely confident about the outcome. He had maintained his innocence throughout the length of this proceeding, indeed, from the day of his arrest, and we were confident of running and winning this trial," Brand told ABC radio.

But police were disappointed that the trial would not proceed.

Overland said, "It's obviously a matter of some sadness that that trial is not able to be completed, given the circumstances. It doesn't affect the broader plans that we have in place.

This is another obviously serious event, it's something we'll have to deal with, but we've got the people, we've got the resources, and that's what we'll do.

On the morning of Condello's murder, Victoria's Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, told ABC Radio in Melbourne that she believed the gangland problem was under control.

"The Gangland issue - it took us such a long time to get control of that, and now I think we have, and now we're moving into a place where - I think I was interviewed and said - hopefully it never happens again."

"And that will be because of the kind of detectives, processes and systems we're putting into place to make sure it doesn't."

We've charged nearly 80 persons with almost 300 offences. 17 people have been charged with 43 counts of murder, incitement to murder, conspiracy to murder, and many of those are still before the courts.

The day after Condello's murder Ms Nixon said that she was surprised by the shooting but it was too early to say whether it was part of the gangland war.

She said it was a "matter for conjecture" whether Condello would have survived if he had been refused bail in the Magistrates Court.

"But we did oppose bail, and we opposed it both on the conditions of the threats that he might have been under [and] we had concerns that he would not appear for trial."

Condello was carried to his rest in a two-toned, golden bronze casket as bells tolled and priests pleaded with a congregation not to exact vengeance for a murdered man.

The funeral was on a massive scale.

An hour before the requiem mass began, the flowers were piling up on the steps of St Ignatius Catholic Church on Richmond Hill.

The church says that it is open to the four winds and all kinds of people.

There were big men in dark glasses with big shoulders straining inside tight designer black suits.

There were smaller men with dark glasses and full-length leather coats looking at the big men.

There were blonde women with dark glasses in Versace suits and Gucci jeans looking at each other.

And there were high-school kids without glasses in shorts and school blazers just looking nervous — like many others present.

“Any suggestion that any friend of Mario should not be welcome at this church shows a complete misunderstanding of the Catholic church,” parish priest the Rev Father Peter Norden said at the beginning of the service.

Outside stood the Tripodi funeral hearse, a solid black Cadillac.

Three big black stretch limousines arrived carrying the principal mourners, including Condello’s wife, Vanda, daughter Vanessa, and 17-year-old twin sons Guerino and Rosario.

They soon had many of the 600 mourners in tears as they made heartfelt tributes to their father.

He lay in front of them, in front of the high altar with its flickering candles, in the golden casket with a huge spray of red roses on top and his smiling portrait gazing out at the congregation.

Vanessa told how her father spent his first seven years in Italy before migrating with his family to North Fitzroy, and how he overcome his background to obtain a law degree.

She then fast-forwarded to the past 18 months when, she said, her father had undergone “an amazing renaissance”.
“He was touched by God,” she said. “He overcame the demons that had been plaguing him.

“He prayed the rosary every day and this massive burden of conflict was lifted from him.”

Vanessa Condello conceded her father had “made some mistakes” but said he was no longer with them “to protect us from tactless, insensitive cowards . .. . they know who they are”.

She addressed her father: “You could be charming, arrogant, rude and sometimes downright scary . . . but now I know you won’t be there to see me graduate, disapprove of my boyfriends, walk me down the aisle.

“But Dad, I know we’ll meet again and the first thing you’ll probably say to me is, ‘Your skirt’s too short’.”

The service then moved to the readings. Sister Barbara Walsh quoted Leviticus: “You must not exact vengeance not bear a grudge against the children of your people.”

Father Lou Herriott read from St Paul’s letter to the Romans with its passage: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord.”
The priest told the congregation: “Never try and get revenge.”

Father Norden told how he first met Mario Condello 20 years ago.

He had shared a meal with the family in late January.

He said the dead man had found a new faith in the past 12 months “despite the dark clouds overhead”, and was carrying a small rosary around his finger when he was gunned down.

It took 10 men — including Mick Gatto — to lift Mario Condello into Signor Tripodi’s Cadillac.

The cortege moved off, leaving Mick Gatto behind.

He stood tall in the crowd as, one by one, men in black came forward to shake his hand and kiss him on both cheeks.

Young men with wrap-around sunglasses stood near him, looking intently into the crowd.

The mourners eventually dispersed, leaving Mick Gatto in his sun glasses looking suddenly vulnerable. And very, very alone.

Gregg James Anthony Hildebrandt was granted bail on May 31, 2006.

He faced a two-year wait in Barwon Prison before his trial started

Justice King has imposed a $400,000 surety, a strict curfew and ordered Hildebrandt to report to police twice daily.

On July 30, 2006, detectives released an image of a man they said is a suspect in the killing.

The head of police crime tasked operations, Detective Superintendent Richard Grant, said the suspect was seen in a small, red, four-door Hyundai in the "immediate vicinity" of Condello's home at the time of the murder.

The wanted man was described as 24 to 25 years old with a slim build, black hair and some facial hair on his chin. He was wearing a red peaked cap.

"There is a possibility he was involved," Mr Grant told reporters.

"He was acting suspiciously at the time Mario Condello was murdered. He is a person of interest and we desperately want to talk to this person or anyone who has any information."

A witness placed the man and the red car at the murder scene and provided the face image police have released, Mr Grant said.

He would not confirm if the man was seen shooting Condello, if he was seen with a weapon, how he acted suspiciously or if he was acting alone.

"It's hard to say whether there was more than one killer. That's why I've always used the words killer or killers," Mr Grant said.

Underworld informers were coming forward with information of the gangland murders by the Purana police taskforce, Mr Grant said.

"The underworld code of silence is slowly being broken, and I think that's for a number of reasons," he said.

"I think the success of Purana is finally starting to show. I think the fact that we are able to coercively question people is starting to help, and I think with the number of strategies we have put in place and the resources we are now throwing at the Purana taskforce, you are now starting to see results."

Police believed members of the public could shed light on the man's activities.

"We believe a number of people may have been driving past Condello's home at the time," Mr Grant said.

"They may have been walking the dog or just going for a walk, and we would be asking for them to come forward.

"We have a number of things we can put in place to protect their identity and to protect them ... we will do anything we can to assist those people coming forward and giving us the information we need."

On December 6, 2006, the Australian reported that Victorian police were trying to force the key informer in the prosecution case against Mario Condello out of witness protection, despite fears he could still be a target for a revenge underworld hit.

The attempt to involuntarily terminate his place in the witness protection program would leave the informer, who can be identified only as "166", without the new identity and relocation he was originally promised by police in return for giving evidence.

166's real identity is widely known among Condello's former criminal associates.

The informer, who has also helped expose police corruption in the past, was first told by Victoria Police in June 2006 that around-the-clock protection for him and his partner would be terminated.

It is understood police claimed that the murder of Condello, on the eve of his trial in which 166 was to testify, meant the informer and his partner were no longer at risk.

Under witness protection laws, 166 can appeal to Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon. If Ms Nixon refuses to intervene, the informer has three days to appeal the decision to Victoria's Director of Police Integrity.

The Australian reported that 166 had told police that as an informer he is still a potential target for a revenge "hit" by Condello's criminal associates, who saw his co-operation with police as an unforgivable betrayal of the mafia's code of silence.

On January 9, 2007, the Herald Sun reported that underworld sources linked Condello's murder to missing drug boss Tony Mokbel.

They claimed Mokbel paid for the hit on Condello, an enemy and business rival who was a big money lender and launderer and convicted drug trafficker.

But police rejected a suggestion that Mokbel was murdered – as a mafia payback to avenge Condello's killing.

Police sources said they were "100 per cent sure" Mokbel was still alive.

They said there was evidence they could not disclose that persuaded them Mokbel was in a particular area overseas.

Mokbel, 41, disappeared six after Condello's murder – only days before the jury in his cocaine importing trial was due to retire to consider its verdict.

He was later convicted in his absence and sentenced to a minimum nine years' jail.

It was assumed that Mokbel, who was on bail with a $1 million surety, had fled to escape justice.

As well as the coming trial verdict, he had been made aware five days earlier that he had been implicated in at least two underworld shootings and was likely to face murder charges.

But a usually reliable source told the Herald Sun that Mokbel "never left the country".

He claimed the multi-millionaire drug boss was snatched and killed the night he vanished after reporting on bail to South Melbourne police station at 5pm on March 19 last year.

"Mokbel made a big mistake when he put out a hit on a made man (Condello)," the source said.

"The (Honoured) Society couldn't let that go unanswered."

He said it was common in traditional mafia revenge killings for the victim's body never to be found, or given the dignity of a proper burial.

Theories and rumours have abounded about what happened to Mokbel and Condello.

At one stage last year it was suggested Mokbel had been recaptured and was being interrogated by police in a maximum security section of Barwon Prison.

Another theory, which still persists in some circles, suggests that one of Mokbel's closest allies turned on him and sanctioned his killing.

On March 8, 2007, The Age revealed that the Purana taskforce may be close to a breakthrough in the investigation into the murder of Condello.

Detectives were expected soon to seek permission to interview a prisoner over the execution.

On March 14, 2007, the Age reported that Milad Mokbel, a brother of Tony Mokbel had been implicated in the unsolved murder of Mario Condello.

The Purana gangland taskforce alleged that Mokbel knew details of Condello's imminent execution.

In the first major public disclosures since Condello's murder, a detective told Melbourne Magistrates Court that Mokbel told a close associate he should "make himself scarce" because Condello was about to be shot.

Detective Senior Constable Dale Fitzgerald said that 45 minutes after Mokbel's warning, Condello was ambushed as he arrived home.

He also revealed that Purana had identified a "person of interest" who was in the vicinity of Condello's murder.

This person, who remained under investigation, had denied any involvement in the crime, but allegedly admitted that he was a friend of Mokbel.

But the claimed breakthrough in the investigation hit a hurdle when magistrate Peter Couzens refused Senior Constable Fitzgerald's application to formally question Mokbel over Condello's murder.

Mr Couzens said what he had heard in support of the application was "simply not enough" to make Mokbel a suspect.

Under the Crimes Act, a person already in custody for another matter — Mokbel has been refused bail on drug charges — can be questioned only if "reasonably suspected of having committed an offence".

Crown prosecutor Andrew Tinney told Mr Couzens that police wanted to interview Milad Mokbel on the same terms as they successfully applied to question him over Lewis Moran's murder in Barwon Prison the week before.

Senior Constable Fitzgerald said police had obtained a signed statement from a witness who was with Mokbel just before Condello's murder.

He alleged that Mokbel told the witness that Condello was "going to be murdered and to make himself scarce". "A short period of time after the discussion Mario Condello was murdered," he said.

He would not identify the witness, but said he was a "close confidant" of Mokbel and was well known to Mokbel's family.

Defence lawyer Gerard Lethbridge submitted that the "mere knowledge" that a crime was to happen did not make someone guilty of it, and that there was not a scintilla of evidence that Mokbel counselled or procured the murder.