Jun 28 2008
Top cop Christine Nixon defends Operation Clarendon actions
CHIEF Commissioner Christine Nixon yesterday revealed a new taskforce was investigating Calabrian mafia operations in Victoria.
It was set up after she was forced to scrap an earlier mafia taskforce, Operation Clarendon, after discovering one of its detectives, Wayne Strawhorn, was being investigated over corruption allegations.
Strawhorn has since been jailed for drug trafficking.
Ms Nixon said yesterday another taskforce with different officers had been set up to investigate matters Operation Clarendon was probing.
Two of Clarendon’s targets were underworld identity Mick Gatto and Calabrian mafia money man Mario Condello.
Condello was murdered in 2006; Mr Gatto was acquitted of the 2005 killing of underworld hitman Andrew “Benji” Veniamin.
Operation Clarendon’s terms of reference were to investigate:
ALLEGED links between serving and retired Victoria Police officers and Italian organised crime gangs.
MAFIA influence on the Footscray fruit and vegetable market.
ALLEGED mafia involvement in unsolved murders in Victoria.
HOW many Calabrian mafia members operated in Victoria and their links with interstate mafia cells.
Ms Nixon said yesterday information gathered by Clarendon was passed to taskforce Lorcha, which was still operating.
The Office of Police Integrity this week criticised Ms Nixon for not following correct procedures when she set up Clarendon after receiving information from former Commonwealth Police officer Kerry Milte about alleged Calabrian mafia activity in Victoria.
Ms Nixon’s chief of staff told the OPI this was because there had then been a perception that the force’s organised crime squad was not operating effectively.
The OPI said that Milte was a manipulator who had persuaded Ms Nixon to set up Clarendon for his own purposes.
Ms Nixon said yesterday she’d acted appropriately. “Then I came to understand the team, I had concerns, and then we terminated that inquiry and then proceeded with another investigation.”
Milte was convicted and fined in 2006 after admitting he incited a Victoria Police officer to illegally access sensitive material from the police database.
He revealed details of his knowledge of Italian organised crime in a five-hour taped interview with detectives from Victoria Police’s Ethical Standards Department.
An interview transcript contains a claim by Milte that former Victorian federal Labor MP Bob Sercombe was present when union boss Dean Mighell allegedly told Milte that Mr Gatto had threatened to kill him.
His statement also alleged mafia figures were trying to turn legitimate by putting money into enterprises such as cranes. He named Mr Gatto’s company, Elite Cranes, as one the mafia had put money into.
Mr Sercombe, Mr Mighell and Mr Gatto have denied Milte’s claims.
Top cop Christine Nixon defends Operation Clarendon actions - Keith Moor - June 28, 2008 12:00am - This story was found at: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23932508-2862,00.html
