Friday, March 18, 2016

Mafia alive and well in Australia

Joseph Acquaro




Melbourne lawyer for members of the Mafia, Joseph Acquaro was shot dead last Tuesday.  Police warned him there was a bounty on his head and to beef up his security but he refused, and now he's dead.

The prime suspect is Antonio 'Tony' Madafferi who police say was convinced the lawyer was leaking information to journalist Nick McKenzie, but Mr Madafferi has vehemently denied the allegation.


Tony Madafferi



Mr Acquaro, also known as Pino, had previously represented a number of prominent Italian-Australian crime figures and had strong links to the Calabrian community.

The deceased lawyer had represented Mr Madaferi's brother Frank, an alleged Mafia heavyweight who was jailed with a number of other men linked to the Calabrian Mafia in 2014 over the world's largest ecstasy bust.  He also represented at least one of Frank Madafferi's co-accused in that case.


Nick McKenzie



Madafferi was convinced that Acquaro was giving information to journalist Nick McKenzie and tried hard to find out the name of his source/s.  But McKenzie refused to name them because he knew what would happen if he did.

In reply, Mr Madafferi's lawyer, Georgina Schoff said it was "absolutely fanciful" somebody would try to "knock off" one of McKenzie's sources.

Oh really?  We know what Tony Soprano would have done.

In a separate incident, the murdered man had plenty of enemies, including one big time crime boss he represented who is currently in jail serving a hefty sentence.  Understandably, he was furious with the way he handled his defence.

So police have to figure out if Joseph Acquaro was killed because he was a bad lawyer or because he was telling tales out of school.

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