Lawyer claims crook trying to use Gobbo to get off 'might be confused'

by

Jailed drug trafficker Francesco "Frank" Madafferi wants to use the Informer 3838 scandal to secure his release on appeal but prosecutors say he might be confused about what led to his conviction.

Madafferi was jailed for a decade in 2014 on a single charge of trafficking 57,000 ecstasy pills worth almost $450,000.

https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.378%2C$multiply_2.1164%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/8a83cd230286c730862c33da478d28531836c7d7
Convicted drug trafficker Frank Madafferi.Credit: Paul Rovere

The drugs were imported in a larger shipment by notorious crime figure Pasquale Barbaro in 2008, months after police uncovered the infamous 15-million-pill, tomato tin shipment.

A number of people tied to the tomato tin import are now appealing their convictions after it was revealed Ms Gobbo, the criminal barrister turned police informer, provided a key piece of evidence to help police uncover the $122 million drug stash.

Commonwealth prosecutors have suggested Madafferi might have been misunderstood about a connection between the two investigations.

"It appears it's all connected when it's not," Lincoln Crowley, QC. told Victoria's Court of Appeal on Monday.

https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.515%2C$multiply_2.1164%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_219/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/a818c5416a0e088084726032e7da8ff6ccf36e98
In August 2008, federal police said they had seized nearly five tonnes of ecstasy in what they called 'the world's single largest seizure' of the pills.

The two imports were part of two completely separate police investigations, he said.

But Madafferi's lawyer, Catherine Boston, said there was a clear connection between the two.

She said after the first shipment was seized by authorities, the European drug suppliers sent a further shipment of drugs – those Madafferi is convicted of trafficking.

It's not clear the extent to which information gathered in the tomato tins investigation was used to obtain warrants for the phone recordings or police surveillance used against him, she said.

https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.383%2C$multiply_2.1164%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_24/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/3292de138166b1318dd42cf81cc73171e40a5503
Nicola Gobbo outside the Supreme Court in 2004.Credit: Vince Caligiuri

The court ordered on Monday that Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police hand over relevant documents by mid-June.

Six appeals are currently underway in relation to Ms Gobbo, including by tomato tin importers Rob Karam, Jan Visser and Saverio Zirilli.

https://www.watoday.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p54ua5

Barbaro, who is serving a life sentence for the import, is also thought to be working on an appeal.

Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel has had an appeal underway for several years.

Last week Zlate Cvetanovski, jailed as one of Tony Mokbel's drug traffickers, was granted bail after 11 years in prison, because of concerns about the role Ms Gobbo played in his conviction.

Mokbel and others in his cartel have been hopeful of winning their appeals since last year, after Faruk Orman had a murder conviction quashed and was released from prison when the Court of Appeal found Ms Gobbo's involvement contaminated his conviction.

AAP