THE sort of people once recruited to spy for Australia were not unlike their British counterparts: conservative types, good school perhaps, steady in a crisis, loyal, certainly not the sort of man or woman one would expect to go on strike. And there were still a lot of these stereotypes hanging around the spy service…
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The following article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 28 April 2001 (page 7): Federal police have mounted a major search for 52 boxes of high-grade heroin intended for Australia which are believed to be hidden in Vanuatu. Intelligence sources say about 160 kilograms of the drug landed in Port Vila last November. “We…
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By Richard Hughes From outside, the Madrid Bar looks no different than any other watering hole on Bangkok’s Patpong Road. But step inside and one enters a dark world of societal misfits, heat-seeking mercenaries, out-and-out spooks and the merely semi-diaphanous. If you wanted to make an in-depth tour of the bars and bordellos of Thailand,…
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The following article appeared in the Illawarra Mercury on 20 August 2001 (page 5): Organised crime investigators hope the smashing of an extortion racket in Sydney will encourage other standover victims to come forward. Those allegedly involved in the racket had claimed to be part of a major Asian-based gang called Big Circle. Six young…
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Author: John Breusch and AAP Date: 01/06/2000 Words: 279 Source: AFR Publication: The Financial Review Section: News Page: 3 Evidence existed that Russian organised crime syndicates were laundering billions of dollars of criminal proceeds through South Pacific nations such as Nauru, the Minister for Justice, Senator Amanda Vanstone, said yesterday. Senator Vanstone warned smaller Asia-Pacific…
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The following article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 May 2001 (page 5): A former senior NSW union official denied last night having accepted bribes from construction companies in return for ensuring industrial peace on building sites. Mr Craig Bates told the ABC’s Four Corners program that he had “absolutely never” taken any…
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FORTY years of silence in the media over misdeeds of outlaw bikie clubs has caused unfair discrimination of most of its members, former Outcast Motorcycle Club member Russell “Camel” Wattie believes. He said while most bikie club members will still not talk to the media, he feels it is now his role – and that…
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The following article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 3 March 2001 (page 3): Until her death, Barbara Mackay “grieved deeply” that the main players in the murder of her husband, Donald, 23 years before, had not been brought to justice. Hundreds of community members, friends and members of her “church family” joined in…
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A TRIPLE gangland killer whose “show-stopper” allegations led to the biggest police investigation in Victorian history was allowed out of jail to walk on the beach with his partner and pet dog, and given a tax break and proceeds-of-crime exemptions in exchange for his co-operation with police, says an underworld associate who served time with…
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The following article appeared in The Sunday Age on 16 April 2000 (page 4): The Australian Transaction and Reports Analysis Centre, which is charged with tracking down the proceeds of crime, estimates the amount of drug-related money laundered in Australia at between $1 billion and $4.5 billion a year. Austrac examines transactions where money is…
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