Speaker 1: He was accused of bashing two prison guards years earlier
Speaker 1: because he spent too much time on the phone and
Speaker 1: they tried to tell him to your times up on
Speaker 1: the phone and he dealt with them. So you'd be
Speaker 1: a brave prison guard to tap him on the shoulder.
Speaker 2: Are they shy? They like members of the Melbourne Club.
Speaker 2: They don't like publicity.
Speaker 1: Some of them enjoy it, some of them try to
Speaker 1: keep a low profile. Yeah, they started off making their
Speaker 1: own hoodies and merchandise, but they really that maybe that
Speaker 1: wasn't such a good idea.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrew Rules Life and Crimes. Today in the Life
Speaker 2: and Crimes headquarters, we're talking to Reagan Hodge, who is
Speaker 2: one of our brightest young crime reporters. Reagan, what brings
Speaker 2: you here? You've been looking into the story of George Morogi?
Speaker 2: Is that right? And he said, how you pronounce it?
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: It's great to be here too, Thank you. So the
Speaker 1: AFP have talked about with us the master class in
Speaker 1: convicting George Morogi from inside bar And Prison, the state's
Speaker 1: toughest prison, and it was a massive investigation. They've done
Speaker 1: an extremely good job and they've landed him in prison
Speaker 1: for a lot longer.
Speaker 2: We'll look at the history of George Morogi a little
Speaker 2: later in the episode, but just tell us what the
Speaker 2: AFP have found out, How did they pull that off?
Speaker 2: What gave them their start in this fiendish plan to
Speaker 2: nail a bad guy? A little bit more.
Speaker 1: So, this was a state and federal investigation and they've
Speaker 1: done it really well. It started off with a tip
Speaker 1: off about a drug shipment coming in from overseas, and
Speaker 1: then that sort of encouraged them to start what was
Speaker 1: known as Operation eagles Peak from the AFP.
Speaker 2: Eagles Peak interesting combination of words, and how did eagles
Speaker 2: Peak unfold?
Speaker 1: So they started, I guess, seeing these repeat shipments of
Speaker 1: up to four hundred kilograms being imported into the country,
Speaker 1: and they believe it was methamphetamine and heroin being sent
Speaker 1: from Malaysia into a company in George Moroghi's girlfriend's name.
Speaker 2: So George Morogi had orchestrated these deliveries from inside prison,
Speaker 2: using his crooked network outside, using codd telephone calls all
Speaker 2: the rest of it, and the authorities had realized that
Speaker 2: there were certain shipments coming in that were suspicious. What
Speaker 2: had the bad guys disguised those shipments. As you know
Speaker 2: clearly they were drugs, but what were some of the
Speaker 2: cover stories for those shipments.
Speaker 1: Well, the one that broad him unstuck was a big
Speaker 1: shipment of methamphetamine and heroin disguised as green tea bags,
Speaker 1: green tea bags and magnets that were brought in from overseas.
Speaker 1: Sixty nine kilograms worth of that gear. And that was
Speaker 1: the result of the AFP's target development team. They've listened
Speaker 1: to hundreds of hours of Morogi and his girlfriend on
Speaker 1: the phone from inside prison. Investigators say he would spend
Speaker 1: up to six hours a day on the phone. He
Speaker 1: was prolific on there. He was accused of bashing two
Speaker 1: prison guards years earlier because he spent too much time
Speaker 1: on the phone and they tried to tell him to
Speaker 1: make your times up on the phone, and he dealt
Speaker 1: with them. So you'd be a brave prison guard to
Speaker 1: tap him on the shoulder. So he basically did as
Speaker 1: he pleased in there. Sometimes on the phone he would
Speaker 1: speak for twenty or thirty seconds with his girlfriend on
Speaker 1: the outside, using these fake code words, but he would
Speaker 1: tell the guards he was talking to his lawyers.
Speaker 2: And how did he organize that? How did anybody believe
Speaker 2: that that he was talking to lawyer.
Speaker 1: Well, investigators aren't allowed to listen to conversations with lawyers
Speaker 1: from inside prison, so I guess they've just taken his
Speaker 1: word for it. And little did he know that the
Speaker 1: AFP were tapping his girlfriend's phone, who was later arrested.
Speaker 1: He led guilty over this. So they'd been listening to
Speaker 1: hundreds of hours. They sat for months listening to these
Speaker 1: thirty second conversations or half an hour conversations.
Speaker 2: You're not allowed to tape a real lawyer, but you
Speaker 2: can certainly tape Marggi's girlfriend pretending to be a lawyer.
Speaker 1: Once they figured that out, they were quite happy to
Speaker 1: sit in on those conversations.
Speaker 2: It's quite a marvelous plot line, it is.
Speaker 1: And yeah, as I said, we've got to give credit
Speaker 1: to the target development team for those painstaking hours sitting
Speaker 1: listening to those conversations, and they've pieced together code words.
Speaker 1: It would be so difficult to do that, piecing together
Speaker 1: these code words that don't really make sense sentences the AFP.
Speaker 1: They've said broadly, criminals might use the word I for
Speaker 1: iotaine and even trying to decipher what a conversation which
Speaker 1: might not be suspect or suspicious, but then deciphering how
Speaker 1: that is being translated to can you move these drugs
Speaker 1: into Melbourne?
Speaker 2: Right? And it's interesting I wonder when I first read
Speaker 2: this story how they'd established that code, given that he's inside,
Speaker 2: how he'd sort of worked out keywords so that she
Speaker 2: would know what the keywords what he was talking about.
Speaker 2: It's fascinating somehow they've been able to communicate certain things
Speaker 2: they reckon.
Speaker 1: He spent probably sixty percent of his time on the
Speaker 1: phone in jail, was orchestrating these criminal activities from the inside,
Speaker 1: and they suspect he did a fairly good job of it,
Speaker 1: as a lot of it did get into the country successfully,
Speaker 1: but AFP say they were over the moon to finally
Speaker 1: charge him further once inside bar and prison.
Speaker 2: Does this suggest to you that Moragi had a pretty
Speaker 2: watertight network of efficient operators working for him overseas end
Speaker 2: in Australia that she could tap into. She could ring
Speaker 2: Charlie or George or Harry and say do this, do that,
Speaker 2: George wants this, George wants that she able to just
Speaker 2: ride on the coattails of an existing structure, gang structure
Speaker 2: or whatever. He might call it.
Speaker 1: So he's a notorious crime family. The gang he established
Speaker 1: while inside bar and prison, I'm sure they had a
Speaker 1: major role in helping orchestrate these shipments into Australia and
Speaker 1: into Melbourne specifically, and with the help of his girlfriend
Speaker 1: as sort of a connection to that, he was still
Speaker 1: able to haul in tons of drugs from overseas while
Speaker 1: inside prison.
Speaker 2: This case is further proof of crime's multicultural appeal or
Speaker 2: appeal to multicultural players, because the girlfriend is.
Speaker 1: Who Antonetta Manella.
Speaker 2: Manella, and of course long term listeners will recall the
Speaker 2: Manella name because the Manelas have been leading members with
Speaker 2: those of them who survived and not many have leading
Speaker 2: members of the Italian crime groups in Melbourne for decades,
Speaker 2: I would suggest based around North Fitzroy in the good
Speaker 2: old days when the old Originals turned up after World
Speaker 2: War II around North fit Troy Fitzroy and I think
Speaker 2: there were at least three brothers, and certainly two of
Speaker 2: them were murdered and one of them had a house
Speaker 2: in May Street, North fit Troad, which is now occupied
Speaker 2: by a leading Australian author and a Storian, and the
Speaker 2: neighbors were very relieved when the Manellas moved out. There
Speaker 2: was one of them that was killed. Sadly. His name
Speaker 2: was Salvatore, so his short name was selm Manella, Selmanella.
Speaker 2: Not bad, not bad. Of course, the Manellas were very
Speaker 2: closely associated with the likes of Alfons Gangatano and Mario
Speaker 2: Condello and all the rest of that sort of Carlton
Speaker 2: crew of no good skis. But in the next generation
Speaker 2: they've reached hands across the arrow, or across Saint George's road,
Speaker 2: or across something, and the young Manela girl has taken
Speaker 2: up with George Morogi, who is by no meansertainment.
Speaker 1: And she will serve the next thirteen years in Dame
Speaker 1: Phyllis Frost Center, the Victoria's Women's prison. So for her
Speaker 1: alleged role in orchestra adding these shipments, is.
Speaker 2: That a third on in this case a lucky number
Speaker 2: or an unlucky number? What do you think?
Speaker 1: How do you say it?
Speaker 2: Oh? I think it's a bit unlucky for.
Speaker 1: Compared to some of the bread up, a.
Speaker 2: Bit unlucky when some people kill people and get fewer years.
Speaker 2: Absolutely so, George Murraghi has had extra time added to
Speaker 2: his sentence, and that extra time, of course, is for
Speaker 2: this big drug bust that the AFP has so cleverly
Speaker 2: pulled off. But why was he in jail already?
Speaker 1: This was a brazen alleged murder he executed on a
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon September twenty sixth, twenty sixteen, where he shot
Speaker 1: and killed drug rival Owz Campbellfield Plaza, a daylight shooting.
Speaker 2: Very brazen, very brazen.
Speaker 1: We've seen a few in recent times of a similar nature.
Speaker 1: And he launched a bid to sort of have that appealed.
Speaker 1: His conviction appealed last year. There was some pretty damning
Speaker 1: evidence against him, which we can go into if you like.
Speaker 2: I'd be very now am I writing saying I've recently
Speaker 2: seen some footage of this. We've got red cars and
Speaker 2: got bugs in hoodies running and all sorts of things.
Speaker 2: How do they underneath? How do we know who's underneath
Speaker 2: the hoodie? In each case?
Speaker 1: The footage is pretty damning. It's taken from a shopping center.
Speaker 1: You see this banged up holding commodore approach the bus
Speaker 1: stop where three men are standing. One was Oars and
Speaker 1: two of his associates.
Speaker 2: They became fairly perturbed, very quickly.
Speaker 1: They did and the vision is pretty confronting. It shows
Speaker 1: allegedly a hood of George jump out of the car.
Speaker 1: He's stormed the bus stop and just started firing shots
Speaker 1: at these this group. He's hit cader Oz, who was
Speaker 1: a drug rival, and just chased him for twenty fifty
Speaker 1: meters or so, blasted him with eleven shots, hopped back
Speaker 1: in his Commodore and taken off down Campbellfield.
Speaker 2: And did a little bit of dangerous driving. I think
Speaker 2: I noticed that great big intersection when I'm familiar with
Speaker 2: because I've spent many years driving down that road. He
Speaker 2: just pulled across, did a right hand turn in front
Speaker 2: of all the traffic, and away he.
Speaker 1: Went, Away he went. They later abandoned that banged up
Speaker 1: red commodore nearby.
Speaker 2: Did they burn it?
Speaker 1: They didn't, And that was a significant part of this.
Speaker 2: What did he leave in the car?
Speaker 1: He left a bit of cardboard which eventually had his
Speaker 1: DNA written all over it. And that cardboard was from
Speaker 1: a bullet box which they reckon held nine millimeter ammunition.
Speaker 2: They'd probably be right about that.
Speaker 1: And his DNA was on that and that was one
Speaker 1: of the major factors in securing a conviction against George Morogi.
Speaker 2: The jury decided that George was a bad boy. And
Speaker 2: how many years did George get? Third time would have
Speaker 2: been a lucky number for him.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, because he got thirty two.
Speaker 2: Thirty two, that's quite a lot.
Speaker 1: It'll be an old man before he's eligible for parole,
Speaker 1: twenty forty nine that year, so he's got a lot
Speaker 1: of time to think of what he's done inside bow
Speaker 1: and Prison. The state stuff is jail.
Speaker 2: Would he be wondering, do you think late at night,
Speaker 2: four o'clock in the morning, you know, just as the
Speaker 2: first shift change starts up and the roosters are crowing
Speaker 2: over in the suburbs, would he be thinking, I don't
Speaker 2: know if it's all worth it? Thirty two years in here.
Speaker 1: It'd be fascinating to be inside his mind, wouldn't it.
Speaker 1: You'd think, is he thinking of plans for when he's
Speaker 1: out and yeah? Or is he thinking I'm going to
Speaker 1: turn my life around and stay out of this business
Speaker 1: once I'm out, when I'm almost an elderly man. It
Speaker 1: would be fascinating. Who knows? He may still be having
Speaker 1: connections on the inside. We don't know.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess jail is its own little ecosystem or
Speaker 2: fairly big ecosystem in some ways, and that those who
Speaker 2: are at the top of the tree, it's a lifestyle
Speaker 2: of its own. They have their relative luxuries compared with
Speaker 2: other guys. They've got a better television or a better bed,
Speaker 2: or a better food or whatever whatever it is, and
Speaker 2: they can sort of lose themselves in the everyday give
Speaker 2: and take of living inside of prison.
Speaker 1: And he's become quite used to it. He's barely spent
Speaker 1: twelve months of his adult life outside of prison, is
Speaker 1: that right. He's basically been in prison around Victoria for
Speaker 1: basically his old adult life. Really migrating to Australia and
Speaker 1: into Melbourne as a young.
Speaker 2: Boy got into trouble pretty early, he did.
Speaker 1: We spoke to some of his old childhood friends on
Speaker 1: health Sun dot com dot au and they've described him
Speaker 1: as being a teacher's pet. That's a quote to an
Speaker 1: quote absolute menace in just a few years.
Speaker 2: Really, And where did they come from? His parents? What
Speaker 2: sort of people were they were they hardworking tradesmen whatever.
Speaker 1: Well, they fled Iraq when he was just six years old,
Speaker 1: before he started school. They fled to Syria for a year. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty troublesome place. Things didn't work out there,
Speaker 1: so they've come straight to Melbourne when he was six
Speaker 1: or seven. Three kids, obviously George is one of them.
Speaker 1: Box Forest's Secondary College is where he started his schooling
Speaker 1: as a young teenager, which our listeners may recall. That's
Speaker 1: now Glenroy College.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's glen Roy College. The box Forests out there
Speaker 2: in the book the cemeteries out in.
Speaker 1: The northern suburbs. Yes, and he was only a short,
Speaker 1: little fella, not much of him.
Speaker 2: Didn't stop Napoleon.
Speaker 1: Well, No, he was picked on because of his size
Speaker 1: at school, oh dear, But that quickly turned once he
Speaker 1: became bigger and stronger. He started to fight those people back,
Speaker 1: so much so that he would start to carry knives
Speaker 1: at school. He would carry fifty dollar notes, which back
Speaker 1: twenty years ago was a significant amount for a teenager
Speaker 1: to carry, let alone now exactly. And we're unsure if
Speaker 1: he left or was kicked out of that school, but
Speaker 1: there was a bit of instability with his family in
Speaker 1: those years, and he moved in with his old man
Speaker 1: and then enrolled at broad Meadows Secondary College, which is
Speaker 1: notoriously tough is a school, but yeah, certainly it's a.
Speaker 2: Lovely school and it's just it's unlucky that now and
Speaker 2: again some hard cases.
Speaker 1: Go there and hello to our friends in the Northern suburbs.
Speaker 1: But no, it was a certainly a tough upbringing for
Speaker 1: George and rough life. He's lived some of that through
Speaker 1: his own choice, but certainly as a child moving migrating countries.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to a fractured life. To be serious, he's fractured
Speaker 2: life from a young age in things like refg Camp's
Speaker 2: very tough places where survival is difficult, and that would
Speaker 2: explain why he's a disturbed character. Well, I know we
Speaker 2: joke about it, but the reality is a lot of
Speaker 2: these guys that we talk about damaged people, and they've
Speaker 2: been damaged by circumstances that affect their family when they're
Speaker 2: very young.
Speaker 1: Yeah, families can be fairly unstable and that can throw
Speaker 1: around all sorts of options for and just speaking generally, Yeah,
Speaker 1: people who've found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
Speaker 1: It's it's not a great way to kickstart your life.
Speaker 1: And if you're hanging around the wrong people, or your
Speaker 1: parents have been hanging around the wrong people, it's it's
Speaker 1: the writings on the wall in some cases.
Speaker 2: Indeed, I've seen examples of that with teachers and editors
Speaker 2: and all sorts of people. What the letters in CF
Speaker 2: suggest you National Conservation Foundation.
Speaker 1: Not quite notorious crime family.
Speaker 2: Oh I see, okay? And who are they again? You've
Speaker 2: mentioned them before.
Speaker 1: There are a few of them, some we I believe
Speaker 1: we can't name.
Speaker 2: Oh these members of members of.
Speaker 1: This notorious crime family gang.
Speaker 2: But they shy. They like members of the Melbourne Club.
Speaker 2: They don't like publicity.
Speaker 1: Some of them enjoy it. Some of them try to
Speaker 1: keep a low profile. Yeah, they started off making their
Speaker 1: own hoodies and merchandise, but they really that maybe that
Speaker 1: will isn't such a good idea. But they're suspected in
Speaker 1: a lot of the drug shipments and drug deals around Melbourne.
Speaker 1: And they're heavily entrenched in organized crime and.
Speaker 2: Across some ethnic groups or heavily Iraqi or what you know,
Speaker 2: Middle Eastern Middle Eastern, by and large, basically with the
Speaker 2: odd aberrations such as Miss Manila.
Speaker 1: A few minor exceptions that.
Speaker 2: Can happen in people fall in love Romeo and Juliet.
Speaker 2: It is it's the human condition, Reagan, That's what happens.
Speaker 2: Just can't help, but sometimes they can't and then they
Speaker 2: do bad things. So, Reagan, the big question here is
Speaker 2: the AFP have had a win, a big win. But
Speaker 2: is it a big win in terms of the total
Speaker 2: amount of drugs brought into this country? Is it a
Speaker 2: significant amount of drugs they've stopped. Did it affect the
Speaker 2: market that you think or is there any feedback about
Speaker 2: any of that? How do you rate it?
Speaker 1: So George Morogi was one of five of the big
Speaker 1: name the AFP were after, right, he's a top five,
Speaker 1: he was a top fiver, and so they were over
Speaker 1: the moon, as I said, to arrest him again and
Speaker 1: lay further charges. At least another one of those five
Speaker 1: has been arrested, and as you can imagine, they are
Speaker 1: fairly tight lipped on the remaining three of these top
Speaker 1: five organized crime players.
Speaker 2: And if you were one of those other three or
Speaker 2: close to them, would you be sleeping soundly or would
Speaker 2: you be worried about you know, who's listening.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be sleeping all that easy given the AFPs
Speaker 1: and Victoria police's a masterclass, as I said, tapping phone calls,
Speaker 1: and you never know who's listening.
Speaker 2: If you were one of these guys, would you move
Speaker 2: house like every day?
Speaker 1: I would be very cautious of where I'm living, who
Speaker 1: I'm associating with, and even the security measures around my property.
Speaker 2: What about our starcross lovers. That's George and what's miss
Speaker 2: Manella's name? And oh yeah, it's a beautiful note. George
Speaker 2: and Antoinette. Has the relationship flourished under these conditions? Or
Speaker 2: is it withered? You give him one. He's in a big,
Speaker 2: bad jail and she's in another jail. They can't really
Speaker 2: bring each other much. I don't suppose unless they've both
Speaker 2: got legal telephones, we'd say might have. Is there any
Speaker 2: feedback about the romance.
Speaker 1: Not that I'm aware of. You never know how these
Speaker 1: things can flourish when they're apart. Long distance relationships have
Speaker 1: worked in the past, yeah, but a lot of the
Speaker 1: times they do come unstuck.
Speaker 2: So Reagan George is going to be in their very
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 1: He will be in for a long time. But there
Speaker 1: were pretty big plans to get him out. So upon
Speaker 1: the AFP listening to these hundreds of hours of calls,
Speaker 1: they heard an alleged plot for a prison escape George
Speaker 1: to be a free man. One of them allegedly included
Speaker 1: the use of a helicopter, Oh totally above bar and
Speaker 1: prison and saving the Big George from the Big House.
Speaker 2: Is that a fact?
Speaker 1: Imagine that for a story.
Speaker 2: It is wonderful. And these plugs they're desperate, They've got
Speaker 2: a lot of time to think and access to a
Speaker 2: lot of money outside. You would think it is fascinating.
Speaker 2: And of course you may or may not remember that
Speaker 2: many years ago there were people locked up for drug
Speaker 2: offences in Pentridge Prison and they had a set up
Speaker 2: to a former British Special Services and whatever to fly
Speaker 2: a helicopter into Penridge, pick them up and spirit them
Speaker 2: out to a park in the nearby suburb. They're going
Speaker 2: to then run into a nearby flat, get massive makeover
Speaker 2: makeup and then get put on him in a boat
Speaker 2: on the back of a truck and the boat will
Speaker 2: be taped down the back of a truck and they
Speaker 2: would be taken into state and then they were going
Speaker 2: to float the boat off and drive it to Malaysia
Speaker 2: or New Guinea or Papi in New Guinea, whatever and escape.
Speaker 2: But of course it all came unstuck because the police
Speaker 2: were listening to the pilot in the room next door
Speaker 2: at a leading Melbourne hotel and they were able to
Speaker 2: stop that plan before it got off the ground. Yeah,
Speaker 2: before the chopper got off the ground. They were able
Speaker 2: to but it actually made a lot of scenes. They
Speaker 2: probably could have got away with it as Indeed, there
Speaker 2: was of course a great case in Sydney where John
Speaker 2: Killick bank robber or similar escaped from silver Water Prison.
Speaker 2: I think it was because he's Russian. Girlfriend Lucy Dudco,
Speaker 2: I'm going to say she was Russian, had got a
Speaker 2: ride with a chopper pilot and pulled a gun and
Speaker 2: made land into prison and I mate run over and
Speaker 2: jumped on and they took off and they escaped for
Speaker 2: a very short time. This is starcross lovers, blonderful stuff.
Speaker 2: The Ballad of John and Lucy.
Speaker 1: One of the other alleged plots to break free from
Speaker 1: Barwin was upon going to court for one of his
Speaker 1: many schedule meetings. Yep, the AFP heard that he was
Speaker 1: allegedly going to just try and break free from the guards.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know those shots how magnificent photographers get. Yes, they've
Speaker 1: got a split second. They have to get the shot
Speaker 1: as they're walking from the prison van to the court
Speaker 1: in the CBD. They believe Morogi was going to try
Speaker 1: and break free at that instance and run through the CBD.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that with his hands in cuffs. Do
Speaker 1: you know anyone that can break free of vancuffs? Because
Speaker 1: that was his plan.
Speaker 2: I suppose as long as his feet weren't shackled, he
Speaker 2: could still run, but he wouldn't run very well, and
Speaker 2: he would count on the prison office as being a
Speaker 2: little bit nervous of chasing him.
Speaker 1: Possibly, I think he thought better of it with those
Speaker 1: two plans. Well that the latter. Anyway, it wouldn't.
Speaker 2: It's seen a lot of future in it. Now you
Speaker 2: need a lot of organization. Well, Reagan, it's a delight
Speaker 2: to have you fill us in on those things you've
Speaker 2: told us. How this really started with the lovers talking
Speaker 2: to each other about business, and probably they should have
Speaker 2: stuck to couing sweet nothings to each other. Now they're
Speaker 2: both inside.
Speaker 1: They're inside for a long time.
Speaker 2: Crime doesn't pay, apparently not, and neither do detectives. Thanks Reagan,
Speaker 2: Thanks Andrew, thanks for listening. Life and Crimes is a
Speaker 2: Sunday Herald Sun production for true crime Australia. Our producer
Speaker 2: is Johnty Burton. For my columns, features and more, go
Speaker 2: to Heroldsun dot com dot au forward slash Andrew rule
Speaker 2: one word. For advertising inquiries, go to news Podcasts sold
Speaker 2: at news dot com dot au. That is all one
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