**Gatto recently on 3AW went real close(without stepping over the line) to making a death threat against Hinch....Hinch chose not to press charges.

Quote:Mick Gatto target of spoof Melbourne mayoral campaign
Article from: Herald Sun
Mary Bolling

September 03, 2008 12:00am

A SPOOF campaign nominating underworld identity Mick Gatto to be Melbourne's mayor shows residents could be prepared to vote for the underworld identity.

Yarra Trams seized half a dozen "Mick for mayor" postcards from a route 86 tram on Friday.

The cards purport to be distributed by the "Committee to Elect Domenic (sic) Gatto" and to be "authorised by D Hinch".

But a Herald Sun online poll shows Gatto could win a majority at Town Hall.

Asked if they would vote for the Carlton identity, 51 per cent said they would, 41 per cent said they would not, and 7 per cent said they would be too afraid to vote.

But neither Gatto nor his 3AW critic are laughing.

"I don't know anything about it," Gatto said yesterday.

"Maybe I would (run) if they asked me, but I've never heard about it before.

"It's a joke. Why else would it have Derryn Hinch's name on it?" he said.

Hinch was also in the dark about the postcards, which ask Melburnians to send suggestions for a Gatto campaign to replace Mayor John So in November's council elections to 3AW's mailing address.

"I'd say it's somebody with a sick sense of humour. What can you say? There are some fruit loops out there," he said.

"I would just hope, if he were elected as lord mayor, he'd be an absent one."

The card, bearing a council logo with a pair of guns inserted into the image, describes Gatto's "dedication to law and order" and bears a bogus endorsement from a former policeman who was investigated in relation to a murder.

"In all the years I have known Mr Gatto, I have always found him to be a man of great honesty and integrity," it reads.

The cards also take a swipe at council, saying Gatto's "first act as lord mayor will be to reform Melbourne City Council's electoral laws in order to bring an end to the corruption that plagues them so".

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0...62,00.html

Quote:and 7 per cent said they would be too afraid to vote

lol that bit gave it away that it was a hoax, clever

Underbelly gangland murderer Carl Williams refused permission to go mother's funeral



GANGLAND murderer Carl Williams has been refused an application for leave from jail to attend the funeral of his mother Barbara, who died last week.

His father, however, who is also in jail, will be allowed to attend.

Corrections Victoria released a statement today saying it had refused Williams' bid, but had approved the application of his father George who is serving time on drugs charges.

Carl Williams is in Barwon Prison, serving 35 years for the murders of four gangland rivals and conspiring to murder a fifth during Melbourne's underworld war.

"The issues of security and public safety were key factors in considering this application," the Corrections Victoria statement read.

"Leave has been granted to George Williams, who will be escorted to the funeral of Barbara Williams by Corrections Victoria prison staff.

"Stringent security conditions are being put in place to accommodate his attendance."

Barbara Williams was found dead in the bedroom of her home in Essendon, in Melbourne's northwest, on Saturday morning after an apparent deliberate drug overdose.

News.com.au

Seven dead in new gangland drug war in Victoria



SEVEN men have been killed in suspected drug-linked executions in Victoria in 10 months - in a new outbreak of underworld mayhem.

And police are so alarmed by the flow of firearms into the city and a spate of non-fatal shootings they are planning targeted roadblocks to catch gun-carrying gang members.

Operation Santiago, a new taskforce devoted to the shooting war between alleged family based amphetamine syndicates, is also being bolstered.

A Sunday Herald Sun investigation into the new-look crime landscape can reveal:

THE Purana taskforce, having investigated Carl Williams' killings, is probing current crime kingpins.

CHIEF Commissioner Christine Nixon believes 21st century organised crime will be the greatest challenge for her successor at the helm of Victoria Police.

SENIOR police have been concerned by escalating shoot-outs between ethnic gangsters in the northern suburbs and are amazed no one has been killed in the crossfire.

Most of the seven suburban slayings, which occurred between February and last month, have been discovered in or near metropolitan parks and reserves.

Two were parkland "slash and burns" - suspected of being related to drug deals.

A third victim is believed to have had his throat cut in a Noble Park reserve before being rolled into a nearby creek.

Three others were shot dead and the seventh was bashed to death and dumped in a field.

All except two of the victims were aged under 35, all the killings had drug or criminal links and no one has been charged over three of the cases.

It is a comparative kill rate to the height of the Carlton crew-Williams crew gangland war where in 2003 when eight underworld-linked figures were executed.

In other years of that war, four or less people were killed.

THE seven suburban slayings have been probed in separate homicide inquiries, but are not believed to have a devoted taskforce even though drugs are suspected to be a common factor.

As the bodies have stacked up, police have been spooked by an escalation in non-fatal shootings by ethnic gangsters in Melbourne's north.

A Lebanese organised crime syndicate and its rivals are believed to be behind about 20 non-fatal shootings around Broadmeadows, Gladstone Park, Preston, Reservoir and Coburg since November last year.

The main gang, dubbed The Family, allegedly centres on a patriarch and three sons running a speed, ice and ecstasy racket backed by threats against police and residents and violent attacks, sometimes allegedly with chainsaws and machineguns.

They cannot be named because of court hearings.

Victoria Police has responded with the new 20-officer Taskforce Santiago, taking over from Operation Lased, which was probing the northern gangs.

Det Acting Insp Steve White said the taskforce would deploy roadblocks in the north and bring in the heavily armed Special Operations Group for risky arrests.

"Even when (Operation Lased) had made some arrests at the end of September, shootings still occurred," he said.

"That's why we've been established - bottom line to stop the shooting.

"I'm concerned about the amount of guns that are in the community and where they're sourcing them from," Det White, Santiago's operational head, said.

"It seems to me as soon as we take a gun off the street it's replaced.

"Long arms, short arms, all different types.

"Nothing surprises me in policing, but the fact that they can get access to guns so readily is a concern."

The squad devoted to combating the drug and gun menace has drawn officers from homicide, armed crime and crime-tasked operations.

But police believe further shootings may be imminent "because you can't control everything that's going on in the suburbs".

"We haven't had a shooting in the past five weeks (since the taskforce began). In that respect we've done our job," Det White said.

"We've had some good results, but it's the tip of the iceberg."


Det White said the code of silence, which was cultural and born of fear, meant criminals would not identify their tormentors.

"But Purana has shown it can work. Criminals will make statements and give evidence against each other for a variety of reasons," he said.

"We will be more than happy to go and chat to anyone who wants to come forward."

"We're still putting the jigsaw together as to who's who . . . but certainly it's significant enough for us to start a taskforce to look at it."

The existence of Operation Santiago was revealed in the days after the shooting of Bandidos bikie Ross Brand, but it is focused mostly on the northern gangs' shooting sprees.

POLICE believe the northern crime gangs may have resulted from jockeying for dominance in the wake of Purana's successes.

Senior crime investigators said the current major crime players were loosely based on ethnic grounds, including Italian and Lebanese.

But the gangland groups were increasingly making multi-racial alliances, forming a "criminal melting pot" when special skills or expertise were needed.

High-ranking sources also said the ceasefire in the gangland war was not permanent and it was likely there would be at least another hit.

They said detected drug flows - including big ecstasy busts worth hundreds of millions of dollars and alleged linked to the Calabrian mafia - were "just the tip of the iceberg".

News.com.au