The "mafia" here in Australia is actually Ndrine.
As opposed to the USA where the family's (LCN)make anyone of Italian background, the family's here are primarily related along bloodlines and most actually hail from two towns, Siderno and Plati in Calabria, dividing them into two groups along these lines.
In Adelaide, South Aus. there is what's known as the "seven cells of Adelaide". Predominantly organized along family(blood) lines but all one big Family. They are Sergi, Barbaro, Trimboli, Romeo, Nirta, Alvaro and Perre.
In Melbourne, Victoria you have family's Italiano, Arena,, Muratore, Benvenuto, and Condello.
Other family's of note are Medici, Musitano, Pochi and Agresta.
You will find them in all capital cities and across major rural locations like SA's Riverland, Mildura and Shepparton in Victoria and famously, Griffith New South Wales.
They are involved in all the traditional crimes that the mafia is known for. In recent years there has been multiple arrests over drugs. Once the primary supplier for marijuana across Oz, they have branched out into amphetamine and coke with connections back to Europe and with Mexican cartels.
They have a strong presence in labour racketeering especially in the construction, transport,gaming and produce industries.
For many years standover tactics were used even on some of the nations largest supermarket retailers (Coles)to force them to buy fruit and veg from certain wholesalers. The profits were in the tens of millions.
They had rackets at Victoria's wholesale produce markets shaking down sellers for stands, buyers for loading of product. This went on for decades.
Some years back they had heavy ties with unions on the docks in many Australian ports but I haven't heard much on this for some time since John Howard's(then prime minister) anti union clean up of the stevedore industry in the mid to late 90's.
In Aus. there is a great need from law enforcement to go after easy and highly visible targets like OMG's that bring big media attention with staged seizures and nice perp walks for the cameras to make it seem like their doing their jobs, so long, protracted, expensive type investigations that are required to takedown long established organized crime syndicates are often overlooked in favour of the quickie arrest and flip type of policing...hence you don't hear a great deal about the Italians often.
N'drangheta has had a presence in Australia dating back to at least the early 19th century. A lot of the early cases are readily available with a quick Google search. See: Melbourne produce market wars. Donald McKay murder.
Some later ones of note is the case of Dominic Marafiote who was killed in Mildura(rural Victoria) on the same night his parents, Carmelo and Rosa were clipped in Adelaide.
Dominic Perre a high ranking South Australian member heavily involved in Marijuana and amphetamine distribution who's crew blew up the NCA (national crime authority) offices with a letter bomb in Adelaide, killing the leading detective.
Peitroantonio Cerullo who was arrested with 317kg of coke and 3 million in cash in Prospect, an Adelaide suburb.
Two brother in laws, Rocco Medici and Giuseppe Furina who were capped and dumped in the Murray river for following a breakaway group led by Vince Angilleta (also blown away)
Ranking mobster Tony Romeo shot gunned at his Griffith orchard while pruning a peach tree, allegedly for stepping out with another's wife. Link to story:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/29/1027926854483.htmlThere has been a couple of attempts at infiltrating with law enforcement undercovers but these often can only go so high due to the insular nature of only making blood relatives and a lot of intra family marriage making the ties strong and the desire to rat less attractive.
There was a making ceremony recorded in a Melbourne house a couple of years back. It was on the net for a while but its entirely spoken in Italian, so unless you speak it I haven't seen any transcripts released that have been translated.
A good link to the story of Capo Nicola Ciconte. Huge bust in 2004 with over 150 arrests.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-ord...2-1226678168792A link to Gangsters inc site with section on Aus mafia.
http://z14.invisionfree.com/GangstersInc/ar/t57.htmLink to news article on induction ceremony.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-ord...2-1226679012810Link to news report on history of aussie mob. Deals predominantly with Melbourne.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-ord...k-1226678598417http://www.academia.edu/1810710/Family_Influence_Italian_mafia_crime_group_in_AustraliaGoogle Bruno "the fox" Romeo of the Romeo/Rispori family
