Vic: Ranks of top gangsters thin as gang war gathers pace

AAP General News (Australia)
04-09-2004
Vic: Ranks of top gangsters thin as gang war gathers pace

By Karen Hart

MELBOURNE, April 9 AAP - The players are falling at an unprecedented rate and bookmakers
will no doubt be running a few private bets on who will be the next victim of Melbourne's
bloody gangland killings.

Like some brutal, cunning game of chess, the major players have fallen, a few remain
and the end game is now being played out.

Alleged drug trafficker Carl Williams, 33, is most likely at the top of the bookies'
list of who will be victim number 24.

Mick Gatto, who is charged with the murder of Williams' mate and bodyguard Andrew "Benji"

Veniamin, is also still in the game.

So is underworld kingpin Tony Mokbel, an associate of Williams and Veniamin, and one-time
partner of slain crime figure Lewis Moran.

Williams, who is more comfortable in jeans and his trademark windcheater than the traditional
gangster garb, had been confident that police warnings he could be next on the hit list
after Veniamin was slain last month were wrong.

The cockily confident father who says he's a property developer and family man, said
he wasn't worried "in the slightest" after Veniamin was shot.

During conversations with Williams, his attitude to being labelled "a dead man walking"

had always been dismissive, even jovial.

But after crime family patriarch Lewis Moran was shot as he enjoyed a beer and a bet
at a pokies club last week, Williams' tune changed.

Clearly agitated, Williams revealed he was considering taking up a police offer of protection.

Williams, 33, had successfully applied to a Melbourne court to have the reporting conditions
of his bail changed for safety reasons.

Williams is on bail on drugs and threatening to kill charges.

But despite reports he applied to the court to get his passport back so he could flee
overseas, Williams said he had no intention of going into hiding overseas or interstate.

"I had no intention of leaving the country. I knew I wouldn't get my passport back
anyway," he said.

He also said he had no plans to leave Melbourne and would take his "luck" on his own turf.

But he's moved out of the family home, temporarily leaving wife Roberta and their two
children for their own safety and has set up shop in a secret location somewhere in Melbourne.

Despite claims he's done nothing wrong and is not a member of the underworld, Williams
is familiar with the infamous Moran family.

Williams was allegedly shot in the stomach by gangland lieutenant Jason Moran over
a $400,000 debt in 1999.

After Lewis Moran was gunned down, Williams said he had never met the man.

But Williams now has powerful and influential allies, including alleged drug lord Mokbel.

The well-known underworld identity, who is facing serious drug charges and is out on
bail, rallied around his mate Williams at Veniamin's funeral two weeks ago in a public
show of solidarity.

Lewis Moran's murder last week is believed to be a payback for Veniamin's slaying.

It has been alleged in court that Mokbel is at the apex of a $2 billion drug empire.

Mokbel had been close to Gatto and was once an associate of Lewis Moran, but the sides
have now changed.

Police Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland, who said Lewis Moran's murder had shocked
him, confirmed police were concerned for Williams' safety.

"We have fears for Mr Williams' safety ... but we are hoping for an outbreak of common
sense from the underworld," he said.

Detectives have also identified other players in the underworld war most likely at
risk, but have not named names although Lewis Moran had been among them.

He knew he had it coming and Williams no doubt knows he's probably a dead man walking.

But at least he's stopped drinking at his regular watering hole at the same time each
week, unlike Moran who appeared to be resigned to the fact that he'd already lost the
game.

AAP kh/dk/sjb/mo

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