THE OPERATION BEGINS, NICE AND SLOW
McLaren and his partner Alison would establish that they spent a lot of their time between Griffith and Melbourne; Col Goodwin’s work as an art-dealer had him crossing through the states on a regular basis. During their first proper meeting at the Griffith RSL, Romeo and Trimboli had both spoken of their connection to Melbourne, purely from the perspective of their affection for the city. Over the course of their conversations, evidently helped along by Alison’s flirtatious nature, Col would explain his work as an art-dealer to the two rising ‘ndranghetisti.
He detailed the in-and-outs of purchasing and selling fine artwork, which coincidentally required frequent travel between the states. Romeo expressed some interest in the ways of the business, accepting Col’s business card, while Alison’s gentle flirting with Trimboli had him receptive to their chats. The drinks and conversations flowed, and by the end of the night the undercover operatives had established a friendship that would form the basis of the investigation.
While this introduction was certainly a huge coup’ for police, it was only the start; they now had to obtain proof of criminal conduct. McLaren was cautious, informed by his many years of undercover work. He was resolute that the next contact had to be initiated by the Calabrians. He was very wary of seeming overly eager. This approach paid off when a month after their initial meeting, the surveillance team got notice of Rosario Trimboli arriving in Melbourne. One of his first acts was to call the number that had been given to them on the business card.
Rosario told the pair that he was in town for business, inviting them to dine with him and two of his cousins at a favoured Lygon Street restaurant. During dinner, Trimboli introduced his cousins, two brothers of the Melbourne branch of the Romeo-Trimboli family. The older cousin, Rocco Romeo, was born in 1952, and would become a close accomplice of Rosario over the next few months as they dealt with the “dodgy art-dealers”. Rocco usually went by the nickname Roy but was also on occasion referred to as “Little Rocco”, on account of his stature. The younger cousin, Domenic Trimboli, was born in 1963 and had some history as a small-time drug-dealer associated with Pasquale Agresta.
Eventually, it would come to be a common occurrence for Ross and Rocco to drop in to visit the inner-city Melbourne apartment Cole and Allison shared. Whenever they had business in the city of Melbourne, which was often, Ross would contact Cole and arrange visits, usually accompanied by Little Rocco, Domenic Trimboli or another cousin named Rocco Romeo, nicknamed “Fifi” to distinguish him from the other Rocco.
Their entrée into criminal activity with the undercover cops began with the methods of money laundering that Cole claimed he utilised in his work as an art dealer. This piqued the interest of the men from Griffith, who were always on the look-out for ways to wash their money, and dodge taxation. The idea revolved around the notion of buying art to a means to conceal assets, which could later be rapidly liquidated as required. The Griffith men were introduced to Cole’s ‘dodgy accountant’, who could educate them in the myriad methods Cole used in the process of hiding money and avoiding taxation.
As part of the covert operation, there were frequent visits to Griffith that saw Cole “buying” art in Canberra, Wagga-Wagga, Broken Hill, Albury and Gundagai, all towns near or around Griffith. This of course gave the officers the perfect opportunities to stop in for a visit with their friends from Griffith. Cole noted how particularly eager Rosario was to help with their luggage. Each time they would check into hotels, Ross would lug their bags in. The officers suspected that the real reason behind the kindly offers was to double-check the details the pair were leaving at the registries, and perhaps to get an idea about what the pair might be carrying in their bags. There was a morning that McLaren recounts in his memoir, when the pair noticed that their vehicle had been searched overnight; while nothing was taken, it was obvious to the officers that several documents in the car’s glovebox had been rifled through. With the elaborate work that had gone towards establishing their undercover identities however, this was of no concern and served to further ease the Griffith group into a position of trust.
Coming towards Christmas of 1993, McLaren and his female offsider had successfully penetrated the ‘ndrina headed by Antonio Romeo. Through their police supervisors, they had knowledge that the Griffith branch of the bank which held McLaren’s fake accounts had been examined by an anonymous party, obviously a contact the Calabrians had in the branch. There had also been close surveillance of Tony Romeo making trips up to Queensland’s Gold Coast. He was observed holding meetings while gambling at Jupiter’s Casino. Rosario and Rocco held down operations from Griffith in between their visits to Melbourne.
It all culminated during a Christmas party at the favoured restaurant in Lygon Street, Carlton. Antonio had a nineteen-year-old date on his arm and McLaren and Alison were present, alongside Rosario and his cousin, Rocco. They had even arranged for another covert officer to pose as a friend of Alison’s named “Liz”. She was there to flirt with Little Rocco in the hopes of keeping him, and therefore his cousin Rosario, occupied at the function.
Late that night, after several rounds of drinks and a slow journey back to the East Melbourne apartment, Cole Goodwin and his partner Alison gave their Christmas gifts to Antonio, Rosario, and Rocco. Each would receive a moderately expensive artwork. The undercover pair had essentially pooled resources to buy the gifts, despairing of ever receiving department reimbursement. Luckily, the gifts were received graciously, and Tony thanked them for their generosity. Shortly after this, the next hurdle in the operation was successfully jumped; that night, Rosario brought up the topic of drugs.
McLaren took care not to show too much eagerness but was deliberate in his show of interest. The topic had come up in passing several times. Cole had claimed off-hand that he was in a prime position to sell drugs to his upper-class art-snob colleagues. But here was the first actual offer, and it was significant. Rosario told McLaren that he had access to high-grade cocaine and “carloads” of weed. McLaren made a point of displaying his enthusiasm in getting involved, no doubt eased by the numerous drinks the group had shared that night.
Rosario expounded on his connections, claiming a direct line to cocaine straight from Colombia. He offered to deliver Cole a sample in the New Year. With Cole’s “network” of art-dealers and white-collar businessmen, he had the clientele to move Rosario’s product. They hashed out some code-words (a “Picasso” would equate to a kilo of coke) and went over some prices. He mentioned a recent sale of over half a ton of grass, which he had sold at $3500 a pound. Col gave a low whistle, and they sat into the night hashing out their plans and the money they would make together.
The Griffith group left, and the covert operatives were ready to move into the next phase of the operation. An interesting note here is that as early as 1994, the Calabrian clans in Australia were already beginning to move into the cocaine trade, mirroring their homeland and expat counterparts. By the mid 1990’s, cocaine had not yet become the major focus of the Calabrian drug-trade, but it was soon to become the engine around which everything else revolved. And here was Rosario Trimboli, in 1994, claiming a direct connection with Colombian suppliers.
And so, following his “in” through the local bar-fly to Tony and Ross, McLaren had spent the next six to seven months slowly gaining the trust of Tony Romeo and Ross Trimbole. As the cover-story went, with Cole based in Melbourne, this had appealed to the group. It afforded Tony Romeo another connection to the Melbourne scene, which saw some overlap with Griffith ‘ndranghetisti. With both Romeo and Trimboli having family in Melbourne, they were constantly looking for ways to further expand their business interests.
At the time, there was another individual who, possessing a great level of pedigree, was engaged in an active trade of drug trafficking and related rackets between Griffith and Melbourne. Pasquale Barbaro, the eldest son of Little Trees Frank, could have been considered the “golden boy” of all the Griffith ‘ndrine. Pat Barbaro had serious convictions for drug trafficking even back then, in the mid-1990s. He also dominated the drug trade between the Griffith and Melbourne clans. It would seem as if Tony Romeo might be finding some paths towards upping his influence, and his new friend in Melbourne could help facilitate this.
In any case, following their fortunate introductions, McLaren, and the offsider posing as his love interest, had spent most of 1993 ingratiating themselves with the Calabrian crew from Griffith. This was a somewhat more sexist era of policing, however. Once their conversations turned to drug traffic and other serious levels of criminal activity, the controllers decided that McLaren’s female partner would now be steadily removed from the equation. It was decided by departmental heads that the situation had grown too serious to continue with a female operative. Alison was to be replaced by Damian Marrett, posing as McLaren’s younger brother. As an operative with his own significant experience as an undercover, Marrett was introduced to the operation. He decided on a persona that portrayed a surfer-type, with a penchant for drug-dealing, named Ben. It was a slow process, with Romeo and his crew only tentatively moving forward conversation by conversation.
THE AUSSIE “DONNIE BRASCO” BROTHERS; COLE & BEN
With Cole vouching for his “brother”, Marrett was successfully brought into the operation. “Ben” posed as a more natural conduit for drug-trafficking and had his own years of experience as an undercover operative. Still, the Griffith crew were careful in conducting their own due diligence. There were several “trials” the Calabrian crew would force upon the undercover agents, in the mistaken belief that police officers would be forbidden from engaging in certain illicit activities. Such as the use of drugs or engaging with the services of prostitutes. While technically correct for regular police, the letter of the law regarding undercover investigations extended to legislation that covered these very issues.
Both New South Wales and Victoria (and most of the other states around this time) had actually legislated a framework of laws ensuring that, when put in positions that might otherwise compromise such operations, police were, in fact, legally permitted to engage in certain forms of criminal behaviour, within reason. Unless there was the possibility of someone getting hurt, and barring discussions of murder, undercover operatives could legally engage in low-level criminal behaviour to maintain cover. And so began one of the most intricate active police investigations into the ‘ndrangheta clans, an historic event in law and research.
Over the course of what would become Operation Afghan, some frictions would develop between McLaren and Marret. Illustrated in their own writings, these issues become apparent in how they would describe each other in their respective “memoirs” (Marret wrote a first string of books, then McLaren would finish Infiltration and go into podcasts and his own publications.) Between various and vague insults and other offhand dismissals, a common theme emerges in their conflict.
McLaren complained about Marrett’s behaviour in his memoir and referred to Marret as “useless” during his monologues on a podcast dedicated to his exploits, called “The Sting”. Marret, who wrote two books on his own career, described McLaren as being overbearing and stiflingly rigid. Marrett shared his perspective on the Griffith operation with his own writings. By their respective accounts of the operation, McLaren felt wary of Marrett’s relative inexperience. Marret seemingly felt chafed by McLaren’s seniority rules and demanding nature. For some reason, however, McLaren completely disregards Marret’s experience with the Mildura ‘ndrina, which was another group of Calabrian expats with deep connections to the old country and had access to local import firms. The Mildura group were arguably more dangerous and substantially more active in drug-trafficking at the time. Marrett did have experience with ‘ndrangheta clans, but whatever happened between Marrett and McLaren seems unresolved and conflicting.
In any case, it’s part of why in this article and its companion piece, I have used both versions of their conversations with Rosario Trimboli in the hull of the drug smuggling aircraft this operation was leading to. Getting there makes up part of what was to come in this next phase of the operation.
BROTHER BEN & COLE
As the new year of 1994 dawned, the shift in arrangements that had seen Damian Marrett enter the operation was successful. Cole had successfully managed to explain away the absence of his partner but was now keen to introduce his little brother to his friends. Ben had a better knowledge of drugs and was better suited partner to it than Alison. For her part, McLaren had explained how she was staying in another state for work.
McLaren was completely focused and had already begun to make inroads with drug purchases. A deal involving a kilogram of cocaine sourced from Pasquale Agresta had him and Rosario Trimboli already in the mix. Marrett, for his part, was up to the very morning of his first introduction still wrapping up his former operations. The fact that he had some previous experience infiltrating other ‘ndrine may have been weighing on him. As far though as the operation was concerned, they formed a satisfactory synchronicity.
Ben’s first introduction to the Griffith mob seemed to go swimmingly. Rosario and Rocco had come to pay a visit to Cole’s apartment in Melbourne, and Cole introduced Ben to the pair of cousins. They chatted over coffee and Ben made them laugh. Rosario would seem to take liking to “Brother Ben”, as he would dub the operative. During another meeting in early 1994, there was further discussion about drug sales. Rosario was feeling out Ben’s opinions on some of the massive deals Rosario conducted. McLaren sensed that Ross was trying to gauge Ben’s appetite for the big deals he was proposing. Ben passed every test with his characteristic smirk. He was keen to get amongst it.
During McLaren’s earlier dealing with Agresta and Trimboli, they had begun talks of a plan for the importation of drugs. The idea being their use of a small aircraft to fly in a load of marijuana from Papua New Guinea that they could sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rosario indicated this as a method of importation. Thinking on his feet, Cole had made a reference to a possible pilot he knew. Ben also hit the ground running, now as deep into the operation as Cole.
Later that month, Antonio Romeo himself arranged a meeting at the Old Melbourne Hotel with his crew; this time he invited Cole and his brother Ben. After a meal and several drinks the discussion had centred around the plan they had to import the planeload of high-grade marijuana. The “skunk” had been harvested from crops in Papua New Guinea, grown by their associates in the country. By this point, the undercover duo had become a crucial part of the plan by agreeing to help with it. With Cole’s part being to find the pilot, he spoke of an old friend he had in mind for the job, an associate who had a pilots licence and knew how to fly low enough to evade radar.
Meanwhile, Ben was being welcomed into the fraternity. Even in his own memoirs Marrett recounts being a little too over-confident at times with this group. He pushed at times and joked around, occasionally insulting the crew. Luckily, his approach worked with Ross, and they traded friendly barbs frequently, the wog and the larrikin. However, Ben also wanted to make some buys, asap. At one meeting, chatting over a promised kilo of coke, the operatives showed Ross and Roy a blue Adidas duffel bag, stuffed with about $2k in cash. It was a show of intent, to make the coke deal a reality, money signed out by the cops, loaned out to the squad with these marked offers of buying.
Ross muttered something about his connection not being capable of supplying at that moment. He switched the conversation to marijuana and began offering pounds on consignment. The brothers would have a couple weeks to move the high-grade skunk and then pay back the Griffith crew a set amount, getting to keep their profits. These types of conversations meandered on but there had been no actual buys made, beyond the mumbled promise of a twelve-pound marijuana deal soon.
As if to underline the point, it was clear that the Griffith crew was at least taking precautions with its new partners. There was soon to be a significant test for the pair, the Griffith ‘ndrina taking some final steps to ensure that the brothers could be trusted.
Mafia in Australia 