The Gangland War (25 page)

When Radev was again jailed in 1999 the older woman sold drugs to try to pay his legal fees. She was caught and sentenced
to prison. When he was released, Radev was, in crime terms, upwardly mobile and began to flaunt his wealth. From 2000 he found a rich vein of crime and, according to associates, ‘went up in the world'.

Radev told associates that he was now a businessman and involved in property development, a job description that covers a lot of ground. He started to deal with other gangsters on the move such as Housam Zayat, Sedat Ceylan and Mark Mallia.

In 1998, Radev and Zayat were charged over a home invasion in which a 71-year-old man was bashed and his five-year-old granddaughter tied to a bed and threatened with a handgun. Radev's friendship with Ceylan was short lived — and so might Ceylan himself have been if Radev had got his way.

Ceylan falsely claimed to have bought electronic equipment worth about $10 million, resulting in a GST refund of almost $1 million.

Radev thought it was an excellent scheme, but expected his cut. He abducted and tortured Ceylan, demanding $100,000. The GST fraudster fled to Turkey with his money and is still wanted in Australia.

Certainly Radev loved violence. He once firebombed the car of rival drug dealer, Willie Thompson.

Willie must have been delighted when he heard of Radev's death, although his delight, like a lot of Radev's friendships, would have been short lived. Thompson was shot dead in Chadstone just months after Radev's murder in remarkably similar circumstances.

Strangely, after his car was firebombed, Thompson went out and bought a soft-top convertible. Go figure.

The Bulgarian even threatened police who had the temerity to arrest him. He intimidated one of the arresting officers, Ben Archbold, who eventually resigned because of the stress.
Archbold later gained some notoriety himself when he became a contestant in the television reality program,
Big Brother
. He was evicted, therefore failing to win the Archbold prize.

In 2001, Radev the standover man had become big enough to employ his own protection, using a professional kickboxer as muscle. He rented a home in Brighton and had no trouble finding the $530 weekly rent, paying promptly in cash.

He showered his de facto wife and their child with expensive gifts, but chose not to live with them. He paid the rent on their flat and their substantial expenses.

Just weeks before his death, he bought a 1999 Mercedes for $100,000. It was black, naturally.

For the one-time penniless refugee, Australia was the land of opportunity — even if nothing he did appeared legitimate.

He began to wear expensive clothes, preferring the exclusive Versace range. When he wanted his teeth fixed he paid a dentist $55,000 in cash for a set of top-of-the-range crowns.

Life was good for the wrestler-turned-gangster — so why was he shot dead?

Radev was well-known in the drug world and was an associate of Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel. He would sometimes buy drugs from the pair but, as always, the former wrestler wanted to be on top. He pestered Williams to be introduced to their drug cook — the man who made the pills and powders for the syndicate.

But Williams knew that the introduction would lead to an abduction — and a messy one.

He was told Radev would grab the cook, take him to an isolated farm and torture him to force him to work exclusively for the Bulgarian. Radev was said to have claimed he would have the speed chef ‘cook 24 hours a day.'

It was time for the classic double cross.

Radev met a group of drug dealers for coffee at the Brighton Baths not far from his home. It is believed Tony Mokbel was present at the meeting. It was 15 April 2003.

As soon as Radev was told he could meet the drug cook across town in Coburg, the Bulgarian was keen to move.

Radev and some others at the meeting travelled in at least three cars to Coburg.

Radev left his car in Queen Street to talk to two men. He then turned and was walking back to his Mercedes when he was shot up to seven times in the head and body. He died next to the car he had bought with his hard-earned drug money.

Police found a witness who saw a small red sedan, possibly a Holden Vectra, in Queen Street, near the intersection with Reynard Street. The car left the scene moments before the shooting.

It was the same make, model and colour of a vehicle owned at the time by George Williams, Carl's father and fellow drug dealer.

Much later, the hit man known as The Runner told police that in 2003 he was introduced to Veniamin by a Williams' adviser in a Coburg hotel. Only a short time later, he said: ‘I drove Veniamin to murder Nik Radev.'

After the Radev murder, Veniamin refused to help police with their inquiries. He was so uncooperative on principle that he even warned his own parents not to help the police if he were killed. He must have had a crystal ball. He knew he, too, was living dangerously and stood a big chance of being killed — he just couldn't tell when and where.

When Williams pleaded guilty to three murders in 2007 after being earlier found guilty of a fourth, he did so on the understanding that he (and his father) would not be charged over the Radev killing.

When Radev was shot, he was wearing a watch valued at $20,000 and a complete Versace outfit — including shoes.

His passing saddened not only friends and criminal associates. He owed one Versace outlet in Melbourne $8000 at the time, a debt that was never paid. One well-known legal identity also wrote off Radev's substantial unpaid legal fees. But at least the legal identity knows he will have a steady income on retirement, as he is now a respected judge with a healthy superannuation scheme.

Although Radev was known often to carry several thousand dollars in cash, his Commonwealth Bank accounts remained dormant for months at a time.

He flew overseas five times in four years and always travelled business class. His last trip was to Israel, the year before his murder.

He was a regular at some of Melbourne's best restaurants and often stayed in five-star hotels. After his death, police found receipts for $400 bottles of Cognac and $50 cigars among his possessions.

But what they didn't find was cash. They believe his friends went to his Brighton home and took at least $200,000, claiming it was their share of the profits.

But Radev was living, and later dead, proof that money can't buy class. Apart from having the word ‘taxi' tattooed on his penis — the ‘joke' was that ‘it's always available and goes everywhere' — Radev loved his wealth so much he was buried with at least some of it. His casket was gold plated and said to be valued at $30,000.

Most of his associates lived the same way. They spent up big on bling and baubles and drove Porsches, Jaguars and an Audi coupe.

But like Radev, Gangitano and the Morans, they were to find too late that money doesn't buy protection. Eventually the hunter becomes the hunted.

Next to go was Mark Mallia, a close friend of Radev. Mallia, 30, was another standover man connected in the drug world.

Soon after Radev's death, Mallia went to Radev's home to collect certain valuables, including the prized $20,000 watch, claiming that as the Bulgarian's best friend he was entitled to the keepsake.

It was a cunning move by a greedy man but he wasn't smart enough to work out that for him, time was also running out.

His close links to Radev meant that Williams saw him as a threat and increasingly Williams took to killing anyone he felt may come after him.

In 2007, Williams pleaded guilty to the murder of Mallia but, as with most of Carl's killings, he did not act alone. This time he used several members of his gang to abduct and torture Radev's good friend.

Williams tried to organise a meeting with Mallia but he would not fall for the same trick as Radev. He knew that any meeting with Williams and Veniamin would end in tears — and blood. His.

On 7 August 2003, a police phone tap recorded Williams ringing Mallia to try and set up the meeting. Mallia initially refused saying the ‘Safety issue is too much,' and, ‘If I don't see anybody, nobody can hurt me and I can't hurt anybody.'

But eventually he was persuaded, on condition the meeting was held where there could be no ambush. It would be done in the underworld's version of neutral ground: Crown Casino, where security cameras would record any attempt at a double cross.

The meeting at a restaurant at the complex was to assure Mallia that Williams and his team were not responsible for Radev's murder. In fact, said Carl, he was furious with the hit and had the word out that he wanted to find who killed Nik so he could seek revenge.

But Veniamin was to play the bad cop against Williams' good cop.

Benji, it is claimed, lent across the table and accused Mallia of plotting to kill him and Williams. He said he had spotted two men outside his house and suggested they were there to set up the hit.

One of those at the table said Veniamin muttered in a low threatening voice that he would kill Mallia and his family if he didn't back off.

Mallia, understandably in tears, said he just wanted to find out who killed his mate, Nik. They parted, apparently with their differences sorted. For the moment.

Later Williams found that Mallia had four heavies sit off the meeting and was still plotting his death. It was enough for him to move.

Mallia would never agree to a second meeting so Williams knew the best way to lure his target to the ambush was to persuade someone close to the victim to change sides.

He is alleged to have met one of Mallia's closest friends at a pokie venue in Lalor and offered him $50,000 to swap allegiance. The deal was done and Mallia's death certificate was signed.

Now all it needed was to be dated.

He was allegedly driven by two friends to a Lalor house where he was taken to the aptly-named ‘torture room'.

Mallia was beaten, allegedly burnt with a soldering iron and throttled with a rope. Police say there were five men present, with the chief torturer being the remarkably energetic Veniamin. When Williams turned up at the torture room with $50,000 cash in a plastic bag Mallia was bound, gagged and very much alive.

But not for long.

Why torture the victim? Police say Williams was convinced Mallia had hidden large amounts of cash from drug dealing and
Carl wanted the buried treasure before Mark was made to walk the plank.

Mallia's charred remains were found inside a wheelie bin in a drain near a reserve in West Sunshine on 18 August 2003.

With every hit, Williams became more powerful but as his profile grew so did his paranoia.

In the western suburbs, Paul Kallipolitis was the prince of drug dealers. ‘PK' was a close friend of Dino Dibra and Andrew Veniamin. Such a network was no guarantee of longevity.

PK was not a drug dealer who ordered others to do his dirty work. When he had a dispute with another drug dealer, Mark Walker, they decided to sort it out with fists. But Walker brought a gun. It was a fatal mistake. A court was told that Kallipolitis wrestled the gun from him and shot Walker twice in the back of the head. He was convicted of manslaughter and served just four years, despite the wounds indicating that it was an execution.

While some drug dealers drove Ferraris, Kallipolitis, a qualified panel beater, preferred a rebuilt Holden Kingswood with the personalised number plates, ‘CORRUPT.'

At least he wasn't shy.

Whether Williams decided to kill Kallipolitis because he feared PK would want a slice of his growing drug profits or whether he just wanted to rid himself of potential rivals is not clear.

What is clear is that the person who killed PK was a friend. That is why he was invited into Kallipolitis' fortress home in Sunshine, through the triple-locked front door.

PK was shot twice in the head. Just metres away — and just out of reach — was his own handgun. The victim felt relaxed enough in the company to remained unarmed until it was too late.

The man who pulled the trigger was his long-time trusted friend — Andrew Veniamin. It was October 2002. Two years earlier PK and Benji had shot dead their supposed friend Dino Dibra in a similar act of betrayal.

While senior police were in the last stages of planning to expand the Purana gangland taskforce, another case emerged.

This one was yet another associate of Radev. Housam ‘Sam' Zayat, 32, of Fawkner, went to a late-night meeting at a paddock near the junction of Derrimut and Boundary Roads in Tarneit, west of Melbourne, on 9 September 2003. A man with a gun made sure he didn't return.

Zayat was facing drug-trafficking charges, but had been released on bail only a week before his murder. His co-accused included suspended and former police. His committal hearing was due to begin the week after his death.

A suspended articled clerk, Ali Aydin, who managed to escape the ambush, ran twelve kilometres to the safety of the Sunshine police station. He had allegedly driven Zayat to the meeting.

In 1994, Zayat was charged with the murder of his 50-year-old lover in a Footscray house and the attempted murder of her teenage son. He was later convicted on the attempted murder charge.

His brother, Mohammed Zayat, was found hanged in 1999 at Port Phillip Prison. Another brother also served time in jail.

A well-known criminal called Nicholas Ibrahim was charged with Zayat's murder. The key witness against him was to be Ali Aydin, who had told police he had seen Ibrahim chase Zayat before shooting him five times with a pump-action shotgun.

It was compelling evidence — or would have been had he repeated it in open court. But during the committal Aydin refused to co-operate and would not answer questions.

He said he would not acknowledge his statement to police and wanted it withdrawn, but later he agreed he had signed it as true and correct.

In 2005 Aydin was jailed for contempt for refusing to testify. Surprisingly, a former policeman had confidently predicted that
Aydin would never give evidence in the trial. Was it a case of an experienced deduction or inside information?