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[AustraliaSteve]

While some of the original Alvaro family members from Sinopoli settled around Adelaide (Carmine Alvaro arrived in 1924, he fathered Cosimo, Giuseppe and Paolo), according to the Brown Report, following the death of their relative Raffaele Mafrici, Domenico Alvaro aka Mr Lenin (born Sinopoli, 1910) became the leader of the Alvaro clan in Australia. One thing of interest that ties the Alvaro family to early activities in Griffith were brothers Facundo and Peciano Alvaro being charged in 1922 for the malicious damage of 160 orange trees belonging to the farm of Francesco Gras. This and a few other events is beginning to put the lie to the myth of the 1927 “start” of the ‘ndrangheta in Australia. Back to Sydney but…there has been a contingent of the Alvaro family residing in Western Sydney and Greater New South Wales since the pre-war era. The rackets are the usual, monopolies over produce markets, extortion of local Calabrian communities and standover tactics when sellers and growers don’t fall in line.

Domenico Salvatore Alvaro, born 3/3/1934, was based in Fairfield during the time of the infamous Bungendore crops in the early 80s, and was named by Verduci as one of the investors in the crop. It was his brother Salvatore Alvaro, however, who was charged in 1988 for conspiracy to supply cannabis in the aftermath of Operation Seville. During court proceedings, Sgt. Best of the AFP described the Calabrians involved as “not particularly dangerous”, despite earlier recounting that Joe Verduci had told him that Salvatore Alvaro “…wouldn’t hesitate to kill somebody”.

The Alvaro family of Western Sydney has been established there for some time; in January of 1970, Domenico was one of seven Italians arrested in pre-dawn raids for firearm offences. The newspapers at the time only named six of the seven arrested, they included Pasquale Pignatoro, Stefano Gattaleri, Giuseppe Gattaleri, Giuseppe Casoleto, Rocco Loria and of course, Domenico Alvaro, who was arrested for being in possession of an unlicensed pistol and explosives. His bail was set at £200, alongside the others. In more recent years, the Alvaro family of Western Sydney have developed into professional businesses; Domenico’s grandson is a very successful real estate agent and property developer, who has won international awards and recognition for his work in architecture. Another cousin of his (through Roy Alvaro, related through the Alvaro clan in Calabria) is Danny Alvaro, who plays professional Rugby League for the Parramatta Eels.
Through the Adelaide Alvaro, there are marital relations to the Luppino, Condello and Condo’ families.

It was reported through newspaper articles and the NAA dossiers that the Cannistra family, based in Canley Heights, maintained links to the Griffith groups as growers and later distributors of grass. Mario Cannistra was heavily implicated in several grow operations as an associate of Joe Verduci, and his name came up frequently in the Winchester investigation (see part 8 of my article series, Calabrians in Canberra).
In the 1990s, Mario and his brother Vincenzo maintained interests in illegal card games and casinos that were run by figures such as Stan Biggs, (these operations were dying by this point however, and also involved other remnants of the “East Coast Milieu” that once consisted major-league crims such as George Freeman, Lenny Macpherson and tangentially, Abe Saffron).
The Cannistra family are related to the Commisso family through Mario’s marriage to a sister of Giuseppe “Johnny” Commisso, identified in Operation Seville as Mario’s brother-in-law. This small branch of the Commisso family is also based in the Western Suburbs, and they were using Johnny Commisso’s house as a storage space when in 1983 a raid discovered a quarter ton of marijuana in the residence.

In 2004, Mario’s brother Vincenzo was caught raising a $60 million crop in Dubbo, a rural area located about five hours outside of Sydney. The court heard he was the principal organiser of the crop, where he had employed nine assistants, mostly Vietnamese nationals to assist in the cultivation. This arose as part of Strikeforce Granchester’s investigation into a drug-trafficking network between Dubbo and Sydney. Cannistra received a non-parole period of five years. Also arrested were Angelo Germano and Tony Greco as part of the network. I’m not sure how active the Cannistra family is in 2023, but some social media searches indicate familial relationships with some of the “usual suspects” of Griffith.

How this contingent of the Alvaro clan ties into the Greater Riverina Plati locale’ is not quite clear; I have a source that contends that the Sinopoli clan maintains a clear and separate division from the Plati group; he call them “the Habsburg of ‘ndranghetisti”, refusing to intermarry with the Plati clans and complete with cousin intermarriage. Another source (an author) claims that the Alvaro in Western Sydney report to Adelaide, but operate with the blessing of the Plati locale’, if not completely under their aegis. When now 82 year old Adelaide construction identity Paul Alvaro was identified in 2015 as belonging to Australian ‘ndrangheta “Board of Directors”, the unnamed NSW man also referred to as such is believed to have been a reference to his cousin Domenico.

Building on this, I think my next post will aim to break down Adelaide a little bit, delve further into the Alvaro family and their links through NSW to Victoria, and also explore the other clans that operate out of Adelaide, such as the infamous “Seven Cells”, described (somewhat generously) as akin to the Five Families.

[AustraliaSteve]

Moving into some more stuff focused on Adelaide shortly, but in the meantime, I finally picked up a copy of “Australian ‘ndrangheta”, the 2009 Italian language book published by Ciconte and Macri that pulls on the memoirs of Nicola Calipari. Mostly stuff I already know, but some real gold in there too. I’m actually working on translating the whole book and possibly making it a pdf file to share, but I’m also not sure of the legality involved in sharing something like that.

In the meantime, I’ve been in contact with a guy from the Australian show 60 Minutes regarding the Australian national picked up in Operatiom Eureka. I’ve gathered a fair amount of info on the guy. The family is threatening legal action so I’ve temporarily removed mention of Pasquale Bevilacqua from my blog, but there’s some stuff in the mix regarding that. With all the Vibonese stuff that just went down dominating the headlines, most of the Eureka stuff is still to come before the courts.

Applied for some new FOI requests recently; let’s see how this round goes.

[AustraliaSteve]

Hey guys;
Story is still breaking so I don’t have a name yet, but a former European pro footballer is being accused of helping to import up to 400kg of coke into Australia. It’s a wild story, more to come:
Soccer star was crime gang’s cocaine kingpin

[AustraliaSteve]

Fuck. Link is broken. Fixed here.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truec ... d96032?amp

[motorfab]

Unfortunately there is a paywall on the article, can you copy/paste it please ? I tried to find other articles but I can't find for now

[AustraliaSteve]

European Soccer Star Accused of Smuggling Cocaine Australian Organised Crime Gang

A famous ex-soccer player from Europe has been accused of being a major cocaine dealer to a high-level Australian organised crime network which imported up to 400kg of the drug into Australia.
At one point, the footballer — who played for several European clubs and allegedly smuggled about 12kg of cocaine from Holland by hiding it in shipments of books — thought one of the alleged Australian crime bosses was going to have him murdered after a cocaine shipment was stolen in the UK.

“Are you going to kill me? … There is a tinted car outside my house” the soccer star allegedly wrote in an encrypted text message to the alleged boss of the smuggling syndicate.


The footballer also owed another alleged leader of the Australian syndicate “two or three million euros” and assured them he had “two of the biggest (crime) families” in Europe investigating the missing cocaine.

But the group believed he had stolen the cocaine and sold it to clear an already existing debt with the syndicate.


The soccer player and the syndicate cannot legally be named because of existing court cases and an ongoing police investigation.

The details were included in a police dossier from the investigation and reveal the international links and reach of the Australian syndicate in the international drug trade.

Police estimate the syndicate had several methods to smuggle drugs, and allege that one of those approaches — using corrupt delivery service workers to ensure the safe passage of cocaine into Australia — resulted in about 300kg to 400kg of the drug being smuggled into Australia between 2019 and 2021.

Other alleged smuggling methods included bringing drugs into Australia via the ports, the dossier said.

The organised crime group allegedly had a cruise ship captain on the books who smuggled cocaine into Australia via the captain’s vessel.

One alleged syndicate claimed there were large stockpiles of cocaine buried on a tropical island.

The island was near a port where the cruise ship docked for day trips. The drugs would then be dug up and hidden on the boat for a return trip to Australia, the dossier said.

The soccer star cannot be named because of an ongoing police investigation. File picture: iStock
The soccer star cannot be named because of an ongoing police investigation. File picture: iStock
In early 2020, the ship returned to dock in Melbourne with a 20kg shipment of cocaine on board and plans were made for it to be driven back to Sydney, the dossier said.

The dossier also revealed an alleged leader of the operation, based overseas, allegedly used fly-in-fly-out assassins from Albania to kill targets in Australia and overseas locations.

The alleged assassins were paid about 15,000 euros per hit and left the country almost immediately afterwards, the dossier said.

When a shipment of cocaine was intercepted by authorities, one of the alleged leaders of the syndicate sent a warning via an encrypted message on a Cyphr phone for one of their underlings to stay quiet to avoid police detection.

“Tell him to shut up or I will send someone to shut him up,” the alleged syndicate leader wrote in the message.

Another of the alleged syndicate members, who has been linked to several high profile crimes in Australia, was allegedly used by the leader to perform assassinations and shootings in Australia.

NEWS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Download The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph app — for both mobile and tablet — right now.

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The dossier revealed several shipments were intercepted, including 30kg of cocaine in a sting that cost one of its alleged senior members at least $2.1m.

It also included a claim from a witness that two of the alleged syndicate leaders had corrupt police on their books who could look up classified information, including whether shipments were being targeted.

Much of the profits were allegedly laundered through a Western Sydney pub’s pokies where the manager was allegedly paid to turn a blind eye.

Got a news tip? Email weekendtele@news.com.au

[AustraliaSteve]

European Soccer Star Accused of Smuggling Cocaine Australian Organised Crime Gang

A famous ex-soccer player from Europe has been accused of being a major cocaine dealer to a high-level Australian organised crime network which imported up to 400kg of the drug into Australia.
At one point, the footballer — who played for several European clubs and allegedly smuggled about 12kg of cocaine from Holland by hiding it in shipments of books — thought one of the alleged Australian crime bosses was going to have him murdered after a cocaine shipment was stolen in the UK.

“Are you going to kill me? … There is a tinted car outside my house” the soccer star allegedly wrote in an encrypted text message to the alleged boss of the smuggling syndicate.


The footballer also owed another alleged leader of the Australian syndicate “two or three million euros” and assured them he had “two of the biggest (crime) families” in Europe investigating the missing cocaine.

But the group believed he had stolen the cocaine and sold it to clear an already existing debt with the syndicate.


The soccer player and the syndicate cannot legally be named because of existing court cases and an ongoing police investigation.

The details were included in a police dossier from the investigation and reveal the international links and reach of the Australian syndicate in the international drug trade.

Police estimate the syndicate had several methods to smuggle drugs, and allege that one of those approaches — using corrupt delivery service workers to ensure the safe passage of cocaine into Australia — resulted in about 300kg to 400kg of the drug being smuggled into Australia between 2019 and 2021.

Other alleged smuggling methods included bringing drugs into Australia via the ports, the dossier said.

The organised crime group allegedly had a cruise ship captain on the books who smuggled cocaine into Australia via the captain’s vessel.

One alleged syndicate claimed there were large stockpiles of cocaine buried on a tropical island.

The island was near a port where the cruise ship docked for day trips. The drugs would then be dug up and hidden on the boat for a return trip to Australia, the dossier said.

The soccer star cannot be named because of an ongoing police investigation. File picture: iStock
The soccer star cannot be named because of an ongoing police investigation. File picture: iStock
In early 2020, the ship returned to dock in Melbourne with a 20kg shipment of cocaine on board and plans were made for it to be driven back to Sydney, the dossier said.

The dossier also revealed an alleged leader of the operation, based overseas, allegedly used fly-in-fly-out assassins from Albania to kill targets in Australia and overseas locations.

The alleged assassins were paid about 15,000 euros per hit and left the country almost immediately afterwards, the dossier said.

When a shipment of cocaine was intercepted by authorities, one of the alleged leaders of the syndicate sent a warning via an encrypted message on a Cyphr phone for one of their underlings to stay quiet to avoid police detection.

“Tell him to shut up or I will send someone to shut him up,” the alleged syndicate leader wrote in the message.

Another of the alleged syndicate members, who has been linked to several high profile crimes in Australia, was allegedly used by the leader to perform assassinations and shootings in Australia.

NEWS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Download The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph app — for both mobile and tablet — right now.

Download the app for iOS
Download the app for Android
The dossier revealed several shipments were intercepted, including 30kg of cocaine in a sting that cost one of its alleged senior members at least $2.1m.

It also included a claim from a witness that two of the alleged syndicate leaders had corrupt police on their books who could look up classified information, including whether shipments were being targeted.

Much of the profits were allegedly laundered through a Western Sydney pub’s pokies where the manager was allegedly paid to turn a blind eye.

Got a news tip? Email weekendtele@news.com.au

[AustraliaSteve]

There you go Fabien

[motorfab]

There you go Fabien

Thank you very much

[MarcoW]

Does anyone know if the Alvaros are related to the Clans of San Luca? And are they related to the Violis from Canada?

[motorfab]

Does anyone know if the Alvaros are related to the Clans of San Luca? And are they related to the Violis from Canada?

The Alvaros are from Sinopoli and they are indeed relatives to the Violis (I talked about it here, English version below the French https://unehistoiredecrimeorganise.blog ... tions.html).

Not sure how and if the Alvaros in Australia are relatives to the Violis, but if they are it's probably far

[AustraliaSteve]

Iirc, there’s a marriage somewhere in Sydney but I’ll have to double check. The Alvaro in Australia are from Sinopoli in Sydney and San Luca in Adelaide and Canberra, but there’s also some descendants from Delianuova. It’s a weird hodge-podge of Sinopoli and Plati in Western Sydney atm.

Carmine Alvaro I think was the first to arrive. He migrated from Sinopoli to Adelaide in 1924, and is the father of Cosimo, Paolo and Giuseppe.
The bigger one was Domenico Alvaro aka Mr Lenin, born 1910, arrived in 1955. He took over the clan in 1960 following the death of Raffaelle Mafrici, according to the Brown Report. He was arrested in West Sydney in 1970 for firearm offences alongside several other Calabrians.

Now iirc, a brother of Carmine named Cosimo ended up in Canada, and was close to Violi. I’ll have to double check my notes. I’m at work atm, so I’ll post more later .

[AustraliaSteve]

Sorry, I contradicted myself. The Adelaide Alvaro are from Sinopoli. San Luca people are in Canberra and Sydney.

[motorfab]

Now iirc, a brother of Carmine named Cosimo ended up in Canada, and was close to Violi. I’ll have to double check my notes. I’m at work atm, so I’ll post more later .

That, I didn't know, thanks for the info, I have to dig into this.

[AustraliaSteve]

Now iirc, a brother of Carmine named Cosimo ended up in Canada, and was close to Violi. I’ll have to double check my notes. I’m at work atm, so I’ll post more later .

That, I didn't know, thanks for the info, I have to dig into this.

Yeah, there’s definitely links there. I might be misremembering, but I remember being surprised by a direct link between Australian Alvaro and Canandian. I’ll look into it to clarify.