Immigration / Crime

[RuSSiaNThuG]

this is a story from where I live now, so to me its pretty interesting, esp since i know some of the people involved, good read if you have the time.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...6-2862,00.html
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A GANG of European-born criminals running with one-time underworld enforcer Nik "The Russian" Radev had planned to rob a circus operating on the Mornington Peninsula.

The big-top circus was seen as a soft but lucrative target by Radev, an extravagant Bulgarian-born immigrant who had a penchant for cigars and cognac.

However one member of the Russian crime gang, a man who cannot be named, was arrested in connection with a spate of 130 burglaries -- including at least one aggravated burglary -- before the circus robbery took place.

He decided to talk to police about the estimated $1.7 million burglary spree, implicating three co-offenders in the process.

It is believed he decided to talk because Radev and another gang member were prepared to open fire on police if need be during the circus robbery.

The police informer, referred to in court documents as K, was a former Russian soldier who became a criminal after migrating to Melbourne.

Gang member Michael Goldman, a Ukrainian-born criminal, tried to murder K by shooting him in the stomach and head at his Hampton flat.

K was wearing a wire at the time and recorded the unsuccessful assassination attempt on him.

He is now in the police witness protection program living under a new identity.

He has since survived a second attempt on his life interstate.

Apart from Goldman, the other men K implicated in the burglaries and at least one vicious assault were gang members Dima Mendelis and Sviatoslav Moroz.

Goldman was considered the godfather of the Russian organised crime group, according to police documents.

The son of a Jewish Soviet military captain, Goldman was born in Kiev in 1948 and grew up in the anti-Semitic Soviet Union.

He migrated to Australia, settling in Melbourne in 1980.

After injuring himself at work, Goldman received sickness benefits while running the crime gang.

"That organised group committed burglaries and, on some occasions, other offences of dishonesty which were generally carefully planned and always carried out in a skilled and efficient manner," Judge Carolyn Douglas said later.

During his time in Melbourne, Goldman has been convicted of intentionally causing serious injury after stabbing a man, making a threat to kill during an extortion attempt, attempted theft and dishonesty offences.

It was nearing the height of Melbourne's gangland war when Goldman enticed K to his flat to shoot him dead, believing he had turned police informer.

Justice Robert Redlich told Goldman in 2004: "Immediately upon K entering your apartment you shot him in the upper abdomen with a .32 Browning pistol which had been wrapped and concealed in a tea towel.

"You unsuccessfully attempted to discharge the pistol on a number of occasions, but the pistol jammed, probably because the tea towel became caught in the breech of the pistol."

The conversation between Goldman and K went in part:

Goldman: "On the ground! On the ground!"

K: "Misha, I didn't do it."

Goldman: "Tell me, bastard. Who did it!"

K: "Don't shoot! I didn't do it!"

Goldman: "Tell me! Who then? I am going to shoot."

A wounded K escaped but Goldman shot him in the head on the nature strip in front of at least three witnesses.

K managed to turn his head as the shot was fired, the bullet piercing his forehead and exiting under his right eye.

"You viewed K as disloyal -- as one who had broken the code of silence," Justice Redlich said.

Goldman claimed Radev had forced him to shoot K, and unsuccessfully appealed against his attempted murder conviction.

He is serving 14 years' jail with an 11-year-minimum for attempted murder, burglary and theft.

Radev was gunned down during Melbourne's gangland war before Goldman's trial.

According to police intelligence, it was underworld hitman Andrew Veniamin who shot dead Radev.

Dima Mendelis was born in August 1980 in the Ukraine and came to Australia with his father and stepmother in 1996.

Speaking little English, Mendelis went to Prahran Secondary College and lived with his paternal grandparents in St Kilda.

He worked as a chicken boner, car detailer and painter and spent regular periods in prison.

His convictions include intentionally causing serious injury, making a threat to kill, breaching a corrections order, multiple counts of burglary, aggravated burglary and single charges of possessing a weapon and using heroin.

"You commenced smoking opium as a young teenager in the Ukraine," Judge Douglas said.

"You took up using heroin

in Australia when you were at Port Phillip Prison."

In July 2005, Judge Douglas sentenced him to six years' jail with a minimum of four for burglary, aggravated burglary and possessing a prohibited weapon, ammunition and police identification.

Mendelis had his sentence reduced by one year on appeal.

He is due for release and has to convince Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews why he should be allowed to stay in Australia.

The other implicated gang member, Sviatoslav Moroz, is serving a seven-year maximum sentence on appeal for several burglaries.

Moroz was born in Moscow in 1974 and raised by his mother. His stepbrother is a professional violinist.

He came to Australia in 1991 to avoid being conscripted into the army.

Moroz lived in Canberra before moving to Melbourne, where he has worked as an apprentice chef, car detailer and a full-time restaurant chef.

After injuring his back in a car accident he took to using amphetamines in order to battle depression.

In this time he racked up convictions for dishonesty.

"You committed crimes of dishonesty to obtain money to buy drugs," Judge Douglas said.

It was Moroz who introduced K to Goldman.

According to court documents: "Not long afterwards, they all met at a cafe and commenced to discuss the prospect of engaging in joint criminal activities."

When sentencing Moroz in July 2005, Judge Douglas said: "You committed a large number of offences as part of an organised group of criminals where the stakes were relatively high."

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THREE jailed members of a Russian organised crime gang may be kicked out of Australia on release.

The gang had strong links with Bulgarian-born enforcer Nik "The Russian" Radev before he was shot dead in Melbourne's gangland war.

Michael Goldman, Dima Mendelis and Sviatoslav Moroz are serving sentences for crimes ranging from attempted murder and aggravated burglary to burglary and weapons possession.

The first released will be Mendelis, a permanent resident but not a naturalised citizen of Australia.

As reported in the Herald Sun last week, the 26-year-old is expected to appear before the adult parole board this week.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Mendelis had until April 23 to persuade authorities why he should stay in Australia.

"The minister will be considering cancelling his visa on character grounds," she confirmed.

According to a police document: "Mendelis is a risk to the safety of the public . . . he is a person who is of a violent nature and a recidivist criminal who will offend again."

In July 2002, police caught Mendelis sneaking around the Alfred hospital, where an informer who dobbed the gang in to police was recovering after Goldman shot him in the head and stomach.

Police believe he was trying to deter the informer from giving evidence.

The informer's daughter-in-law was twice approached in Belarus and threatened, while being ordered to convince the informer not to give evidence against the gang members.

The Herald Sun has learned that while serving his sentence, which was reduced on appeal to five years with a minimum of three, Mendelis racked up a bad record in Port Phillip Prison.

Four home-made knives and drug paraphernalia were found in his cell on separate occasions.

Mendelis once failed to submit a urine test and on another occasion returned a positive result for illicit drugs.

Moroz, 32, will be the next man to be released.

His deportation is also on the cards.

"Your future is uncertain," judge Carolyn Douglas said when sentencing him in July 2005.

"As (your lawyer) Mr Langslow stated, you may be deported to Russia, leaving your immediate family here."

Goldman, 57, has at least another seven years to serve for burglary, theft and attempting to murder the police informer.

He, too, is expected to come under the scrutiny of immigration authorities when he is eventually released from jail

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[Alon]

Melbourne gangland crime is funny, for years they're killing each other, but rarely affecting anyone else. I wonder if the cops really care that much, it's not such a big problem as long as it's confined like it is.

[RuSSiaNThuG]

*waits to see if there are any more melbournians roaming around*

personally, every time something like this is in the papers, i think its a good day, exciting story

even when this dude "tony mockbel" skipped bail...

weeks later they did a story on the under world lawyer who the said could have tipped him off...

anyways, this woman is very attractive for a court room creature.... i wonder if i can find a foto....

[RuSSiaNThuG]

Zarah Garde-Wilson's ascension to notoriety began soon after her partner, Lewis Caine, 39, was shot dead and his body dumped in a Brunswick lane last May.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Crime-...850111862.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarah_Garde-Wilson



http://www.melbournecrime.bizhosting...ardewilson.htm








now that i think about it, i wouldnt mind tapping some of that underworld arse...

anyways, thought this thread needed some fotos