The " Mafia " Reappears !

Remember the Donald McKay murder  ?    That was the spark that lit the fuse to throw the crime spotlight on the New South Wales town of Griffith in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation area.   The blatant murder of a political aspirant had Australia mesmerised as the investigation uncovered what were termed " Grass Castles " , palatial homes financed by the Mafia which had penetrated the Griffith farming culture to create a Marijuana empire.

It had all the ingredients of a Hollywood movie.  Crooked cops on the take.   The " Omerta " code of silence imposed with the threat of death.  A political influence in Canberra protecting this crime scene.  Immense riches as this well organised Mafia operation supplied the syndicates who distributed the end product in every city and town in Australia.   The body of Donald McKay was never found.

We have just had a new farm scandal when metal sewing needles were found in strawberries, resulting in this fruit being withdrawn from the market.   It was more the thought than the actual risk.   The number of punnets of strawberries contaminated was small and only one person actually swallowed a needle and required hospital treatment, but the damage done to this important farming industry was catastrophic.

We were treated to media news footage which showed truckloads of prime strawberries being dumped at landfills and left to rot.  On the cusp of summer, many families will have trepidation about buying strawberries because of that lingering image that the needle attacks have put into their minds.  This is a labour intensive industry because strawberries are unsuitable for mechanical harvesting.  Each individual fruit is picked by hand and lower sales will result in job losses - and a drastic drop in profits for growers.

Now we learn that a small farming operation in the strawberry heartland near Brisbane is owned by a man with a very interesting past.   He was a " person of interest " in a National Crime Authority investigation in the 1990's of Calabrian Mafia intrusion into the agricultural industry in Mildura.  That investigation revealed a similar background to those "Grass Castles " in Griffith and this same individual built a home of titanic proportions with gold taps in the bathrooms and the splendour of a palace.  A red Ferrari was seen parked in the drive.

The owner of that farm has drug trafficking convictions and in recent times has been active in enlarging his strawberry business in the area.  It seems certain that crime investigators will be looking closely at all the aspects of how this needle attack might be linked to the machinations of those with financial interests in the industry.

It should also set alarm bells ringing in Australia to carefully examine what interests are rampant in our agricultural industry. Across the world, national crime syndicates have learned that it is more profitable to divest into legitimate areas of business and use their muscle to edge out competitors than to indulge in traditional criminal activities.   This form of infiltration usually goes unnoticed by crime authorities.

Our sleepy farm sector may be gearing up as the new crime battleground  !