Robert Trimbole.
Robert Trimbole was born on 19th March 1931.
His rise to international notoriety began in Griffith, in the Riverina district of New South Wales. He started out in legitimate business ventures, but by 1968 these went bankrupt. He looked elsewhere to make money and in the 1970's, he gained huge wealth by setting up and distributing marijuana in the Griffith region. He soon became known as the leader of the secret organised crime group, known as L'Onorata Societa - "The Honoured Society". He is also a Calabrian, and so belongs to the N'Drangheta.
He worked very hard to portray the image of a successful businessman, but not everyone in the Griffith region was fooled and by the mid 1970's, Donald MacKay, an up and coming politician tried to get recognition by starting an anti-drugs campaign. In truth, this was an anti-marijuana campaign, aimed directly at Robert Trimbole.
On 15th July 1977, MacKay was murdered due to his speaking out about marijuana profits in the Griffith region. A $25,000 reward was offered for any information as to who was behind the killing. At the murder site, bloodstains and three spent cartridges were found near his car at the Griffith Hotel. It turned out that Mackay was an informant for the police.
In November 1975, MacKay had recieved a tip about a multi million dollar marijuana crop at Coleamby, near Griffith. Distrustful of the local police, he gave the tip to law enforcement in Sydney. Sydney police raided the plantation. During the trial, MacKay's name was disclosed and everyone knew what he had done. Trimbole was not impressed and ordered the murder.
Before his death, MacKay had exposed Trimbole. This did serious damage to the criminal organisation, as he had now already begun to expand his interests into heroin. He would later be caught up in the Mr Asia gang, an international heroin smuggling network. Between 1972 and 1979, the network operated in Australasia, dealing with gangs in New Zealand. In 1979, the arrests and imprisonment of it's English members spelt the end of the syndicate.
In August 1980, Trimbole was ordered to give evidence at the Melbourne inquest into the murders of two syndicate members, Douglas and Isabel Wilson. The Wilson's had been brought in from New Zealand and executed by Trimbole because he had found out through his corrupt policemen that the couple were police informants. More trouble headed Trimbole's way in June 1983, when MacKay murder participant, Gianfranco Tizzoni was arrested.
Tizzoni sang, he spilled his guts on everything. Trimbole started feeling the heat and fled. Trimbole was finally tracked down in October 1984, hiding in Dublin, Ireland. He was suspected to also had been in Italy, Switzerland and France. The legal moves for his extradition were stepped up, but he had the last laugh. He had already been in a Dublin hospital to treat his cancer, and now wouldn't get the chance to serve a big sentence, as he died. In the end, he had beaten them all.
