For those interested, part 3 of my series on Italian-Australian crime has gone up on Gangsters Inc. This one covers the early years of Calabrian immigration to Australia and the earliest 'Ndrangheta elements.

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-calabrian-ndrangheta-in-australia

Part 4 will be up before long.

I know right? Kinda f**ked up.

The thing is, Australia does in fact have extradition treaties in place with Italy, but a combination of public and official disinterest make it not a pressing issue. A good example is made in Nicola Ciconte and Vincenzo Medici who have been sentenced to 25 years in Italy for drug trafficking. Despite numereous requests from Antimafia prosecutors, they remain in Australia.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/italy-convicts-local-mafia-20120615-20fok.html

There is a particular 'tin-foil hat' theory that may be somewhat relevant; in the early years of the 21st century, Calabrian mob figure Francesco Madafferi made a series of political contributions to the then ruling Australian Liberal Party, ostensibly to allow him to remain in the country. Some have pointed to the lingering effects of these substantial contributions as a possiblity.

I, however, hold faith that the first theory is the most likely, and before long Australian officials will wake up and comply with Italian authorities.

Looks interesting and it seems you've put a lot of effort into this. I'm planning to read all the parts one day. There's still so much on my list of things I want to read...

Good job Mickey, since I have been living here what I have come to believe is that Australian law enforcement is pretty useless, there seems to be a lot of corruption and dumb ass criminals get a good run, I mean seriously Carl Williams was a bit of a douche bag and got a run of like a decade in Melbourne. I never understood how he lived in a mansion, cars etc but he never even bothered to get a cover job for his drug income, but the police didn't seem to look into this, the FBI are all over guys in America for this.
It's frustrating too in Australia how you can never really find info, charts etc on OC like in the states, like there's no charts of Calabrian guys, structures etc. it seems like a lot of police time here is put into the bikie's, who from what I can tell are more talk than anything, especially here in Perth where the media are always talking about "Bikie wars" but all that ever happens is there's a few brawls in bars.
Mickey also have you heard about how Sinoala cartel are supplying coke to Australia? been reading this recently, very interesting I think coke here is like 10 times more than the States so its a smart business move by Chapo.

I thought that Dundee fella kept everyone straight, Nicky?

There are guys like that in the North still, along with crazy outback killers...

I never met an Australian who actually liked those movies. But I loved the first one .

remember PB I'm English so I'm with you, better ask Mickey for an Aussie opinion...

That's right, I forgot. You're a Limey, not an Aussie .

Nicky;
I have read a little about Sinaloa expanding operations to include Australia and South-East Asia, and as you pointed out, with cocaine prices sky-high here for many years, there's considerable profit to be made. (An example; a kilo in the US could go for as little as $10 to $12k, in Australia, you could expect up to $250k)

I think the official estimate (from Australia government officials) is that that cocain imports doubled between 2010-2011 (some 800 kilos, compared to 400+ in 2009-2010) Roughly half of that has been linked to Sinaloa.