A former undercover officer revealed his worst day attempting to enter the criminal underworld, saying he nearly blew his cover when he was forced to listen to mafia leaders “bragging” about murdering one of their colleagues while riding on a small aircraft.
In 1994, when Colin McLaren was attempting to expose the Australian affiliate of the Calabrian mafia, he was getting ready to go to Weipa in Far North Queensland to verify the arrival of a large cocaine shipment.
At that time, Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen’s death in the bombing of the National Crime Authority headquarters in Adelaide was announced to Mr. McLaren.
In the 1994 explosion, attorney Peter Wallis also lost an eye.
Mr. McLaren said on the Kyle and Jackie O program, “I was on the aircraft with two mafia chiefs and they were gloating about the bomb that went off in Adelaide and blew up the NCA office and killed a policeman.”
Mr. McLaren was forced to join in on their sadistic celebrations of murdering police officers in order to avoid arousing suspicion.
It was among his most difficult actions to date.
They are prancing around about it. I just wanted to pull my pistol out and shoot or throw them out of the aircraft.
“I had to put up with their bulls*** macho man talk and braggadocio.” However, when your training takes effect, you tell yourself, “We’re going to get these b**tards.”
The undercover operation of Mr. McLaren was crucial in gathering enough evidence to sentence 11 mafia executives to up to 13 years in prison each for massive narcotics trafficking and racketeering.
Because of this, Mr. McLaren said he would always be on guard for retaliation from the mafia or other groups.
Senior Victoria Police officials personally selected Mr. McLaren for his undercover operations, and he first gained experience by busting small-time drug traffickers in Melbourne bar back rooms.
Creating a persona that the thieves would believe, according to Mr. McLaren, was the first stage in entering the Australian mafia.
He then assumed the identity of Cole Goodwin, a shady Melbourne art dealer who wanted to purchase a kilogram of cocaine to resell to his customers.
But it was vital to behave like them in order to establish rapport with lifelong offenders.
That required using narcotics and sometimes seeing prostitutes.
Police psychologists and medics gave him advice on what to anticipate and how to handle using narcotics.
His training included advice on how to attempt to prevent drug usage, such as telling participants in a drug trade to “get on with it” rather than loiter about high.
However, if you’re Johnny on the spot and in the Hells Angels clubhouse, and someone asks you a question or expects you to smoke skunk or snort speed, you have to comply.
“You’re protected by law to do it, [undercover cops] are authorized to do it.”
Griffith mafia left Mr. McLaren and his sidekick with two prostitutes for the evening while they pretended to be heroin purchasers. They wanted the ladies to see whether they were affluent enough to finish the transaction and if they appreciated their hosts.
The young ladies made fun of their “wog” employers in an effort to get a reaction, but Mr. McLaren was one step ahead and dissented, stating he thought the mafia members were “wonderful buddies.”
Mr. McLaren received more training than only how to use and manage medicines. He was instructed on how to create them as well for another inquiry.
Experts in forensics who were investigating the NCA bombing found chemical remnants from the crime site in homemade amphetamines.
In “a global first,” Mr. McLaren and his staff underwent five weeks of training to cook quickly.
Then, he said, “we advertise ourselves as fast chefs in Adelaide.”
His efforts also contributed to the arrest of six other mafia members in relation to the NCA bombing.
Soon after the blast, the bomber, Dominic Perre, was charged with murder; however, six months later, the prosecution against him was dismissed for a lack of evidence.
He was detained once again in 2018 and 2022, and he was convicted of murder and attempted murder.
After starting to publish novels on his three years as an undercover police officer, Mr. McLaren had one of them, The Underbelly Files: Infiltration, made into a four-hour TV movie in 2011.
He started a podcast called The Sting in January.
»Undercover detective Colin McLaren deals narcotics in Australia with Calabrian mafia«