How feared underworld kingpin George ‘Cross’ Marrogi continues to run crime empire from behind bars
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A feared gangster known as ‘Cross’ has been running a multi-million dollar criminal empire behind bars.
Despite being caged in one of Australia’s toughest prisons, George Marrogi was still able to run a $50 million drug trafficking operation.
He was aided in his drug deal by ‘fair skin’ girlfriend Antonietta Mannella, who posed as his lawyer to help him move a massive drug shipment.
Marrogi has been a thorn in the side of Melbourne detectives for much of his 33-year life, most of which has been spent behind bars.
Last year, he was sentenced in the Victorian High Court to a total of 32 years in prison for the cold-blooded public execution of a drug rival.
But jail time doesn’t seem to have stopped Marrogi from taunting the police from the inside.
George Marrogi, 33, was the mastermind of a $50 million drug deal behind bars.
Charity worker Antonietta Mannella pleaded guilty to helping Marrogi run her business from jail.
It can be revealed that Marrogi hosted rapper BBG Smokey at his family compound while he was caged in Victoria’s Barwon Prison.
The Melbourne rapper is seen performing while surrounded by the gangster’s fleet of luxury vehicles, including a $300,000 Lamborghini Huracan.
Marrogi’s brother, Jesse, also appears in the video and can be identified by the words ‘f**k the law’ tattooed on his torso.
Most of the cars featured in the video, including two Jeeps, a gold-plated Harley-Davidson and the Lamborghini, have been seized by authorities under crime proceeds laws or sold as police tightened their grip on the gang. of Marrogi, the herald sun informed.
Rapper BBG Smokey (left) parties with wads of digital money with a fleet of vehicles believed to belong to George Marrogi before they are impounded by police
George Marrogi’s brother Jesse (pictured) appears in a music video with Melbourne rapper BBG Smokey
On Tuesday, Marrogi appeared before a judge again after being caught in a harebrained scheme to traffic massive amounts of drugs.
The latest escapade of the Notorious Crime Family syndicate has resulted in the jailing of a once-law-abiding charity worker, who now faces life in prison.
Mannella, 28, of Mickleham, pleaded guilty to helping Marrogi run his business from Barwon.
The Victoria County Court heard that Mannella had been best friends with her dead sister when she inexplicably hooked up with the inmate.
Until then, Mannella had led an impeccable life and had previously delivered food to the homeless on the streets of Melbourne for a charity set up in memory of Marrogi’s sister, Meshilin, who died of complications related to Covid-19.
George Marrogi’s brother Jesse has been linked to Nabil ‘Mad Lebo’ Maghnie’s daughter Sabrine (pictured).
George Marrogi in happier times. He will spend most of his life behind bars.
The court heard that Mannella and some of Marrogi’s cohorts attempted to move 800 liters of the drug Butanediol from South Australia to Victoria.
Marrogi and Mannella have pleaded guilty to attempting to traffic a large commercial quantity of illicit drugs.
The $50 million scheme had been based on a brazen scheme in which Mannella posed as Marrogi’s lawyer.
While Corrections Victoria monitors and records all prisoners’ phone calls, the couple relied on a well-known waiver that allows unmonitored calls with legal staff, which are considered privileged.
In unexplained circumstances, the court heard a phone used by a royal lawyer representing Marrogi diverted to Mannella whenever the thief touched it.
Mannella would answer the phone posing as ‘Cassidy’ in a poor attempt to throw off prison snoopers.
The pair would then speak in code as they organized the movement of four 200-litre drums of butanediol, the key ingredient in gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB.
The court heard that Marrogi was able to convince a man who owed him cash to arrange the shipment, which revolved around a 71-year-old trucker driving the drums across the border into Melbourne.
The elderly driver was stopped by police as he was driving towards Horsham, in western Victoria.
The mission had been doomed from the start.
The court heard that the Australian Federal Police had tapped Mannella’s phone and had listened in on all the conversations he had with the crime boss.
Antonietta Mannella after her arrest by federal police last year
Antonietta Mannella helps a charity run by the Marrogi clan
Antonietta Mannella posed as a lawyer to help George Marrogi deal drugs
The court heard that Mannella would use keywords such as ‘kittens’ to describe drugs, ‘kalbeh’, a Maltese word for dog, to describe the police and ‘Touttz’ to describe herself.
“Melasecca, Kelly and Zayler, this is Cassidy speaking,” Mannella responded, the court heard, in an attempt to pose as the law firm’s then-receptionist.
News of the seizure of the shipment was delivered to Marrogi by former Melbourne drug lord Tony Mokbel, who had been caged in the same area as him.
Mannella later described the bust as “just bad luck”.
On April 22 of last year, Mannella’s streak of bad luck continued when federal police arrested her at her home.
Later, the federal police paraded her before the cameras as they escorted her to the police station.
Mannella refused to speak, and Marrogi later tried to take the blame for his girlfriend’s role in the failed drug deal.
Marrogi, who was born in Iraq and immigrated to Australia in 1996, has already spent most of his life behind bars, having been sentenced to a minimum of six years for manslaughter as a young man.
He had been charged with murder after getting into a wild fight in 2005 in which he stabbed and killed a man.
The Marrogi Clan: Jesse, Meshlin, Mama Madlin, and George
Upon release, he continued to commit crimes and was later jailed for arson.
Five months later he would be accused of murder for the second time, this time it would be upheld.
In total, Marrogi has spent 15 of the past 16 years behind bars, missing his own sister’s funeral during the pandemic.
Ors, 24, had been lured into a meeting with Marrogi unaware that his number was about to be dialed.
Security cameras captured from a car park in Campbellfield, 13km north of Melbourne, showed Marrogi stalking his prey, who was accompanied by two companions.
The court heard that Marrogi chased Ors, completely ignoring his friends, before catching up with him outside the Officeworks.
Marrogi shot his terrified victim seven times, hitting him in the back, leg, hip and buttocks.
After flying to Ors, Marrogi savagely escaped the scene while two of the dead man’s companions gave chase in another vehicle.
As Marrogi escaped the chaos, the police found the empty box of bullets in the abandoned Commodore that Marrogi had sprayed all over Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
The gunman had also left his DNA in the box and the car was quickly linked directly to a childhood companion of Marrogi’s.
A third jury, sitting through a 16-day trial, would have no doubt that Marrogi was behind Ors’ murder.
Judge Peter Rozen will sentence Marrogi and Mannella next month.