A decade of underworld warfare claimed 36 lives in Melbourne

Countries & Cities · Published 12 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Between 1998 and 2010, a violent power vacuum transformed Melbourne's criminal landscape. What began as a struggle for control over the drug trade escalated into a series of retributive killings, leaving dozens dead and a major taskforce to untangle the web of corruption and violence.

The conflict was ignited by a series of high-profile murders, starting with the death of Alphonse Gangitano on 16 January 1998. Gangitano, a major underworld figure, was shot in his own home. His death, alongside the murder of Charles Hegyalji on 23 November 1998, acted as a catalyst that allowed younger criminals to rise and fight for dominance.

Central to this era was Carl Williams, who was believed by detectives from the Purana Taskforce to be responsible for at least 10 of the 36 murders. Williams' involvement was marked by a personal vendetta against the Moran family after being shot in the stomach by Jason Moran on 13 October 1999 during a dispute over the amphetamine trade. Williams eventually pleaded guilty to three murders on 28 February 2007.

The violence was rooted in a struggle for influence over lucrative drug trades, particularly amphetamines, which had grown so prevalent by 1990 that Melbourne was dubbed the 'amphetamine capital of Australia'. The criminal landscape was further complicated by a 'code of silence' and allegations of police corruption, including a case where a major cache of drugs vanished from a drug squad storage depot.

To combat the violence, Victoria Chief Commissioner of Police Christine Nixon established the Purana Taskforce in 2003. The taskforce was highly active, using 39 tracking devices and recording 328,000 telephone conversations. While the taskforce was praised for intervening to prevent six murders and laying charges in 15 murders, it faced challenges, including a 2019 ruling that a conviction was a miscarriage of justice after detectives hid payments made to a crown witness.

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