“We’ve spoken to [the family]. They’re quite distraught – they’re not really in a position to provide too much detail,” he said.
On Tuesday morning, dozens of police swarmed the crime scene stretching about 100 metres down Buchanan Place into neighbouring Jedburgh Place.
An inconsolable woman could be heard wailing before an ambulance took her away about 9.30am.
The initial zone roped off by police tape was only about 50 metres from where a blue tarpaulin covered a figure in a driveway.
Police expanded the scene about 9am, scouring nearby nature strips and doorknocking homes while forensics officers inspected the area near the body.
Since it was transplanted by Calabrian immigrants in the early 20th century, the Honoured Society had been “protecting” – and preying on – Australia’s ethnic Italian community from strongholds in Melbourne, Sydney and Griffith, NSW.
The organisation has established deep connections in both legitimate and criminal enterprises, including drug trafficking and extortion rackets in the agriculture and hospitality industries.
Vincent Latorre, John Latorre and Francesco Madafferi.Credit: The Age
This masthead has previously reported Latorre was part of a small group of businessmen linked to the Calabrian mafia which donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Liberal Party as part of a suspected plot to get a visa for crime figure Francesco (Frank) Madafferi.
In 2005, then immigration minister Amanda Vanstone granted Madafferi a visa to stay in Australia, but he was later convicted over involvement in what was at the time the world’s biggest ecstasy bust. He remains in jail.
Latorre’s brother Vincent was previously jailed for extortion activity in the Shepparton region.
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A coroner named the former fruiterer as a suspect in the murder of orchardist Rocco “Rocky” Iaria, 20, who was last seen alive in September 1991.
Iaria’s body was discovered almost seven years later in the grave of an elderly woman at the Pine Lodge cemetery near Shepparton.
On Tuesday morning, Victoria Police said they discovered the body of a man outside a house in Buchanan Place, Greenvale just after 4.30am.
“Paramedics tried to revive the yet to be formally identified man, but he died at the scene,” police said in a statement.
John Latorre with coworkers at his wholesale fruit and vegetable shop at the Melbourne Market in Epping. Credit: Instagram
“The exact circumstances surrounding the death are yet to be determined and a crime scene has been established.”
Source Agencies
