Nine believed killed by drug ring

Press, 12 July 1979, Page 2

Nine believed killed by drug ring

NZPA Melbourne The police believe that two young women shot dead in the last month were ordered killed by leaders of an international drug ring. One of the women was killed in Melbourne and the other in New Zealand. Victorian homicide squad detectives said that the ringleaders were suspected of ordering the deaths of up to nine members of the organisation since late 1975. Five of the victims are believed to have been young women.

It is believed that the ring was linked to the execution killing of a Melbourne massage parlour girl on June 11 a-d the shooting by mistake, of an teen-age night-club hostess in Auckland on July 1.

The victim of the Melbourne killing was Margaret Ann Clayton, aged 26, who was shot twice in the back Of the head while lying on the floor of a Fitzroy massage parlour. The girl shot in Auckland was Margaret Bell, aged 17, who w'as shot dead from a passing car as she stood in the foyer of a city nightclub. New Zealand detectives have been told that Miss F 11, who was shot in the head with a high-powered rifle, was mistaken for another young woman who worked at the nightclub. Detectives have been told that there was an underworld “contract” on the other woman, who was heavily involved in the drug scene. She is now under police protection,

Two Melbourne detectives flew to New Zealand this week to continue the investigation into four of the deaths attributed to the drug ring.

The deputy head of the Victorian homicide squad, Detective Inspector Brian Ritchie, said in Christchurch that the syndicate had existed for four or five years. Its leaders ■ were “wealthy, evil men.” Mr Ritchie was accompanied to New Zealand by Detective Senior-Sergeant lan Williamson, an experienced Melbourne drug squad detective seconded to the homicide squad last month to help with investigations into drug kill■ings.

A New Zealand detective,

Mr Nail Morris, who flew to Melbourne last month to assist in the investigations, returned home with the pair.

The Melbourne detectives questioned a man in Addington Jail, Christchurch, on Tuesday, about the deaths of the New Zealand couple, Douglas and Isabel Wilson, and the disappearance of another New Zealand couple last seen in Melbourne.

Senior Victorian police said the detectives would be in New Zealand about a week and would visit Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, and other centres.

The bullet-ridden bodies of the Wilsons were found near Rye, 70 kilometres southeast of Melbourne, on May 18, a month after they disappeared. The couple still missing, Gregory Ollard and Julie Theilman, were last seen in Melbourne late in 1977. They are known to have fallen out with the leade-s of the drug ring. All four were thought by police to be couriers.

Detectives said yesterday that several of the persons killed by the ring had been dumped from boats at sea. The first victim is believed to have been Marie Ann Hisshion, aged 24, whose body was found floating in Sydney Harbour, off North Head, on January 1, 1976. Miss Hisshion, who the police believe was involved in drug trafficking, had been shot in the back. of the head and her body tied and weighted. Detectives said yesterday that two New Zealand men who vanished last year also were thought to have been killed by the ring. At least one of them is believed to have been dumped overboard from a boat.

Another victim was Harry Lewis, whose body was found in a remote paddock at Port Macquarie on March 15. Lewis had been shot dead. His hands had been cut off and his teeth extracted to impede identification.

The ringleaders also are suspected of the attempted murder of a man who was badly beaten in Sydney last year. Detectives said the man was bashed soon after he was released on bail after being arrested by narcotics agents.-