Contract to ‘kill off witnesses’

Press, 12 June 1984, Page 6

Contract to ‘kill off witnesses’

NZPA-AAP Melbourne The police have been told of a $140,000 offer for the contract killing of a policeman who is a key witness in a Melbourne drug case. A senior police source said, “We are dealing with a drug syndicate which will stop at nothing to kill off witnesses.” Constant tight security had been placed on police and other witnesses in New South Wales and Victoria. The police source said the attempted assassination of an undercover drug squad detective, Michael Drury, through the kitchen window of his Sydney home last week was part of the syndi-

cate’s bid to eliminate witnesses. He said a “weak link” in the syndicate was found murdered at Strath Creek, east of Melbourne, on April 2, and the original police informant had since died in suspicious circumstances from a drug overdose in a Sydney hotel. The Strath Creek victim was Robert Jack Richardson, who was due to face trial on a charge of conspiracy to sell nearly $1 million of heroin. Homicide squad detectives said at the time they believe Richardson’s death was meant to serve as a warning, and to scare off other witnesses involved in the case.