Underworld travel routes across international borders have been busy as Australia’s most wanted fugitives hiding overseas are on the move in the wake of learning that their encrypted chats had been monitored by cops, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Codenamed Ironside, the Anom operation which handed 25 million messages to the FBI and the Australian Federal Police, has given Australian law enforcement the upper hand.
“There is no doubt that Ironside has caused a massive disruption in the criminal sphere,” AFP Detective Sergeant Matt Stocks told The Daily Telegraph.
READ MORE: Operation Ironside: Who are the Greek Australians charged in the sting of the century?
Among those on the move, according to The Daily Telegraph, is James Dalamangas, 51, who has been on Australia’s most wanted list the longest at over 20 years.
He remains on the run in Greece where as a dual Australian and Greek national, the Greek government has refused to extradite him. They have agreed to prosecute him in Greece if he is ever caught.
READ MORE: Operation Ironside: Greek Australians among those charged in NSW police bust.
The Daily Telegraph reports that he was involved in a brawl at Star City Casino where his brother Peter was killed in 1998. He fled Australia in 1999 after fatally stabbing father-of-two George Giannopoulos inside a Greek nightclub in Belmore. He is also wanted over the shooting murder of bouncer Tim Voukelatos.
READ MORE: Operation Ironside: Greek Australians among those arrested in SA.
But police sources told The Daily Telegraph that Dalamangas, who is believed to have put on weight and has a $200,000 bounty on his head, has not got away with it.
He was seen out clubbing in Athens with underworld figure John Macris weeks before Macris was assassinated in late 2018.
“It is not impossible that he will be grabbed. When we get information about him, we pass it on to the Greek authorities,” a police source said.
Source: The Daily Telegraph.
