WHEN THE UNDERWORLD MEETS HIGH SOCIETY

It had been 30 years since the group of middle-aged businessmen were at
private school together, and they wanted the reunion to be one to remember.

Many - but not all - had realised their boyhood potential, making an impact
in the fields of finance, medicine, engineering, education and the law. The
reunion was a chance to catch up with old mates - to brag a little and drink
a lot.

One of the old boys, a man who had been successful in a cut-throat industry,
had been looking forward to the night for weeks and he wanted to make sure
his old school chums would be able to share in the spoils of his success.

So he rang his private drug-dealer and placed a special order for
"thumbs-up" - the best quality cocaine available. He bought 12 grams, worth
$3600, to take to the Albert Park party.

The next day he rang his dealer with a word of thanks. "The boys," he said,
"had a ball."

Now some of those men are waiting. They know there is a police investigation
into cocaine use among Melbourne's elite. Now they fear a knock at the door
from drug squad detectives. The reunion may truly be one to remember.

IT WAS in mid-1999 that police received information about a loose group of
high-level professionals who were allegedly using and trafficking cocaine.
It was not the first time they had gathered intelligence on some of those
named, but this time they found the evidence to back long-held suspicions.

In September, detectives from Operation Regent, a joint Victoria
Police-Australian Federal Police and Customs investigation seized 5.4
kilograms of cocaine.

It was a huge amount, the largest quantity seized in Melbourne. But months
later an operation in New South Wales showed the real size of the Australian
problem. In February, Australian Federal Police and Customs officers seized
nearly 500 kilograms of cocaine, valued at $140 million, from a yacht moored
at the Hawkesbury River.

Cocaine was now mainstream and the drug had made the strangest of
bedfellows.

Investigators from Operation Regent have gathered large amounts of material
on cocaine use in Victoria and for the first time police have accurate
intelligence to replace what was previously little more than informed
speculation.

They have now identified two hotels and three Melbourne nightclubs where
cocaine use has been blatant. They have found the use of drugs in one of the
hotels was surprisingly open and that a group of affluent city business
people would slip out to the inner-suburban hotel to use during lunch and
again after work.

Detectives have been given a list of people who went to the hotel to use. It
includes some connected to the legal profession, business people and two
former police officers.

Because the allegations against some suspects involve personal use that
occurred more than 12 months ago, they will not be pursued.

But while the offence of using a drug is considered minor, detectives may
look at other forms of illegal behavior that appear to have been triggered
by cocaine use.

Police have found that many of those who used became obsessed with cocaine
and would manipulate their work practices around their drug use. One
respected professional billed a client for five separate "consultative
meetings", which actually involved cocaine use at the hotel. Another would
charge clients for work when he was using drugs and having sex with
prostitutes in his office.

Police know of at least one in the group who would provide criminals with
professional advice and was prepared to accept drugs as full payment.

Some could be pursued in relation to perjured court documents sworn out
while under the influence of cocaine.

AS PART of the investigation into the cocaine industry in Melbourne police
have discovered a number of strange alliances.

They have identified a group, nicknamed the "Bollinger Dealers" - young
criminals who aspire to the champagne set.

Police have identified some of the dealers mixing with groups of Australia's
best-known celebrities at nightclubs and at the races, including at the
young member's club at Oaks' Day.

At one race meeting last year, several police were assaulted by a number of
well-dressed men with questionable backgrounds who had been associating with
celebrities that day. One of those well-dressed men was professional chef
turned drug dealer, Mark Anthony Moran, who was shot dead outside his house
on Thursday.

On February 17, detectives from the Flemington CIU noticed Moran driving a
luxury car. When they opened the boot of the car, rented from an agency at
the airport, they found a high-tech handgun equipped with a silencer and a
laser sight. They also found a large number of amphetamine pills that had
been stamped in a specially designed pill-press to look like ecstasy
tablets.

Police have also become aware of an unexplained relationship between a star
league footballer and a known cocaine dealer/user. There is nothing to
suggest the player is involved in drugs but it is believed detectives have
informally advised associates of the player that he should "choose his
friends more wisely".

Police say many of the Bollinger Dealers are the sons and daughters of a
group of former Painters and Dockers members who were heavily involved in
armed robberies and other crime in the 1970s. These dealers never sell drugs
such as heroin and move only "party drugs" such as cocaine and ecstasy.

Police say that some of the older-style criminals have long shed their
unrefined ways. A group of some of Victoria's most notorious "retirement
age" criminals, including Australia's best safe-breaker, now regularly meet
on Saturday night for a Chinese meal and a chat.

Their preferred restaurant is one of Melbourne's best - and most expensive.

For the first time, police have developed an informer network that can
provide information on who is using cocaine in the so-called elites of
society. They can now identify where the drugs change hands from the
traditional criminal networks to the high-income users.

Detectives have seen a significant drop in the open use of cocaine in
Melbourne in the past six months. They say the Hawkesbury River seizure has
caused a scarcity, but they also believe two recent high-profile arrests in
Melbourne have frightened some people who have dabbled in cocaine and now
realise the risks of exposure. Some have made informal contact with police,
trying to find out if their names have been mentioned in any phone tap or
listening device material.

"Some have been shocked and have grabbed at a second chance," one detective
said.

But others, he added, remain out of control.

CALL them party drugs or give them cute names such as ecstasy, but
ultimately the movement and production of illicit drugs is controlled by
criminal groups who will use violence to protect their substantial
interests.

Late last year police went to Barwon prison to see a man charged with
cocaine trafficking. They told him they had reliable information that he had
been given a deliberate overdose of drugs while in jail to silence him.

The inmate confirmed he had suffered an overdose but said he had
self-administered the substance and did not believe it was a "hot-shot".

Weeks later the inmate placed a drug squad number on his prison contact
list. Again detectives went to visit him. This time he told them that he had
made his own inquiries and he now believed there had been an attempt to kill
him through tainted drugs.

The inmate said he would now cooperate with police. He made a statement of
more than a dozen pages implicating a well-known Melbourne figure as the
financier in a cocaine importation. Police consider it a major breakthrough.

The death of Moran should show local users of cocaine and ecstasy that while
they like to think their drugs are harmless, the people who control the
industry are prepared to kill on a whim.

The modern drug dealer may wear a designer suit but he is still prepared to
get his hands dirty - or bloodied - if the need arises.