Police in Sydney this morning arrested Damien Cossu, 30, in connection with the murder of Mark Mallia, 30, a small-time criminal and close associate of standover man Nik Radev, on August 18, 2003.
This is an interesting development. We here @ MUI had pencilled in Ol' Andrew "Benji" Veniamin for that job, but with a trial coming for Cossu, we'll have to tkae notes and see what's goin' on...
Victoria Police had previously named Mr Cossu as a person of interest in their investigation into Radev's death.
Underworld identity Mick Gatto, at his trial over the killing of gangster Andrew "Benji" Veniamin, said he believed Veniamin was responsible for the murders of both Mallia and Radev.
Heavily armed police from NSW's homicide squad, working with Victoria Police's Purana taskforce, stopped a car and arrested Mr Cossu in the south-west Sydney suburb of Liverpool area about 7.30am today.
Interesting all round. Police had merely named him as a "person of interest". While many folk would jump to the conclusion that a "person of interest" translates roughly as "perpetrator", the truth is the cops often just think a person of interest knows someone who knows something. Several degrees of seperation. Take Graeme Kinniburgh- while he didn't pop Alphonse's clogs, he sure as hell saw Mark Moran do it. Therefore the cops would rate Graeme as a "person of interest" and not a perp.
Though it would appear that Cossu is definately more interesting than most...
The Age- Cossu's arrest in Sydney
ABC news website- Gangland Killing arrest
**UPDATE** He'll shortly be extradited to Melbourne:
The Age Gangland suspect extradited
Superintendent Grant said he expected police would make more arrests in relation to the Mallia murder in coming weeks. "We will be visiting several people over the next couple of weeks," he said..
Commander of the NSW Police homicide squad, Linda Howlett, said police said NSW Police had been working with Victoria Police since January on the case and today's arrest followed "a fair amount of assistance from the public''
I've read a bit about this Damian Cossu guy but not sure where he fits into the picture in all of this. Does anyone know?
ReplyDeleteCossu was apparently present when Benji knocked Radev. Mallia was one of Radev's soldiers and was out to back up for the Russian. Cossu got in first.
ReplyDeletecossu is a pussy he always acted like one don’t ever think any of us had respect for him if the police hadn’t have got him we would have. He had to go into hiding at his poor old mama’s house in Sydney where his family sleeps nicely in their beds, if i was them they should be careful of who they open the door to. He should get what’s coming to him for ratting out. And when they take him out of solitary confinement he will get it
ReplyDeletehe is innocent
ReplyDeleteim damien cossus friend i have known him since i was five hes a psychopath you say hes a pussy i visited him in jail he was not in protection or hiding for u nt to even leave a hint who u are says it all. im not going to incriminate damien in any way but il send whoever wrote that message about hurting his family even says more hes never ratted on anyone i put my head on a astick if he did so fuck u all he got not guilty ha ha ha and williams ha ha ha dead thats all we wanted william dead
ReplyDeletethis was over benji killing radev and nearly executing damien too the second shooter fumbled with gun and gave damien enough time to escape so damien seren his killers so wat did you expect him to do ???? id do da same kill them b4 they kill me and thats wat he basically did and madea bit of cash on it too 50 large aall i know is he stabbed the fuk out of sum 1 in jail and is doing 7 and a jalf years hel b out by 2013 then u come and tel him to his face that hes a pussy and that we never respected him wat a xrock of shit if yu knew damiano you would not say that prankster gangsters melbourne
ReplyDeleteHe's out now so you haters tell him
ReplyDelete