Posted on 01/24/2009 3:44:12 PM PST by BuckeyeTexan
Sydney has been struck down by a new generation of gangland murders, with police forced to offer a giant reward in a desperate attempt to catch those responsible.
A total of $850,000 is on offer to anyone who has information leading to the arrest of Sydney's most notorious murderers - the biggest reward in NSW crime history.
News Limited reports that detectives believe they are close to cracking the case of a series 12 alleged "Underbelly-style" murders and attempted murders in NSW and Victoria that have gone unsolved for more than a decade
A senior police source told News Limited the investigation rivals the Ivan Milat backpacker murders of the early 1990s.
"The investigation's as big as the backpackers and getting bigger - one of the biggest ever," the source said.
News Limited reports that the most recent suspected victim on the list of killings is missing Melbourne drug dealer Paul Elliot, a childhood friend of underworld identity Jason Moran.
Last week, heavily armed SWAT police arrested John Michael Perish, 39, and Sean Laurence Waygood, 38, at a North Sydney cafe.
They were charged with conspiring to kill ex-convict Terry Falconer, whose dismembered body was found in seven plastic bags on the banks of the Hastings River.
Falconer was killed before he was able to give evidence at an inquest into the 1993 shooting deaths of Perish's grandparents, Anthony Sr, 91, and Frances, 93, at Leppington in Sydney's southwest.
While in custody Waygood - a retired soldier believed to have left the army in 2000 - was charged with the brazen shooting of a New Zealand man, whose name has been suppressed, at the JB Bar and Grill in Haymarket in October 2002.
He was also charged with the murder of 41-year-old Gary Mack at the Penshurst Inn in 2001.
On Thursday night a police raid of a Lane Cove property linked to Waygood uncovered a stockpile of explosives and detonators. Bomb squad officers and ADF personnel were called in to deal with the dangerous find.
More than $5 million dollars of assests belonging to Perish and Waygood - including cars, cash, property and businesses - are expected to seized by the State.
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