One of Australia's most dangerous criminals exposes police corruption | 60 Minutes Australia

there's very little to like and nothing at all to admire about neddy smith yet the man who was once australia's most dangerous criminal is about to become something of a celebrity from his prison cell neddy smith has been giving such detailed information on police involvement in crime that a special inquiry has been launched the independent commission against corruption begins those hearings in sydney tomorrow and the main matter before them smith's allegation that for 15 years a gang of senior detectives and other police helped him commit armed robberies payroll jobs and jewelry heists it's shaping up as the biggest inquiry into police corruption this country has seen and neddy smith is the super grass you were described as an active criminal well known as an assailant what do you say to that what's your definition of an assailant someone who attacks people well whoever attacked i've never been charged with anyone and no one could come affordance i've ever attacked them arthur stanley smith neddy smith on the one hand a devoted father on the other one of the most feared criminals in australia when he gave his first ever interview six years ago smith was at the peak of his career criminal career i wouldn't say that he was the biggest i'd say he was one of the biggest but i mean anybody to get away with things like ned did over the years that you know now um he had to be up there somewhere with police permission oh yeah exactly 1992 and things have changed dramatically for the smith family deborah smith has been with ned for almost 20 years and while she saw a lot she says she never knew a lot how much protection did the police give him now i know um 100 all the way you didn't realize at the time no i didn't so he was untouchable i'd say yes he was as a boy smith was in and out of institutions until he graduated to jail by the mid-seventies smith says he was recruited by a group of new south wales detectives together they committed millions of dollars worth of armed robberies crime certainly paid fifteen years i lived like a millionaire i didn't have to wake up in the morning like the public and worry about how to pay me rent where my next food was come from how i was going to close my kitchen i shall wake up happy for a change smith is the hottest witness in the country and now he says some police want him dead so the only way we could interview him was on the telephone from his maximum security prison smith has spent the past two years telling the new south wales independent commission against corruption the icac how he was given what's called the green light by police that meant he could commit almost any crime he liked as long as the cops got their cut what did the green light allow you to do whatever i want to do anything at all anything at all murder well not into murder but whatever if i wanted to i suppose there was nothing that you you were not not that you were not allowed to do stipulation that was made to me at one stage was that no police would be shot during robberies so is there any money left no all gone all gone shouldn't you have some left i guess we should have but we haven't it's uh yeah i mean court costs ned was arrested and and had to um i suppose pays way to beat charges and things like that i mean what money we had um we had it's gone a lot of people would expect that you've been paid for this interview and you're not no how widespread do you think it is in new south wales in another telephone conversation smith tells us the icac inquiry will prove the scale of corruption in new south wales is huge how would this inquiry compare do you think to the fitzgerald inquiry make the future like a nun's picnic really so you you've named what 35 policemen all together 70 all together there's also talk that there's judges and crown prosecutors that you've named that's right how many judges uh three serving judges three serving judges on on the new south wales courts recording smith says there was big money in it for everyone in this reenactment you'll see how smith and his corrupt police partners ripped off a million dollar shipment from a drug dealer it was a classic sting the dealer is told to leave the drugs in the boot and then watch from his own car to make sure the handover to smith and his accomplice goes smoothly reckon he'll go for it cause he will what the dealer sees next is this [Applause] i got hold of that yeah okay mike calm what the dealer doesn't see is this the arrest is a charade around the corner the cuffs come off smith and the police are a million dollars richer you had me worried for a while you guys did a bloody good job back there on your way then okay well i'll have your money by next thursday afternoon so i'll see you at the usual puppet five here's your bag but the cooperation from police went a lot further now once those you were doing a number of armed robs and actually using uh new south wales police badges surgeries and uniforms and their guns and police guns as well that's right so the police had no no qualms about handing those over to you certain police department crimes about anything the reason anything at all smith says he offered a 10 spotters fee to any police who suggested lucrative robberies how did that work well if i didn't find one they sometimes very security on different uh payroll deliveries and that and if they thought it was worthwhile they'd spot it for me i'd pay them ten percent of what we got so so you'd you'd pay them off the armed robberies jewelry heists the rip-offs of drug dealers etc everything pay them out that's what we're done did you see money change hands very much over the years i have seen money change hands but like i say ned has always been an sp bookmaker and if i said to ned what was it what's that for he'd say to me oh so-and-so had to settle his bit from the other day you know so i mean ned did keep me in the dark from a lot of things smith's relationship with police was social as well there were barbecues almost every weekend but business was never discussed in front of the wives i was introduced to a lot of people police prosecutors you know businessmen their wives i knew all their wives really well i sound like i'm an idiot sometimes because people would more likely think well how could you go to a barbecue and know that criminals can mix with prosecutor that was just the way i thought things worked yet another underworld figure gunned down by his own kind the mid-1980s were the best then the worst of times for these crooks and cops an underworld war broke out in sydney daniel chubb shot dead in 1984 michael sayers shot dead three months later heroin dealer tony eustis was the next to be gunned down in april 1985. it's more likely their murders were part of a push by one underworld faction they all moved in the same circles as neddy smith and the corrupt police can you tell us about about who shot tony eustis chris flannery chris flannery was a notorious hit man who once holidayed with smith chris flannery shot tony estes but they were they were very good friends weren't they chris only never had any friends did tony used to think flannery was his friend he thought he's his best friend yes he went out to meet him and give him some money than i did and for all the good he don't even shot him in the back five times in the back time to throw but chris flannery was getting out of control he made the fatal mistake of falling out with the crims and the cops chris flannery made threats against not only the police at one stage but their wives and children didn't he that's right what did that mean for him well that's why he's not with us no longer it was decided he had to go that's exactly right and he was set up by one of the policemen as well he was there waiting inside the front of the hotel neddy smith denies any involvement in these murders but was convicted of murdering a man in 1989 he's now appealing that in the high court not even the green light could save him he says by the time he was jailed police had already tried to have him killed several times because he knew too much so he turned against them and went to the icac on one condition that his family be placed in witness protection but that was a joke two of the corrupt cops one day found deborah smith and her eleven-year-old son waiting for a bus and i could see that they were police officers but not even dreaming that they were coming towards me or daniel and was just to tell ned to shut up they said tell ned to shut up and they knew where to get us smith insisted his family be placed in the hands of federal not new south wales police so their id's schools everything about them changed but the handful of bent new south wales cops didn't give up that easily i didn't really see the car start to tails but i just remember our driver accelerating and telling us to buckle up and he was doing at least 140 kilometers around the side streets trying to lose the car behind him yep and then our backup car intercepted that and they got out and checked it out and said that there were two new south wales police officers that thought we'd stolen the car that thought you'd stole in a federal police car which they could have checked on in about one minute yes oh that's right because marian's taking ben yeah jamie smith neddy's 16 year old daughter wants to be a model but it's hard when the family is forever on the move and when you mum decided to leave witness protection what was the reaction from the icac virtually everything they'd what they did get us we had to leave behind like what like school uniforms for instance they wanted everything even daniel's guarders that kept him socks up they wanted those too neddy smith hasn't just been talking to the corruption fighters the icac for the last couple of years here inside long bay jail he's been writing this a 400 page history of his relationships with the police barbecue set some of the tales in this are extraordinary and are going to worry a lot of policemen and guess what he's called it thank christ for corruption a lot of people were calling you calling you a dog an informer how do you feel about that well they won't say to me if they do that they'll soon change their mind but everyone knows i'm not a dog if you call giving police up a dog then i'm a doll but i should give them crimson they all know i've never given a criminal name one that's never been arrested or charged or anything i've ever said to get labeled a dog is only when you give your mates up or people you know you're telling on them and ned's not doing that he's not giving criminals up or mates or people he knows he's telling on police what's the difference ned between naming a criminal and naming police for you well i suppose the public don't think there's any difference but this is why i was brought up look after your own you don't tell on your own and i thought they'd worry about the police doing up until they tried to kill me on the several occasions and eventually set me up when they thought i'd run out of usefulness tomorrow the icac's public hearings begin they will last at least 12 months their repercussions will last a lot longer what what do you see as your future i don't have one you don't think you'll ever get out i doubt it let me ask you why should we believe you i mean i mean you've been charged uh as a rapist drugs are now now convicted of murder why should we believe you i think i'm doing the right thing for the first time in life and their wife agrees with me so i feel like i care about my wife and kids and what they think i don't care what anyone else thinks what do you think the outcome to the icac inquiry will be i think people will be very surprised i mean i think that uh that they will realise that the police force is not an honest police force it is very very corrupt hello i'm sarah arbo thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive 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Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 805,309

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, neddy, arthur smith, true crime, corruption, sallie-anne, huckstepp, police, roger rogerson, underbelly, australia, criminal, blue murder, murder, hitman, killing, gang, gangland

Id: v8I3sDqNLOI

Length: 13min 48sec (828 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021