{"id":217637,"date":"2025-10-16T11:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/217637\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T11:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:45:13","slug":"underworld-kingpins-case-delayed-after-alleged-jail-cell-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/217637\/","title":{"rendered":"Underworld kingpin’s case delayed after alleged jail cell discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

An underworld kingpin accused of planning a complex escape from a maximum-security prison has had his civil case delayed after officers allegedly discovered pills and other contraband inside his cell.<\/p>\n

George Marrogi is suing Victoria’s Department of Justice in a bid to improve prison conditions, including greater access to open air, arguing for more freedom while in custody.<\/p>\n

The case was set to proceed to closing arguments in the Supreme Court today but was halted when the department’s barrister Liam Brown SC argued the contraband allegations should be put to witnesses who had already given evidence in the trial.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/George Marrogi. (Nine)<\/p>\n

The court was told that on September 17, Marrogi was found with several contraband items in his cell, including a phone with a charger, three screwdrivers, and 51 heart-shaped pills.<\/p>\n

Marrogi’s barrister Sarala Fitzgerald told the court her client still had a significant period of good behaviour, noting he did not reoffend in terms of assault or setting a fire.<\/p>\n

Justice Claire Harris described contraband discovery as serious and granted an application to reopen, noting it would delay the outcome.<\/p>\n

It comes as court documents allege Marrogi had previously plotted an escape out of Barwon Prison, where he would be airlifted out by helicopter and taken to a luxury yacht.<\/p>\n

Corrections Victoria uncovered Marrogi’s plot in April 2022 after conducting targeted searches of his personal property at Barwon Prison, according to affidavits released by Victoria’s Supreme Court today.<\/p>\n

The foiled plan had advanced far enough that the underworld figure had documents containing private information about prison staff, their families, a judge, a tax invoice for a yacht and aerial images of certain units inside the prison.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Victoria’s Supreme Court (Nine)<\/p>\n

“These documents, together with intelligence information collected by [Corrections Victoria], indicated that the plaintiff had been conspiring via unmonitored legal calls to escape prison using a helicopter,” assistant commissioner for sentence management Jennifer Hosking said in an affidavit.<\/p>\n

“The design drawings and tax invoice for the yacht indicated that a yacht was intended to be involved in the escape plans.”<\/p>\n

The affidavit claimed Marrogi had spoken about various ways to escape, including having associates extract him by force during an escort, using a helicopter and bribing a Corrections Victoria staff member to have him released from custody through an “administrative error”.<\/p>\n

Marrogi, 36, is serving a 32-year prison sentence for drug trafficking and the shooting murder of Kadir Ors in 2016.<\/p>\n

Affidavits from prison staff detail Marrogi’s extensive criminal history and his conduct while in custody, including multiple threats and assaults against prison officers.<\/p>\n

Marrogi’s trial is set to continue at a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An underworld kingpin accused of planning a complex escape from a maximum-security prison has had his civil case…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-217637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}