Evil Life ─ The True Story of the Calabrian Mafia in Australia

The Calabrian mafia is Australia's oldest, largest, and most ruthless crime syndicate, trafficking drugs worth billions of dollars and laundering the proceeds through sophisticated international networks. Enforcing discipline with age-old tools of violence and intimidation, the Calabrians have been responsible for nearly 40 murders in Australia since the mid-1970s and many more before that. Australian Mafia families report directly to bosses in Calabria, and profits are funneled back to the mother organization. Yet law enforcement agencies have long assured the public that there is no Calabrian mafia in Australia. Evil Life shatters this myth. Drawing on court documents and unreleased intelligence reports, as well as interviews with well-informed sources, the authors reveal how the Calabrian mafia evolved from its beginnings on the north Queensland cane fields in the 1920s to establish cells in every major capital city, making Australia a key outpost in the world of global organized crime.

Clive Small is a former detective and Assistant Commissioner of the NSW Police. Tom Gilling is an investigative journalist and writer whose novels include The Adventures of Miles and Isabel and Seven Mile, both of which were New York Times Notable Books. They are the co-authors of Betrayed, Blood Money, and Smack Express.