Page 1315 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 16 April 1991
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United States organised crime figures visited Australia in the 1970s and several times in 1980 and 1981 to set up an organised pornography industry here in Australia. In the 1980s the representatives were Norman Arno and Theodore Gaswirth, both of whom were leading identities in organised crime in the United States. The activities of Arno and Gaswirth in the United States are most relevant, particularly their involvement in a pornography racket turning over some $US4 billion a year - a figure estimated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In the United States special anti-racketeering laws, or RICO laws as they are called - RICO standing for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act - have been passed to allow courts to convict criminals who have a proven track record in a specific area of criminal activity, rather than charge them just for individual criminal actions. The final report of the Costigan royal commission recommended that similar laws be introduced in Australia. It is unfortunate that these laws have not been introduced.
In the United States in February 1980 the largest ever crackdown on pornographers was undertaken by a special force of 400 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The size of the FBI operation is an indication of the concern held by law enforcement officers for stopping the pornography racket. Over a dozen warehouses were raided and literally tonnes of pornographic material was seized. Using RICO laws, 54 arrests were made in Los Angeles, Miami and other places.
Norman Arno was arrested as one of the ringleaders of the porn racket. Arno was the president of the North Hollywood based VCX Incorporated, a US Mafia linked porn company which in 1985 controlled 40 per cent of the US porn market, which has been estimated to be worth $US9 billion a year. Ed Krasnof, who was vice-president of VCX Incorporated, was named as being another organised crime figure during the Los Angeles investigation by the FBI.
Norman Arno and his associate Theodore Gaswirth were named by the Organised Crime Control Commission of California as organised crime figures connected with a number of pornography operations in southern California. In that report, Arno was described as the business partner of Michael Zaffarano, a member of the New York Mafia. The Californian commission named Zaffarano as the main link between porn operators in California and Mafia groups on the east coast of America. A wanted man, Zaffarano died of a heart attack.
Theodore Gaswirth, who was also named as a Mafia associate of Michael Zaffarano, made three trips to Australia in 1981. The first was for five days in late January, the second for another five days in June, and the third for eight days in December. Like Arno and earlier Mafia visitors to Australia, Gaswirth did not come to put another
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