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Career criminal Gavin \u201cCapable\u201d Preston waited in a quiet corner of the pub.<\/p>\n
It was \u201cbrave\u201d for a journo to meet him. That was the first unsettling thing he said.<\/p>\n
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Gavin Preston, pictured outside the Supreme Court in August 2015, was shot dead on Saturday.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Joe Armao<\/cite><\/p>\n Inside the Flinders Lane hotel in mid-2011, Preston began talking about gangland rivalries and underworld figures.<\/p>\n Preston joked that he wasn\u2019t a good criminal because he always got caught.<\/p>\n Within a couple of beers, names were raised: Carl Williams (who had been killed inside Barwon Prison a year earlier), Carlton identity Mick Gatto and then Bandidos bikie Toby Mitchell.<\/p>\n Williams was a burning topic.<\/p>\n He had been bashed to death by Preston\u2019s more infamous criminal mate, Matthew \u201cThe General\u201d Johnson, who was about to go on trial.<\/p>\n They had been on and off mates since being jailed together at Pentridge Prison in the 1990s and dubbed themselves Youth Gone Wild (taken from a Skid Row tune).<\/p>\n They would ultimately co-found the influential jail gang, Prisoners of War.<\/p>\n Preston alluded to having inside knowledge of the Williams killing and that his demise had come because he had broken an unwritten rule.<\/p>\n Warning: The video below shows highly confronting scenes. The footage has been edited to exclude some moments.<\/strong><\/p>\n He would not reveal who the \u201coutside man\u201d behind the brutal bashing of Williams had been.<\/p>\n But he boasted that a man jailed with Williams, Tommy Ivanovic, had been given a dire warning.<\/p>\n Ivanovic was told he was living with a \u201cdog\u201d (criminal slang for a police informer). The \u201cdog\u201d was Williams.<\/p>\n Carl Williams was murdered in jail.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Jason South<\/cite><\/p>\n This prison phone conversation was months before April 19, 2011, when Johnson, the third man in the prison unit with Ivanovic, while gripping the stem of an exercise bike seat, beat Williams to death.<\/p>\n Preston added that there had been secret hearings about the prison calls.<\/p>\n It all seemed routine to the quietly spoken gangland figure.<\/p>\n His physique and demeanour spoke volumes.<\/p>\n Preston had served jail stints in Victoria and NSW and was working for a demolition company.<\/p>\n In the months after Preston and I first met, Mitchell, a Bandidos enforcer, would be ambushed by two masked hitmen outside Dohertys Gym in Brunswick (next to the Bandidos\u2019 bikie clubhouse).<\/p>\n Preston was a key suspect along with the criminal wild man, Nabil Maghnie.<\/p>\n There are two theories about the shooting, in which Mitchell was riddled with bullets.<\/p>\n At the time, Preston was associating with Bandidos and talks were underway about him joining, but he was resisting donning colours.<\/p>\n Christopher Dean \u201cBadness\u201d Binse.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Fairfax <\/cite><\/p>\n A sticking point was Mitchell\u2019s long-time mate, Chris \u201cBadness\u201d Binse, who was Preston\u2019s long-time enemy.<\/p>\n Badmouthing may have renewed tensions between Binse and Preston, who were both raised in Sunshine, in Melbourne\u2019s west.<\/p>\n After Mitchell\u2019s ambush in November, 2011, Binse had vowed revenge.<\/p>\n A tracking device was attached to Preston\u2019s car and Binse began stalking him like prey, even taking photos of Preston\u2019s then girlfriend, as Mitchell fought for his life in hospital.<\/p>\n His alleged plan was to fit explosives to Preston\u2019s vehicle and blow him up.<\/p>\n After Johnson was convicted of Williams\u2019 murder, a newspaper headline led to another tense meeting with me at a pub.<\/p>\n Johnson was labelled a \u201ccoward\u201d for bashing Williams from behind. Preston, angered, was determined to set the record straight.<\/p>\n Gavin Preston, with his nickname \u201cCapable\u201d tattooed on his neck.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Facebook<\/cite><\/p>\n I picked a very public setting for this meeting- Young & Jackson.<\/p>\n Preston, who arrived minutes after me via the Swanston Street door, was initially calm.<\/p>\n Over the course of half an hour, he raised the tension incrementally.<\/p>\n Preston wanted it known that Johnson had sacrificed himself by committing the killing in the knowledge he would spend the rest of his life in prison.<\/p>\n The hulking Preston pressed upon me how close I was to being bundled into the boot of a car and taken to a remote location.<\/p>\n He was also prepared to assault an editor, graphically describing what he would do to him.<\/p>\n Weeks later, Preston and Maghnie were \u201crandomly\u201d intercepted by police as they drove a Mercedes-Benz along Collins St in the CBD.<\/p>\n A gun was found in the car.<\/p>\n It has strongly been suggested that the pair were headed to a city restaurant to shoot Gatto.<\/p>\n Preston was given bail and police surveilled him.<\/p>\n Carl Williams and Matthew Johnson.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Fairfax Media<\/cite><\/p>\n But on the night he headed to North Melbourne\u2019s Canning Street, where drug dealer Adam Khoury lived, the police team tailing him had knocked off. Within 30 minutes, Khoury was dead, shot multiple times including in the head.<\/p>\n Preston argued that he had wrestled the gun from Khoury and successfully had the charge reduced to defensive homicide.<\/p>\n It was an implausible, but not impossible scenario.<\/p>\n It also emerged in 2012, soon after Preston\u2019s arrest, that lawyer-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo told police she was on a hit list alongside Khoury, Gatto and Mitchell.<\/p>\n The allegation was that the hit list was Preston\u2019s.<\/p>\n Veteran drug criminal John Higgs was another name on the purported list.<\/p>\n Police documents revealed it was raised with then-top cop Graham Ashton.<\/p>\n Preston, in court, openly mocked Purana taskforce investigators as he was sentenced to 11 years in jail for killing Khoury over an alleged drug debt.<\/p>\n Over time, Preston would fall out with Johnson and the Prisoners of War gang he co-founded.<\/p>\n In 2015, a group of PoW-aligned inmates attacked Preston with shivs and other edged weapons inside the Eucalypt unit of Barwon Prison.<\/p>\n Nabil Maghnie in 2016.<\/span>Credit: <\/span> <\/cite><\/p>\n It was speculated the attack was payback from Johnson remaining dissatisfied over being short-changed for killing Williams\u2019, for which he is serving a 32-year sentence.<\/p>\n Since Preston\u2019s release from jail six months ago, he has been pictured associating with Comanchero bikies. But he was still exposed without Maghnie, who was shot dead in Melbourne\u2019s north in 2020.<\/p>\n Maghnie\u2019s son, Abbas Maghnie Junior, aka AJ, was exposed too. His quick-thinking saw him survive Saturday\u2019s cafe shooting with a bullet to the stomach that required surgery.<\/p>\n Organised crime investigators have a long list of Preston\u2019s enemies to work through.<\/p>\n The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. <\/i><\/b>Sign up here<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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