Michael Nicholas Hurley
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Michael Nicholas Hurley was the alleged "head honcho" of the Sydney underworld until his death of bone cancer on January 23, 2007. Michael Hurley grew up in a one-bedroom house in Pyrmont, one of eight children. He left school at the age of fourteen to work on the Sydney wharves.
Hurley began his criminal career by stealing chickens and then selling them for a dollar in 1965. He later served a jail term in 1976 for theft and a four year jail term in 1977 for a break, enter and steal.
Throughout his career Hurley has been linked, but not convicted of, smuggling three tonnes of marijuana, smuggling thirty-four kilos of ecstacy, armed robbery, money laundering and large scale thefts.
However, throughout his career, Hurley claimed that he was nothing more than a simple garbage collector who was fotunate enough to win the lotto twice.
Hurley was arrested in 2005 relating to a cocaine importation ring. It was alleged that Hurley and an associate, Les Mara, had paid corrupt baggage handlers at Sydney International Airport to ensure that certain bags containing cocaine would make it into the country. Hurley died, aged 61, before the case could go to trial.
REFERENCE LIST
Life of crime over for head honcho Hurley, Daily Telegraph, January 24, 2007, p.19
