Decades on, the Riverina clans still running the crime shop Murdered in 1977: Donald Mackay. When Pasquale Barbaro was jailed for life last year for his role in attempting to smuggle 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy into Australia, it was yet another reminder that the shadowy Italian crime ring still holds court in the Riverina region. Barbaro's sprawling mansion in Griffith became a central focus of the AFP investigation when he was arrested in relation to 15 million ecstasy tablets found hidden in a container of Italian tinned tomatoes. It was the world's biggest ecstasy haul. The Sun-Herald on August 10, 1980. Barbaro, 50, is the son of Francesco "Little Trees" Barbaro, also from Griffith, who in a 1979 Woodward royal commission report was named as a leading figure of the Ndrangheta Mafia cell responsible for Donald Mackay's murder. Mackay was murdered after he forwarded intelligence about local marijuana growers, known as the "Honoured Society." Three decades on from his killing, a series of recent busts suggest members of that same clique could still be operating. The Herald on November 7, 1979. On Thursday a Griffith man faced Wangaratta Magistrates Court charged with cultivating a large commercial quantity of cannabis, after police found 7000 plants on a 35-hectare property near Cheshunt, Victoria, in March. He was remanded in custody and will reappear on September 19. The $18 million crop he was allegedly cultivating was fed by low-lying irrigation. Wangaratta inspector David Ryan said the system featured specific techniques not seen since the Mafia heydays of the 1960s and 1970s. The Heraldon March 30, 1984. "I haven't heard of this method being used for a long, long time," he said. In April 2011, Griffith local area commander Detective Superintendent Michael Rowan also warned the Mafia had returned after a five-day police operation uncovered 10,000 cannabis plants, worth $23 million, in three vineyards and an orange orchard. "Organised crime is back in business here," he told Fairfax Media. Clearly it has got to be destined for the Sydney and Melbourne markets.