A flamboyant Aussie criminal who conspired with the Provisional IRA in a major counterfeiting operation died.
Murray Stewart Riley, a former cop, passed away a few months ago in Queensland, Australia, aged 94, however the news of his death only emerged around Christmas time Down Under.
The copper turned international drug trafficker rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest gangsters in Australia, such as Lenny McPherson, and did business with some of the most notorious mafia figures in the USA, like James Jimmy the Weasel Fratianno and Sal Amarena of the Santos Trafficante family.
Having started his professional life out as a cop, Riley, nicknamed ‘The Prince of Promises’ in the underworld due to his incessant scheming and scamming, later turned to heroin and cannabis smuggling, before getting involved with the Provos in the early 90s, while he was on the run having escaped from an open prison in England where he d been serving a sentence for trying to defraud British Aeros
He quickly moved into crime and was a major heroin importer by the mid 1970s
Riley was an associate of Sydney gangsters Lennie McPherson and Neddy Smith
His most notorious failed scheme was the 4.5 tonne Anoa cannabis importation
He was jailed over a £40million fraud conspiracy in the UK but escaped in 1993
Riley spent the rest of his long life in Queensland avoiding extradition to Britain
One of the most colourful chapters in Australian criminal history has finally closed with the death of infamous cop turned crook Murray Riley aged 94.
Underworld sources said Riley, who rose to the rank of detective sergeant before embarking on a career as an international drug trafficker, died in Queensland.