Griffith wasn’t just vineyards—it was an industrial drug economy hiding in plain sight. As Donald Mackay vanished, a syndicate led by Robert Trimbole—with names like Sergi, Barbaro and Tizzone—was cultivating cannabis on a massive scale, protected by silence and influence. Raids came and went. Files moved. People stopped asking questions.

By 1977, law-enforcement estimates put the profits at $60–$80 million a year—nearly half a billion dollars in today’s terms—laundered through trucking firms, restaurants and real estate. This episode follows the money, the protection and the leaks that let the crops keep growing, and asks the question that still matters in 2025: when truth collides with power, who pays the price? For the Mackay family, the cost never ended.

Written & produced by Stephen Johns.

Sound design and editing by Stephen Johns.

© Compromised Podcast Series.

Justice Philip Woodward audio in part: Crime Investigation Australia: Conviction in Donald Mackay case. 2007. Foxtel

Al Grassby comments: ABC News archives Australia

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