Saturday, June 2, 2012
AUSTRAILIA - Former SA gang boss to face charges
OFF THE WIRE
Former bikie gang leader Vince Focarelli will stand trial on a drug trafficking charge after abandoning a bid to have it thrown out.Focarelli appeared by video link in the Adelaide Magistrate Court on Friday where he was scheduled to argue that he had no case to answer in relation to the allegation that he trafficked in a controlled drug.But the court was told that after a phone conversation with his lawyer the 37-year-old had decided not to proceed.He pleaded not guilty to the charge instead and was committed for trial and ordered to appear in the South Australian District Court on July 2.It was previously alleged police found a bottle of drugs in the car Focarelli was driving when he flagged down a patrol in Adelaide in January on the night he and his son were shot.Giovanni Focarelli, 22, died in the attack while Focarelli, who at one stage declared himself the head of the Comancheros in SA, was hospitalised for several weeks with gunshot wounds.
