Col Meadows

Col Meadows is a former RAN Lieutenant who was supplied with marijuana by the Calabrian mafia to distribute it onto the Garden Island naval base during the 1960s. After doing time in prison in the early 1970s he became an associate of the mafia within the Tehran Outfit.

Biography
Meadows first came into contact with the Modafferi clan in the late 1960s when he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy. He bought marijuana directly from the mafia and sold it to servicemen in the navy and while on tour in Vietnam.

During the return voyage from England to Australia in 1970 HMAS Melbourne suffered engine troubles and was forced to put into Gibraltar. While undergoing repairs Meadows travelled to the Middle East where he bought Iranian hashish from a rug merchant in Tehran. He returned to Gibraltar the following day.

Meadows' hashish supplies proved so popular with servicemen back in Sydney that he tripled his investment and even began selling to civilians outside the naval base. With his supplies running low Meadows was ready to go AWOL from the navy, return to Tehran and smuggle more hashish back to Australia. But before he could execute any such plan the New South Wales Drug Squad (lead by Christopher Donahue) arrested him on the base.

He was sentenced to two and a half years beginning in 1971. While in Maitland Gaol, he approached Thomas Morello  and Giorgio Modafferi hoping their previous dealings would allow him the chance to talk business with a large powerful crime organisation. Morello eventually sat down with Meadows to discuss the plan of importing hashish from Iran and with Bruno's blessing Meadows became the principle distributor of hashish.