Police not ruling anything out as they investigate EastLink execution

Police admit they “clearly” need to explore potential underworld links after Paul Virgona was executed on EastLink in the early hours of Saturday morning.

But they stress there’s nothing to suggest a link at this stage and can’t rule out it being a case of mistaken identity, either.

Detective Inspector Tim Day told Neil Mitchell the attack – Paul’s van was found riddled with bullet holes – was “without doubt” targetted.

“But whether or not Paul was the target or it was mistaken identity, we are yet to establish,” Detective Inspector Day told 3AW Mornings.

Neil Mitchell asked whether police were exploring underworld links, given Mr Virgona ran a fruit and vegetable business.

“There’s been issues obviously with the fruit and veg markets and the like over history (and) that’s clearly something we need to look at,” Detective Inspector Day said.

“But I want to emphasise that at this stage there’s nothing in his background, at all – he’s not known to police – that would indicate why he’d be targetted.

“But the fact is we now have Paul deceased and we need to look at whether he was the target, or somebody else was.”

Police are appealing to any members of the public with CCTV or dashcam footage.

In particular, anyone travelling in the vicinity of Croydon, Ringwood, Donvale, Mooroolbark, Wantirna, Bayswater, Boronia and Ferntree Gully between 1am and 3.30am on Saturday are asked to check their dashcam for vehicles with the following registrations:

• AZE 110 (Mercedes sedan)
• ABE 158 (VW Van white)
• 1MC 9PG (VW Amarok grey)

They’re also interested in any vision around Marie Wallace Bayswater Park, where a vehicle was dumped between 3.15am and 4am while the suspected offenders fled.

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