No one in the Australian underworld was shocked when 'Instagangster' Pasquale Barbaro was gunned down in a quiet Sydney street five years ago - least of all the preening man himself.
The flashy drug dealer had long known he was a target for execution and there were seemingly more dangerous criminals who wanted him dead than alive.
It is perhaps only surprising Barbaro lasted as long as he did, after managing to get everyone from Middle Eastern crime gangs to the Calabrian mafia offside.
On top of that, Barbaro was rumoured to have been helping detectives investigating a recent spate of gangland murders and cooperating with the New South Wales Crime Commission.
The last years of Barbaro's short, trouble-filled life are the subject of the Seven Network's two-part drama series Australian Gangster which aired last Monday and Tuesday nights.
No one in the Australian underworld was shocked when 'Instagangster' Pasquale Barbaro was gunned down in a quiet Sydney street five years ago - least of all the preening man himself
Pasquale Barbaro was married with two children but had girlfriend Chantel Baptista (pictured) on the side. Ms Baptista was a Portuguese dancer who told Daily Mail Australia she was distressed after his murder. 'I am grieving… I'm really sad for his family too,' Ms Baptista said
The flashy drug dealer had long known he was a target for execution and there were seemingly more dangerous criminals who wanted him dead than alive. His body is pictured on a street at Earlwood in Sydney's inner south-west after he was gunned down on November 14, 2016
The first of two 90-minute episodes drew 510,000 viewers nationally and 486,000 for the second - each winning its timeslot.
After favourable comparisons with Nine's Underbelly franchise and strong word-of-mouth recommendations it will have a new life on the catch-up service 7Plus.
Like Underbelly, the generic title of Australian Gangster leaves open the possibility for more installments focusing on other criminals from other states to come.
The show features several of the most notorious crooks in Sydney over the past decade and a string of bloody crimes including brazen public shootings - some of them completely mindless.
'This story is inspired by actual events,' says an explanatory note at the start. 'Some characters and incidents have been fictionalised for dramatic purposes.'
Australian Gangster tracks the breakdown of the Brothers 4 Life gang as senior members Farhad 'The Afghan' Qaumi, his brother Mumtaz and Mohammed 'Little Crazy' Hamzy run out of control.
Farhad Qaumi knee caps an associate for no reason and organises the 2013 contract killing of standover man Joe Antoun, who is gunned down in front of his wife and two daughters.
A year earlier Mohammed Hamzy shoots dead his mate Yehya Amood in a car while aiming at another associate who had called his wife a gold digger and a s***.
The last years of Barbaro's short, trouble-filled life are the subject of the Seven Network's two-part drama series Australian Gangster which aired last Monday and Tuesday nights
Australian Gangster features the breakdown of the Brothers 4 Life gang as senior members Farhad 'The Afghan' Qaumi (pictured), his brother Mumtaz and Mohammed 'Little Crazy' Hamzy run out of control
But at the centre of Australian Gangster is father-of-two Pasquale Timothy Barbaro, a cocaine-addled playboy and aspiring property developer who just wants to make the big time.
Barbaro was vain and violent - he is shown both plucking hairs from his nose before a night on the town, and spitting in the face of his trembling wife.
Retired detective superintendent Deb Wallace, who worked on the Qaumis and Hamzys when she was commander of the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, worried about television glamorising the gangster life.
'I watched it with a punter's interest,' she said of Australian Gangster. 'If you looked at it as pure entertainment, it was entertainment. If you were looking at it as a documentary, no it wasn't.
'If anything comes out of it, it's that's the life of a gangster - it's all good when it's going right. That fast life, cocaine, fast cars, fast women, the high life, the flashiness.
'They make it out like it's all good while the money's coming in but you've always got to pay the piper in the end. There's always a cost.'
Director Gregor Jordan has described Barbaro as a compelling character in the manner of Tony Soprano but he is dumber, less charismatic and much less likeable.
Barbaro was very much a 21st century gangster, more interested in posting pictures of himself on Instagram than worrying about police surveillance cameras and getting caught.
The first episodes begins with Barbaro being released from jail and having sex with his wife Melinda in the back of a BMW in the prison carpark. His widow is pictured
Barbaro buys an apartment at Darling Point overlooking the harbour but his wife doesn't want to move from Leichhardt in the inner-west. 'What about my coffee shop? My waxing place? My gym?' she asks. Actors Alexander Bertrand and Louisa Mignone are pictured
He drove a black Lamborghini (white in the program), worked out daily in gyms, wore chunky watches and dressed in hideously garish shirts with designer sneakers.
Among his many tattoos were 'MALAVITA' – Italian for 'he evil life' - around his neck, 'LOST ANGELS' across his back and 'THE WORLD IS MINE' on his buttock.
Barbaro is played by Alexander Bertrand - last seen as bouncer Les Norton in the ABC crime-comedy series of the same name - and his performance is a stand out.
Bertrand underwent a physical transformation, eating up to eight meals a day while he trained, having Barbaro's tattoos replicated in makeup and getting his head shaved to play the part.
'Everything's put up as a front and then suddenly... you start peeling back who the guy really was,' Bertrand says.
'He was a supposed mafia don who at the end of the day was just a really big kid who wanted to prove everybody wrong and that ultimately led to his demise.'
Australian Gangster was commissioned in 2016, shortly after Barbaro was shot dead, and filmed in 2018 but faced years of legal hurdles as various characters were before courts.
Barbaro was a 21st century gangster, more interested in posting pictures of himself on Instagram than worrying about police surveillance cameras and getting caught
Producer John Edwards (Love My Way, Offspring, The Secret Life of Us) and his son Dan Edwards of Roadshow Rough Diamond are proud of the project.
The Edwards team had originally pitched a show about another Pasquale Barbaro who had been jailed for the 2008 importation of drugs worth $440million inside Italian tomato tins in what was then the world's biggest ecstasy bust.
Seven passed on the senior Barbaro's story but took on his younger namesake and relative's tale, which came with a dash of sex and a more complex plot.
Jordan (Two Hands, Ned Kelly, Buffalo Soldiers) was brought on to develop a script with contributions from former police and crime reporters.
'One of the things that really made the story suddenly interesting was the dichotomy of the fact that this guy was this quite amoral gangster,' Jordan says.
Acquaintances said Chantel Baptista (above) was reluctant to speak publicly after her boyfriend's murder. 'This is not meant to be a circus,' she said at the time
After Barbaro's death friends of his girlfriend Chantel Baptista (above) described her as 'gorgeous'. Pictures showed her to be a social butterfly who was regularly showered in compliments for her bikini photographs
'He was a knucklehead, he was vain, he was narcissistic, but at the same time he was also a loving father and husband and really did genuinely, we think anyway, love his family.'
The first episodes begins with Barbaro being released from jail and having sex with his wife Melinda in the back of a BMW in the prison carpark.
It then flashes back to a scene in which Barbaro childishly taunts Brothers 4 Life gang members including 'Little Crazy' Hamzy in the prison yard.
'My brothers for life, trouble and strife,' he chants. 'How's it hanging? Who ya banging? I'm banging ya sister, I'm banging your mother, I'm banging your wife. My brothers for life.'
Barbaro and Hamzy get into a fistfight, which Hamzy wins, before Barbaro uses a colourful phrase to describe how he is going to have sex with Hamzy's wife when he gets out.
Back with his family, Barbaro reads the Old Testament to his children at night.
'He was a knucklehead, he was vain, he was narcissistic, but at the same time he was also a loving father and husband and really did genuinely, we think anyway, love his family,' said writer-director Gregor Jordan
In short time he is back in business, dropping off drugs and collecting cash. He visits construction industry friend Elias 'Les' Elias - another real character - who advises Barbaro property development is more profitable than drugs.
'Who do you thinks richer?' Elias asks. 'Drug dealers or property developers? Think about it.'
Barbaro: 'I'm not thinking small time any more. I'm not gonna be some s*** kicker. I'm gonna be a boss.'
'Listen to me brother, You want to be something, you want to be someone in this world, you want something, you got to go out there and you've got to take it.'
Barbaro later says while he is on the way up, the old Griffith mafia to which his family belongs are 'proper dinosaurs' and 'just a bunch of w***kers'.
'I got a Lambo, I got a place with the best view in the whole city, I got a hot wife, I'm going places, you know what I mean?'
Brothers 4 Life Bankstown chapter boss Mohammed 'Little Crazy' Hamzy (pictured) is features in a subplot of Australian Gangster as his gang implodes. Hamzy was sentenced in October 2016 to at least eight and a half years for the manslaughter of his friend Yehya Amood.
Australian Gangster features a scene in which Barbaro childishly taunts Brothers 4 Life gang leader Mohammed 'Little Crazy' Hamzy in a prison yard (above). Barbaro says he is going to have sex with Hamzy's wife when he gets out of jail.
Barbaro buys an apartment at Darling Point overlooking the harbour but his wife doesn't want to move from Leichhardt in the inner-west. 'What about my coffee shop? My waxing place? My gym?' she asks.
Meanwhile, Little Crazy is back on the streets and vowing to kill Barbaro over the insult about his wife unless he comes up with $300,000.
At his local gym Barbaro meets a Croatian dancer who will become his girlfriend - 'Your face is almost as pretty as Miranda Kerr's; your body's probably hotter.' (The real Barbaro he had a Portuguese dancer girlfriend called Chantel Baptista).
To the dancer he reveals another of his guiding principles: 'I think the most important thing in life is looking good. Because if you look like s*** you may as well be dead.'
While Barbaro does not seem concerned about Little Crazy, his associates say he should be, calling him a psychopath. Elias suggests Farhad Qaumi could help.
Elias also reckons Qaumi might be interested in a multi-million dollar scheme to buy construction cranes with him and Barbaro to launder his ill-gotten cash.
Family life keeps encroaching on Barbaro's plans. When his daughter is expelled from preschool for biting another girl, Barbaro follows the supposed child victim's parents to their home and threatens them both.
Barbaro (right) is shown in police surveillance footage with construction boss Elias 'Les' Elias who suggests to the gangster there is more money in property development than drugs
Whether this actually happened or not is unclear but the matter is resolved without Barbaro breaking anyone's legs.
Little Crazy survives an assassination attempt in which his cousin Mahmoud Hamzy is killed, shortly after Barbaro's first meeting with Qaumi.
Barbaro drives to the kebab shop in
