Yet he rose from bumbling boob to a real-life Sopranos figure, who finally came crashing down when sentenced in the County Court earlier this month to a minimum of 10 years for drug trafficking and crimes of violence.

The fact someone like Arico was able to build an empire says more about our inexhaustible desire for drugs than his talents as a master criminal.

In August 1999 Arico, Dino Dibra and two other hoons kidnapped a man in the western suburbs, punching, kicking and pistol-whipping the fellow before throwing him in the boot of their car. So far, so good.

But they failed to understand the trunk could be popped from the inside, and so when they pulled up at the lights the victim jumped out and bolted. The kidnap team gave chase, then in front of startled witnesses beat him and dragged him back into the boot.

They then drove to Dibra's Taylors Lakes house, where they rang the victim's brother and demanded $20,000 before being haggled down to $5000.

Luckily for the victim and sadly for Rocco and his mob, the house was already filled with law enforcement bugs and video cameras. And if they needed any further evidence, when police arrived the bashed man was still in the boot.

While the kidnapping was inept, the bugged conversation gives an insight into Arico's love of violence and explains why he is now the main suspect in two murders, including ordering the 2010 prison killing of drug kingpin Carl Williams.

Arico: "Hey, if I'd have known he's only gonna get five grand, I would have put one in when he tried to jump out of the car."

Dibra: "You're an idiot. Listen to you."

Arico: "I would have just went f.....g whack. Cop this slug for now. I would have slapped one in and I would have said hold on to that for a while, don't give it to anyone and jump in the coffin."

(Having been caught out by police recordings over the botched kidnapping, Arico always worried that he was being bugged. And so when this reporter wrote a story on his connections to Williams, he threw his phone in a bush fearing it was being intercepted in a police sting. It turned up at a second-hand store when a homeless man tried to pawn it.)

In July 2000, Arico and Dibra were driving in separate cars, returning from a nightclub, when they cut off another motorist in Taylors Lakes who was on his way to work. It was 7am.

In the subsequent confrontation, Arico produced an automatic pistol and fired six shots - five hitting the driver before he even unbuckled his seatbelt. He was struck on his forearms, abdomen, right elbow and shoulder but, against the odds, he survived.

Williams hid Arico for two days and then drove him to the airport, where Rocco was arrested about to board a flight to Perth. He told police he was going on a three-week holiday - despite having no luggage. He travelled light, but not that light, as he had $100,000 worth of cocaine in his pocket.

He was jailed for seven years, which probably saved his life, for if he had been on the outside he would have been one of Williams' favourite gunmen and would almost certainly have been shot dead like associates Dibra, Andrew Veniamin and Paul Kallipolitis.

In fact, he was connected with two gangland hits before road rage took him off the market. One was the execution of Richard "The Lionheart" Mladenich - who was shot dead in May 2000, almost certainly on Williams' orders.

Police have been told Mladenich owed Carl $120,000 for drugs, with underworld sources saying Williams used Mladenich as a jail heavy and wanted him to reprise the role on the outside. One story goes that Mladenich rejected the job offer and joined the Morans - Carl's major enemies.

Almost certainly, Williams handed the job to two of his (then) mates, Arico and Dibra. On the night of the murder, Williams' and Arico's phones were "pinged" together in the city. And then they were simultaneously turned off.

Shortly after 3am on May 16, 2000, a lone gunman wearing a hoodie and dark glasses walked into room 18 of St Kilda's Esquire Hotel and shot Mladenich in front of three witnesses.

Far from hiding, Dibra turned up at the homicide squad to be interviewed on June 15 - the very night Mark Moran was shot dead outside his Aberfeldie home.

Dibra clearly knew Moran was about to be hit and was setting up the perfect alibi, as he was with the detectives who would be called to investigate the Moran murder. (Dino was later shot 14 times with .22 and 9mm guns, so he wasn't that smart.)

So what of Arico? He chose the exact time of the Moran hit to buy a gangster-chic suit and had the documentation to prove it.

Williams was eventually charged with the murder of Mark Moran, but there are some police who say he couldn't have pulled the trigger as he was recorded on CCTV in a Gisborne shop 20 minutes after the hit.

When police raided his house at 4am (less than eight hours after the murder) he was in bed and his mate Rocco was asleep on the floor.

Flash forward. After doing his seven years, Arico is released about the time Williams finally pleads guilty to three murders and an attempted murder.

While Williams is becoming more desperate and despondent, Arico fills the big man's position in the drug world - reinventing himself as a "property developer" and acquiring a $10 million fortune.

One of his bayside properties, a four-level palace with a lift, rooftop garden, sauna, steam room and home cinema, sold for $2.5 million. The house was in his mother's name - for an older lady apparently extremely sprightly, because judging by the size of the weights in the gym she could bench-press 100 kilos. The framed picture from the film Scarface, which starred Al Pacino, in the wine cellar probably showed where Rocco's real interests lay.

At his new property on the other side of town, he offered to put security cameras on his neighbours' properties to keep the area safe.

While Rocco was building a property empire based on drugs, a loose end twas fraying because his former mate Williams was trying to do a deal with police. He had made a statement over the 2004 murders of prosecution witness Terry Hodson and his wife, Christine, in the hope of getting a sentence discount.

By 2010, there were only two inmates with Williams in his Barwon prison unit. One was Matthew "The General" Johnson and the other, who cannot be named due to court matters, was a mate of Arico so close, they were seen together on the night of the Mladenich killing.

Rocco received regular telephone updates from his inside man and their recorded conversations were illuminating.

The day before the murder, Arico told him, "You haven't got, like, one friend out here. You've chosen to accept it mate, it's not good. You're not the same as you were three months ago. You put yourself in that position, keep on making weak decisions."

It was alleged that on that afternoon, Rocco's mate told Johnson that Williams was planning to kill "The General" with pool balls in a sock - an old jail weapon of choice. This is, of course, nonsense, as Carl wanted Johnson to act as his protector and was looking to get out of jail - not commit another murder.

A prison intelligence officer would later tell the Ombudsman: "It's quite obvious that [Arico] was putting the word inside Barwon that the criminal world on the outside, not only being Victoria but interstate, are not happy with the word that Williams is giving information."

On April 19, Johnson crushed Williams' skull with eight blows using the metal stem of an exercise bike. You can only imagine the sickening noise when a man's head is beaten beyond recognition and yet Arico's mate, whose back was conveniently turned, didn't react, flinch or look. The reason is simple - he knew what was coming.

And what did the inmate do? Run? Remonstrate? Call for help? No, he rang Rocco and used dialogue that would be thrown out of a theatre restaurant.

He said to Arico: "I'm shocked mate ??? something just really terrible just happened. I think Carl's dead. I think Carl's dead, mate. Matty just went crazy."

Rocco responded: "What happened, mate?"

Inmate: "I don't know; mate; the screws haven't come yet or nothing, so we're going to get locked in. I think he just threatened Matty. I just heard some noise and I turned over and seen Carl on the floor."

Johnson claimed it was self-defence but was convicted of murder and sentenced to 32 years, while Arico was never charged.

But he has been convicted of drug trafficking, extortion, intentionally causing injury, and firearms offences. After serving his time, and having failed in a last-minute bid to take out Australian citizenship, he will face deportation to Italy, the country of his birth.

He will, more than likely, be stripped of his assets. But police believe he got away with murder - not once, but twice.