Police across the country are investigating more than 100 reports of tampering with fruit since the first reports emerged of needles discovered in strawberries in Queensland a week ago. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pushed through new penalties for so-called "food terrorists" who would face up to 15 years in jail – five more years than the existing penalty. The Queensland government has pledged $1 million to help embattled strawberry farmers. One of the biggest players in the Queensland strawberry market is the packing and distribution operation set up just 18 months ago at Mr Cufari's farm at Elimbah. The Donnybrook packing giant in Queensland. Credit:Fairfax Media

The Donnybrook Berries business had a low profile in the area until a few years ago. But it has rapidly taken a significant role in the local industry after Mr Cufari spent more than $6 million in the last 2½ years buying strawberry farms and related property near the packing plant and at Stanthorpe on the Queensland-NSW border. Lionel Sach, who runs the growers’ co-operative at Elimbah, said Mr Cufari would visit the area about once a year, but otherwise stayed in Victoria. Loading Neighbours said the Elimbah business was by far the busiest fruit operation in the district, with dozens of semi-trailers and B-doubles moving in and out daily and around the clock. Local grower Gavin Scurr said the business had become the biggest grower in the local industry.

Donnybrook Berries was one of three brands first identified as having been contaminated with parts of sewing needles last weekend. The other two, Berry Obsession and Berry Licious, are run out of two small farms, one of which is a few hundred metres from the Donnybrook plant and the other a 10-minute drive away. Kevin Tran, who runs the Berry Obsession and Berry Licious brands, said he had had nothing to do with the Donnybrook operation and handled all of his own berries. "I pack them myself," he said. Mr Tran said he faced financial ruin as a result of the contamination scare and could no longer bear even to look at media reports. "I’m just thinking: 'Who can do something like this?' It’s just terrible," he said.

"I really can’t watch or listen to any more, every time I see my name, or my brand, or strawberry on there, I just can’t look." Another local grower, Ray Daniels, said the Donnybrook operation handled other brands through its packing operation but would not say which ones. A Coles spokesperson said Mr Cufari’s operation was a major supplier to the supermarket chain. He was quoted in a press release issued by Coles last month, before the contamination crisis broke, praising the chain for dropping the price of strawberries at stores in NSW to $1 a punnet, which Coles said would "help (Mr Cufari) move a mountain of berries that would otherwise go to waste". A video of a truckload of strawberries being dumped was widely shared on social media and reported in mainstream outlets this week.

Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video While there was very little visible activity this week at local farms, most of which pack their own fruit and all of which have been severely affected by the contamination scandal, neighbours said the Donnybrook packing operation had re-started operations on Tuesday. Loading On Tuesday, Fairfax Media counted more than 60 cars parked at the packing shed. Workers were seen coming and going in and out of the shed and office. "That’s a quiet day," one neighbour said. "There’s normally much more than that."

The Queensland detective leading the investigation into the contamination, Acting Chief Superintendent Terry Lawrence said: "We are looking at all of the supply chain, and whatever shakes loose from that, we will have a look at." Superintendent Lawrence confirmed as many as 100 officers were involved in the operation. He declined to say whether there had been any breakthrough in the investigation. Neighbours at a property overlooking the Donnybrook packing plant, who did not want to be identified, said the only police activity they had witnessed at the site was a marked patrol car arriving last Friday afternoon, entering the Donnybrook property and leaving 10 minutes later. In a written response to Fairfax Media’s questions, Victoria Police said officers were investigating reports of contaminated fruit in Belgrave, Sydenham and Echuca amongst other locations. "Any strawberries which are found to have sewing needles inside will continue to be investigated by Queensland Police Service, with Victoria Police’s Fraud and Extortion Squad detectives assisting,’’ police said.

"Any other fruit contamination will be investigated by the local police. We're not in a position to confirm each specific location at this stage.’’ Company records show Pasquale Cufari is the sole director of Donnybrook Berries Property Holdings Pty Ltd, a Mildura-registered company that owns the 64-hectare farm at Elimbah, where the packing operation is located. Companies owned by him and registered at his Mildura address own the majority of the shares. A company that records show owns a minority shareholding, PH Pty Ltd, is also registered at the same address. Neighbours said the Elimbah business was by far the busiest fruit operation in the district. Credit:Fairfax Media Donnybrook Berries Property Holdings paid $2.35 million for the farm in late 2016, then in 2017 spent a further $4 million buying a larger fruit farm a few kilometres east near Bribie Island and another at Thulimbah near Stanthorpe near the NSW border, where the colder climate means the strawberry season can be extended into the summer.

The operating company at Elimbah, which runs refrigerated trucks as well as hiring the casual labour needed for strawberry picking, is MJC Farms Pty Ltd. Australian Strawberry Growers’ Association president Luigi Cocco declined to discuss Mr Cufari's business or background. "This is sensitive," he said. "I’m not in a position to talk about that." "This is not about history or background. The strawberry industry all just want to be left in peace now," he said. Mr Cocco said police had told him he was "not allowed to talk" but Superintendent Lawrence disputed this.

"That’s news to me," he said. Pasquale Cufari was previously of interest to police and other criminal investigators. Mr Cufari was a target of investigations in the 1990s by the National Criminal Authority, the forerunner of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, into any influence of the Calabrian Mafia in Mildura. In 2003, Pasquale Cufari was named in a confidential Australian Crime Commission report on organised crime in Australia. Pasquale Cufari’s business activities suffered a lull in the mid-1990s while he served five years of his seven-year jail sentence, but picked up significantly in recent years.

In 2016, his company Sylina Property Holdings Pty Ltd paid $6.6 million for an office block in central Adelaide. Mr Cufari hails from Plati in Reggio Calabria in southern mainland Italy, a stronghold of the N’Dragheta, or "Honoured Society" organised crime group. Alleged members of the group in Australia have been closely associated with the fruit trade, especially at the Victoria Market in Melbourne. In 2014, criminologist Anna Sergi, an expert on the Mafia, warned a Victorian parliamentary committee N’Dragheta clans in Australia were becoming increasingly involved in Australia. Dr Sergi told the committee that Italian investigators were concerned about a lack of intelligence-sharing on the issue between Australian and Italian authorities.