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MELBOURNE - Most Victorian police would be devastated at the confirmation of links between corrupt officers and gangland violence, a police chief says.
But Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland says an investigation into the links proves Victoria's anti-corruption taskforce is working well.
Mr Overland also said he did not regret previously denying links between underworld murders and corrupt police because there had been no evidence until now.
A high-level Victoria police anti-corruption taskforce is investigating a serving senior detective for alleged ties to a contract killing during Melbourne's bloody underworld war.
A Fairfax newspaper investigation said the hitman had told the taskforce that the detective gave him the address of one of his targets, male prostitute Shane Chartres-Abbott.
"It is my preference that we continue our investigations without publicity and run them covertly but I am happy to admit there are two separate matters being investigated," Mr Overland told ABC radio.
Mr Overland would not confirm the names of the men under investigation or if anyone had been arrested or suspended.
He conceded a "rotten" and corrupt element still existed in Victoria Police but said it was small and the organisation's anti-corruption taskforce was working to eliminate it.
The anti-corruption taskforces had also been successful in investigating and prosecuting corrupt officers currently in prison, Mr Overland said.
"This is devastating to the vast majority of Victoria Police officers," he said.
"It's not something that you expect to have to do. But the point is we've found it, we will follow it."
- AAP
