Gunned down gangster Pasquale 'Pat' Barbaro's life a cross between Breaking Bad and The Sopranos

Gunned down gangster Pasquale "Pat" Barbaro's life was a cross between Breaking Bad and The Sopranos.

Like TV's most famous Italian mobster, Tony soprano, Barbaro was connected to kidnap, firearms and bloody family love feuds.

Like his own grandfather, Pasquale Barbaro was executed after surviving a failed attempt on his life, and was believed to be a police informant.

But Barbaro, 35, who was killed in an execution style shooting on a suburban Sydney street on Monday evening, was also deeply involved in real life versions of the methamphetamine manufacturing themed TV hit, Breaking Bad.

Court documents seen by news.com.au reveal Barbaro was involved in exploding ice cooking operations in rural NSW.

The ice manufacture, which involved "cooks" of methamphetamine which caught on fire or exploded, was operated by a cabal of six Italian Australians.

In telephone conversations recorded on listening devices installed by NSW Police, the men talk guardedly about "the thing", which Drug Squad detectives allege is methamphetamine.

They make plans to meet up at one particular Italian restaurant to discuss business on two farms at Cobbitty near Campbelltown in southwestern Sydney and in the rich grazing area of Parkesbourne, near Goulburn.

One of the former gang members was described as having such a massive habit for ingesting ice that he had psychiatric problems.

Barbaro was due to stand trial next month over the operation for manufacturing up to 2kg of ice and being a criminal gang member.

Free on bail, Barbaro fraternised with members of the Sydney underworld and often did business over coffee in his bespoke gangster pinstripe suit.

But the third generation criminal from Australia's Mafia capital, the fruit and marijuana growing NSW town of Griffith, had spent time in prison greens as a legacy of his father's and grandfather's drug connections.

Gisueppe "Joe" Barbaro, Pasquale's father, were 'very very close' and shared a pod at Silverwater prison 11 years ago when serving time for drug charges. Photo / News Corp

Barbaro did time with his father Giuseppe "Joe" Barbaro at Silverwater Correctional Centre in 2005.

Joe Barbaro, who made headlines when his baby daughter was kidnapped in Melbourne, was sentenced to six years for operating an interstate amphetamine ring with his son.

Then aged only 23, Pasquale Barbaro or "Tim" as his family called him, operated the Sydney end of the drug ring sending his father in Melbourne up to 1000 methamphetamine tablets at a time.

Zaky Mallah, the Sydney man charged but acquitted of terrorism offences more than a decade ago, remembers the father and son in Pod 10 at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception prison at Silverwater.

Mr Mallah described the men as "very very close" and that Joe had anxiously waited for his son to join him in Silverwater, after Pasquale had been convicted and sent initially to Goulburn prison.

"Joe the father was an easy going man," Mallah told news.com.au.

"We use to walk together in the yard and talk about horse racing. He loved horses.

"I remember vividly when Joe was at the pod 10 gate waiting for his son to arrive.

"His arrival was delayed for some reason. I remember them hugging and kissing each other at the gate.

"They were very very close. Pas had long hair then."

Ten years later, Pasquale Barbaro had transformed himself into the shaven headed boss of a drug and crime enterprise.

He lived with his girlfriend in Harrington Park in Sydney's south west, but had at one time lived in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Darling Point.

He is reputed to have ripped $1 million from crime associates, but did not fall into pattern of Mafia love feuds that had beset his father and grandfather.

Also called Pasquale Barbaro, his grandfather was also publicly executed, in Brisbane in 1990.

Pasquale Barbaro's life was like a mix of TV's top rating series, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Photo / Facebook

He had survived a failed attempt on his life a year previously, and was believed to have been informing police about a marijuana growing operation in Griffith.

But police believed his execution resulted from leaving his wife for a Filipina woman.

Rocco Barbaro had to undergo a leg amputation after a kneecapping near his Griffith farm.

Giuseppe "Joe" Barbaro had a complicated romantic history and was the father of eight children to three different mothers.

In 2004, his nine-month-old daughter Montana was kidnapped in Melbourne.

Montana was snatched from the arms of her mother, Anita Ciancio, at Brimbank Shopping Centre in suburban Melbourne.

She was found unharmed in a derelict Melbourne house two days later.

A couple was charged with kidnapping the child and endangering her life.

After reviewing the evidence of the father and son methamphetamine operation, NSW District Court Judge Ian Dodd at the time rejected Giuseppe Barbaro's plea for a lenient sentence.

"I am of the view that while your family circumstances are more difficult and considerably more difficult than many of the families whose husbands, fathers and other relatives are in prison, it does not amount to hardship ... that would justify any appreciable reduction in the sentence," he said.