Biography

Colin McLaren is an ex detective from Australia. He served in elite crime squads investigating some of Australia's most horrendous crimes, murders, drug importations, bombings and kidnappings. He served on more task forces than any serving detective of his time and sent Australia's mafia godfather to jail in the country's biggest ever undercover sting on the mafia, where many mafiosi were jailed. Since leaving the Police McLaren discovered he could write, and he has penned 5 best selling books. He soon got involved in documentary film making as a Producer and Advisor and Narrator. He lives in Australia and travels globally working on films.
- IMDb mini biography by: Colin McLaren

When Colin McLaren was an undercover cop (in real life) he infiltrated the Australian Mafia. He went undercover for two years, posing as a dodgy art dealer who was able to launder money. The mafia was drawn to McLaren's undercover persona as they saw some use in him. McLaren was able to ingratiate himself with the mafia and he went on to purchase vast amounts of drugs; cocaine and cannabis from the mafia. He also got into major conspiracies to import a plane load of pure cocaine and cannabis with the mafia. This resulted in the end of his operation and the ring leader of the mafia - the actual Australian Godfather - was arrested, along with 10 others bosses and hangers on. It is the biggest undercover sting in Australian law enforcement history. McLaren's undercover role is often compared to that of Joe Pistone, a cop in NYPD who, posing as a dodgy jewel thief Donnie Brasco, infiltrated the Bananno and Colombo families of the NYC mafia. McLaren has always held Joe Pistone in the highest regard for his undercover work. Both men have never met. Pistone's undercover work was in the late 1970s. McLaren's was in the 1990s. Both men have had, at times, been in hiding to avoid repercussions from the mafia.

When the movie of Colin McLaren's real life undercover 'infiltration' of the Australian mafia was being film, starring Sullivan Stapleton as Colin, the real Colin was asked by the director Grant Brown to appear in a cameo role. The cameo role was the key moment when Colin met a woman in a bar who would later go on to introduce him to the head of the mafia. Sullivan Stapleton acted the scene and met the woman, buying her a drink and chatting to her. Alongside the woman was a down-on-his-luck man feeding coins into a Poker machine and drinking. That man was Colin McLaren. The scene lasted only a couple of minutes but was a great art-imitating-life moment for Colin and Sullivan, who became good friends on the set.

When Princess Diana was killed in a tragic car crash in Paris on 30 August, 1997, Colin McLaren was a detective working as a lecturer at the highly regarded Detective Training School in Australia. His subject was Crime Scene Procedures. Colin watched the French police deal with the death of Diana and her boyfriend and the driver of the Mercedes and couldn't believe how poorly they handled the crime scene, missing clues and sweeping it up and washing it away to allow traffic to flow again. Colin immediately jumped a flight to Paris to undergo his own CSI at the scene. He found skid marks, tire residue and gouges on the side of the road that he photographed, measured and documented. In 2016 Colin used this CSI and evidence to make his documentary Princess Diana's Death: Mystery Solved and prove (at last) how Diana really died and how the French police covered up the identify of others involved in the tragedy.