Neale Fursdon is a big man who casts a big shadow.

He could be forgiven for having a dark side, having spent most of his career dealing with drug traffickers and international people smugglers, but he is perhaps the most affable person I have ever met.

Neale Fursdon: a much-loved cop who spread his knowledge and generosity through the Pacific and Asia.

The sort of person who always makes the people he is with feel better, the sort of person who enters a room with a smile on his face and the sort of person who has you laughing even when you aren’t in the mood.

I’ve known him since the early 1980s when he was a detective in Melbourne. He was a key member of Omega, the first bikie-busting taskforce, and the Victorian/Federal Police Taskforce Aries that brought down an international drug cartel − one of the first of its kind.

At the time the Feds and Vic Pol were rivals. Largely due to the nature of the Aries cops they made it work.

During one surveillance operation they were stashed in a five-star hotel. When staff with mini-bar trolleys reached their floor, they used their covert skills to sneak out and knock off handfuls to replenish their empty fridges.

The AFP bean-counters could not believe such a small group could consume so many fisherman baskets ordered via........

© The Age