Explosive new documentary series Gangs of OZ tells the real stories of Australian crime's first "families", groups who stop at nothing in their quest for money and power.

These gripping stories of the Australian underworld are told for the first time by the people who know it best - the insiders, former or current gang members, relatives, victims and the police charged with the mission to stop the bloodshed.

As Gangs of Oz shows, tales of this nation's ganglands go far deeper than the havoc caused by the simple drug dealers with itchy trigger fingers we see in the papers.

The reach of organized crime in Australia is vast, varied and harrowing. Recent news events have given us examples of the low price placed on a human life when it means a gang protecting its turf or exacting revenge on an enemy.

Gangs of Oz explores the characters attracted to life in criminal gangs, why they run in such unsavoury packs, the lengths they are willing to go for their 'brothers' and how they make their multi-million dollar operations work.