A member of the Barbaros, of Griffith Calabrian Mafia fame, the clan have long been known to law enforcement authorities as one of the major organised crime families.

His grandfather and cousin, both also named Pasquale Barbaro, were previous victims of gangland hits in Brisbane and Melbourne.

And the 35-year-old, shot dead at Earlwood in Sydney's south on Monday night, had already survived an attempt on his life in November last year.

In that shooting, a gunman fired a volley of shots at Barbaro on November 11, 2015, as he stood on Balmain Road at Leichhardt in the city's inner-west.

He ran, and successfully dodged at least six bullets when a gunman opened up fire at 9pm on a Monday night.

The gunman was thought to be Hamad Assaad, 29, another Sydney crime figure who was executed outside his Sydney home last month.

That failed hit came a month before Barbaro was due to face trial in Campbelltown District Court for manufacturing the drug ice on rural properties near Goulburn and Cobbity on Sydney's south-west fringe.

On New Year's Day in 2014 he was on board a luxury yacht with a who's who of Sydney's underworld when a gunman opened fire when the vessel docked at Rose Bay.

The boat party was held for Kings Cross identity Adam Freeman, the son of SP bookie and organised crime figure George Freeman, who at the time was awaiting sentencing for his role in a major drug bust.

On board was an unlikely mix of Italians and members of the street gang, Brothers For Life. A senior Brothers For Life member was hit in the shoulder by a bullet but Barbaro escaped unharmed.

Originally from the Calabrian township of Plati, known as Italy's "kidnap capital", the Barbaros rose to prominence during the Woodward Royal Commission when they were found to have been the principals behind Griffith's marijuana industry.

Pasquale Timothy Barbaro's grandfather, also named Pasquale, was murdered in Brisbane in 1990, having also escaped an earlier assassination attempt on his life.

At the time he was killed, the senior Pasquale was the head of the Barbaro family, but fell foul of the organisation when he ditched his wife - the sister of another Mafia figure, Domenic Nirta - for a Filipina.

Pasquale was also understood to have been giving evidence to police about his brothers' involvement in Operation Seville, in which drugs were grown at Bungendore with the sanction of an ACT assistant police commissioner, Colin Winchester, who was later murdered.

According to a confidential Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence report obtained by the Herald, Pasquale told police that when a murder victim was shot as well as stabbed, it indicated he had done something "forbidden". Pasquale was shot in the chest and stabbed as well.

A third Pasquale Barbaro, a cousin of the man executed in Sydney on Monday night, was shot dead alongside Melbourne underworld figure Jason Moran in 2003.

Barbaro and Moran were killed as they watched children play football in Essendon North.

A fourth Pasquale Barbaro from the same family is currently serving a minimum of 30 years in jail having been behind the largest ever ecstasy bust uncovered in a shipment of tomato tins aboard a container ship that arrived in Melbourne from Italy in 2007.