What was the connection between Fagin and the stranger?

The stranger had employed Fagin to set up Oliver's arrest... to have him convicted and sent to prison. Monks, the stranger, is Oliver's half-brother, and he desperately wants Oliver out of the way, so that the entire family inheritance will be his. Oliver, unaware of his parentage, has no idea that this is transpiring.

'Why, do you mean to say you couldn't have done it, if you had chosen?' demanded Monks, sternly. 'Haven't you done it, with other boys, scores of times? If you had had patience for a twelvemonth, at most, couldn't you have got him convicted, and sent safely out of the kingdom; perhaps for life?'