Chief Commissioner Mike Bush will today unveil a fresh attack on organised crime groups that he says are “peddling misery” throughout Victoria.
The police chief will restructure key investigative squads so that specialists will now target the underworld bosses who order the crimes, instead of concentrating on individual offences after they are committed, under a centralised Organised Crime Command (OCC).
“We plan to take our investigations to another level. We need to get in front of the game. We can’t continue to chase our tail.”
Bush said the cartels impact all Victorians because their violent crime ranges from gangland murders to hundreds of firebombings, and they fund terrorism and contribute to youth crime by recruiting teenagers to commit serious offences.
“They do not exist in their own bubble,” he said.
The strategy includes:
- Dedicated codebreakers to intercept encrypted messages sent from cartel leaders to subordinates;
- Recruiting forensic accountants to follow the money, and digital and cyber experts to infiltrate the cartels’ communication, accounting and investment systems;
- Stronger laws to move on targets by seizing unexplained assets;
- Targeting the enablers – lawyers, financial experts and real estate agents – who help crime syndicates to invest, launder and send the profits of crime offshore and;
- Arresting the recruiters who employ teenagers to carry out violent crimes.
Bush says by concentrating on the syndicates’ leaders: “We want to simultaneously deprive them of their liberty and assets.”
The strategy includes a new Intelligence Fusion Centre, tasked with providing real-time information to investigators, allowing them to predict where organised crime syndicates are likely to move next.
“Intelligence will be at the centre of what we do. We want to stop the next gang war before it starts,” Bush declared in an exclusive interview with The Age.
“We need to know exactly which syndicates in Victoria are creating the most harm, then attack and dismantle those networks.”
Under the proposal, the existing Crime Department will be restructured into three linked branches: serious crime, organised crime and counter-terrorism – all fed intelligence from the Fusion Centre.
Top officers were briefed on the new strategy early on Monday, with further meetings throughout the day.
In July, on the last day of Jacinta Allan’s premiership, the government announced a $170 million package to combat organised crime.
Bush says the $150 million allocated for police will be used for the new OCC, which will include existing task forces targeting corruption in construction, the tobacco wars and outlaw bikies. It is projected to expand to a staff of 151 detectives and support experts.
The remaining $20 million is set for the Office of Public Prosecutions to speed up trials and asset confiscation.
Bush briefed the plan to cabinet in July, but it was put on hold when, within 24 hours, Allan was forced to resign.
Her successor Ben Carroll then announced a royal commission into Big Build corruption. He also promised to support Bush if he required extra powers to attack organised crime.
Bush says traditional squads like the homicide, arson and sex offenders unit will remain. But he said concentrating on a type of crime – such as drug trafficking – was an outdated model when syndicates branch out to multiple areas, including illicit tobacco, organised vehicle theft, firebombings and prostitution.
“If there is a dollar to be made, they will be doing it. They are prepared to peddle misery for the best financial return,” he said.
“They are key drivers of serious and youth crime and don’t care about the consequences.”
Under the proposal, seen by The Age, the OCC will have a built-in “surge capacity” to target organised crime hotspots as they emerge.
Bush says the employment of backroom experts will free up detectives to carry out complex investigations.
“We have listened to what they want.”
The OCC will also work closely with national bodies, including the Australian Federal Police and Border Force, to better target crime syndicates now headquartered overseas.
One focus for the new OCC will be organised crime gangs such as The Commission, formed by Kazem ‘Kaz’ Hamad from a safe haven in Iraq after he was deported from Australia in 2023.
The group became a dominant force in Australia’s multibillion-dollar illicit tobacco market, gaining control in a series of violent attacks, including shootings, murders and, most recently, a wave of firebombings on Melbourne’s bar and nightclub scene.
Hamad has also allegedly been tied to the Adass Israel synagogue terrorist attack in December 2024.
He is now serving life behind bars in Iraq. However, it has not stopped the gang’s influence in Melbourne’s crime scene, with a new leader taking command from an overseas safe haven.
John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.
From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
