By XAVIER SMERDON
SEVEN hundred police raided properties, seized weapons, drugs and stolen items across the western suburbs last week in one of the biggest operations seen in the area.
Twenty-four people were arrested after police raided 45 properties in 23 suburbs across the North and West of Melbourne, including Altona, Altona North, Williamstown North, Williamstown, Truganina, Sunshine, Sunshine North, Mill Park, Hillside, Keilor Downs, Tarneit, Corio, Melton South, Broadmeadows, Meadow Heights, Kingsville South, Point Cook, Altona Meadows, Albion, Cairnlea, Sunshine West and Maribyrnong.
The operation, known as Skyborne, was launched by Taskforce Santiago following investigations into crime syndicates in Melbourne.
Assistant Commissioner of Victoria Police Stephen Fontana said people arrested were ringleaders and members of a “well-known Middle Eastern family based crime syndicate”.
“This was a high-risk operation, there was a number of individuals there that we considered to be extremely dangerous and we had the special operations group conduct three of those particular arrests for us and we had the critical incident response team conduct another three arrests, so we’re very happy that none of our members have been injured nor have any of the people that have been taken into custody,” Ass Comm Fontana said.
“It’s a Middle Eastern crime syndicate, it’s a well-known family-based syndicate, I think you’d probably know the names of them and they will appear in court at a later time.
“They’ve been involved in a range of criminal activities over the years, and particularly commercial drug trafficking and firearms trafficking.”
Ass Comm Fontana said police seized drugs including 100kg of dried cannabis, more than 12 firearms including a handgun with a silencer and a high-powered assault rifle, $55,000 cash, ammunition, vehicles and stolen property during the raids.
“The investigation’s been going since late last year into this particular syndicate. The commencement of the operation today, we basically went there with enough evidence to charge 19 individuals. It’s been a real bonus in terms of what we’ve found at these particular addresses, so there will be additional charges and additional people charged as well, which was unexpected at the time,” he said.
“We’ve charged a number of significant individuals that we consider were leading this syndicate. As you know when you take a group of individuals out there’s always someone to fill the void later down the track, so we’ll continue our investigations.”
