Police say an explosives-laden caravan discovered in January at Dural in Sydney’s north-west was a "fake terrorism plot" with ties to organised crime.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00And there's some extraordinary rhetoric we've already heard from police just speaking about
00:05that Durrell incident, incredibly high profile, they called it a hoax, a fabrication and a
00:10criminal con job.
00:11And yet none of the charges police have laid overnight or yesterday afternoon actually
00:15relate to that incident.
00:17They're linked to a series of other alleged anti-Semitic incidents where people have now
00:21been charged for on affronting the court, some today, some will be already in police
00:25custody and due to front court later in the year.
00:29And it's all relating to what they believe is this kind of complex criminal orchestration
00:33of these incidents, including these ones that have involved alleged graffiti on synagogues.
00:38He attempted alleged firebombing of a synagogue in Newtown in the inner west of Sydney and
00:42a host of other defacings, particularly of either Jewish sites or homes believed to be
00:47in Jewish neighbourhoods, so-called in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
00:50Now police have been pursuing this line of inquiry where they believe there is an underworld
00:55criminal figure who they say they have strong suspicions of whom it is, they haven't indicated
00:59to the public who that is, but has essentially used other people to then carry out these
01:04alleged acts and as a result they have come before the courts.
01:08And most interestingly of course is this particularly high profile incident in Durrell where we
01:12saw rightfully a lot of authorities come out talking about this idea of finding a caravan
01:17with explosives in rural Sydney on this bizarre road instance was an extremely concerning
01:23story at the time that was raised but they actually still say that that not only was
01:28a fake terror plot but that still no one has been charged over that specific incident as
01:32well Ros.
01:33New South Wales Premier Chris Mins commented on this earlier this morning, what did he
01:37have to say?
01:39Well questions have come up to Chris Mins about when did he know when this plot was
01:43actually not likely to be a mass casualty event because he spoke repeatedly about this
01:47idea of just how serious the threat was.
01:50He maintained today when asked about questions about whether or not he should have disclosed
01:54to the public when he knew that this was actually indeed a fake terror plot and was actually
01:59concocted for potential criminal benefit, he said look it wouldn't be appropriate for
02:05him to talk to that matter and that it could have thwarted a police investigation.
02:10It would have been negligent not to take this incredibly seriously, obviously as the information
02:16came to light, as the inquiry and investigation continued changes to the inquiry and the motivation
02:22of those who were responsible came to light and were obviously told to me that I wasn't
02:27in a position to hold a press conference and say by the way the circumstances have changed
02:32that obviously would have tipped the hand of New South Wales Police and delicate investigations
02:36as I made the case at the very beginning when we disclosed the presence of the caravan often
02:42need to be conducted in a clandestine or covert way.
02:46So where is all of this going Ros?
02:47Well there's a few lines of inquiry that the police are still pursuing.
02:50One is involving the potential overseas or offshore involvement of potential actors.
02:56No one's been arrested or charged overseas.
02:58We do know from Tony Burke, the Federal Home Affairs Minister, that there is at least one
03:02person overseas the Federal Police are looking at.
03:04We don't know many details about them.
03:06Are they an Australian citizen?
03:07Do they hold dual citizenship?
03:09Anything like that.
03:10Additionally, we don't know what ideology might have motivated any people if they were
03:14involved overseas just that at the moment it appears the police are homing in on a figure
03:19within the underworld they believe was trying to exchange information about these incidents
03:24for their own benefit including reduced criminal sentences or changes to their criminal status.