Teenagers are being recruited through online gaming and the dark web to carry out shootings for organised crime — and the NSW premier says they're probably never getting paid for it.
Chris Minns didn't hold back on Thursday, calling the kids involved in the recent spate of Sydney shootings “malicious and evil” but also “brain-dead”. He said the chances of them actually collecting the cash are virtually zero.
“Not only is it an evil act, it's a stupid act,” Minns said. “It's genuinely brain-dead to be involved in a contract on the dark web with an unknown associate on the other side of the world, and the chances, statistically speaking, are that you'll spend decades in prison as a result.”
Four teenagers — Ali Khalid Saud, 18, Abdulazeez Alghileiwi, 19, and two others aged 16 and 17 — were arrested in raids early Wednesday morning. They're due to face court on Thursday, all charged with two counts of firing at a dwelling and participating in a criminal group.
The arrests cap off a frantic three-day period in April when three homes were shot up.
It started on April 9 when someone fired shots at a house in Kanahooka near Lake Illawarra around 4:30am. Then on April 12, a car pulled up on Columbine Avenue in Punchbowl and several shots were fired into the front of a home. Fifteen minutes later, another house was hit on Noble Avenue in Greenacre.
Police have released CCTV footage of a red Mitsubishi Pajero with P-plates spotted near the Sydney crime scenes. They're asking anyone with information to come forward.
Taskforce Falcon — set up just over a year ago to crack down on gangland violence and the recruitment of young offenders — has made hundreds of arrests. But the violence hasn't stopped.
Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the level of shootings on Sydney streets is “completely unacceptable”. He pointed to online gaming and the lure of quick cash as the main drivers pulling kids into contract killing.
Minns said some organised crime figures don't think they'll get caught. “Their chances of committing an offence and getting away with it are close to zero, and yet they continue to do it anyway,” he said.
That comment came after a would-be hitman armed with a pistol ran towards an innocent father and daughter during school pick-up in Fairfield. Police believe the gun jammed, letting the man and his teenage daughter escape.
The government is now pushing new laws to give police more power. Under the proposed changes, officers can get a court order to force suspected criminals to hand over their phone passwords and digital devices — even without a search warrant — if they've been lawfully arrested or stopped in a vehicle.
Lanyon said the change will let police grab evidence fast when they stop someone they suspect is about to commit a murder.
There's also a crackdown on the NSW Crime Commission. Suspected organised crime associates who are compelled to appear before the secret hearings could face up to 10 years in prison if they don't show up or lie in their evidence.
Minns made a direct plea to parents: know what your kids are doing online, who they're hanging out with, and what platforms they're using. He said the only way to stop young people falling into a life of crime is for families to stay alert.
For the four teens in custody, the promise of easy money has turned into a very hard reality.