Dangerous criminals living the high life from bankrolling corruption, illicit drug trafficking and money laundering are being targeted under a new supercharged operation between the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police Force (NSWPF) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC).
\nOperation Phobetor is the latest capability strike against outlaw motorcycle gangs, triads, cartels, Italian organised criminals and other syndicate members who pose the greatest threat to NSW.
\nMinister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews and NSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott today revealed the new taskforce, which commenced their operations on 11 October 2021.
\nComprising agency elites and based at the AFP\u2019s Eastern Command Headquarters in Sydney, Operation Phobetor will focus on known criminal entities and identify likely criminal groups previously unknown to law enforcement.
\nIntelligence \u2018packages\u2019 collated from world-leading technical capability and coercive hearings, and through the use of unique Commonwealth and state legislation, will also be referred to relevant agencies for overt action.
\nUsing the unparalleled resources of three agencies, the team of 20 is developing intelligence and building criminal cases against offenders who launder money and traffic illicit guns and drugs into NSW.
\nCriminals who are attempting to pay-off or blackmail individuals in the public and private sector to facilitate crime are also a priority under the taskforce.
\nMinister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews said the taskforce would target outlaw motorcycle gangs, triads, cartels, organised criminals and other syndicate members who pose the highest threat to NSW.
\n\u201cThe Morrison Government is serious about proving the adage \u2018crime doesn\u2019t pay\u2019; under Operation Phobetor, police will have a particular focus on seizing the ill-gotten gains of serious, organised criminals, including cars, houses, cash, and jewellery,\u201d Minister Andrews said.
\n\u201cOperation Phobetor will also break open trusted insider networks, crack encrypted communications, and track the movement of the proceeds of crime, using new powers for the AFP and ACIC that passed the Parliament in August.\u201d
\nNSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said the partnership will ensure NSW Police Force and their counterparts remain at the forefront of combatting major crime.
\n\u201cThe NSW Government has always recognised the challenges faced by law enforcement when fighting transnational crime, and we will continue to work with our federal partners to ensure we remain ahead of any emerging threat that organised criminal activity has on our communities,\u201d he said
\n\u201cOperation Phobetor will build on the success of Operation Ironside, to disrupt, investigate and prosecute criminal networks and their partners,\u201d
\n\u201cThis joint-agency agreement provides our state with police that are primed to investigate and prosecute those who seek to profit from the violence and misery inflicted upon others by criminal networks.\u201d Minister Elliott said.
\nAFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said Operation Phobetor would target criminals who for too long thought they were invisible or untouchable.
\n\u201cOperation Phebetor, which will access the AFP\u2019s unmatched global reach and extraordinary technical capability, underscores just how hard and dangerous it is for syndicates to target Australia,\u2019\u2019 Commissioner Kershaw said.
\nNSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the memorandum of understanding builds on an already strong and long-running relationship between Australia\u2019s law enforcement agencies.
\n\u201cOur relationship with our federal partners has never been stronger. This partnership – utilising state of the art intelligence capabilities from the ACIC – means we are well resourced to deal with the threat of organised criminal activity across NSW and beyond,\u201d he said
\n\u201cUnder this agreement we will also have streamlined asset confiscation and extradition processes, which will allow us to continue our relentless targeting of criminals not just in NSW, but around the world.\u201d Commissioner Fuller said.
\nACIC CEO Michael Phelan said working in conjunction with AFP and NSW Police Force on this task force means we are able to extend our reach to target criminal networks in New South Wales which affect Australia\u2019s interest both domestically and internationally.
\n\u201cThrough Operation Phobetor, our unique intelligence capabilities will continue to assist our law enforcement partners in preventing organised crime causing further harm to the Australian community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dangerous criminals living the high life from bankrolling corruption, illicit drug trafficking and money laundering are being targeted under a new supercharged operation between the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police Force (NSWPF) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). Operation Phobetor is the latest capability strike against outlaw motorcycle gangs, triads, cartels, Italian organised criminals … Continue reading “Commonwealth and state law enforcement taskforce established to target biggest criminal threats to NSW”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}