Man charged with impersonating federal cop following probe into fake video of AFP commissioner

Alleged conspiracy theorists, including a woman from an SA town, have been raided over a “coup” plot involving a man posing as police.

Counter-terrorism police have foiled a plot by conspiracy theorists’ to “overthrow” the federal government by forming their own police force, organising replica police badges and drawing up arrest warrants for officials.

The Australian Federal Police has been forced to publicly denounce a social media video claiming to be Commissioner Reece Kershaw calling people to join him in bringing down the government.

AFP Acting Assistant Commissioner Andrew Donoghoe described the video as “utter nonsense”.

He said the group’s activities were “extremely concerning”. “The operation began two weeks ago after a video started circulating on social media falsely claiming to be of the AFP commissioner calling for people to join the AFP and overthrow the Federal Government,” Mr Donoghoe (inset) said on Monday.

“We believe we have identified the man speaking in this video. These are people who believe our systems of government do not apply to them or are somehow illegal and must be usurped.

“I want to emphasise that this video is complete and utter nonsense. It’s not from the AFP commissioner and it’s not from the AFP. It has absolutely no truth or credibility to it.”

AFP Acting Assistant Commissioner Andrew Donoghoe said the man was connected to a group alleged to be behind the fake video falsely claiming to be from the AFP Commissioner. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jono Searle

Joint counter-terrorism teams from Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia conducted a series of raids over the weekend and charged a man from Perth with impersonating a public official.

A warrant was executed to search the property of a woman in Peterborough, SA.

“We will allege this man claimed to be an AFP official during an unsuccessful attempt to obtain stamps and ID badges bearing the official AFP logo from a commercial business,” Mr Donoghoe said.

“Our inquiries in relation to that man are continuing.”

In Queensland, police raided homes in Brisbane, Cairns and Townsville.

In Cairns, Queensland Police officers uncovered hundreds of replica AFP badges that the group had planned to use in their alleged coup.

“We are also aware of a shipment of three boxes of replica AFP badges that were consigned to a house in Cairns,” Mr Donoghoe said. “These badges were found dumped in a local creek and recovered by Queensland Police.”

He said 470 fake police badges were found and police were still working to determine whether the group or their associates have more.

Mr Donoghoe said the group had appointed their own “commissioners” and had drawn up arrest warrants for government leaders.

AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw. A video falsely claiming to contain his voice was circulated online. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“They wanted to establish a separate AFP – a separate Australian Federal Police force,” he said. “And they’d issued ­several warrants for a number of high-profile government people and they intended to execute those arrest warrants on those people.”

Mr Donoghoe said police had acted early out of concern for community safety.

“We have no evidence that this group has the ability or the capability to commit violent acts to overthrow the federal government,” he said.

“But the behaviour of these people is extremely concerning and we are continuing our investigation to identify any criminal offences as a result. That investigation is focused on criminality not ideology.”

Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Debbie Platz said with Queensland in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak, it was time to focus on the wellbeing of others.

“It just shows that our people are very vulnerable at the moment and it’s a timely reminder to all of us … that we really should look out for our families, friends and colleagues,” Ms Platz said.

Originally published as Man charged with impersonating federal cop following probe into fake video of AFP commissioner