How NSW police would smash Melbourne gangs

Gangs are being allowed to run amok in Victoria, according to a retired NSW Police assistant commissioner who also says he could smash “street thugs” in just a few months. But Victoria Police has hit back at the sensational claims. NEW POLICE TAPE PODCAST

Victoria Police has hit back at claims from a retired NSW Police assistant commissioner that gangs in the state are being allowed to run amok.

Former Assistant Commissioner Ken McKay, an ex-commander of the NSW state crime command and organised crime division, said Victoria Police and the state government were unwilling to admit there was a gang crime problem.

Speaking about crime in Victoria, Mr McKay said: “Crime gangs are a wonderful thing, if you don’t look at them you don’t see them, they appear not to be there.

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“It’s a great ploy taken by the Victorian Government, they don’t have a crime problem or don’t have a gang problem, and they’ve been like that for 30 years.”

But in a statement, Victoria Police rejected the claims and said 30 people had been arrested in the past month alone by police in a crackdown on street gangs.

“Local police and task forces, including Operation Wayward, are actively monitoring street gangs who are coming together to misbehave or commit cowardly acts of violence,” a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.

Police also said the introduction of Firearm Prohibition Orders (FPO) have had a major impact on crime.

“FPOs also commenced in Victoria last year,” the spokeswoman said.

“Since then, police have served more than 150 FPOs to a range of known violent offenders including members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, Middle Eastern crime groups and other criminal groups.

“In addition to the work being conducted by Crime Command, Victoria Police has regional crime squads that not only target cross border offending but also organised and street gang offending.

Former NSW Police assistant commissioner Ken “Slasher” McKay says gangs in Victoria get away with flouting the law. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

“In late February, the North West Metro Crime Squad executed a number of warrants and arrested eight people in relation to seized firearms and drugs.

“These arrests disrupted an organised crime gang and assisted in dismantling the crime syndicate.”

Mr McKay left the NSW force in 2013.

A still from a video of a mass brawl in inner Melbourne involving about 200 youths of African and Pacific Islander descent. Picture: Supplied

He is credited with having smashed NSW’s gangland in the 1990s and 2000s, primarily with the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (MEOCS) units.

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McKay said Sydney’s gangland figures began moving to Melbourne because of a lack of will there by politicians and police to focus on crime groups — outside of the gangland underworld slayings — and today not even African youth gangs were being identified as a problem.

“We used to have Middle Eastern criminals going to Melbourne and operate solely in Melbourne because they could do it with impunity, and we would speak to Victorians who’d just say, ‘No, we don’t have a Middle Eastern crime problem, we have a theme desk that deals with that’, which I never understood what that meant … and it’s like any group of criminals, if you don’t focus on them they just operate and you have deniability that they’re actually there because you’re not looking at it — but they’ll just go about their business and that’s how crime gangs operate,” he said.

McKay also said such gangs of street thugs could be dealt with effectively with a targeted, multifaceted police task force of investigators, tag officers and patrol officers with good technology and investigative skills identifying the key figures and doing “in their face policing”.

“The problem is no-one in that state will admit there is a gang problem, let alone even a street problem, they run a mile from admitting that. It’s like an alcoholic who has to admit they are an alcoholic before they can stop drinking,” he said.

“Are they a structured gang or just a big loose team of people running amok around Melbourne, I don’t know. But the Apex gang would be quite easily dealt with because they’re out there, they’re openly committing offences running around the streets.

“They are of a certain ethnic group, they would be an easy take, an easy mark for (NSW police) for sure … after a couple of months you’d have some good results on the board and you’d be well on your way. But (police) have to admit they exist first.”

Originally published as How NSW police would smash Melbourne gangs