More than $2m worth of assets confiscated by the AFP Central Command’s Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce in past 18 months

Before a crims’ door is kicked in, there is an expert team working behind closed doors to hit them where it hurts most, the pockets.

By the time Australian Federal Police officers kick a criminal’s door in and slap handcuffs on, an expert team has been working behind the scenes to ensure the crook has already been hit where it hurts most: their hip pocket.

Hours before an offender sees the inside of a courtroom, officers and lawyers from the AFP’s Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) have often already taken control of ill-gotten gains sometimes worth millions of dollars.

Detective Super Intendent, Melinda Adam, and Sergeant Chris Bell, are AFP officers in the Criminal Assets Confiscation Team in Adelaide. Picture : Dean Martin

In some cases, the property officers are making the arrest at is already on its way to being confiscated and sold.

“The element of surprise is critical,” Criminal Assets Confiscation national manager Stefan Jerga says.

“If we’re doing our work well, we’ve already obtained restraining orders, ex-parte, without notice secret orders in court the night before our colleagues are heading through the doors in the early hours of the following morning.

“Then we’re serving notices on banks, land titles offices.”

For more than a decade, CACT members across the country have successfully seized about $1.3bn worth of assets from organised crime syndicates, sex offenders, drug traffickers and money launderers.

AFP seize luxury end sport cars by in the past couple of years.

That total includes property, cash, luxury cars and boats, and designer watches worth tens of thousands of dollars, with more than $2m in offshore assets confiscated.

For many crooks, the loss of their tangible criminal spoils is often worse punishment than a lengthy stint in prison.

“This is worse than going to jail, you’re taking all my houses,” a senior organised crime figure told CACT officers when served with confiscation orders.

“We frequently, frequently hear that,” Mr Jerga said.

“It’s the idea that when they do their time they come out knowing that they still have all their wealth and can go on and live a good life and while they’re in prison, family are also supported and will continue to enjoy the criminal spoils.”

It’s that impact that Mr Jerga and his team work day and night to achieve.

A diamond encrusted Rolex AFP confiscated.

“There’s an understanding that if we’re going to deliver maximum impact to the criminal environment, then key to your strategy must be attacking the criminal business model and targeting and confiscating criminal assets,” Mr Jerga said.

Such was the success of the widespread asset seizures and confiscations during the AFP-led Operation Ironside, an Adelaide-based CACT team was established in the force’s Central Command, which police’s South Australia and the Northern Territory.

In the 18 months since its inception, it has successfully confiscated about $2m worth of assets including a Darwin man’s home after he was jailed for online child abuse offences.

The forfeiture of the home, valued at $375,000, was the first time a house had been forfeited in Australia in relation to online child abuse offending.

In 2020, the AFP restrained the Adelaide home of a man later sentenced to more than 15 years jail for online child abuse offending as part of Operation Tatsuta.

A lexus seized by the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce.

His home was not forfeited but a portion of the property’s market value was confiscated in the form of liquid assets as part of a settlement deal.

Both cases were rare in that the homes were not targeted as proceeds of crime, but rather because they were used in the offending.

The forfeiture of the Darwin home represented a significant milestone for the Central Command CACT, with the case the first matter the team had completed from the initial investigation through to finalisation.

Confiscations of homes for this crime type are becoming more commonplace, with the AFP currently working interstate to confiscate assets of a 32-year-old Geelong man accused of profiting from online child abuse material offending.

Thousands of dollars AFP seized by the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce.

Across Australia, the taskforce has more than 100 confiscation matters before the courts.

Once confiscated assets are sold, the funds from sale are redirected into crime prevention, intervention and diversion programs via the federal Attorney-General’s office.

Detective Superintendent Melinda Adam, who oversees the Adelaide CACT, said any restraint or forfeiture had an impact on criminals.

“There’s no limit to what asset confiscation can be applied to,” she said.

“It could be for money laundering, it could be for human trafficking, it could be for crypto currency exchange.

“Nothing is off the table.”

Hitting crims’ pockets hurts the worst.

The task force target everything a crim considers worthy.

Sergeant Chris Bell, who has led Adelaide’s CACT team since its inception, said the dedication of team members had been instrumental to the taskforce’s success.

“People want to do the work,” he said.

“They see the benefit of the work they’re doing and from the minute they come in they’re dedicated.”

Broadly, asset confiscation is an increasing priority for the AFP given its impact on disrupting not only sophisticated organised crime operations, but other crime types.

“We’re crime agnostic, we’re targeting everything,” Mr Jerga said.

In a major boost for Mr Jerga’s taskforce, the AFP’s first offshore CACT member will next month begin work in The Hague targeting the criminal wealth of transnational serious organised crime impacting or linked to Australia.

“The AFP’s focus is to ensure criminals do not retain their illicit wealth, whether that wealth is in Australia or overseas,” Mr Jerga said.

“The AFP and our partners will be taking the fight to organised crime wherever they are.”

Originally published as More than $2m worth of assets confiscated by the AFP Central Command’s Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce in past 18 months