Sydney alleged domestic violence offenders targeted by Operation Amarok

A southwest Sydney police station’s whiteboard bears the names and faces of 10 alleged high risk domestic violence offenders. The Daily Telegraph is lifting the lid on the determined effort to track them down.

On a searing hot summer morning, tactical police in heavy body armour silently surround a tidy townhouse on a sleepy street in Sydney’s southwest.

Intelligence from officers attached to Bankstown Region Enforcement Squad and the South West Metropolitan Domestic Violence High Risk Offender Team suggest one of their targets - a 40-year-old man accused of choking his female partner - is inside the granny flat out the back.

He is one of 10 faces and names on a whiteboard back at Bass Hill police station - each wanted for questioning or with arrest warrants over serious domestic violence allegations as officers embark on Operation Amarok IX.

Police arrest Samuel Friedmann in Canley Vale on February 19.

A plan is quickly nutted out behind the target property - ensuring every exit is covered - before the officers line up, file down the narrow side passage, and swiftly effect the arrest, extracting the man in handcuffs and jocks while stunned residents and passing motorists film on their mobile phones.The team led by Detective Inspector Michael Moses had been conducting a firearm prohibition order compliance search in Chester Hill when they learned they might finally have Samuel Friedmann pinned down in Canley Vale.

Friedmann under arrest outside the Canley Vale property.

“With the assistance of specialist resources we were able to effect the arrest of the male, and he will be taken back to Fairfield police station where he will be charged with several serious domestic violence offences,” Det Insp Moses said.

“This is the whole aim of Operation Amarok - targeting alleged high risk domestic violence offenders, and putting them before the courts and that’s what we’ve been able to achieve today.”

Operations Support Group officers prepare to raid the Canley Vale property where Friedmann was found and arrested.

Friedmann was charged with intentional choking, four counts of contravening an apprehended domestic violence order, two counts of aggravated break and enter, three counts of entering a dwelling with intent to commit an offence, and two counts of intimidation.

He did not apply for bail at Fairfield Local Court on February 20 and the matter was adjourned for brief service on April 11.

Back at Bass Hill police station, Friedmann’s name was wiped off the board.

He joins 569 people who were charged with more than 1160 offences during the four-day state-wide operation.

Friedmann will return to court in April.

It is now the ninth time NSW Police have run Operation Amarok – an intelligence-based policing strategy led by each region’s Domestic Violence High-Risk Offender Teams – since the first iteration in January 2023.

Police have arrested more than 4500 people, laid almost 9000 charges, and detected 1368 apprehended domestic violence order breaches in the eight preceding Amarok operations to date.

Officers also conducted 1025 firearm prohibition order compliance searches, with 412 firearms and 411 other weapons seized.

Detective Inspector Michael Moses (centre) with Operations Support Group officers after the arrest of Samuel Friedmann.

“There are a lot of resources involved in Operation Amarok, it’s an operation that’s taken very seriously by the NSW Police and we do everything in our power to speak with our outstanding (alleged) offenders, arrest them, charge them, and put them before the courts,” Det Insp Moses said.

“The message is that domestic violence is unacceptable.”

A vast array of resources are deployed to find targets like Friedmann – with officers leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to bring alleged domestic violence offenders to justice.

Time and time again, the operation turns the heads of bemused bystanders – as heavily armed tactical officers from the Operations Support Group and plain clothes officers leave nothing to chance in the aim to safely apprehend their targets.

At a Chester Hill unit block, a female resident was initially startled by the abrupt appearance of the Operations Support Group, in helmets and with housebreaking implements, to assist the High Risk Domestic Violence Offender team with a firearm prohibition order compliance search.

Operations Support Group officers line up in preparation to conduct a firearms prohibition order compliance search at a Chester Hill unit block.

Targets with firearm prohibition orders are individuals deemed unfit to be in possession of firearms, or firearm parts of ammunition, for a variety of reasons.

“We tie in our firearm prohibition order compliance searches with particular targets related to domestic violence to tie in with the general objectives of this operation,” Det Insp Moses said.

“For certain arrests we gain the assistance of specialist tactical resources, specially trained officers that can effect a rapid entry to a property and effect the arrest, ensuring the safety of other police officers involved, their own safety, and the safety of the target of the operation.”

OSG officers conducting a firearm prohibition order compliance search at a Chester Hill unit block.

In a leafy, pristine patch of Merrylands West, the Domestic Violence High-Risk Offender Team found another target wanted over alleged offending - Ian Davis.

“This is another significant result from an investigation between Cumberland Police Area Command and the South West Metropolitan Domestic Violence High-Risk Offender Team, where we’ve effectively arrested a 40 year old male for serious domestic violence offences,” Det Insp Moses said.

“He’s been conveyed back to Granville police station where he will assist investigators with inquiries, charges will be laid, and he will be put before the court.”

Sergeant Cameron Mitchell (left) with plain clothes officers after another man, Ian Davis, wanted for questioning over allegations of domestic violence is arrested in Merrylands West.

Davis – subject to a warrant for allegedly breaching an apprehended domestic violence order, larceny and common assault, and wanted for an alleged breach of bail, was also wiped off the whiteboard.

The most recent statistics from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reveal the year to September 2024 had the equal highest number of domestic violence murders of the past five years, with 33 recorded for both that year and the year to September 2020.

The number of domestic violence assaults has also increased every year, up from 395 in 2019-2020 to 463 in 2023-2024.

By September last year, the number of domestic violence common assaults, intimidations, and apprehended domestic violence order breaches had also jumped by 7.8 to 8.9 per cent from the prior two years.

Officers conducting raids as part of Operation Amarok IX.