Watches, bags and alcohol: The luxury goods the underworld are missing – as the AFP crack down on alleged criminal assets

From a $40,000 bottle of booze to Birkin bags and $1 million watches, these are the ridiculous big-money items allegedly bought by Australia's underworld.

Luxury haul: A Pater Philippe watch worth upwards of $1 million, a Birkin bag worth $100,000 and cognac priced at $40,000.

From a $40,000 bottle of cognac to $1 million watches, these are the ridiculous items which allegedly once belonged to Australia's underworld – but are now in the hands of the Australian Federal Police.

The Daily Telegraph was given an exclusive look at some of the unusual seizures by the AFP in Operation Avarus-Midas, which targeted an alleged international money laundering operating out of Sydney.

But the boss of the AFP’s highly-trained squad targeting the assets of criminals told the “Crim City podcast” these items were only the beginning.

“It really is the tip of the iceberg,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson said.

“Our AFP strategy … in targeting the criminal economy through restraining assets is what we deem as our ‘kryptonite’ against organised crime.

“Not only are we coming for the criminals and their networks, but we’re also coming for your homes, your vehicles, cash, jewellery and other luxury items accumulated through illicit means.”

Act Asst Comm Hudson oversees the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT), which was made into its own command by AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw to target the estimated $10-$15 billion organised crime costs Australia every year.

A rare Patek Philippe watch, worth well over $1 million, a bottle of Remy Martin Louis Xlll Cognac valued about $40,000 and other items of note, have been confiscated by the AFP’s criminal assets confiscation task force (CACT). Picture: Richard Dobson

On its introduction, Commissioner Kershaw set CACT a target of seizing $600 million worth of assets in five years.

They have blown that target out of the water, already seizing more than $900 million worth of assets.

Act Asst Hudson said one of the keys to CACT was legislation that it allows to seize assets “on the basis of suspicion”.

An AFP Investigator holds a rare Patek Philippe watch, worth well over a million dollars, as well as other items at the AFP’s Sydney headquarters. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The intention of that legislation is to both deprive and prevent that reinvestment of the proceeds of crime, and benefits into further criminal activities.

“It really provides that powerful basis to dismantle organised crime … to a civil standard of proof.”

What was not on display in the AFP Headquarters in Sydney’s CBD was the single largest seizure they have ever made.

That was $157 million in land near the new Badgerys Creek Airport earlier this year.

The discussion about that major operation and how the tactics being employed by both the AFP and NSW Police to target criminals and their “unexplained wealth”, forms part of the latest episode of the Crim City Podcast with Crime Editor Mark Morri and journalist Josh Hanrahan.

It is these tactics, Morri said, that have led to more than 80 known underworld figures leaving Sydney for an easier life overseas in recent years.