Strike Force Condor to swoop down on Fairfield’s feuding gangs
Police adopt in-you-face tactics to stamp out rising violence
Fairfield
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STRIKE Force Condor is poised to swoop down and strike fear in locals engaged in gang-related activity.
A newly-created arm of NSW Police Force’s south west metropolitan region has the feud between warring gangs of the southwest firmly in its sights.
Assistant Commissioner Frank Mennilli said the strike force was set up to disrupt the conflict that sparked the spate of shootings within the Fairfield region, 15 so far this year.
“My officers will be conducting numerous person searches, vehicle searches and searches in relation to Firearm Prohabition Orders,” Assistant Commissioner Mennilli said.
“It’s resource intense but we will be on the ground and in their face.” - Assistant Commissioner Frank Mennilli
“We will target individuals who are involved in gang activity.”
Strike Force Condor will use a ‘grassroots’ method — while the troops are on the ground searching people and disrupting their daily activities, specialist officers will monitor the individuals directly to bring an end to the violence.
“Most of the time these individuals meet in secret locations that we don’t know about,” Mr Mennilli said.
“It’s not until a member of the public calls because they’ve heard shots fired that we get involved.
“But it’s becoming harder for them to hide as we learn more about these individuals.”
There are reports that at least 10 active members are fighting it out for control of the drug distribution trade.
Officers from the Regional Enforcement Squad, Highway Patrol and police from Fairfield and Cabramatta commands will work to target anyone linked to gangs.
“It’s not just the Assyrian gangs involved in this,” Mr Mennilli said. “There are two reasons an individual gets involved in crime: money and power. It doesn’t matter where they come from.”
Mr Mennilli said the difficulty in gaining information was the wall of silence families put up when they want to protect someone “who has ‘little regard for public safety by recklessly using firearms”.
“Family members can help their loved one who may not be making the right choices and some of those choices could result in them losing their life,” Mr Mennilli said.
This is not the first time Mr Mennilli has tackled gangs and gun violence.
As regional commander for the southwest, Mr Mennilli also headed Operation Spartan in 2012 that saw the reduction of illegal firearms on the streets after hitting the gangs who were the cause of numerous shootings around Fairfield.
Within 12 months, Operation Spartan had a total of 638 offenders arrested for 1146 charges, 55 offenders arrested and charged with a shooting or an incident related to a public place shooting, and 51 firearms seized.
Police want to replicate that success with Strike Force Condor.
“Help us protect families. Your information will be anonymous if you contact crime stoppers,” Mr Mennilli said.
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