New police powers to tackle massive wealth of Sydney crime clans
Cashed up crooks have been put on notice by NSW Police, with new powers allowing investigators to target the money and special phones used by Sydney’s underworld.
Police & Courts
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Sydney’s richest crooks are set to feel the wrath of police on a whole new level with a law reform package to target their unexplained wealth and encrypted phones finally being tabled by the state government.
The proposition was first put forward by senior NSW Police last year, who believed the powers would help them deal with the continued gangland killings and drug disputes that have plagued the city for the past 18 months.
Ministers signed off on the proposals in an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon, with the government to introduce the legislation in Spring.
“Organised crime in this State is on notice. If you think you can hide the ill-gotten gains of crime, you are wrong,” Police Minister Paul Toole said.
“If you think you can avoid detection by using encrypted devices, you are wrong.”
The targets for police will be criminals they believe they have a total “wealth (that is) more than the lawfully acquired value of their wealth”.
Essentially, if an underworld identity’s wealth – including homes and assets – far exceeds what they put on their tax return, they could be ordered by a court to pay back money to the state.
Prohibition orders to target individuals who are “high-risk” of using dedicated encrypted communication devices to carry out their business away from the reach of avoid law enforcement, will also be introduced.
The assets of convicted drug traffickers will also now be able to be seized under the legislation.
“Organised crime is all about drug supply and money – and to truly shut it down we need to shut down the flow of dollars that fuels it,” Premier Dominic Perrottet said.
“These reforms will better arm law enforcement agencies with the powers they need to confiscate unexplained wealth and create new offences and tougher penalties for those seeking to launder money derived from criminal activity.
“Organised crime and the technologies that criminals use are always changing and evolving, and these reforms will put our state in the strongest position to deal with these insidious crimes.”
The announcement comes a fortnight after The Daily Telegraph reported that some senior cops believe had the powers been introduced sooner, a number of underworld shootings could have been prevented.
Labor leader Chris Minns and police spokesman Walt Secord come out openly in support of the package following the Telegraph story.
“We have to break this model that shows these people in our community, driving around in $500,000 cars with seeming impunity,” Mr Minns said.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said in May that it will be alleged some of individuals involved in organised crime make more than $250,000 a week, despite having no “obvious forms of employment”.
One example put to cabinet to highlight the need for reform was a bold claim by Rachad Alameddine at the height of last year’s lockdown.
“All three police combined, I make more than them in a week than they make in a year,” court papers state Alameddine bragged to the officers.
That was despite the 31-year-old being officially listed as “unemployed” on those same court papers.
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