‘Raptor with calculators’ proposed to target wealth of Sydney’s crime kingpins

A combination of law enforcement officers, police and accountants would join forces to create a squad to better target the unexplained wealth of criminals.

A proposal to boost the manpower of the NSW Crime Commission and combine law enforcement officers, detectives and accountants into a squad that operates like “Raptor with calculators” is before government, as an alternate option to the NSW Police’s unexplained wealth orders.

The group, tentatively dubbed UNWIT – unexplained wealth investigation team – would combine the NSW Crime Commission and NSW Police to target individuals, even if they are yet to be charged with an offence.

It would also allow the Crime Commission to be more aggressive in its pursuit of underworld figures and to use the criminal assets recovery act (CARA) so crime kingpins could be zeroed in on to a civil standard of proof without needing to be charged – and even if they had major criminal cases before the courts in NSW.

Often, the Crime Commission must wait until a criminal has been convicted to make a forfeiture order.

The proposal would see the targeting of organised crime groups as a primary strategy to reduce organised crime rather than as a subsidiary to criminal prosecutions, NSW Crime Commission boss Michael Barnes said.

(File image) The Raptor squad is a specialist police team targeting bikies and other organised crime groups.

“We will still refer briefs for prosecution if we can secure sufficient evidence, but the primary focus will be the freezing and confiscation of cash and assets,” Mr Barnes said.

“It would mean that we could use the taking of the proceeds of crime as a chief disruption strategy. The new team will aggressively focus on the pursuit of proceeds, which has traditionally been secondary to solving crime.

NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes says the team “will go hard” on rich criminals. Picture: Toby Zerna

“We will go hard … it’d be like Raptor with calculators, instead of battering rams. For a small investment we predict a large return of the ill gotten gains of drug traffickers and money launderers.”

It is understood the Department of Premier and Cabinet has agreed to fund the boosted Crime Commission team and NSW Police to provide investigators to it, but senior members of the police force remain intent on boosting their own ability to target crime kingpins.

The Daily Telegraph revealed on Monday how state cabinet is currently debating new laws that would allow police to make unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) against individuals if their total wealth is “more than the lawfully acquired value of their wealth”.

That proposal has strong backing from the state opposition, with Labor leader Chris Minns saying his party views boosting police powers as an answer to the “huge organised crime problem” in NSW.

Labor leader Chris Minns has backed unexplained wealth orders as a measure to tackle criminal riches. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

“We’ll give notice of moving a motion in parliament to bring in our own legislation to strengthen the rules around police seizing unexplained wealth to make them more in line with the Western Australian laws that are working in WA,” Mr Minns told 2GB’s Ray Hadley.

“They’re able to go after the drug kingpins and go after and take and seize Lamborghinis, Mercedes and Rolex watches from people who can’t prove where their wealth comes from.

“One of the constant criticisms we get from those on the left is you’re not going after the drug kingpins, you are just going after the low end users – well this legislation does exactly that.

“There is obviously a huge organised crime problem in New South Wales at the moment.

“The thing about organised crime is it’s insidious, once you turn your back on it, it gets in the marrow of the community and it’s almost impossible to eradicate.”