Operation Waratah V targets alleged gang ‘linked’ offenders aged 14 to 24 across NSW
Police have mapped the location of almost 1000 youths in a bold crime-fighting tactic, aimed at zeroing in on young people ‘linked’ to Sydney gangs. View the map here.
The home addresses of almost 1000 troublesome youths have been mapped out by NSW Police in a bold new crime-fighting tactic aimed at better understanding Sydney’s teen gang problem before it escalates.
The mapping innovation is the centrepiece of Operation Waratah V, which has targeted alleged offenders aged 14 to 24 across NSW over the past fortnight, resulting in more than 350 people being charged.
Unsurprisingly, the data reveals that Sydney’s west – where a 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death last Monday – is the knife crime hotspot.
Suburbs like Whalan, Blackett and Willmot had more than 60 targets of Operation Waratah V, followed by Blacktown and Prospect with 34, and then Guildford and Wentworthville with 32 each.
NSW Police Superintendent Andrew Evans said while the most serious alleged offenders received early wake-up calls in the form of police pounding on their front doors, Operation Waratah V was also focused on diverting those on the periphery of street gangs away from that life before it was too late.
“The 928 people we identified are people that we have information on, that in the last 12 months they have associated with, or they are a member of, a street or youth gang,” Supt Evans said.
“The most serious ones we have looked to undertake compliance activities or resolve current investigations in which we will allege they’re suspects, and place them before the courts.
“But those other individuals who aren’t wanted for a crime … we will proactively engage them and often their mother or father, parent or guardian, and offer them an opportunity to divert away from youth or gang crime.
“We do this through our Rise Up program, which is essentially a suite of programs developed to support young people in the community and divert them away from crime, provide them an opportunity they may not ordinarily have – which may be education, fitness or help with putting together a CV and targeting work for them.”
In the last five years, NSW Police has run several major operations aimed at fighting youth knife crime.
But the force is dealing with teenagers who have evolved significantly from early 2020, when youth knife violence was first widely dubbed the “Postcode Wars” due to suburban pride playing a factor in the stabbing deaths of several teenagers.
Today, police warn that youths who start out in street gangs have the potential to later become involved in serious underworld crime.
Supt Evans said in addition to locking up troublemakers and diverting other troubled teens away from lives of crime, another key focus of Operation Waratah V – and a catalyst for the mapping initiative – was the “need to understand why these young people are joining these particular groups”.
“These groups are unorganised,” he said.
“There doesn’t appear to be a hierarchical structure like in organised crime networks or outlaw motorcycle gangs, and we need to understand why these young people then appear to transition from these groups into things like drive-by shootings, or staging kill cars.
“That will be one of the outcomes of Waratah V – to understand why these young people choose to be involved in these gangs.
“We have a relatively good understanding of the conflicts that do occur between these groups, but it certainly would appear to have now moved past simply being about ‘postcodes’.
“It has transitioned from the point where it was somewhat believable that youths were carrying knives for protection.
“These groups have now been around for a number of years and some conflicts are now historic conflicts, where they are carrying knives simply to kill or seriously injure rival youth gangs.”
The Daily Telegraph was invited out with officers for the first day of Operation Waratah V late last month, starting with a 5.30am briefing from Supt Evans to officers from the Police Transport Command, Youth Command, the Operations Support Group and Raptor Squad, and local general-duties police.
Throughout the morning police made multiple arrests including that of a teenage boy, who, despite facing serious charges of participating in a criminal group, was apparently terrified to wake to find officers storming into his bedroom.
During another search warrant a man allegedly assaulted police, resulting in him being charged and taken away in a police truck.
Supt Evans praised the “commitment and tenacity” of the officers on the ground for their efforts in seizing 34 knives, detecting 161 drugs and laying more than 530 charges as part of the Operation Waratah V raids.
Do you have a story for The Daily Telegraph? Message 0481 056 618 or email tips@dailytelegraph.com.au
More Coverage
Originally published as Operation Waratah V targets alleged gang ‘linked’ offenders aged 14 to 24 across NSW
