Sydney mum sleeps with bat in fear of wayward youths recruited into postcode gangs

The latest gang crisis plaguing Western Sydney is seeing wayward youths marshalled into armed gangs, separated by postcodes. Just walking on the wrong street can get you stabbed.

The gang crisis plaguing Western Sydney is now sweeping the entire city, from Blacktown to Bondi, with police mounting an all-fronts assault to try and stop the bloodshed.

The postcode wars have seen a tripling of weapons offences in the Blacktown area — home to 17-year-old Royal Easter Show murder victim Uati Faletolu — where one police officer declared “they’re not afraid of rules, society or police”.

Now, The Daily Telegraph can reveal NSW Police are in the process of launching a major offensive to suppress a rash of luxury car thefts, aggravated break-ins and assaults across the city, eastern and western suburbs, with advice from gang experts overseas.

There are 12 special operations already under way — from Strike Force Sweetenham targeting stolen luxury cars to Operation Sweep cracking down on knife crime — all of which share information about the gangs and their members.

Much of the crime, they fear, is linked to wayward youths marshalled into armed gangs, separated by postcodes. It is a war in which walking on the wrong street can get you stabbed.

Teenage father-to-be Uati "Pele" Faletolu was stabbed to death in a violent fight at the Royal Easter Show on Monday.

Faletolu’s death is the latest incident of violence that police believe is part of the ongoing “postcode wars” involving gangs from rival suburbs.

“They’re not afraid of rules, they’re not afraid of society or police … they just walk up to someone and say ‘Who do you rep(resent)?’ or ‘What’s your suburb?’,” one police source said.

“We’re seeing a lot of assaults at railways, where kids are just waiting for other kids to get off the trains and then asking where they’re from. It’s all about suburbs.”

Social media vision from the Royal Easter Show captured a teenager carrying a knife in the moments before the fatal stabbing. It is not alleged this individual stabbed Felatolu.

Not only have weapon offences among kids tripled in the Blacktown area over the past five years, but in the same period assaults have also doubled.

The mother of one teenage boy stabbed in Sydney’s west now sleeps on her sofa with a baseball bat, fearful the same gang will return to attack again.

She told The Daily Telegraph children as young as 12 are being recruited into the junior ranks of gangs like OneFour and RFA (Ready for Anything), representing Mt Druitt in 2770, and ‘67 from Doonside – the 2767 postcode which police say could be central to Faletolu’s death at the Easter Show.

“It’s to make sure we can get out quick if it kicks off,” she said.

A 15-year-old boy was arrested over his alleged involvement in the brawl, but not over the fatal stabbing.

Faletolu had been working on the Break Dance ride at the show and was on his dinner break when the tragic incident occurred.

“You don’t talk about gangs here, snitches get stitches. They’ll hunt you down.

“When my son was taken into hospital with a knife wound, the hospital called the police, not us, but we’ve had to lie low for a few years. 70 want revenge. That’s why I’ve got the bat.”

On Wednesday tearful friends, some wielding baseball bats, gathered at the home of Faletolu, whose death police are investigating for any link to the gang violence. It is not suggested that his family is involved with gangs.

“It’s war now,” the Doonside woman said. “Without fail there is a stabbing in Doonside every month and it’s always postcode related.

“They get them young, a lot of the kids are neglected by their parents and roam the streets all day, that’s when the gangs get them, and the kids feel proud to be part of the cool gang.”

At a park in Guildford last May three teenagers were stabbed and hit with baseball bats in another alleged gang-related assault.

A few months later a 16-year-old was allegedly bashed to death at a home in another western suburb.

Last November a teenage boy barely survived after being stabbed during an argument in Woolloomooloo.

Adam Thompson has long been a volunteer boxing coach with the PCYC, but said that crime – the victim of which he coached – left him shocked.

“The next training session I brought it up with his teammates and just flagged that there’s nothing brave about being in a confrontation in the street,” Mr Thompson said.

“Call me an optimist, but I don’t think a young person carrying a knife is thinking ‘I’m going to kill someone today’, I don’t think they know the gravity of their actions until it’s too late – as we saw the other night.”

Metal detectors were introduced by show organisers in a bid to stop any further knife-related attacks. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

A relative of one member of youth gang One Four said the “postcode wars” had been running for years.

She said that children have always been indoctrinated by their schoolmates, but that increasing influence from rap music – filled with threats of violence – and social media, has seen violence taken to the next level.

“I’m in my 40s and even in the 1980s and 1990s, it was always the west against the inner west,” the woman, who did not want to be named out of fear for reprisal attacks against her relative, said.

“But back in the 1990s there were no guns, no weapons involved, it was meet in the park and have a punch-on type thing.

“Now there’s knives involved, it’s a worry.”

Police arrest one of the offenders after the stabbing at the Royal Easter Show.

In response to Monday night’s fatal stabbing, metal detectors were introduced at the Easter Show gates and an increased police presence on the ground to stop any potential troublemakers.

But a police source said while they would continue to crackdown on anyone doing the wrong thing, when it comes to youths the best deterrent often came at home.

“It comes back to your family and how you’ve been raised,” they said.

“I don’t know if it’s totally a police problem. We have to take control of the streets absolutely, but if you’re getting good parenting you can have a good life.

“But I get it, in a lot of these areas mums and dads are working huge hours in factories or doing shift work, so the kids are left to look after themselves a lot more.

“It’s a complex problem, but the knife culture is a real worry.”

Originally published as Sydney mum sleeps with bat in fear of wayward youths recruited into postcode gangs