Inside the drill rap gangs terrorising Melbourne's suburbs

Gangs across Melbourne are using social media to taunt police by boasting about “killing for fun” and making “cases pile up”.

Gangs across Melbourne are using social media to taunt police by boasting about “killing for fun” and making “cases pile up”.

Instagram accounts from members of Next Gen Shooters (NGS), also known as 710, brag about having shootouts, being “ready to die” and being “savages”.

Dozens of accounts feature teen members of gangs including from NGS and Eastside Drillers in Melbourne’s southeast and BH (Brotherhood) in Melbourne’s west posing with weapons.

Youth gang members are taunting police by boasting about their crimes online. Picture: Instagram

In one image a gang member from Melbourne’s southeast posted an image of himself brandishing a gun with the caption, “new year, same me”.

The image is believed to have been shared widely by youths connected to his account, who openly applauded his behaviour.

The groups have been linked to recruiting young members to commit violent street brawls, carjackings and home invasions.

Many of the accounts — which have thousands of followers — also post links to crude rap tracks on Soundcloud, which have amassed hundreds of streams.

One Soundcloud account, belonging to a NGS member, includes drill rap tracks with lyrics including “I’m from Next Gen we’re the savages, all the black hooded gang do damages”.

A former youth gang member, 16, from Melbourne’s southeast told the Leader young teens regularly used Snapchat and Instagram to boast about “beef” with rival gangs.

“They fight for territory. The location of the fight is usually sent on Snapchat or Instagram through group messages,” he said.

“We would meet after school at Harmony Square in Dandenong and sometimes on school grounds at night time.

“Things went quiet during last year because of COVID and I decided to get out of it after seeing a lot of my friends getting locked up.”

The youth said he saw several links between Sydney and Melbourne gangs.

“They are both heavily into drill rap and try to act like gangs from the US. They try to dress up like rappers and wear Louis Vuitton, Gucci and other stuff.”

He said youth gangs had been involved in various crimes including luxury car thefts.

“I know of heaps of guys that would upload footage of stolen cars on Instagram. They would mostly steal Mercs and Audis.”

COMBATING GANG VIOLENCE

Youth outreach worker Les Twentyman said kids who joined gangs were usually looking for “belonging and protection”.

“Imagine being someone in their early teens, even younger today, who comes from a difficult home, has been disconnected from school, friends, family, and find themselves alone on the streets,” he said.

“These are children, frightened and looking for a sense of belonging and protection, making them perfect targets to be recruited into gangs.

“It does not make them bad kids — what it makes them are kids who the community has failed, who end up doing bad things.”

Mr Twentyman, who said early intervention was key to steering youth away from a life of crime and violence.

Disconnected teens looking for a sense of belonging are the perfect targets to be recruited into gangs. Picture: Instagram

“It is a lot easier to help a 10-year-old who may be stepping on to the wrong path to turn their life around than kids aged 16 to 17 who is already way down the wrong path,” he said.

Mr Twentyman said his foundation, based in Melbourne’s western suburbs, worked closely with police to try and help young people before they got entrenched in gangs or crime.

“(Police) refer youngsters at their first interaction with authorities to our youth support service, with our youth workers then working with the young person to see what is causing the anti-social behaviour,” he said.

Remarkably, he said 80 per cent of those children never interacted with police again.

The foundation also established the 96ers basketball team, which has more than 500 kids training each week and has even had several team members, once at risk of joining gangs or spiralling into crime, go on to play college basketball in the USA.

Frame grabs of Victoria Police supplied video of Operation Alliance arrests targeting youth gangs and other serious/violent offending.

“We see similar success with our ‘Positive Futures’ program that sees a youth worker embedded with schools, again stepping in at the first sign of issues,” Mr Twentyman said.

“These programs work, these kids need help not prison and when you consider it costs over $500,000 a year to keep a kid locked up, it only makes sense for the government to invest in these prevention programs, which will provide better outcomes for the kids and the community.”

“Early intervention is the only solution if you want to see the end of gangs and anti-social behaviour.”

HOW STUDENT TURNED HIS LIFE AROUND

Michael* is now a 20-year-old university student who went through the Les Twentyman Foundation’s youth mentoring and development program EMBRACE.

Michael grew up in Braybrook in Melbourne’s west and says his life could have easily been one of anti-social behaviour, as has occurred with so many of his peers.

His initial interaction with the Les Twentyman Foundation came through their 96ers basketball program which led to him joining EMBRACE.

“What turned my life around was my experience with the Les Twentyman Foundations EMBRACE program, with the biggest lesson that I learnt was to take up positive opportunities when they are on the table. Learning to ask myself, what’s the worst thing that could happen?”

That challenge led Michael to becoming school captain and he credits his changed attitude and confidence to the skills he learnt through EMBRACE.

“I certainly wasn’t from a privileged family, but we weren’t broke. There were some hard years where we struggled but my mum and sister worked hard and looked after the family.”

“There’s lots of kids going through hard times and sometimes they can get into trouble and go down the wrong path. We need to turn their energies into something good, like playing sport or getting into music.”

“Kids need to be supported to find the right path because many of them can get themselves in trouble with the law and that’s not going to get you anywhere except locked up.”

“If we can show these kids the possibilities and give them the same help as I had through the Les Twentyman Foundation, then they will find their way.”

*not his real name