Australian Federal Police strike team FAST nabs 18 of Australia and the world’s most wanted fugitives
A crack police squad tasked with hunting down some of Australia’s and the world’s most wanted fugitives is having huge success. See who they have caught.
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Exclusive: A specialised strike team “laser focused” on hunting some of Australia and the world’s most wanted has successfully tracked down 18 fugitives in less than two years.
Suspects apprehended in Australia and overseas with the assistance of the Australian Federal Police’s Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (FAST) include Rajwinder Singh, who was arrested in India a week ago over the alleged 2018 murder of Queensland woman Toyah Cordingley, as well as serial con artist Peter Foster and alleged fraudster Daniel Farook Ali.
Foster was arrested at a hobby farm near the Victorian town of Gisborne in December last year after allegedly breaching bail conditions by cutting off his ankle monitor.
The self-styled “international man of mystery” has been charged with serious fraud offences over an alleged $2m bitcoin fraud carried out in Hong Kong between 2019 and 2020.
And in August FAST secured the arrest in Poland of Ali, who faces fraud charges over allegations he spent almost $1m given to him by investors in his unlicensed foreign exchange trading business on unauthorised purchases including real estate and luxury cars.
Both Foster and Ali are currently facing committal proceedings in Queensland that are set to return to court in the new year.
The team’s 18th arrest came on Friday after Turkish authorities deported 46-year-old Sydney man Tony Haddad, who allegedly failed to appear in court in March 2020 to face charges of importing 2.8m tonnes of MDMA precursor chemical safrole oil into Australia.
People accused of murder, drug trafficking, child sex offences and causing serious injury while driving are also among 10 finalised cases where the FAST successfully found suspects either in Australia or overseas.
But the unit has also tracked down another eight people in previously unreported cases where the AFP has not released details because investigations are on foot or matters are before the court.
The FAST was set up in February last year but its existence wasn’t revealed until three months later when it made its first arrest, nabbing a 31-year-old man wanted by New Zealand authorities who had been hiding out in rural Victoria.
The man was wanted by Kiwi police as part of an investigation, codenamed Operation Mystic, into the alleged importation into New Zealand of more than a tonne of drugs including methamphetamine, MDMA and ephedrine.
The AFP’s commander for transnational crime Richard Chin said before the team was established tracking down fugitives was the responsibility of investigators working on cases and “probably wasn’t as co-ordinated within the organisation” as it now is.
“Now there’s this dedicated team with a concentrated effort,” Commander Chin said.
“It’s all they do. Their role is to be laser focused on hunting down people who are wanted here in Australia or overseas.”
“The benefit of having a dedicated team is that we’ve been able to see the repeating patterns of how people stay under the radar.”
The unit works with state police forces to track down fugitives who are interstate or overseas and coordinates with international law enforcement agencies to find people wanted for serious crimes overseas.
“The team can deploy pretty much anywhere in the world, and certainly anywhere in Australia,” Cmdr Chin said.
“On top of that, then we’ve got the capabilities that we will usually apply to a criminal investigation that we could use for finding fugitives. Intelligence, technical, physical – all the different things that we bring to the table.”
He said whether or not to expand the strike team was up to AFP command but “we think we’re proving the success of the model” after arresting “people that have been wanted for a very long time and have been quite difficult for jurisdictions to find”.
“I just want to ensure that those fugitives know that we will not give up, that we’re coming for them,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter where they are in the world, or in Australia.”
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