How crime fighters tackled Victoria’s toughest cases of 2024
Last year was a massive one for Victorian police fighting serious crime — but while some breakthroughs were very public, many big wins never made the headlines.
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Year 2024 was a massive one for crime command officers fighting serious crime in Victoria.
There were breakthroughs in the high-profile Samantha Murphy and Easey St cases, major arrests in tobacco war arson attacks and significant blows against bikie gangs.
There were plenty of other wins along the way which didn’t make the headlines, but did make a difference.
Regan Hodge and Mark Buttler look back at where hard work paid off for the squads in the past 12 months.
Missing Persons Squad
The disappearance and murder of Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy was the most high-profile case of the year.
Police identified a suspect in the inquiry after collecting more than 12,000 hours of CCTV as part of their work to catch her killer.
They have charged local man Patrick Stephenson, 22, with her murder.
In October, an intensive CCTV canvass and technical investigative work led police probing the disappearance of Isla Bell to a waste facility in Dandenong.
It was there they found the body of Ms Bell, tragic news but a significant breakthrough a month after she went missing.
They have charged a man with her murder.
The MPS case of high country campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay, who went missing in 2020, finally reached a conclusion.
A Supreme Court jury found former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn guilty of Mrs Clay’s murder.
He was sentenced to 32 years in jail.
Homicide Squad
The double homicide at a beachside home in Rye rocked the Mornington Peninsula after Jackson Gilmour and Charlyze Hayter were both shot dead during a home invasion last month. Two men were arrested and charged with murder.
Elderly woman Lolene Whitehand was murdered and her body dumped in the Maribyrnong River on July 12. The 89-year-old victim was found floating in the river with her head and parts of her feet wrapped in plastic. Her neighbour, Milena Bogojevska, 49, was later arrested and charged with murder by homicide squad detectives.
An arrest over the Easey St murders in 1977 proved to be the homicide squad’s biggest coup for 2024. Interpol pounced on Perry Kouroumblis, 65, at a Rome airport in September before Victorian detectives hauled him back to Melbourne in December in the biggest breakthrough in the investigation in decades. Kouroumblis has been charged with murdering Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett.
Detectives only needed a handful of days to arrest a man accused of murdering a woman whose body was found dumped at an Epping waste management facility. English teacher Annette Brennan’s body was stuffed in a wheelie bin and taken to the tip before Stephen Fleming was arrested and charged just days later.
Taskforce Lunar
Lunar, set up to fight the state’s illicit tobacco syndicates, has made nearly 100 arrests and carried out 200 search warrants, mostly last year.
Most related to arson, extortion, and gun crimes, leading to the seizure of many guns, tobacco products, crime proceeds and the nation’s biggest vape confiscation, worth $20m.
Lunar intelligence was a key factor in the arrest by West Australian police of a major industry player who had set up in Perth, along with the seizure of $1m.
The taskforce, working with officers from VIPER, has impounded 10 million cigarette sticks, one million vapes and tonnes of loose tobacco from shops and related storages.
Echo Taskforce
Investigators charged an employee with Civica, a VicRoads partner firm which processes fines, with 7000 offences.
Bikies gang members and serious organised crime figures were allegedly the beneficiaries in thousands of penalty notices being “manipulated”.
Among charges faced by the female Civica worker are perverting the course of justice, misconduct in public office and obtaining financial advantage by deception
Finks OMCG office-bearers at Wodonga were charged over a series of crimes, including blackmail, aggravated burglary and armed robbery, which were committed in the area.
A chapter president, a sergeant-at-arms and a patched member were charged.
The president has been sentenced to 30 months in jail.
Arson and Explosives Squad
A complex investigation led to charges after a tragedy in which two men died in the Sunshine North factory.
The victims had been sleeping in the building when it was engulfed in fire on February 23.
Three men were charged in July with arson causing death after a painstaking investigation.
A woman was charged with attempted murder after a protracted inquiry into a horrific arson in Shepparton in January.
The victim had accelerant poured over her and was set alight, leaving her on life support for three months.
Fires which wrecked the Karizma restaurant at Docklands and a Tullamarine reception centre in late 2023, along with other linked matters, led to a major AES/Lunar taskforce probe.
In January, a man was charged after what is regarded as one of the most significant tobacco wars arrests to date.
Armed Crime Squad
Detectives found 22 guns in a military mortar shell buried in a Mount Waverley park during the investigation into an armed robbery at the Vale Hotel in Mulgrave. Several offenders were charged with guns, gun parts and ammunition also seized.
Tensions over an unpaid tobacco tax was linked to the shooting death of a man during a Donnybrook home invasion in January last year. Two offenders stormed a tobacco store and demanded cash before targeting the victim’s home before one of offenders was shot dead.
The family home of gangland figure Mohammed Oueida was shot up and subject to an arson hit just days apart. Multiple arrests were made and Oueida remains behind bars in WA on drugs charges.
Viper Taskforce
Investigators carried out 21 raids against an illicit tobacco and vape syndicate which had earned more than $30m in 12 months.
The October warrants seized 400,000 smokes, 74kg of loose leaf tobacco, $70,000 cash and three vehicles, including a 2021 Lamborghini.
Six people were charged, two of them with the rarely used Commonwealth offence of directing a criminal organisation.
In the same month, VIPER seized more than $1.5m in cash and gold bullion valued at $3.8m as part of an investigation into a methylamphetamine distribution ring.
Search warrants at Taylors Hill, Kealba, Brooklyn and Melbourne also yielded 750kg of loose leaf tobacco, high-end handbags worth $500,000, drugs and 100,000 illegal cigarettes.
Three people were arrested.
Joint Organised Crime Taskforce
An arrest was made in January of a former freight forwarder with alleged links to top organised crime entities.
He was alleged to have used his knowledge and contacts to wave through importations for those groups.
A January series of raids was carried out at Albert Park, Brighton, Fitzroy North, Tyabb and Whittlesea in which a total of 49 guns were found, among them military-grade rifles and machine guns.
More warrants were carried out a month later, after which six syndicate members were arrested and charged with allegedly trying to import around $15m dollars worth of illicit tobacco into Victoria.
A total of 77 million cigarettes were seized as part of the operation.
Criminal Proceeds Squad
Three men pleaded guilty to dealing in $33m in criminal proceeds as a massive investigation which began in 2021 came to fruition.
The charges related to a Chinese money-laundering syndicate which cleaned $76m in cash through ATMs and cryptocurrency exchanges.
A total of $1m in cash was forfeited during County Court proceedings in August.
Deportation will be sought for the three Chinese nationals involved.
Financial Crime Squad
An FCS investigation into an international Indian organised crime syndicate resulted in the May arrest of the western suburbs-based group’s alleged leader.
Detectives found the syndicate was buying former student bank accounts and identifications and stealing money, to be funnelled back into India to pay for apartment developments.
Indian police are now investigating after Interpol was brought in.
Allegations of election fraud resulted in FCS charging members of a candidate’s family.
The candidate was fined $20,000 over the rort, initially identified by the Victorian Electoral Commission.
FCS analysed hundreds of hours of CCTV and 17 candidates interviewed, along with the retrieval of all suspect ballot packs for forensic testing.
DNA linked the wife of one candidate to the corruption.
An FCS probe into defrauding of the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust, which began 12 years ago, culminated in the jailing of former Indigenous leader Geoff Clark.
Clark stole from his own community for personal gain and to fund his defence of rape allegations in the civil jurisdiction.
He was found guilty at five trials and sentenced to a maximum of six years and two months in prison.
Firearm Prohibition Order Registry
The registry led the implementation of changes under which police can direct and detain people who are the subject of a pending FPO or who are avoiding or refusing to receive one.
They also streamline police’s ability to seek a warrant to serve FPOs to people in prison or detention.
The orders are regarded as a major tool for police, who laid more than 345 FPO breach charges last year, 122 of which were for possession of a firearm-related item.
Results included the illicit firearms squad’s seizure of a loaded gun, firearms parts, drugs cash and body armour at Preston, confiscation of an unregistered Glock pistol at Hillside and a VIPER taskforce compliance search which turned up three handguns at Craigieburn.
Five rifles and two shotguns were uncovered in a compliance search at Moolap, two handguns and two longarms were taken at Hastings and two modified longarms were seized at Shepparton.
Illicit Firearms Squad
Ten people were arrested and 17 guns seized in a major organised crime inquiry.
The case, which started at Croydon divisional response unit, involved search warrants at Lilydale, Boronia, Kilsyth South, Boronia, Ringwood North, Burwood East, Vermont South, The Basin and Scarsdale
Also in 2024, a IFS targeted a Cranbourne West man for possession and manufacturing of unregistered firearms.
Detectives seized six shotguns, 28 rifles, five flintlocks, 12 handguns and eight privately made firearms.
A large amount of ammunition and gun parts were also confiscated as well as plans for manufacturing firearms.
Icarus Taskforce
Members swooped on a Brighton property in May where they arrested a foreign national, 35, and charged him with importing about 7kg of ketamine, concealed in candles brought in from Australia.
Investigators, who specialise in intercepting posted contraband, also found MDMA and cocaine, before seizing $70,000 cash, luxury watches, vehicles and a motorcycle.
In July, Icarus arrested a 43-year-old South Yarra man and a Richmond man, 42, as they tried to collect a consignment of machinery.
It had been sent from Mexico but the Australian Border Force found it contained 10kg of methamphetamine.
Subsequent search warrants also uncovered 4kg of MDMA, 1,4 Butanediol and imitation handguns.
Both men were charged with high-level drug offences.
Fugitive Squad
An alleged sex offender who was wrongly granted access to walk from prison spent more than a week as a free man before he was arrested. Mildura man Bradley Johnnson was mistakenly released from Ravenhall after the jail was not told of his other outstanding charges.
Killer driver Mingen He failed to report on bail after he allegedly caused the death of Pauline Smith in Great Western in 2022. Fugitive squad members tracked the man to Queensland where he was extradited to Melbourne.
Sex Crimes Squad
A 16-year-old boy was charged with the attempted rape of a woman on a Jacana running track in August. The victim was running along the track before she was allegedly assaulted, sparking a manhunt that ended with a swift arrest.
Two men were charged over a series of alleged rapes of women in the Brimbank and Ballarat areas in 2020. Detectives hauled the pair before the courts in November where they were put behind bars.
Vehicle Crime Squad
Investigators were able to track 41 of 45 cars stolen when they were driven one-by-one from a Port Melbourne logistics holding yard in October.
Investigators used industry contacts and vehicle data to find almost all and return them to their owners.
Four people have been arrested and charged.
A racket rebirthing high-end Holden Commodores and trafficking drugs was busted by VCS in February.
A backpack belonging to a man who was arrested contained 815 grams of methylamphetamine and $33,000 cash.
The man is allegedly linked to stolen and rebirthed cars.
Crime Strategy and Projects Unit
A lower-profile group, the unit successfully advocated for some major police reforms, among them expanded firearm prohibition order powers and a tobacco licensing regime to fight the illicit trade.
There were also contributions to new criminal organisation laws aimed at disrupting Mr Bigs, along with an unlawful association notice scheme, serious crime prevention orders, gang insignia bans, prohibition of organised crime members entering government work sites and unexplained wealth reforms.
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