Ray Watson on how call led to Melbourne Airport shootout
It started with an anonymous phone call and ended in a wild shootout at Melbourne Airport that left a man dead and led to a flurry of criticism for police. But former cop Ray Watson said there was no alternative.
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Operation Thorn, our investigation into the Melbourne Airport armed robbery team, began late one afternoon in the 1990s when I took an anonymous phone call.
The man on the other end of the line said he wanted to meet an armed robbery squad detective close to our office in St Kilda Rd.
Detective Senior Constable Keuris was assigned to meet the informer in the small park in Bowen Cres, directly behind Crime Command headquarters, that afternoon.
Sen Const. Keuris was sent down but, as we didn’t know this individual, it was under the protection of other detectives, monitoring the meeting from a discreet distance.
The informer told Sen Const. Keuris a guard by the name of Lapworth had been part of the ‘Brambles’ crew during a heist at Port Melbourne in 1990 where a van and it’s crew were hijacked and driven to a nearby warehouse.
The guards were tied-up, their handguns stolen and the truck relieved of more than $400,000.
Operation Thorn was quickly established, led by Detective Sergeant Brown, assisted by detective senior constable Keuris.
Lapworth was arrested, admitted the offence and was charged, though this was not publicised under our instruction for strategic reasons.
Thorn detectives soon identified Stephen Barci and Stephen Asling as the main suspects.
Barci and Asling, who had prior convictions for major dishonesty offences, were regarded as “low blowies” with no redeeming features.
Det Sgt Brown obtained the services of the National Crime Authority surveillance detectives as the state surveillance squad was unavailable.
It became clear that these criminals were interested in some type of activity at the Tullamarine Airport.
You didn’t have to be Einstein to have thought it was likely to be an armed robbery of some type.
As time wore on, it became probable that the target of the crooks was an Armaguard cash pick-up at the Ansett airfreight terminal at Tullamarine Airport.
It was later discovered (after the offence) that an Armaguard employee, who was working on this van, was known to one of the offenders.
They had run into each other at a hotel in South Melbourne where the guard, plied with booze by his new mates, freely blurted out details of his duties and movements, especially at Tullamarine.
This dumbass was obviously trying to curry favour with the robbers, and it worked.
Before the armed robbery at Tullamarine a relatively minor armed robbery which yielded $3000 happened at a McDonald’s at Greensborough.
It is believed that the money from McDonalds was used by Barci and Asling for incidental expenses in preparation for the Tullamarine job.
We also suspected Barci and Asling were now conducting dry runs with an unknown third player in Gladstone Park/Tullamarine area.
On July 28, 1992, the armed robbery squad, special operations group and NCA surveillance believed an armed robbery against Armaguard at Tullamarine Airport was likely to occur.
The SOG covered an area adjacent to the Ansett freight terminal, where we knew the Armaguard van would park.
Barci and Asling drove to this area with the third person, who we now knew to be Norman Leung Lee, a Melbourne career criminal reputedly mixed up in the Great Bookie Robbery of 1976.
The trio had an array of handguns, other firearms and masks, two depicting Michael Jackson and the other Madonna.
They parked their stolen Ford panel van near the freight terminal and, as the guards walked back to their van, they made their move and robbed them of $1 million.
The SOG officers attempted to arrest them at gunpoint.
Lee was shot dead at the scene and Barci was wounded in the gunfire.
Asling sped off, leaving his mates and the loot behind, but was detained by the SOG soon after when they rammed his vehicle head-on.
The armed robbery squad, SOG and force command were congratulated, before being jumped on and roundly criticised for allowing the operation to proceed as it did.
There were claims that lives were endangered but, as we saw it, a number of factors meant there was no alternative.
Melbourne Airport was a known hotbed of gossip and innuendo so we could not warn people out there what was happening.
That would have meant the Armaguard employee finding out and him telling Asling, Baci and Lee.
Had we arrested the three beforehand, they would only have been charged with a number of property crimes and copped a slap on the wrist.
We knew it would be an impossible task to attempt this type of operation again.
Lee, Barci and Asling were serial criminals with no regard for the law.
Just look at Asling, who went on to murder gangland figure Graham Kinniburgh and who has been investigated for another underworld killing.
We believed all civilians would be safe and that only detectives were at some risk.
There is no doubt that had the armed robbery squad informed potential witnesses then the Armaguard employee who was also at the scene would have known.
– with Mark Buttler
MORE RAY WATSON TALES
THE MOST OBNOXIOUS CROOK I EVER MET
A QUIET BEER WITH A THUG BEFORE HOSTILITIES RESUME
KIND, ELDERLY, HEAVILY ARMED: THE HUNT FOR BEANIE BANDIT
THUGS AND LOWLIFES ENCOUNTERED OVER A LONG CAREER
Ray Watson was a member of the armed robbery squad at a time of 500 bank hold-ups a year nationwide.
He offers Herald Sun readers a unique insight into the squad’s pursuit of the bandits and killers behind the heists.
Listen to him on Andrew Rule’s Life and Crimes podcast.