The youth gangs of Australia and their shock new tactic
Police have issued a warning over a new scam targetting Facebook Marketplace users, as tech-savvy youth gangs prey on victims. See the map of gangs in your state.
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Tech-savvy youth gangs are funding their flamboyant lifestyles by ripping off unsuspecting victims through social media.
Task forces have been established in three states to tackle the growing spate of gang attacks which has already resulted in killings in at least four states.
But detectives investigating the criminal activity of the teen thugs have uncovered an alarming new trend and have called on social media giants to help them stamp it out.
“One thing that is well and truly emerging is the scams and their ability to quickly identify what they can get involved in to make a quick buck,” Chief Superintendent John De Candia told News Corp.
Supt De Candia – who admits he has not seen this level of organised crime in teenagers in his home state of South Australia before – said the young offenders were imitating “older criminal groups”.
South Australia is currently in the grip of a youth gang crime wave, with a teen allegedly killed earlier this month following a brawl in Adelaide.
“These groups are more aligned and they’ve given themselves different names,” Supt De Candia said.
He said the members were delving into “any type of offending for money”, with victims often sourced through online marketplaces on social media.
“They deceive the person to thinking that they’ve electronically transferred funds … they can also be quite creative in the manner they are aware and [exploit] loopholes,” he said.
One trick is to create a fake name and obtain a mobile phone that is then used to carry out scams. News Corp is aware of a Melbourne couple who lost $2000 after giving their bank account to a Facebook Marketplace seller – who then used it to set up a direct debit to clean the account out.
The Facebook account was legitimate but had been hacked to carry out the theft.
Police task forces have now been set up in South Australia, Victoria and Queensland to tackle the youth gang violence.
While authorities in all three states deny the teens are joining forces and crossing borders, they do agree the level of alleged criminality on display is something new.
Detective Superintendent Brendan Smith, of Queensland Police, said the gang members were more intelligent than many realised.
“These kids aren’t silly. To suggest they’re naive in all respects [is] wrong,” Supt Smith said.
“They’re quite clever in the way they finance crimes. I don’t want to go into how they do because we don’t want others to follow their lead – but they are very, very tech savvy, and consequently they use that to fund their lifestyles”.
He said chasing likes on social media was preventing young people from understanding the “consequences of their behaviour”.
“We talk about knife crime and how serious that is – it’s once centimetre between life and death really,” Det Supt Smith said.
“The mindset of ‘look at me we’re the best’ really has been driven by social media. And that’s why we’re really happy to have those companies on board to help us.”
Supt Smith revealed Queensland Police had appealed to social media companies such as Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to help in removing the content the gangs covet – which inturn is spruiking their gang.
“The companies have been receptive and are keen to assist wherever they can,” he said.
A Meta spokesman said: “We have well-established processes for law enforcement to request data from us and routinely respond to valid law enforcement requests for information. We also work closely with the police, including police in Australia, when we believe there’s a risk of physical harm or a threat to people’s safety.”
In Victoria, youth street gangs have been behind crimes such as robberies, aggravated burglaries, serious assaults, car thefts, and home invasions – often committed outside of their own neighbourhoods.
“Gangs aren’t solely restricted to offending in their local neighbourhood, as they often strike in a sequence and have no reservations travelling across the western suburbs, into Melbourne or through regional Victoria to commit further crimes,” a Victoria Police spokesman said.
“This is why we have an integrated and co-ordinated approach, through the sharing of real-time intelligence across the state to not only remain one step ahead of offenders, but to also identify and target key influencers within these groups.
NSW Police said liaising with other states is “essential”.
“Youth gang memberships remain fluid and identification is sometimes subject to individual circumstances. These gangs are primarily made up of juveniles but may also include young adults, with the average age of offenders 15 years. Members vary in terms of ethnicity and usually the geographical location is more important when it comes to their membership,” a spokesman said.
“Gang names often reflect identity and are usually dictated by geographical location, which may include names based on postcodes. These groups exist all over NSW but are concentrated in metropolitan areas, predominantly the South West and North West Sydney regions,” he said.
AUSTRALIA’S YOUTH GANGS
Criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy, who spent nearly 30 years in the police force, said youth gangs tended to fly under the radar.
“If you look at most of our gang responses they are actually aimed at mature groups such as outlaw motorcycle gangs,” he told News Corp.
“If you’re talking about youth crime or youth gangs, I think they’re just dealt with on an ad hoc basis rather than any kind of long term surveillance of them,” he said.
A relatively small number of offenders were committing a large proportion of crime.
“You end up with a hardcore, criminal youth group,” he said.
“It can be problematic having like minded youth come together whose only purpose coming together is to commit crime.” Here’s a look at some of the known youth gangs of Australia.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
051
There are up to 30 core members of south Sudanese heritage and are mainly drawn from Adelaide’s northern suburbs. Mostly aged in their mid-late teens. SA Police have called their membership “a group of children who come together to commit crime”. They are locked in an ongoing battle with Killa Block Squad
KILLA BLOCK SQUAD
Members are mainly from Sudanese, Liberian and Somalian backgrounds, and they too live in Adelaide’s north. Munno Para, Andrews Farm, Kilburn, Athol Park, Craigmore and Port Adelaide are the areas they target. Their feuds with 051 are increasingly violent.
FINESSE
The smallest of the SA gangs. Finesse has both teenage and young adult members.
VICTORIA
BLOOD DRILL KILLERS
Based in Melbourne’s west, with mainly teenage Sudanese Australian members.
They have been involved in a number of violent brawls in suburban shopping malls.
BDK is a splinter group from the notorious Apex gang and has been linked to SA’s 051. Some members travelled to Adelaide to support 051 in their battle with KBS.
NEXT GEN SHOOTERS
Active in Melbourne’s southeast, and consist mainly of youths from African backgrounds.
Gang members often post pictures and video of their violent encounters and with weapons.
BROTHERHOOD
Brotherhood has Pacific Islander-heritage youths from Melbourne’s west, and have been linked to violent street brawls
EASTSIDE DRILLAZ
Members mostly from Melbourne’s outer east, including suburbs such as Ringwood and Croydon.
NEW SOUTH WALES
21 DISTRICT
A gang mostly made up of suburbs with postcodes starting with 21, including Cabramatta and Guildford, also known as the “Innerwest Brotherhood”.
The name is also used by a well-known rap group who have distanced themselves from the gang.
ONEFOUR
Members known to us the famous “27” hand gestures representing Mount Druitt’s postcode 2770. A drill group of the same name has distanced themselves from the gang
KL27 OR KB
KL 27, formerly known as “KB” is a coalition of youth-gangs in North Sydney.
KL stands for Killara Legion Twenty Seven and was started more than a decade ago by former members of the KB – Killara Boys.
Once were rivals to 6ixPence.
67
Has clashed recently with the Ready For Anything group from Mt Druitt.
6IXPENCE
6ixPence, or 6P, is believed to have started in Hong Kong and Vietnam, and has been known to be active in Carlingford and Cabramatta, and Chatswood. It is not as well know as the others, but has attracted attention for police for at least one violent attack.
QUEENSLAND
DUB C
Dub C’ tag, has been linked to Wynnum Central, along with the 4178 tag.
They are believed responsible for a series of violent attacks – some which have been recorded and shared on social media.
one attack involved an assault on a girl in broad daylight where she had her head stomped.
NORTHSIDE
From Brisbane’s north, and known to clash violently with rivals Southside, they also splash cash and bait the police on their social media accounts – including with piles of money and often sitting luxury cars.
SOUTHSIDE
Based in Logan and southern Brisbane, the Southside Gang is a rival gang to the Northside Gang.
SWISH GANGS
Linked to Northside, known to feud with the Southside Drillas. Their clashes have led to two alleged attempted murders.
SOUTHSIDE DRILLAS
Youth group based in Brisbane’s Southside, rivals of Swish Gang.
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