The Australian Federal Police made a NSW Police officer sign a non-disclosure agreement to receive crucial details about an investigation into an explosive-laden caravan discovered on Sydney’s outskirts earlier this year, the state’s deputy police commissioner has alleged.
Authorities were in January alerted to a caravan in Dural packed with mining explosive Powergel and a note listing Jewish community targets, including the address of a synagogue.
Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson.Credit: Nick Moir
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told a state parliamentary inquiry on Monday he was sceptical from the outset it was a bona-fide terrorist plot as “it seemed to be too obvious in relation to explosive notes of potential targets, and just very unusual.”
“The first suspicions that I had were on the afternoon that I was told – it didn’t sit right,” he said.
It has since been revealed the caravan was not linked to a planned antisemitic terrorism attack. Rather, the abandoned vehicle was part of an elaborate scheme allegedly devised by crime figures trying to either distract police or use information about it in exchange for reduced prison terms.
NSW Police were part of a joint counterterrorism investigation between the Australian Federal Police (AFP), ASIO and NSW Crime Commission established to find the people responsible for the caravan.
The caravan was found on the side of Derriwong Road in Dural, north of Sydney.Credit: Nine
Despite scepticism about the motivation behind the caravan packed with explosives, information suggesting it was a terrorist attack flowed to investigators via the Australian Federal Police, Hudson told the inquiry.
“But the reporting received through the Australian Federal Police, which could not be ignored at the level it was being provided, kept it at a level that needed to be investigated by the joint counterterrorism team,” he said.
Despite asking, NSW investigators did not receive information about the possible motivations of those informants from the AFP, he said.
“We were not told. We repeatedly asked what the motivation of the person providing that information was. However [the AFP’s] internal policies prevented them from doing that,” Hudson said.
“The NSW Police Force were totally unaware of the motivation behind the information.”
A NSW Police officer sitting at the top of the investigation was eventually told but had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, Hudson told the inquiry.
Prior to the discovery of the caravan, NSW Police had established Strike Force Pearl to investigate a string of antisemitic attacks including from firebombings of Jewish targets such as daycare centres.
Hudson said a number of the attacks were also co-ordinated by criminals in a bid to provide police with information in exchange for reduced sentences.
“We would suggest that 14 incidents are part of the same manipulation of the justice system,” he said.
Last month it was revealed the key player in the alleged fake terror conspiracy was 35-year-old Sayit Erhan Akca.
He is wanted for alleged drug smuggling but is believed to have fled Australia in 2023, and has been living in Asia and Turkey since.
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