By Sherryn Groch, Cassandra Morgan and Alexander Darling
A blue getaway car alleged to have been passed around the underworld for use in violent crimes is at the centre of an investigation into the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, as police release dramatic new footage in their hunt for the attackers.
Victoria Police on Thursday revealed the car used in the firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, in Melbourne’s south-east on December 6, is believed to have been involved in a string of other crimes, including a drive-by shooting in Bundoora the same night and an arson attack that engulfed a popular nightclub in flames about two weeks earlier.
CCTV footage shows the blue sedan which was used in the attack on the Ripponlea synagogue.Credit: Victoria Police
While the other crimes are not believed to have been politically motivated, police stressed that the synagogue fire was still being investigated by counter-terrorism detectives as an attack on the Jewish community, though they had not found evidence of a foreign state actor or terror group’s involvement.
In never-before-seen CCTV footage of the synagogue attack released Thursday, three hooded figures in masks jump out of a blue Volkswagen Golf and then ferry red jerry cans back and forth between the hatchback and the synagogue. They use an axe to smash open the doors, throwing the accelerant inside.
One man behind a white mask films it all on his mobile phone. Then a huge fireball erupts, and the figures dash back to the car, driving away towards Melbourne’s west.
Detectives from a joint counter-terrorism taskforce – including members from Victoria Police, the AFP and ASIO – combed through CCTV footage from more than 1400 locations to track the synagogue arsonists’ movements. They believe the jerry cans used were bought from a Bunnings Warehouse and filled with about 100 litres of petrol.
“We believe there are multiple offenders directly and indirectly linked to the synagogue arson,” said Stephen Nutt, the AFP’s assistant commissioner for counter-terrorism and special investigations command. “We suspect some of the individuals involved are extremely violent.”
On the same night as the synagogue arson, the same blue Golf was used in a drive-by shooting and arson attack in Bundoora, in Melbourne’s north-east, police say.
And during the nightclub attack two weeks before, police said at least four men broke into Lux Nightclub in Chapel Street, South Yarra, and used accelerant to set the club alight, causing more than $10 million in damage. They left in the same blue Golf.
In dawn raids on three homes in Pakenham on Thursday, detectives arrested two local men aged 22 and 21 over the nightclub attack.
The 22-year-old has since been charged with seven offences, including criminal damage by fire. He was remanded in custody to face court in Melbourne on Friday.
“There is nothing at all to indicate that the men arrested today were directly involved in the synagogue fire,” Victoria Police said.
The blue Golf was also said to have been involved in several aggravated burglaries and petrol drive-offs across Melbourne before it was seized by police with cloned number plates in December, but none of these crimes are so far considered politically motivated.
Victoria Police Counter-terrorism Command assistant commissioner Tess Walsh called the alleged link between the blue Golf and the synagogue case a breakthrough.
This “communal crime car”, she said, had been on “high rotation: for a range of serious crimes” and was possibly used by several different people and groups after it was stolen in November.
But the only link found between the other crimes and the synagogue firebombing so far was the car, Walsh said, so they were being investigated separately.
An image of the alleged synagogue arsonists released by the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team on Thursday.Credit: Victoria Police
Police said they would likely also probe whether the Lux nightclub attack was related to recent arson attacks at properties linked to the Comanchero bikies.
The synagogue firebombing was deemed a likely terror attack within days in December but on Thursday Nutt said detectives had not yet ruled terrorism in or out. “That remains a key part of our investigation,” he said.
In February, this masthead revealed authorities were investigating whether the firebombing was carried out using the same gangland infrastructure deployed in some of Melbourne’s tobacco war arson attacks. Such attacks are now typically outsourced to foot soldiers via encrypted communications channels and other tactics that make it difficult for authorities to trace the people behind them.
Australia’s spy agency, ASIO, has said it had “grave concerns” hostile states could be using profit-driven crime gangs in Australia to advance their strategic interests.
Police on Thursday said they were keeping an open mind to all possible motives in the synagogue firebombing.
Asked if they were concerned that criminals might be freelancing for extremist groups or foreign states, Nutt said he wouldn’t go as far as to say that was what had happened in the synagogue fire, but it remained an open line of inquiry. “From a national security perspective, crimes of service [are] something that we’re always mindful of.”
A key focus in investigating the synagogue attack “has been to determine who has planned this attack and why”, said Walsh. “It is about more than just identifying those who went there on the night to light this fire.”
Adass Israel board member Benjamin Klein said the police had been keeping the community well-informed as the congregation worked to rebuild the synagogue. “But we’d never seen [the just released] footage before, so it was quite confronting, to think about 100 litres of petrol being used,” Klein said. “That’s scary.”
A man who had been inside the synagogue praying at the time of the firebombing and managed to flee unharmed was “very shaken today” to see the vision, Klein said. “The community is still quite distressed, but we’re moving forward.”
Police urged anyone who recognised the alleged synagogue arsonists or the blue Golf and those who might have been using it to come forward.
“It is only luck that stands between a fire that damages a property and a fire that kills dozens of people,” Walsh said.
“I want to reassure Victorians, particularly those in the Jewish community, that we remain fully committed to finding those responsible for this act and holding them to account.”
In NSW, police have separately determined that a caravan found laden with explosives and more than a dozen antisemitic attacks in Sydney’s east were “con jobs” by powerful crime figures who sought to either distract police or influence a prosecution, rather than racially motivated hate crimes or terror plots.
Evan Zlatkis of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the spate of antisemitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne last summer “took an enormous emotional toll on our community”.
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