Dural caravan bomb, antisemitic attacks were gangland ‘con jobs’, say police

A caravan laden with explosives and 14 other antisemitic attacks across Sydney’s east were “con jobs” by powerful crime figures trying to either distract police or influence a prosecution, rather than racially motivated hate crimes or terror plots.

The shock revelation comes as 200 federal and NSW Police swept across the city at dawn, arresting 14 people and laying dozens of charges on Monday morning.

For the last month a counter-terror investigation has been trying to unpick who parked a caravan on a suburban street in the suburb of Dural and packed it with Power Gel mining explosives.

Inside were notes suggesting the Great Synagogue in Sydney would be targeted, sparking a political brawl over when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was briefed on what Opposition Leader Peter Dutton labelled “potentially the biggest terrorist attack in our country’s history”.

But investigators, from the earliest, expressed concerns that the plot might be a set-up; the caravan had been parked jutting out onto a road obstructing traffic, and there was no detonator or wiring in the bomb.

Last month, this masthead revealed the major investigative theory was that organised criminals had planted the caravan, and it was not a legitimate terrorism plot.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson and AFP Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett on Monday afternoon confirmed it.

A man is arrested in Penshurst as part of Monday’s raids.Credit: NSW Police

“Almost immediately, experienced investigators within the JCTT believed that the caravan was part of a fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job,” Barrett said.

“The caravan was never going to cause a mass casualty event but instead was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit.

“We’re looking at a number of targets offshore and looking at how that is interacting with local organised crime figures for the furthering of these types of attacks.”

Further, Hudson said, 14 other high-profile anti-Semitic attacks, being investigated by the police squad Strike Force Pearl, appeared to be organised by the same crime figures.

Fourteen people were arrested in the raids.Credit: NSW Police

“All of the Pearl matters, I’m suggesting, the 14 incidents and the caravan job … are all being orchestrated by the same individuals,” Hudson said.

Pearl’s 14 investigations include anti-Israeli graffiti and arson targeting Sydney’s Jewish neighbourhoods.

Police would not confirm the location of the organisers, or which criminal group they work for, but said there were still a “number of targets” in Australia and abroad.

“The fact that this incident is now linked to organised crime rather than terrorism does not minimise or diminish the intent to terrorise the community through fear,” Police Commissioner Karen Webb told this masthead.

One of the homes attacked in Sydney’s east belonged to Alex Ryvchin, from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

He said the news that organised crime had probably lit the fire outside his former home and scrawled “f*** Israel” and “f*** Jews” in paint on cars nearby brought little comfort.

“The community will feel little relief having these revelations,” Ryvchin said.

“On top of the reality of burning synagogues, child care centres and attacks on cars and homes in busy residential areas, we now have the involvement of organised crime, packing caravans with explosives, referring to Jewish targets and antisemitic content for some bewildering reason.”

Jewish community leader Alex Ryvchin hours after the attack on his former home.Credit: James Brickwood

Police suspect the criminals who organised the caravan plot were in part trying to divert police resources.

“I have State Crime Command organised crime detectives working on Strike Force Pearl, which has distracted them from their normal job,” Hudson said.

“We have taken actions to ensure that investigations in relation to organised crime, more generally, have not diminished – so it did not work.”

The 49 charges laid on Monday against 14 people, arrested in dawn raids, include participating in criminal groups and cloning or stealing vehicles.

Those charges are expected to grow.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley said a “huge amount” of resources have been thrown at Pearl.

“There is no mistake that these acts have wrought fear and anxiety in our Jewish community and we will not tolerate this, not now, not ever,” a statement said.

Explosives were found inside a caravan at a Dural property in Sydney’s north-west on January 19.Credit: TNV

“We have endured a summer of hateful, vicious incidents such as vile antisemitic graffiti attacks, and many of these appear to have been motivated simply by nasty, racist hatred.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Monday launched a personal attack on Dutton, who spent weeks criticising Labor’s oversight of the caravan probe, claiming the opposition leader had “played directly into the hands” of criminal plotters.

“Time and time again, Mr Dutton, without seeking a briefing, simply asserted a large-scale, planned terrorist attack. That is not what we were dealing with. We were dealing with a criminal con job, and Peter Dutton was one of the people who was conned,” Burke said.

Liberal senator James Paterson, the shadow Home Affairs spokesperson, said Albanese needed to explain when he was briefed on the organised crime connection.

“National security ministers & the PM should have been promptly briefed, as the NSW Premier was. The government must now explain whether they were, & if not, why not,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Legal sources told this masthead that underworld crime figures offered to reveal plans about the caravan weeks before its discovery by police, hoping to use it as leverage for a reduced prison term.

The sources, speaking anonymously to share sensitive details, say at least three criminals were hoping to use the caravan to garner a reduced sentence or to have charges dropped.

Three people have so far been allegedly linked to the caravan, but not for direct reasons.

Scott Marshall, his partner Tammie Farrugia and their friend Simon Nichols were named on the warrants executed by police in the days after the discovery of the caravan.

Farrugia and Marshall have been charged over a separate arson and graffiti attack in Woollahra in December in which a car was set alight and “kill Israiel” [sic] was sprayed on a wall.

None of the three have been charged with terror-related offences.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.