Australian Defence Force inquiry into SAS ‘gun smuggling’

The ADF is investigating allegations by a whistleblower that an SAS soldier smuggled weapons into Afghanistan.

The SAS member being investigated is known for his role in making an official complaint that questioned the war record of Ben Roberts-Smith. Picture: Gary Ramage

The Australian Defence Force is investigating allegations by a military whistleblower that a ­Special Air Service Regiment soldier smuggled automatic weapons from Perth to Afghanistan in an attempt to evade responsibility for incidents on the battlefield.

The SAS member being investigated is known within the ­secretive Perth-based regiment for his role in making an official complaint that questioned the war record of the nation’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith.

The Australian revealed last week that the allegations about the SAS soldier were contained in a submission sent by the whistleblower to Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin on October 3.

The whistleblower also alleged to the AFP that the SAS soldier threatened to bash a fellow soldier in Afghanistan for alerting commanders that the two assault rifles smuggled into the country did not exist in military records. He claimed the regiment had covered up the illegal actions of the soldier, who cannot be publicly identified for security reasons.

The AFP has since referred the case to the ADF’s Investigative Service. “It has been assessed that it is a public-interest disclosure and has been referred to the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service for their action,” the AFP said. “Consequently, the AFP is unable to provide any further comment on this matter.”

Defence said it was investigating the issue but could not comment further.

The allegations against the SAS soldier are further evidence of bitter divisions within the regiment that have re-emerged after the recent publication of a Defence-facilitated book by acclaimed journalist Chris Masters. His book, No Front Line, has sparked controversy for highlighting conflicting accounts of some of Mr Roberts-Smith’s actions as an SAS trooper in Afghanistan, including the shooting of a suspected Taliban spotter in the Chora Valley in 2006. Mr Roberts-Smith, awarded the Victoria Cross in 2011, has described the book as full of “half-truths” and distressing to the families of dead SAS members. He says he left the SAS because of the “toxicity” within the regiment, which is “full of people with grievances”.

The soldier facing the smuggling allegations confirmed to The Australian last week he wrote a complaint in 2014 about a citation nominating Mr Roberts-Smith for a commendation for distinguished service in Afghanistan. The commendation was awarded to Mr Roberts-Smith in 2014 for his “great courage, resourcefulness and endurance” on more than 50 counter-leadership operations against the Taliban in 2012.

The whistleblower’s submission to the AFP alleges the SAS officer acquired the two weapons from a Perth gun shop in September 2012 without any paperwork. He is then alleged to have falsified Customs documents to enable the rifles to be included in the official aircraft manifest to Afghanistan. Upon arrival in Afghanistan, he allegedly said he planned to use the weapons on operations, suggesting that “if anything untoward were to take place, any investigation including ballistic checks would be rendered useless as these weapons did not exist in the system”.

When he took the rifles to the maintenance store in Tarin Kowt, a warrant officer checked the database and found no record of them and reported this to the squadron hierarchy. The soldier subsequently “threatened to bash” the warrant officer.

The rifles were shipped back to Perth, arriving on November 15, and were later handed back to the gun store.

The alleged weapons smuggling was never reported to civilian authorities and no action was taken against the soldier.

“Given (the soldier) had provided false information on customs documentation and illegally transported firearms across international borders, the matter was clearly a breach of federal law and should have been reported immediately to civilian authorities,” the whistleblower said. “(The soldier) did not receive any recorded punishment for his reckless breach of federal law and the (commanding officer) decided he should be allowed to continue in the unit without any record of the incident taking place in order to avoid embarrassing the unit.

“This was a gross error in military procedure.”

The SAS soldier said last week there was “some truth” to the claims about weapons being shipped from Australia to Afghanistan. But he rejected many of the claims in the submission and denied lying to anyone about what he had done. He said he had not threatened to bash the warrant officer in Tarin Kowt but admitted there had been an “altercation”.

He questioned why the whistleblower had waited until now to send the allegations to the AFP and said he suspected it was related to the complaint he wrote questioning Mr Roberts-Smith’s commendation.