NSW Police call out Sudanese crime groups as African gangs involved in crime spree

NSW Police on Wednesday said they are not afraid to identify a group of youths responsible for a crime spree targeting electronic stores across Sydney as an ‘African gang’.

• African crime gangs target of NSW Police taskforce
• Violent youth gangs terrorising Melbourne’s streets

NSW Police on Wednesday said they are not afraid to identify a group of youths responsible for a crime spree targeting electronic stores across Sydney as an “African gang”.

Unlike Melbourne police, who got themselves tongue-tied trying to avoid using the words “African’’ and “gang” despite the obvious ethnic violence­ on their streets, NSW ­Assistant Commissioner Mark Jones said: “We will call it for what it is.”

CCTV grabs of African youths entering JB Hi-Fi where they stole electronic equipment. Picture: 7 News

MORE NEWS

Police shoot terror suspect brothers in jihad drama

Bikini model avoids conviction over drug driving charge

$30 million worth of Origin talent in grave danger

He said the newly formed Strike Force Arpen was investigating­ an organised group of teenage thieves, believed to be Sudanese, who had targeted at least 14 stores in groups of eight and nine, but they did not know how many were involved in the gang as a whole.

“We are talking about an organised gang of African thieves,” Assistant Commissioner Jones said. “We are not trying to downplay this in any way, shape or form.”

The gangs target stores such as JB Hi-Fi and Bing Lee and are believed to be responsible for robberies across Sydney including at Artarmon, Top Ryde, Rhodes, Strathfield, Campbelltown and Burwood.

The gangs target stores such as JB hi-fi and Bing Lee. Picture: NSW Police

Four youths were arrested at the weekend and have appeared­ before children’s courts over the thefts.

“We are seeing a high level of violence and intimidation and we are taking it very seriously,” Assistant Commissioner Jones said.

But he said Sydney’s experience was nothing compared with the scale of the problem in Melbourne, where young African immigrants formed the “Apex gang”, which has terrified locals­ with home invasions and assaults.

An African youth leaves the police station. Picture: 7 News

The Daily Telegraph can reveal how criminals who give their country of birth as Sudan are over-represented in the state’s prisons.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that in 2018 there were 54 Sudanese prisoners in NSW, 106 in Victoria and 76 in other states and territories but their imprisonment rate was a massive 946.1 — the highest out of all cultures. The Bureau said the figure was calculated by using the number of Sudanese-born prisoners divided by the number of Sudanese-born adults in Australia multiplied­ by 100,000.

An 81-year-old woman was knocked over and fractured her pelvis during raid at Casula. Picture: NSW Police

It compares with a 279.8 rate for Australian-born prisoners­. Acts intended to cause injury were the most common offences for prisoners born in Sudan.

Outspoken retired assistant police commissioner Ken “Slasher” McKay who headed up Strike Force Enoggera in the aftermath of the Cronulla­ race riots and lead the first Middle Eastern Organised­ Crime squad, on Wednesday praised NSW Police for “saying it is like it is”.

“If you have a problem the first thing you do is identify it and then you have to give the community the knowledge of what you are doing so you can get the community working with you,” Mr KcKay said.

But Sudanese youth worker Garang “John” Kon, who was credited with helping young Sudanese in Blacktown bridge the gap with their new community after moving to western Sydney, said he did not like the label “African gangs”.

“We are becoming enemies of one another and there should be peace and harmony in the communities so we can solve the problem collectively­,” Mr Kon said.

Originally published as NSW Police call out Sudanese crime groups as African gangs involved in crime spree