Operation Meld: How Adelaide youth gangs get guns in South Australia

Operation Meld officers have seized an extraordinary amount of weapons from youth gangs over the past year – so how do crims get access to guns in South Australia?

Operation Meld tackles criminal offending by groups of youths. Picture: Artwork

Police have seized 21 guns from Adelaide youth gangs in the past 20 months, raising concerns about the black market for firearms and the production of 3D-printed ones.

Operation Meld officers have also confiscated 44 other weapons, including knives, so far in 2024.

Six of the guns were seized this year.

Since Operation Meld launched in July, 2021 to address an increase of youth gang-related violence on Adelaide streets, officers have made 823 arrests or reports, including 160 so far this year.

Offences include robbery, theft, assault, affray, breach of bail and firearms and behavioural offences.

A gel blaster seized by Operation Meld detectives. Picture: SA Police

A Beretta handgun seized by Operation Meld detectives. Picture: SA Police

Operation Meld detectives have been investigating incidents across Adelaide. Artwork: Steve Grice

Operation Meld detectives have identified two distinct groups of youths in the Adelaide gang war – 051 in the northern suburbs and Killa Block Squad, or KBS, in the northeast. A majority of the offenders are aged between 16 and 18 years.

In January, The Advertiser revealed the gangs were also engaged in drug trafficking, centred on the importation of methamphetamines and cocaine, funded by a GST refund based on fraudulent claims to the Australian Tax Office.

The 051 logo is printed on a t shirt.

The Advertiser revealed the gangs were also engaged in drug trafficking, centred on the importation of methamphetamines and cocaine.

Flinders University Emeritus Professor Andrew Goldsmith, who has spent years investigating gun culture within organised crime gangs, said there was a significant black market in firearms across Adelaide.

He said pistols were selling for about $500 but guns were also sometimes rented rather than purchased.

“Often a lot of guns are stolen from farms on the fringes of Adelaide or from pistol clubs,” he said.

“I think what happens is the deeper you get into the drug trade, the more you see a need to have a gun and the more you are getting to know people who have access to guns.”

An SA Police spokesman told The Advertiser that 3D guns, also known as “ghost guns”, were a particular concern.

“Police remain concerned about the pace with which 3D-printed firearm design has advanced in recent years given their ease of accessibility and lack of traceability,” the spokesman said.

Under current South Australian law, it is illegal to manufacture 3D-printed guns without a licence.

The state government is moving to also make it illegal to possess blueprints for the guns, which can be made in less than 30 minutes.

Ghost guns sell for as little as $800 online.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission estimates that nationally there are more than 260,000 firearms in the illicit market.

ACIC suggests that theft is most common source of black market guns but some are imported and an increasing number are illicitly made.

Originally published as Operation Meld: How Adelaide youth gangs get guns in South Australia