Violence between rivalling youth street gangs causes two-day mayhem in Adelaide’s northeast

Two rivalling youth street gangs have mounted a two-day tit-for-tat crime spree across Adelaide suburbs, armed with baseball bats, machetes and an axe.

Tensions between two rival youth gangs have erupted, resulting in the opposing groups engaging in a “tit-for-tat” retaliatory violence across a tense two-day period.

The drama unfolded last Tuesday and Wednesday, when two gangs committed four attacks on rivals’ property, damaging homes, front doors, windows, letterboxes and vehicles.

Homes were targeted at Salisbury Park, Salisbury East, Brahma Lodge, and Rostrevor, police said.

Police allege the perpetrators were armed with various weapons, including baseball bats, knives, machetes, an axe, hammer and baton.

SA Police Assistant Commissioner John De Candia has revealed details of youth street gangs. Picture: Dean Martin

Assistant Commissioner John De Candia said the reason behind the violence lay predominantly with one person, who has recently switched his loyalties from one gang to an opposing one.

“The main reason has been the one person moving from one street gang to another,” he said.

“That person has given the addresses (of his previous gang) to his new friends – and that’s why they’ve targeted those addresses causing some damage.”

However, Mr De Candia said they couldn’t confirm the identities of the two rivalling street gangs due to police work disrupting the environment.

He indicated established gangs KBS and 051 had become “weakened” and new, smaller groups have emerged.

“I’d say we’ve been quite successful with some of our investigations into these groups,” he said.

“There’s quite a number of them remanded in custody … that certainly has weakened the positioning of some of those groups.

“That said, some people moved to other groups, which seem to be trying to become established at this stage.”

Mr De Candia said the new groups were not putting any “significant thought” into their gang names, instead they used their geographical location or postcode numbers to differentiate between themselves.

He added the exact number of new groups was difficult to determine.

Traditionally, most of the gangs have been located in the northern and western suburbs.

Meanwhile, following the two-day crime spree between the gangs, police’s Youth and Street Gang taskforce arrested seven people aged between 15 and 24.

Mr De Candia said more arrests were imminent as police would “not tolerate any of this tit-for-tat between these rival gangs” and wants to ensure innocent people are not caught in the crossfire.

Opposition police spokesman Jack Batty says Labor needs to do more to curb youth street gangs. Picture: Morgan Sette

Opposition Police spokesman Jack Batty said that while “police are doing their job exceptionally well”, more was needed from the state government.

“Labor need to do more to make sure these alleged gang ringleaders stay behind bars today and that they aren’t simply replaced by new gang ringleaders tomorrow,” Mr Batty said.

“Violent criminals who are getting arrested and then let out on bail only to commit more crimes, are making a mockery of the justice system and putting community safety at risk.

“The government needs to fast track its review into bail laws to make sure actions have consequences and put community safety at the heart of decisions around bail.”

Attorney-General Kyam Maher said SA had the “second lowest youth offender rate in the nation” and that the government was working hard to “stay ahead of the curve”.

“We know from our ongoing conversations with SAPOL that there is a small cohort of young offenders responsible for a greater proportion of youth offending in SA,” he said.

“It is this cohort that needs to be subject to stricter legal responses to ensure the safety of our community and to disrupt the cycle of behaviour that often continues into adult offending.”

The state government is investing $3 million into programs and initiatives to intervene and break the cycle of reoffending among youths.

Originally published as Violence between rivalling youth street gangs causes two-day mayhem in Adelaide’s northeast