Australian police foiled an alleged organized crime hit by a so-called kill team near a Sydney daycare facility, authorities said yesterday.
New South Wales police on Tuesday swooped in on two cars after learning three men were preparing to carry out the alleged killing in Revesby, a suburb in the city’s southwest.
Police stopped the cars and arrested the men, finding two firearms, balaclavas, body cameras and jerricans containing fuel during a search.
Photo: New South Wales Police via AFP
A third firearm was located during subsequent searches of vehicles and premises allegedly linked to the men.
Footage from Tuesday showed the cars wedged between police vehicles as authorities moved in on the alleged offenders brandishing firearms.
The cars’ windshields were pocked with bullet holes.
One witness, who did not wish to be named, told Australia’s Channel Nine he heard the gunshots and went to investigate.
“I started walking out of my house and I heard some more gunshots and then cars were swerving,” he said.
New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Scott Cook said authorities had been investigating a transnational crime network “believed to be involved in multiple conspiracies to murder” for several weeks.
Police said the victim was targeted due to a breakdown in relationships within the syndicate, he said.
The trio of men reportedly did not know the victim.
They came “pretty close” to carrying out the hit, Cook said.
He expressed shock that the group was “prepared to kill” in an area where there was such a high risk of collateral damage.
“These individuals were being watched, and we moved at the right moment,” he said, adding that there was no chance the trio would have been “allowed to make it to a center.”
The men have been charged with a string of offenses, including conspiracy to commit murder and participating in a criminal group. The trio were refused bail and were to appear in court yesterday.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a Vietnamese criminal syndicate hired the three men and paid for a hit on the victim who was previously linked to the network.
THE TRAGEDY OF PUNCH: Footage of the seven-month-old Japanese macaque has gone viral online after he was rejected by his mother and formed a bond with a soft toy A baby monkey in Japan has captured hearts around the world after videos of him being bullied by other monkeys and rejected by his mother went viral last week. Punch, a Japanese macaque, was born in July last year at Ichikawa City Zoo. He has drawn international attention after zookeepers gave him a stuffed orangutan toy after he was abandoned by his mother. Without maternal guidance to help him integrate, Punch has turned to the toy for comfort. He has been filmed multiple times being dragged and chased by older Japanese macaques inside the enclosure. Early clips showed him wandering alone with
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said he did not take his security for granted, after he was evacuated from his residence for several hours following a bomb threat sent to a Chinese dance group. Albanese was evacuated from his Canberra residence late on Tuesday following the threat, and returned a few hours later after nothing suspicious was found. The bomb scare was among several e-mails threatening Albanese sent to a representative of Shen Yun, a classical Chinese dance troupe banned in China that is due to perform in Australia this month, a spokesperson for the group said in a statement. The e-mail
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
RSS