How gangsters try to stay one step ahead of their enemies

5 hours ago 3

Moving from Merrylands to Manly, fortifying the family home with bullet-proof glass and a safe room, installing a bodyguard across the road – these are some of the methods that gangsters across Sydney deploy to stay one step ahead of both the police and their enemies.

As drive-by shootings heat up again across the city, the Herald spoke to police, industry and underworld sources about the extreme lengths organised crime figures take in a world outside the law’s protection.

A CCTV camera positioned outside the Sydney home of an organised crime figure.

Deception is the “first line of defence” against underworld foes or police, said Detective Chief Superintendent Grant Taylor, who has been investigating Sydney’s ganglands for two decades.

“They don’t necessarily stay in a place for a significant period of time,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with this masthead.

“You’ll never find that the head of an outlaw motorcycle gang or organised crime network who owns the place where they’re living [and] their address is on their licence. Everything’s a fraud. Their whole life is a fraud.”

Police have observed a wave of crime figures moving away from the place they grew up; where they had established a network; and where they continue to ply their trade, to another part of the city where they can live with relative anonymity.

“They inevitably move quite a distance away from where they are normally based or where they actually attend and frequent most days,” Taylor said.

“They have started to go in numbers to the north shore.

“They might have all their networks and their drug sales, say, in south-west Sydney, but they might be living in Willoughby, in a place that no one knows.”

Whether on the north shore or elsewhere, suburban homes designed for habitation are generally not safe in a shooting, said Dr Vince Hurley, a NSW Police detective turned academic at Macquarie University.

Bulletholes riddle the window of a suburban Sydney home that was shot in June.

“When we talk about organised crime syndicates being involved in drive-by shootings … it’s almost urban warfare,” Hurley said. “We generally associate that with the military, but if you look at the randomness and potential danger, even for innocent people, spraying a house with bullets is akin to urban warfare.”

To counter this, gangsters have turned to technology.

Police are aware of a high-rise building in the inner city that is popular with gangsters because it boasts facial recognition, allowing criminals to know if a person or car has passed the building previously.

High-end CCTV systems are also popular.

“Some places that we’ve done raids on, they’ve got $70,000 or $80,000 camera systems,” Taylor said. “That is a good indicator for us … there’s some reason for that.”

Some places have safe rooms, or they are entirely safe houses, where product can be stored and gangsters can retreat to when needed.

“There is often something like a fridge with a secret door,” Taylor said. “Sometimes we see a bunker. Those who stay [in one house] longer, sometimes they build safe rooms.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Grant Taylor.

Criminals also prefer to live in homes on battleaxe blocks, or in units above the ground floor to prevent easy access to the residence.

One glass manufacturer, who spoke to the Herald and did not want to be named for personal safety reasons, said he had received a huge spike in requests for ballistic-resistant glass at the start of the year.

Depending on the glass strength and the size of the windows, installing bullet-resistant glass – which also requires fortified window and door frames – can cost $100,000, the manufacturer said.

Strengthened doors are also popular with criminals, who want their homes to withstand a constable’s battering ram, Taylor said and cars were sometimes strengthened too.

“We sometimes see Kevlar plates within the doors or strengthened windows,” he said.

“[But] we don’t see that significantly because people just change their cars. They’ve got their hoodies on and their glasses, but you’ll find that they’re never in the same car more than once. They’re never in a car that they own.”

Cars represented a point of vulnerability for gangsters, Hurley said, so they were taken very seriously.

RAM utes are popular because of their high clearance; some models also have a rear double tyre, meaning a shot doesn’t necessarily slow the car down.

“They can drive over footpaths, and the internal space provides protection,” Hurley said.

Surveillance – using technology but also old-fashioned human spies – is also paramount.

“There are individuals who go ahead of the main person to suss out a restaurant, a gym, wherever. These people will only go somewhere if they can be assured of their security. They ensure the place is OK, that there are no cops or rival gangs, via a recce team,” Hurley said, adding that a recent shooting at Auburn’s M Brothers Turkish restaurant was an intelligence failing.

Some organised criminals also travel with bodyguards.

That same muscle was sometimes installed on the same street as the crime boss, Taylor said, providing surveillance and a nearby address at which to stash illicit goods in case of a police raid.

Do these measures work? Hurley thinks not.

“Everything they do is counterproductive to them living a long and prosperous life.”

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