Raids uncover assault rifles fuelling Sydney’s gangland wars

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NSW Police have discovered assault rifles in raids that also unearthed an underworld gun manufacturer in Sydney this week – further evidence that military grade weapons are being used to carry out gangland attacks on rivals and defend drug houses.

An AR15 assault rifle, an SKS semi-automatic rifle, and a Smith & Wesson revolver pistol with 169 rounds were seized in separate raids on a storage facility in Kingsgrove and on a Bardwell Park unit on Tuesday. The AR15 is the civilian version of the United States military’s M16, and has been used in a number of school shootings.

Gun parts seized by Strike Force Lamm in a NSW Police raid on an alleged underworld gun manufacturing operation in Sydney’s south-west on Tuesday.

Also found at the Kingsgrove unit was a pistol and dozens of 3D printed high-capacity pistol magazines, ammunition and other gun parts known as frames and slides.

A 39-year-old man was arrested at the Bardwell Park address.

Another search warrant on Tuesday led police to a “significant” gun manufacturing operation on Forest Road in Arncliffe, where officers found an industrial size CNC Mill used to cut and shape materials; a 3D Printer; and large quantities of weapon parts including magazines, slides, barrels and ammunition, police claim.

Detectives also deployed the police helicopter, highway patrol and dog unit to intercept a white Toyota van in Camden Valley Way on Tuesday evening.

Inside was a green duffle bag containing two privately made firearms, while a folding semi-automatic style rifle, with missing parts, was also found inside a grey box, police claim.

Police allegedly located magazines and banana clips containing numerous rounds of ammunition, and six silencers and silencer parts.

A bumbag was located within the vehicle allegedly containing a revolver, and $4300 was allegedly found in the man’s wallet.

A 29-year-old man was arrested without incident. He and the 39-year-old were charged with a host of firearm offences and refused bail.

Ammunition was also seized in the raids.

“We’re quite confident that the two men, who have been arrested and put before the courts, are involved in organised crime, and may be linked to a number of public place shootings that have occurred in the south-west of Sydney over the last few weeks.” Assistant Commissioner Rod Hart told 2GB.

“They had a significant operation going, and we have disrupted that and put an end to it.”

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Scott Cook.

Hybrid weapons – comprised of 3D-printed and official gun parts – are untraced, unregistered and redefining Australia’s gangland, NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Scott Cook has told the Herald.

“Traditionally, crooks used to steal firearms from registered gun owners. That grey market, where firearms drift out of the highly regulated market into the black market, is less prevalent now because criminals can simply import parts, which are much harder to detect,” Cook said in October.

“(Manufacturers) sell it to organised crime groups who use it in the violence that we’ve seen play out in the streets. And so it’s a brewing problem for not just NSW, but the country.”

The raids come during a spate of gun violence across Sydney which, police say, is driven in large part by the fight to control the highly lucrative drug market.

Late last week, police were called to Tallawong in Sydney’s north-west after reports of shots fired into a house.

There was a scorch mark on the floor of the targeted home, and nearby a car was found with a live hand grenade and loaded guns inside.

NSW Police outside a house in Tallawong, in suburban Sydney, the scene of an early morning attack involving grenades last Thursday.

A day earlier, footage emerged of a suspected gangland retribution attack where a man was pinned to the ground in a home in Penrith as a silver pistol was fired, point-blank, into his thigh.

Earlier in November, a 16-year-old boy allegedly opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle into an elderly couple’s home and a car in broad daylight in Bossley Park.

Late last year, authorities alleged South American cartels flew a “crime tourist” into Sydney to oversee a drug house. Propped against the wall, next to a bed and a small bin filled with paper and soft drink bottles, was an assault rifle.

“Guns and drugs are coming in, and hundreds of millions of dollars are going out,” Cook said.

“That’s only going to grow for as long as Australia has the demand for cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, heroin, and those really hard drugs. We are really consuming them at astronomical levels.”

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