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February 4, 2026 — 5:00am
A decade ago, Daniel Rodney Badger was nowhere near the radar of the law.
The 30-year-old was living humbly in Sydney’s western suburbs, where he was born and raised. He worked as a security guard at hotels and racecourses, and, for a short time, ran his own vending machine supply business, according to his family. His life was unremarkable in the extreme.
Around 2016, Badger relocated with a new partner to Vietnam, where he told his family he had secured work in the livestock import and export business, and he planned to make a go of things in South-East Asia. A few years later, after his mother attended her only son’s lavish wedding in Vietnam in early 2019, a trivial dispute drove a wedge between Badger and his parents, who have not heard from him since.
What became of Badger in the years since has remained largely a mystery to his estranged family, but his life abroad has been an intense focus of law enforcement agencies who say he has risen to the upper echelons of the global criminal underworld.
Badger, now 40, has emerged as one of Australian authorities’ highest priority offshore targets after allegedly building a sprawling international crime syndicate – dubbed the Badger Organised Crime Network – that spans several continents and is believed to control most of the Australia’s lucrative methamphetamine trade.
The Herald can reveal that Badger, who was born in Auburn, is the target of one of NSW Police’s largest efforts to apprehend an overseas target and is being pursued by officers working under a secretive multi-agency operation called Strike Force Dakota.
Strike Force Dakota, which is being co-ordinated by NSW Police’s organised crime squad and involves officers from the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and international law enforcement agencies, was quietly launched late last year after several violent incidents, including the abduction and murder of a Sydney woman, were linked to Badger’s syndicate.
In NSW, Badger’s capture is considered a top priority for police given his growing influence, according to several law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation but unwilling to comment publicly due to the sensitive nature of the protracted operation. Significant resources have been assigned to Strike Force Dakota both locally and overseas as authorities attempt to dismantle the network’s Australian and offshore operations, including in South-East Asia.
Badger’s syndicate is alleged to be one of the biggest manufacturers and distributors of methamphetamine in Australia, with its operations stretching along the country’s east coast. Its Australian arm is believed to be based in NSW, but has large-scale operations in Victoria and Queensland. The syndicate is also alleged to have expanded into manufacturing and importing large amounts of cocaine and heroin.
Law enforcement intelligence shared with this masthead suggests tensions between Badger’s syndicate and rival organised crime networks over control of Australia’s drug trade are escalating, sparking concerns a violent turf war could reach Sydney’s streets. The intelligence suggests conflict within Badger’s syndicate is also growing and is believed to have been the catalyst for retribution against members who have fallen foul of the network and its leadership.
In October, this masthead revealed Badger’s syndicate was believed to be responsible for the abduction and murder of 45-year-old Bankstown woman Thi Kim Tran last April. Police allege Tran was targeted after her husband, a methamphetamine cook for Badger’s syndicate, was accused of stealing up to 80 kilograms of the drug from his employers. Several people have been charged over Tran’s murder and remain before the courts.
A thwarted alleged plot to murder a Sydney father as he collected his children from a Revesby day care centre has also been linked to the syndicate. The intended target of the alleged plot, Huy Tran, had fallen foul of The Final Crime Family, a little-known criminal group believed to be operating under the umbrella of Badger’s broader syndicate. The group believed Tran, who is not related to Thi Kim Tran, owed it $200,000. Several people have been charged over the alleged plot and remain before the courts.
Badger’s name has been bandied about among senior law enforcement officials as a major player in the global drug trade for several years. Such is his influence on the illicit drug trade and his international reach, Badger is now considered one of the highest-priority targets operating offshore. Badger has long been on the radar of the ACIC, which monitors individuals believed to pose the highest-level criminal threats to Australia’s national security and exert significant influence over the criminal landscape.
Those with the highest designation are deemed to be “resilient, well-resourced criminal entities involved in several criminal enterprises”, an ACIC spokesperson said.
“The ACIC works in close co-operation with our partners to continually monitor and assess the criminal threats posed by existing and emerging criminal actors,” the spokesperson said.
The exact size of the Australian-based arm of Badger’s syndicate is unclear, but membership in Sydney alone is believed to have grown to dozens of loyal followers operating within several smaller subgroups. Members of the syndicate, largely comprised of Vietnamese men, have cultivated reputations among senior police as particularly violent foot soldiers willing to carry out orders once considered too brutal even for seasoned criminals. The syndicate is also alleged to have hired contractors to carry out crimes.
In October, organised crime squad detectives working under Strike Force Barberton – one of several investigations that led to the establishment of Strike Force Dakota – seized more than 415 kilograms of illicit drugs, including methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and MDMA with a street value of about $260 million from several properties police allege were being used as safe houses by members of Badger’s syndicate. Several were arrested and remain before the courts.
Other operations investigating a surge in Asian organised crime activity across Sydney and large-scale imports of illicit drugs into the country led detectives to Badger’s syndicate.
Badger is believed to be living a life of luxury in South-East Asia. Footage of Badger’s 2019 wedding in Ho Chi Minh City shows him enjoying a lavish ceremony surrounded by family and friends.
In July 2022, Badger was granted Cambodian citizenship by naturalisation and given a Khmer name – Sen Sovannarith – according to a royal decree published in the Cambodian government’s Royal Gazette at the time. Badger is believed to travel between Cambodia and Vietnam, on the border of South-East Asia’s Golden Triangle region, the global epicentre of methamphetamine production and distribution. He has left little online footprint since.
The AFP, which has been monitoring Badger for several years and is increasingly focused on offshore targets, declined to comment on the current investigation into the 40-year-old.
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