More than a dozen antisemitic attacks, from graffiti in Sydney’s east to a bomb plot in Dural, were fake terror incidents organised by powerful crime figures.
More than a dozen antisemitic attacks, from graffiti in Sydney’s east to a bomb plot in Dural, were fake terror incidents organised by powerful crime figures.
By Perry Duffin
Updated March 10, 2025 — 2.54pmfirst published at 1.37pm
Hundreds of police have swept across Sydney in dawn counter-terror raids and arrested more than a dozen people, after a months-long counter-terror investigation into a caravan stocked with explosives found on a suburban street.
Police have confirmed the caravan plot was set up by organised crime figures, for financial and criminal reasons, as first reported by this masthead last month.
Police were called in mid-January to a property in Dural in Sydney’s north-west after reports the caravan had been dumped on the side of the road stocked with Power Gel explosives and notes suggesting targets in the Jewish community.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Monday said 200 police from NSW and the Australian Federal Police executed 11 search warrants and took 14 people into custody.
Webb said the operation was ongoing, and the number of arrests and charges are expected to “fluctuate”.
“This operation is ongoing and not over yet at this stage,” Webb told this masthead.
“Fourteen are in custody and this number may change in the coming hours.
“We will allege those arrested had criminal and financial motives.”
The joint counter-terror team comprised of NSW and federal police on Monday executed the raids and firearm prohibition order searches.
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Last month, legal sources revealed underworld crime figures offered to reveal plans about the caravan weeks before its discovery by police, hoping to use it as leverage for a reduced prison term.
The sources, speaking anonymously to share sensitive details, say at least three criminals were hoping to use the caravan to garner a reduced sentence or to have charges dropped.
Three people have so far been allegedly linked to the caravan but not for direct reasons.
Scott Marshall, his partner Tammie Farrugia and their friend Simon Nichols were named on the warrants executed by police in the days after the discovery of the caravan.
Farrugia and Marshall have been charged over a separate arson and graffiti attack in Woollahra in December in which a car was set alight and “kill Israiel” [sic] was sprayed on a wall. She had allegedly posted “got any jerry cans?” on Facebook in the days before the attack.
None of the three have been charged with terror-related offences.
More to come.
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Perry Duffin is a crime reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via Twitter or email.
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