Purana Taskforce head says time for NZ to "wake up and smell the roses"
Detective Inspector Bernie Edwards has issued New Zealand with a strong word of warning – “Wake up and smell the roses: organised crime is here.”
Mr Edwards, head of Victoria’s Purana Taskforce, was the keynote speaker at the Police Association’s Annual Conference last month.
The Purana Taskforce targets the leaders of organised crime groups in Australia.
The unit was set up in 2003 after a series of bloody gangland killings – 25 in all – occurred in Melbourne.
Take a proactive approach
During his address, Mr Edwards said many of the trends his team were seeing in Melbourne were happening in New Zealand too.
Australian-based gangs viewed New Zealand as a “soft touch” to launder their dirty money.Police needed to take a proactive approach if they wanted to tackle the problem, instead of waiting for it to reach crisis point.
“You will get shootings, you will get killings if you do nothing about it,” he warned.
For the love of money
Mr Edwards described how organised crime was all about money. “Each organised crime network has someone who knows how to hide money, because without large sums of money, reserves or profits, organised crime would not exist.”
To secure such healthy cashflow reserves, organised crime networks had their “fingers in many pies” and different organised crime groups had begun to pool their resources.
“They are sharing their drug cooks and as long as they are making money, they don’t mind,” Mr Edwards said.
Diversification
Organised crime business ventures include drugs, money laundering, nightclubs, pubs, massage parlours, the freight trade, insider trading and day trading and property development - to name but a few.
Mr Edwards said the Victorian unit had cottoned on to the trend of business diversification after discovering that “hammering” a crime group on one illegal activity would only encourage them to turn to other illegal activities.
Other measures adopted by organised crime groups include hiding their funds by making family members directors of bogus companies.
Going legit?
Getting into the freight trade meant they could legitimately meet up with people from Customs, Mr Edwards said.
Through this, organised crime groups are then able to source and befriend Customs employees who had personal problems.
This would allow the groups to then feed the employee’s vices in exchange for valuable information that could help illegal shipments slip through Customs.
“If you get the wink and if you get one through, you are fairly rich, “Mr Edwards said.
“This is why the freight industry has become so popular for organised crime groups.” Loaning money to people who cannot afford
Mr Edwards said the Victorian unit had cottoned on to the trend of business repayments and opening offshore casinos are two other avenues used by organised crime groups to build wealth.
The racing industry is another mutli-million dollar industry infiltrated by organised crime, Mr Edwards told conference. “Jockeys and trainers are giving out information, employees in the industry are selling false tickets and bets are being placed under false names.”
Keeping up appearances
Mr Edwards said the main players who sit at the top of the organised crime hierarchy rarely fit the stereotypical profile of a criminal.
“They dress in suits and rub shoulders with all the right people. They love splashing their money around.
These guys eat in restaurants you and I would be lucky to even walk past,” he said.
Because of their position in society and the large sums of money at their disposal, they are able to influence top officials.
Mr Edwards spoke about how a Shadow Attorney General, a judge, a university professor and certain police officers had all been persuaded to play a part in organised crime.
“Organised crime will suck these people in and their association will be funding theKey crime players go to great lengths to distance themselves from their illegal dealings, as their wealth affords them the luxury of the best lawyers, advisers and accountants.
“The richer you allow them to become, the harder it will be to catch them. They will distance themselves, and then they are near to untouchable,” Mr Edwards said.
Catching them out
Mr Edwards said in order to bring organised crime to its knees, individuals who sat at the top of organised crime groups needed to be targeted.
“Don’t go for the little players, because they will just be replaced…you need to hit them with whatever you’ve got, dismantle them, destroy or disrupt their activities, strip them of their wealth, power and status and by doing this you will also send a clear message to other organised crime units that Police will not tolerate it and will do everything in their power to stop it.”
Lessons learnt
Mr Edwards said the Purana Taskforce had come a long way since its humble beginnings. It now employed 55 staff.
Staff included multi-disciplined teams, tactical intelligence operatives, a crime and proceeds team, Australia Taxation Office (ATO) serious non-compliance officers, a Customs border control officer, a solicitor and a forensic accountant.
The taskforce worked collectively on cases and Mr Edwards said educational training was constantly utilised.
Gaining support
He said that Police alone could not make a difference in beating organised crime.
“We have the Government’s financial backing and the community right on board.”
Mr Edwards said it was important for New Zealand not to take a “Band-aid approach” to organised crime or it would inevitably face a crisis like the Melbourne gangland slayings.
“This was what woke us up to the fact that organised crime was in Melbourne. New Zealand doesn’t need such a crisis before addressing the issue.”
“If nothing is done, the next generation will come through and they will be harder. The next generation will become unstoppable,” Mr Edwards said.
