From threatening to shoot police officers to recruiting boys as young as 12: Inside the violent Sudanese Apex Gang blamed for Melbourne riot
- Apex Gang recruits boys as young as 12 via social media
- Believed to have originated in Dandenong North up to five years ago
- Named after Apex Street where several of their founders reside
- Upwards of 150 members most of Sudanese or Somali background
- Armed with machetes and baseball bats and break into cars and homes
- Blamed for chaos during White Night last year and New Year's Eve in CBD
- Police officer is on stress leave after told she would be shot in the street
The Apex gang blamed for the violence across Melbourne's CBD on Saturday is up to 150 members strong, has been in operation for up to five years and recruits boys as young as 12.
Named after the street in which several founders resided (Apex Street in Dandenong North) gang members are accused of a crime spree ranging from car theft to home invasions, and even threatening to shoot investigating officers.
In less than six months 33 young men have been arrested by Task Force Tense, which was set up late last year to deal specifically with their threat.
Scroll down for videos
Apparent members of the gang boasted on social media ahead of the Moomba festivities what they were planning and the weapons they would be armed with including machetes and baseball bats
Chaos descended on Melbourne's CBD during Moomba celebrations on Saturday when scores of Apex gang members arrived in the city taunting police and attacking onlookers
The criminal element is made up predominantly of boys and men of African background, mostly Sudanese and also Somali.
Gang leaders are believed to specifically target young boys to give them a better chance of avoiding prosecution if apprehended.
The problem of containing the gang has come to a head in the past year, according to Victoria Police.
Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Graham Ashton, said 'intensive work' began in November last year to deal with the gang and extra resources would be brought in.
'That group has been, in our view, responsible for what has been a range of motor vehicle theft, aggravated burglaries,' Mr Ashton said.
'We have been dealing with it for more than year, rising theft of cars and break ins.'
Task Force Tense was established last year to deal with the threat of the Apex gang made up predominantly of youths of African background - 33 have been arrested so far
Of those arrested 20 of those remanded in custody on a variety of offences including robberies and assaults.
He said the group had been regularly visitors to the Melbourne CBD, including last year's White Night celebrations and New Year's Eve, 'looking to cause trouble'.
'We will be cracking down hard on this particular group,' he added.
'The levels of violence exhibited by this group was an increase and escalation on violence ... that concerns us greatly and we condemn it.
'The sort of behaviour will not be tolerated and we'll be cracking down hard on this particular group we believe was responsible.'
'What we did see was a large group of mainly young men that came into the city that seemed intent on provoking both members of the public and Victoria Police.'
Police say Apex gang members are believed to also be responsible for disturbances at Melbourne's NYE celebrations and the White Night event in 2015
Police say the group has been steadily recruiting members over the past year.
And investigators believe this is not simply a group of thugs looking to cause chaos, with claims they are using sophisticated online methods to attract young recruits and plan their crimes.
The Mornington Peninsula News last year reported that local police feared the gang which had its origins in Dandenong have moved south and were using advanced means on social media to organise their crime sprees.
'They adopt a common theme before committing crimes, which they call missioning,' Detective Sergeant Nick Vallas revealed to the publication at the time.
'This may be to break into a car and steal it, or, if the car’s locked, to break into the house and steal the car’s keys and then steal it. The stolen cars are then used to rob other cars.'
Apex gang members have been linked to crimes across Victoria from Dandenong to the CBD, and in the Mornington Peninsula, Springvale, Sunshine, Flemington and Footscray.
They use whatever they can get their hands on as weapons, from machetes to golf clubs, baseball bats and broken bricks and even boasted on social media the types of weapons they were carrying into the CBD on Saturday night.
The Age has reported that a police officer working in the Dandenong area was recently threatened by a gang member that she would be shot.
The female officer has been on extended leave suffering from anxiety and stress.
A note has been placed on the police station bulletin board to notify other officers of the threat to their safety
No comments:
Post a Comment