Police say organised crime gang fabricated a plan to bomb the Jewish site to divert law enforcement resources.
An organised crime network fabricated a plot to attack a synagogue in Australia to divert law enforcement resources, according to police.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Monday that the discovery of explosives in a caravan parked in Sydney was part of a “criminal con job”. The country has previously said it suspected there were criminal links to a surge in anti-Semitic crime since the start of the Gaza war.
The authorities found the caravan, which contained enough explosives to create a blast wave of 40 metres (130 feet), in January. The police now say they quickly realised that the cache was fabricated by an organised crime network.
The caravan had been easily located, the AFP said, adding that the explosives were clearly visible and no detonator was present, suggesting there was never any intent to attack Jewish targets.
“The caravan was never going to cause a mass casualty event but instead was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit,” Krissy Barrett, AFP’s deputy commissioner for national security, told a news conference.
“Almost immediately, experienced investigators … believed that the caravan was part of a fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job.”
‘Chilling effect’
In a statement on Monday, the AFP said its investigation, named Operation Kissinger, has identified a number of people involved in the fake terrorism plot and is working with local and overseas law enforcement to bring them to justice.
It was decided to release the information to the public to provide comfort to Sydney’s Jewish community, New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson told a news conference.
“[The plot] was about causing chaos within the community, causing threat, causing angst, diverting police resources away from their day jobs, to have them focus on matters that would allow them to get up to or engage in other criminal activity,” he said.
The country’s counterterrorism unit had considered releasing information to the public earlier but it had been receiving tip-offs about other related “terror plots”.
However, “we are now confident that all these tip-offs were fabricated, and the caravan plot was an elaborate scheme contrived by organised criminals domestically and from offshore“, the AFP statement said.
Australia has suffered a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in recent months, with homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles targeted by vandalism and arson, drawing the ire of the country’s traditional ally Israel.
Barrett said, in this atmosphere, the fake caravan plot had had a “chilling effect” on the Jewish community.
“What organised crime has done to the Jewish community is reprehensible, and it won’t go without consequence. There was also unwarranted suspicion directed at other communities – and that is also reprehensible.”