The Commonwealth Government will establish a dedicated Western Australian Anti-Gangs Squad to fight organised crime at a local level with the support and resources of national tools, resources and intelligence.
The Commonwealth Government is serious about combating criminal gang activity to make Western Australian communities safer and more secure.
The new Western Australian Anti-Gangs Squad will tackle organised crime and bikie gangs using national tools, resources and intelligence.
It will provide local police forces with unprecedented access to federal criminal intelligence holdings and will work within the WA Police Gang Squad in Perth to co-locate Australian Federal Police and WAPOL members.
The new Western Australian Anti-Gangs Squad will have access to the full suite of federal intelligence and operational resources available from the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Crime Commission, CrimTrac, Customs, Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office. It will also act on intelligence from local law enforcement agencies.
The Commonwealth Government is committed to helping making streets and communities safer through tough and effective steps to assist in fighting and preventing crime.
We appreciate and respect the work done by our national and state police personnel, they take significant risks and make great personal sacrifices to protect our communities.
By bringing together the resources of our national and state agencies we are working to ensure that our forces on the street have the tools that they need to help make our streets safer.
Criminal gangs have a culture of violence and intimidation and are involved in national and international criminal operations incorporating the illicit drug trade, prostitution, money laundering, vehicle rebirthing, property crime, corruption, extortion and firearms trafficking.
The most recent assessment of criminal gangs identified that there are more than 40 different Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs) operating in Australia, with about 6000 patched members.
Federal law enforcement authorities advise there are nine OMCGs operating in WA, with 25 chapters and 436 members and associates.
What we will see from today in WA is a new and unprecedented level of cooperation between Australian law enforcement agencies and our Western Australian state colleagues to target gang-related crime.
The Western Australian Anti-Gangs Squad will be provided with $10 million from the Australian Government over three years. It is in addition to the $64 million provisioned for strike teams in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
The Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments are committed to ensuring federal and state law enforcement is working co-operatively to fight and prevent the scourge of criminal gangs.
1 April 2014