The Prime Minister has announced that a National Anti-Gang Taskforce will be established to fight gang-related crime across Australia. The Taskforce will be made up of 70 members from the Australian Federal Police and State Police forces and will also include officers from the Australian Crime Commission, Australian Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the Tax Office and Centrelink.
The Taskforce will:
- directly target, investigate and arrest gang members in Australia;
- provide State and Federal law enforcement agencies with intelligence on gangs across Australia and overseas;
- provide State and Territory Police with better access to key Federal agencies like the ATO, Centrelink and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, to get the information they need to make arrests;
- investigate the activities of Australian based gangs overseas and the link to crime back in Australia; and
- work with international law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Interpol to exchange intelligence and conduct joint operations.
The taskforce will commence operations on 1 July 2013 and be fully operational by 1 January 2014, the PM said.
Source: PM’s media release, 3 March 2013
[LTN 42, 1/3/13]
Tax affairs of motorcycle gang under investigation
The Serious and Organised Crime Coordination Committee has advised that the Attero National Task Force, made up of various agencies including the ATO, the Australian Crime Commission, AUSTRAC and ASIC, has achieved more than id=”mce_marker”.4m in tax collections from 82 individuals and entities associated with the Rebels motorcycle gang. [The Coordination Committee is a national committee represented by all law enforcement jurisdictions, Commonwealth agencies of the ACC, the AFP, Customs and the ATO.]
The Task Force has identified 117 Rebels members with outstanding tax returns subjected to lodgment compliance action, with 30 cases referred for prosecution action. It has also identified more than 280 members or businesses associated with Rebels members as having tax debts ranging from id=”mce_marker”,000 to id=”mce_marker”.93m and all of these cases have been subject to debt collection action.
Source: Serious and Organised Crime Coordination Committee media release, 19 March 2013.
[LTN 53, 19/3/13]