Beating them to the guns

There's not much that moves through hands in the criminal underworld faster than an illegal gun, but thanks to a newly established investigative team, Victoria Police is staying ahead of the potentially deadly arms race.

With guns continuing to be an increasingly desirable commodity and enabler of criminal activity, Victoria Police identified the need for a specialist unit dedicated to firearm investigation and established the Illicit Firearms Squad in September 2020.

The squad, the first dedicated firearms investigation unit in Australia, sits within the State Anti-Gangs Division, strengthening its resolve to deliver an approach to serious organised crime that focuses on disruption and enforcement.

The ultimate goal of the squad is simple — to stop guns from falling into the hands of criminals.

But it’s no easy task, because some go to great lengths to obtain a firearm.

Earlier this year, an offender used an angle grinder to cut open a safe and steal nine firearms during a residential burglary in Pakenham.

Illicit Firearms Squad detectives swung into action and were able to identify two persons of interest and multiple warrants were executed.

Eight of the nine stolen firearms were recovered, as well as a large quantity of ammunition and other stolen property.

The offenders had ground the serial numbers from the firearms to de-identify them, with detectives believing the guns were destined for the illicit firearms market.

“You need to react very quickly if you have good intelligence on illicit firearms, because those guns could be gone within a few days,” State AntiGangs Division’s Detective Superintendent Peter Brigham warned.

The majority of illicit firearms in the community come from the ‘grey market’, a pool of firearms that were legitimately possessed by someone prior to 1996 when strengthened national gun laws were implemented following the Port Arthur massacre.

Usually, grey market guns have never been registered and have not been handed in to authorities during gun amnesties, buy-backs, and other surrender initiatives.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission in 2016 estimated there are about 250,000 longarms and 10,000 handguns in the grey market.

The second most common source of illicit firearms are those stolen during burglaries from the homes of licenced gun owners.

It’s a crime that has increased significantly during the last 10 years and is often enabled by careless or inadequate storage.

“One of the realities of firearms theft is the recovery rate of stolen items is not that high. These guns are being found decades later in different states and may have passed through multiple sets of hands as an illicit commodity,” the squad’s Detective Inspector Michael Daly said.

However, the use of Firearm Prohibition Order legislation aimed at reducing the number of illicit guns and related violence within the community is having an impact.

Figures for the six-month period of 1 January to 30 June this year show that 536 illicit firearms have already been recovered in Victoria.

Considering the groups who shop in the illicit firearms market, it’s a number the squad’s Detective Senior Sergeant Leigh Howse said was “pretty significant”.

“The illicit firearms market is dominated by serious and organised groups, including outlaw motorcycle gangs, Middle Eastern organised crime, and new and emerging crime entities,” Det Sen Sgt Howse said.

“They use these firearms to aid major level drug importation and trafficking, instil fear and intimidation in rival groups, and for violent incidents like fatal and non-fatal shootings.

“By removing the guns from the community, and detecting, preventing, and deterring illicit firearm offending, we’re stopping these weapons from being used in those major crimes.”

Illicit Firearm Squad detectives work closely with many agencies as part of their investigations, including the Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and Department of Home Affairs.

Within Victoria Police, the squad collaborates with local investigative units, the Armed Crime Squad, and Echo Taskforce — which was established to investigate organised crime and street gangs.

Intelligence sharing between these law enforcement agencies is imperative to aid coordinated investigations, particularly findings from ballistic evidence.

“With the firearms tracing program, the Ballistics Unit can check firearm serial numbers against interstate law enforcement databases to determine its origin,” Det Insp Daly said.

“A recovered firearm could be traced to a stolen origin in Victoria or interstate.

“If it hasn’t been registered in Victoria, the ACIC can determine the firearm’s origin through the history of legitimate importations into Australia, to determine how it came into the country or how it entered into the illicit market.”

Often offenders try to remove or alter serial numbers so firearms can’t be traced, but the Ballistics Unit has specialised techniques used to recover this information from the weapon.

Firearms taken into police possession, such as handguns and sawn-off weapons, are test fired at one of Victoria Police’s forensics hubs to check for identifying features of projectiles and their shells.

These details are entered into a database for comparison against unsolved crimes nation-wide.

Det Insp Daly said identifying the origins of an illicit firearm allows investigators to be more proactive in preventing similar illicit market channels from operating in the future.

It also lets police hold to account people who should be in possession of a firearm but aren’t because it’s been sold or is in the hands of the wrong person.

Part of this process involves the squad working collaboratively with Victoria Police’s Licensing and Regulation Division to conduct audits and inspections of licenced firearm holders and dealers to ensure firearms are accurately recorded and stored.

Detectives also work alongside other Victoria Police Crime Command squads and local investigation units to activate targeted operations, conduct intercepts and raids, and execute search warrants of illicit firearm holders.

In March this year, the squad participated in Operation Athena.

The operation was conducted as part of a National Week of Action, with more than 100 firearms seized across the state through a coordinated response from Crime Command and specialised local police units.

“The most severe consequence of these crimes is someone using a firearm to kill someone else — and sometimes just a few millimetres seals that person’s fate,” Det Supt Brigham said.

Det Sen Sgt Leigh Howse, Det Supt Peter Bingham and Det Insp Michael Daly are part of the specialised team working to get illicit firearms off the streets.

But it’s not just fatal shootings that affect people in relation to gun crime — armed robberies, aggravated burglaries, family violence, and other shootings like drive-by shootings can cause harm even when you’re not the victim.

“People in a neighbourhood can be quite distressed when a shooting has occurred near their home, even though they weren’t the intended target,” Det Supt Brigham said.

“It simply scares them that someone was in their neighbourhood with a gun, and that stays with them for quite a while.

“We want to put an end to that.”

Editorial: Emily Wan

Photography: Jesse Wray-McCann