January 23, 2025
AFP investigates whether criminals may have been paid to carry out acts of anti-Semitism in Australia The Australian Federal Police is investigating whether "criminals for hire" may have been paid in cryptocurrency by underworld networks to carry out acts of anti-Semitism, amid an escalating political row over the response to the national crisis.
"We believe criminals for hire may be behind some incidents.
So, part of our inquiries include who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is," AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said on Wednesday.
"Crime is globalised. Criminals are using anonymising technology, and we know 70 per cent of criminals who target Australia are offshore."
Mr Kershaw's statement in Parliament House came as the Government and Opposition traded fresh barbs over the handling of a series of heinous antiSemitic crimes, including the torching of synagogues and a childcare centre, that have left Jewish Australians living in fear.
Earlier on Wednesday, shadow home affairs minister James Paterson had demanded answers over the "gravely serious" AFP claim that foreign actors may be orchestrating the rise of attacks, warning that the release of partial information would spread further alarm.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton also challenged the Government to reveal what it knew about alleged foreign links.
The AFP Commissioner had informed the National Cabinet on Tuesday the police were probing whether "overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia" in cryptocurrency to carry out some of the spate of attacks against the Jewish community.
The Opposition's calls for more clarity were quickly rebuffed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who accused Mr Dutton of seeking "political advantage from traumatic circumstances" and said he would not risk compromising the investigation.
On Wednesday, NSW police achieved a breakthrough by arresting and charging 33-year-old Adam Moule for allegedly trying to set fire to a synagogue in the inner-Sydney suburb of Newtown this month.
Mr Moule, from the nearby suburb of Camperdown, is the ninth person arrested under the State's Strike Force Pearl operation, and NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb revealed that a second person would soon be detained in the Newtown case.
Special Operation Avalite, a nationwide task force set up in December after the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, has received 166 reports of crime and officers are investigating 15 serious allegations.
There is concern increasing incidences of anti-Semitism have not yet levelled out, despite hopes the Middle East ceasefire that came into force on Sunday would temper tensions in Australia.
Among the unanswered questions is whether Australia is facing a co-ordinated campaign of anti-Semitism or a string of isolated incidents.
Senator Paterson said if the reports of foreign interference were true, the country was facing "the most serious domestic security crisis in peacetime in Australia's history".
If "a transnational terrorist organisation is sponsoring attacks in Australia, or potentially a foreign government is engaging in state-sponsored terror targeting the Jewish community" it would "cause incredible alarm", he told ABC radio.
Mr Dutton queried why Mr Albanese "has never mentioned this before now".
"When did the Prime Minister find out that there were foreign players," Mr Dutton said.
"Are these state actors or organised crime groups? Or are they anti-Semitic groups? "What did the Prime Minister know?" Mr Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke hit back, warning the Coalition that they would not risk compromising the investigation by disclosing more information.