The owner of the Sydney area caravan filled with explosives intended for an alleged antisemitic terrorist attack has been in Australian police custody for separate antisemitic criminal offenses, New South Wales Police Force Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson revealed in a Thursday press briefing with NSW Police Force Commissioner Karen Webb and NSW Premier Chris Minns, in which the officials defended decisions to conceal information to facilitate covert investigations and criticized the media for compromising their operations.
According to Hudson the registered owner of the explosive-filled caravan found last Sunday on a rural, residential Dural property during a search of the area had been arrested early January for offenses under Strike Force Pearl, a NSW Police task force established in December to address antisemitic crimes in the greater Sydney area. The NSW police are continuing their investigation before charging the individual, according to Webb taking their time because the immediate threat had been averted.
"The owner is out of play and in custody," said Webb.
It is unclear how many arrests have been made related to the plot, in which a note was reportedly found listing Australian Jewish targets. Hudson said in a Wednesday briefing that arrests had been made on the "periphery" of the case.
Hudson expanded on his Wednesday statements suggesting that the planned attack was connected to a spate of antisemitic arson and vandalism incidents that had afflicted the greater Sydney area in recent weeks. Arrested perpetrators in such incidents did not have identifiable ideological motivation, which lended to the investigator's theory that the attacks were being orchestrated by some other actors.
"We believe some of them are being orchestrated by others, not the individuals," said Hudson. He noted that there were "links between certain jobs" of the perpetrators, but declined to elaborate further to protect the integrity of the investigations.
Foreign actors
The Australian Federal Police and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that last week that investigators were examining if foreign actors were funding local criminals to commit antisemitic acts in the country. Hudson said Wednesday that he would not speculate about the matter.
The caravan case had not been declared a terrorist event, according to Webb, because such a move would be made if law enforcement required more resources. She said it had no impact on potential terrorism charges for involved suspects.
Webb said Thursday that while explosives were found in the caravan, there was no detonator. Hudson said that the powergel explosives, which they believed to have been stolen from a mining site, were almost exclusively used in mining. Police are liaising with the manufacturers.
Hudson and Webb expressed frustration with the media, saying that news reports had compromised their investigation. Webb defended the decision to conceal information for ten days after the caravan's discovery explaining that it was necessary for investigation.
"There is a time and a place that we need to inform the community when there is a risk to public safety," said Webb. "We believe that we mitigated the public risk, but we need to get on with the investigation."
Minns backed Webb and Hudson, saying that officers had not been idle the last 10 days, and had faithfully and reliably defended the public from terrorism for decades. The premier promised that the government was committed to releasing as much information as possible unless it compromised the investigation.
"If the police believe that covert means are the best way of locking up people responsible for these actions, that's what's going to happen," said Minns.
The Wednesday revelation about the Dural incident came just a few hours before the mass antisemitic vandalization of three areas in Sydney, including a Jewish day school and nearby home.