New South Wales (NSW) Premier Chris Minns is confident his police force is adequately resourced but will consider new powers to help combat a violent, gangland turf war on Sydney streets.
The execution-styled murder of a man in Canterbury on Thursday—the fifth targeted shooting in a week—proved the final straw for NSW Police, who stood up a unit of 100 officers to halt the escalating underworld war.
The shootings were the result of different crime groups trying to grab a larger slice of the city’s lucrative illicit drug market, the force said on Friday.
The premier said he understood the concern and worry of Sydneysiders, particularly those in western Sydney.
“I want to assure them that we’ve got a fully resourced, experienced police force with over 100 police officers that are directly responding to this violent behaviour,” he told reporters.
“We will, of course, speak with NSW Police about any legislative changes they may need to strengthen their hands to ensure community safety and to lock up people who are acting in a despicable violent and horrific way.”
Police on Thursday said resourcing was not the issue, but they were facing a “wall of silence” from underworld figures.
Thursday’s shooting victim, 28, was found by officers with multiple gunshot wounds in an attack exhibiting the hallmarks of an underworld hit.
It came less than 24 hours after high-profile criminal lawyer Mahmoud Abbas survived a shooting outside a home in Greenacre.
One of three people shot in the same suburb on Sunday died of his injuries late on Thursday.
“This is really controlled and driven by the drug trade in Sydney,” Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told Seven’s Sunrise on Friday.
“We are high consumers in this city of illicit drugs, and that drives profits up.”
Mr. Hudson used the example of a criminal group disrupted in 2022 that ran its drug distribution network through 20 phones.
“It was, more or less, a dial-a-dealer (operation),” he said.
“One of those phones was making $200,000 profit a week.
“That’s the amount of money involved in this trade.”
Mr. Minns also expressed regret over the exposure of school children to the corpse at Thursday’s early morning shooting.
While police erected a tent over the body, multiple media outlets in the late morning captured parts of the man’s body exposed out a side of the tent, with one image showing two school children appearing to look at the man’s bloodied face.
“That situation and those circumstances are regrettable; of course, they are,” he said.
