A Samoan teen rugby hopeful’s chances of playing professionally are in tatters after allegedly being enlisted into a gang that sought to murder a man outside a daycare centre.<\/p>\n
Ata Junior Misi is facing gang-related charges, after he allegedly worked for a Sydney group known as The Final Crime Family by moving four stolen cars ahead of an attempted murder plot in October.<\/p>\n
In a conversation recorded by police, the 19-year-old said he initially thought the plan was to kidnap the victim.<\/p>\n
“When he walks out the house, just bang, take him,” he is quoted as saying in the recording.<\/p>\n
“Oh swear, oh f*** I thought it was just a kidnap.<\/p>\n
“So is he getting killed?”<\/p>\n
In the recording, which picked up only Misi’s side of the conversation, the landscaper could be heard talking about getting a tattoo for the gang and the possibility he could be asked to commit murder.<\/p>\n
“Yeah I think it is me lad, coz I’m the f***ing newest,” the now 19-year-old allegedly said.<\/p>\n
This conversation was revealed in court documents seen by AAP after Misi made a bail bid in the NSW Supreme Court in late February.<\/p>\n
Misi had moved to Sydney from Griffith in the state’s Riverina region when he allegedly became embroiled with The Final Crime Family.<\/p>\n
He was known by the Samoan NSW Rugby League and hoped to move to Sydney to join the NSW Rugby Union pathways programme, the court previously heard.<\/p>\n
In late September, Misi allegedly helped relocate four “hotties” \u2013 a stolen blue Subaru Outback, beige Jeep Wrangler, grey Nissan Navara and blue Mitsubishi Outlander \u2013 positioning them to be used in the lethal plan.<\/p>\n
In Misi’s bail hearing, Justice Robertson Wright noted these discussions suggested criminal connections of a troubling kind.<\/p>\n
“It is not unknown for criminal groups to actually employ these young men quite often with sporting connections because they do have an ability and strength of training,” he said.<\/p>\n
The court documents claimed police found a “kidnap kit” stashed in the Nissan Navara containing a sledgehammer, two baseball bats, duct tape, a pillow case, a torch and zip ties.<\/p>\n
Three days before the alleged daycare plot, Misi’s girlfriend allegedly told him her brother was in prison for setting up cars for murders.<\/p>\n
“Sounds familiar,” the 19-year-old allegedly said.<\/p>\n
Police say the plot was foiled on October 7 when they swooped in and arrested three other men on their way to the daycare centre, charging them with conspiracy to murder.<\/p>\n
One of them was allegedly wearing a GoPro video camera at the time.<\/p>\n
Officers located a Glock-style pistol with a pink slide and a cardboard sign with “T.F.C.F The Final Crime Family” written on it within the vehicles.<\/p>\n
On an encrypted chat on a smartphone found within one of the cars, eight participants openly chatted about the intended murder, police claim.<\/p>\n
“We wannr (sic) hit the dog out front of the day care,” one message read.<\/p>\n
“Shoot point blank at him,” another said.<\/p>\n
Someone said the cardboard sign should be placed on top of the individual’s body.<\/p>\n
Two vehicles owned by the intended target were allegedly fitted with GPS tracking devices monitored by the criminal group, police claim.<\/p>\n
Misi and another man were arrested on October 9 at Oran Park in Sydney’s west.<\/p>\n
Misi has not yet pleaded to a variety of charges, including dealing with property intending it to be an instrument of crime, dealing with proceeds of crime, conspiracy to kidnap and participating in a criminal gang.<\/p>\n
In late February, Justice Robertson adjourned the bail hearing, saying the proposed conditions did not properly mitigate any risks Misi posed to the community.<\/p>\n
The judge still could grant bail at a future hearing and has asked for evidence the 19-year-old would be fully supervised if allowed to live with his family in Griffith.<\/p>\n
The matter will return to court on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Samoan teen rugby hopeful’s chances of playing professionally are in tatters after allegedly being enlisted into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,8513,760,85],"class_list":["post-520804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}