The Australian Federal Police is warning that foreign intelligence agencies are increasingly working with locally-based organised criminals to carry out “serious crimes”, including terrorism, within Australia.<\/p>\n
In a speech to a national security conference in Canberra, Commissioner Krissy Barrett warned criminals are more frequently working with foreign “despots, dictators and disrupters”.<\/p>\n
In recent years, the Iranian regime has been linked to two antisemitic attacks carried out in Australia<\/a>, on Melbourne’s Adass Israel synagogue and a Jewish bakery in Sydney.<\/p>\n Australia’s domestic security agency, ASIO, said it had established direct links between the crimes and Iran’s security agency, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).<\/p>\n The IRGC is now a “listed state sponsor of terrorism” within Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Commissioner Barrett warned there is evidence within Australia and across the world that the trend is worsening.<\/p>\n “State actors are increasingly capitalising on existing criminal underworld connections, especially with those who share ethnicity or ideology, to carry out offences such as foreign interference, sabotage or terrorism,” she said.<\/p>\n Commissioner Barrett said organised criminals, particularly outlaw motorcycle gangs, have traditionally been motivated almost solely by money.<\/p>\n She compared the link between criminals and foreign actors to the “gig economy”, saying it is disrupting crime much like other industries.<\/p>\n