{"id":629121,"date":"2026-04-25T02:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T02:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/629121\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T02:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T02:44:08","slug":"arsonists-are-targeting-melbourne-restaurants-and-hospitality-venues-no-one-seems-to-know-why-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/629121\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsonists are targeting Melbourne restaurants and hospitality venues. No one seems to know why | Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

The orders come from people they have never met: firebomb this particular address, and you\u2019ll get paid a few hundred dollars.<\/p>\n

There have been almost 300 tobacconists hit in Victoria<\/a> since late 2023, but there are now different types of businesses that have been targeted in the past fortnight: nightclubs, restaurants and bars.<\/p>\n

At least eight such businesses have been targeted since 14 April, the most recent of which was the well-known South Yarra restaurant France-Soir on Thursday morning. According to police, officers were called to the scene when jerry cans were allegedly spotted inside a vehicle stopped near the restaurant.<\/p>\n

Police also suspect two kidnappings and a factory fire<\/a> at an alcohol distribution centre in Melbourne\u2019s outer south-east are connected to the hospitality attacks.<\/p>\n

Det Ins Chris Murray, the officer in charge of Victoria\u2019s arson and explosive squad, urged those heading out in Melbourne<\/a> to remain vigilant for their own safety, but also to detect possible offenders.<\/p>\n

Murray says police were unclear on why the businesses were being targeted.<\/p>\n

There were no obvious links between the venues, though some had shared ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach and every owner who\u2019s been subject to an arson attack and attempted arson state they haven\u2019t been extorted, which is puzzling,\u201d Murray told the ABC on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motive is unclear and we\u2019re trying to understand what that motive is, but the owners have been very cooperative and say they haven\u2019t been threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

He says the suspected arsonists did not have clear links to crime gangs, but were instead recruited through an underworld gig economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we generally see is this: individuals are responding to what the equivalent would be of Airtasker, being Crimetasker,\u201d Murray told the media last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey go and get paid to do a task that\u2019s offered by someone. Get paid a few hundred dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften they don\u2019t even know who they\u2019re working for. That\u2019s the business model that we see. So they\u2019re being used.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said the use of arson had become more common across Melbourne.<\/p>\n

No clear links to illicit tobacco trade\u2019s firebombings<\/p>\n

Murray said there were no clear links to suspected illegal tobacco kingpin Kaz Hamad and his crew<\/a>, who are suspected of sparking many of the arson attacks on tobacconists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we suspect is that these jobs are being tasked out, to anyone, and probably the one common denominator is there is someone sitting above who is pulling the strings,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the ones we\u2019re interested in. These young kids are being used as cannon fodder for a few hundred dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when they do go to prison, I can tell you now they\u2019re not getting phone calls from the people who have put them up [to it], they\u2019ll be left to their own devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The youngest of four offenders charged in relation to the recent incidents was 16, and Murray said young men seemed most often to be those who were recruited.<\/p>\n

According to court records relating to previous arson attacks on tobacconists committed by young men, many have extensive prior criminal histories including as youth offenders, issues with substance abuse, and histories of poor engagement with education, including because of undiagnosed mental illness or disability.<\/p>\n

One young man jailed in November last year for arson was directed to perform the offences \u2013 and in some cases to film the aftermath \u2013 by people on the encrypted messaging app Signal.<\/p>\n

Those pulling the strings went by names including \u201cScarface\u201d and \u201cSinatra\u201d.<\/p>\n

There are few barriers to entry for arson \u2013 generally all that is needed is a stolen car, fuel and a light.<\/p>\n

It is also considered lower-risk than other favoured methods for stand-over, intimidating rivals or perceived threats, such as drive-by shootings or kidnappings.<\/p>\n

Aside from tobacconists, and the recent spate of hospitality businesses, there\u2019s also been at least seven ice-creameries attacked since 2022.<\/p>\n

But the escalating use of arson as an underworld tactic is not without danger: a man died last year after suffering burns when he set a Prahran juice and dessert bar alight.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be very clear: those people who are paying others an absolute pittance to light these fires have zero concern for their safety,\u201d Murray said earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do not care one single bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour life is worth more than a couple of hundred dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The orders come from people they have never met: firebomb this particular address, and you\u2019ll get paid a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-629121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629121","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=629121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}