AFP probes whether ‘criminals-for-hire’ stoking anti-Semitism crisis as Labor pressed for answers

The Australian Federal Police are investigating whether “criminals-for-hire” may have been paid in cryptocurrency by underworld networks to carry out acts of anti-Semitism, amid an escalating political row over the response to the national crisis.

“We believe criminals-for-hire may be behind some incidents. So, part of our inquiries include who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is,” AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said on Wednesday.

“There is still a lot of investigative work to be done, and we are not ready to rule anything in or out,” he said.

“Crime is globalised. Criminals are using anonymising technology, and we know 70% of criminals who target Australia are offshore,” he added.

Mr Kershaw’s statement in Parliament House came as the Government and opposition traded fresh barbs over the handling of a series of heinous anti-Semitic crimes, including the torching of synagogues and a childcare centre, that have left Jewish Australians living in fear.

Earlier on Wednesday, Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson had demanded answers over the “gravely serious” AFP claim that foreign actors may be orchestrating the rise of attacks, warning that the release of partial information would spread further alarm.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton also challenged the Government to reveal what it knew about alleged foreign links.

The AFP Commissioner had informed the National Cabinet on Tuesday the police were probing whether “overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia” in cryptocurrency to carry out some of a spate of attacks against the Jewish community.

The opposition’s calls for more clarity were immediately rebuffed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who accused Mr Dutton of seeking “political advantage from traumatic circumstance” and said he would not risk compromising the investigation.

On Wednesday, the NSW police achieved a breakthrough by arresting and charging 33-year-old Adam Moule from Camperdown for allegedly trying to set fire to a synagogue in Newtown earlier this month.

The man is the ninth person arrested under the State’s Strike Force Pearl operation, and NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb revealed that a second person would soon be detained in the Newtown case.

Special Operation Avalite, a nationwide taskforce set up in December after the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, has received 166 reports of crime and officers are investigating 15 serious allegations.

Police and security agencies racing to stem the wave of anti-Semitic incidents that has shocked Australia are investigating the possible involvement of overseas gangs and organised crime networks, but multiple lines of inquiry remain open.

It is understood that links to foreign governments or terrorist organisations or to known domestic violent extremist groups have not been ruled out but there is so far no intelligence to suggest this.

There is concern that increasing incidences of anti-Semitism have not yet levelled out, despite hopes the Middle East ceasefire that came into force on Sunday would temper tensions in Australia.

The authorities have been talking with counterparts in Israel and among the trusted Five Eyes nations - the UK, US, Canada and New Zealand - and acting on information received.

But there are still a number of unknowns, complicated by the increasing use of encryption technology and layers of offshore operations increasingly deployed by criminal gangs to mask the identities of their masterminds.

Among the unanswered questions is whether Australia is facing a coordinated campaign of anti-Semitism or a string of isolated incidents. Investigators are yet to establish links between any suspects involved in different attacks.

The suggestion of foreign actors driving Australia’s domestic crisis sparked alarm among leading members of parliament, who demanded more answers.

Senator Paterson said if the reports of foreign interference were true, the country was facing “the most serious domestic security crisis in peacetime in Australia’s history.”

If “a transnational terrorist organisation is sponsoring attacks in Australia, or potentially a foreign government is engaging in state-sponsored terror targeting the Jewish community,” it would “cause incredible alarm,” he told ABC Radio National Breakfast.

Mr Dutton queried why Mr Albanese “has never mentioned this before now”.

“When did the prime minister find out that there were foreign players? Are these state actors or organised crime groups? Or are they antisemitic groups? What did the prime minister know?” Mr Dutton said.

Mr Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke hit back, warning the Coalition that they would not risk compromising the investigation by disclosing more information.

“It is important that people understand where some of these attacks are coming from, and it would appear..that some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue and aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors,” the Prime Minister told reporters in Sydney.

“It’s unclear where the payments are coming from, but they are being investigated,” he said.

The AFP Commissioner justified the release of information about potential overseas connections as being in the public’s interests.

“I’ve always been committed to sharing information with the public when I can, and in my view, on this issue, providing information is not only a deterrent, but also keeps the public informed on matters that are very personal,” he said.

While the motivations and perpetrators behind the outbreak of anti-Semitic attacks remain largely unknown, Australia is increasingly vulnerable to foreign interference, say experts.

“Based on ASIO public assessments, foreign interference and espionage are now the top tier threat, and certainly Australia is now becoming, over the years, a much more significant target for foreign interference,” said Lydia Khalil, program director of the Transnational Challenges Program at the Lowy Institute.

Foreign actors did not always have a stake in the conflict, she told the Nightly.

“It could just as likely be any foreign actor who is seeking to sow discord because the way foreign interference works is that actors seek any opportunity of sabotage,” she said.

“The end game is really to undermine Australian democracy, undermine our social cohesion, basically to cause trouble domestically, so that it can weaken Australia in various ways…so that it adversely influences Australia’s ability to act strategically and in its best interests.”

The anti-Semitism crisis has become embroiled in a bitter political battle in recent weeks.

Mr Albanese on Wednesday denied criticisms his Government had been slow to respond, saying they had acted “from day one” and citing a raft of new countermeasures. He denounced the opposition’s attempts to politicise the matter.

“Australia should come together, not look for difference, but look for unity of purpose,” he said.

Mr Dutton accused the PM of letting anti-Semitism “fester” for “his own political advantage”.

“I think he’s hung a big part of the community out to dry, because you’ve got votes that they’re chasing from inner city seats, from Greens, and in Western Sydney,” he said.

The Government has also rejected criticism from Israel that its position on the conflict in the Middle East has exacerbated anti-Semitism in Australia.

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told the ABC in Jerusalem that the Labor Government’s attitude towards Israel was fuelling violence against Australia’s Jewish community.

“The Jewish community needs actions, and only through that, through deterrence, through investigation, prosecution — you have to fight it.

“I mean, what are they waiting for? For someone to die? For someone to be murdered?”

Mr Burke said the Government had consistently and absolutely rejected anti-Semitism and taken a series of actions against it. “The concept that we’re waiting is frankly wrong,” he said.