Major South American crime gang exposed

26 Oct 2012, 4:52 pm   -   Source: AAP

Police in Melbourne are investigating a major international crime gang that may have fleeced nearly $1 million from Australians over the past 20 years.

A suspected robbery ring led by a South American crime gang has been uncovered in Australia.

Victorian detectives are liaising with police agencies across Queensland and NSW after discovering potentially hundreds of robberies may be linked to the same organised crime syndicate.

Authorities believe a crew of four to six men has recently been using two key contacts within the country in an operation that may have fleeced nearly $1 million from cashed-up bank customers.

But the scale of the criminal probe is ballooning as police investigate associates who are suspected of facilitating the gang's continued operations for the past 20 years.

At least a dozen street robberies have been committed in Sydney and Melbourne in the past eight months, but hundreds more are now being analysed nationwide for links to the group.

It is understood at least one key contact may be living in Australia to help scope out robbery locations before South American gang members are flown in and set up with a hotel room and hire car.

Several gang members, who may be of Middle Eastern, Indian, or South American descent, have been caught on CCTV footage scoping out bank customers withdrawing large sums of money.

The crime group's ruse is simple but effective: one gang member slashes a car tyre of the targeted bank customer, another pretends to offer help with the flat, and yet another steals the recently withdrawn cash and flees undetected while the victim is distracted.

The crew may also spray an oil-based or foul-smelling substance like faeces on a customer while another member alerts them to the stain as a distraction for an easier theft.

Police say the crew is then likely flying out of the country with the stolen cash.

The ongoing scheme has prompted police to urge bank customers to use electronic fund transfers or bank cheques instead of cash.

Past victims are also warning others to be aware of such robbery distraction techniques.

"They are very well organised, these guys," said Melbourne business owner John, who lost tens of thousands in an August robbery.

"I realised they had been watching me for a long time."

The group was uncovered earlier this year when the Monash Criminal Investigation Unit began investigating a series of suburban robberies in Melbourne's southeast.

Police began comparing files in other jurisdictions after discovering links with the area's unsolved thefts.

Three thefts in Sydney this year have now been linked to the same group.

Monash Detective Sergeant Nathan Kaeser said links may have gone unnoticed because of how individual robberies were classified.

"When people are reporting this matter it gets reported under different umbrellas of crime - it could be theft against the person, it could be theft from the motor car," he said.

But police across the country are now aware of the group, and Interpol has been notified.

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