Police believe caravan plot linked to ‘orchestrated’ antisemitic attacks as ‘puppet masters’ pull strings

Farrugia last month posted on TikTok in an attempt to buy a caravan and had previously sought to source jerry cans on Facebook.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson said police had not identified any “specific ideology that would cause them to commit the acts that they’ve committed, and that indicates to us that they are being orchestrated in some manner”.

“We have identified links between certain jobs, which gives us some indication there is a level of co-ordination above those perpetrating the offences,” he told reporters.

The owner of the caravan is in police custody but has not been charged in relation to the explosives. The man was already in custody in relation to other offences when police were alerted to the caravan.

“We have time because he is currently in custody to prepare other evidence against him in relation to what we’re currently investigating,” Hudson said.

Police said on Thursday they had raided several properties over the discovery of the caravan which, alongside the explosives, contained a list of possible targets including a synagogue.

Hudson, Police Commissioner Karen Webb and NSW Premier Chris Minns on Thursday again defended the decision to keep the public in the dark about the investigation, which Webb said had been “compromised” by the leaking of details to the media.

“The fact that this information is now in the public domain has compromised our investigation, and it’s been detrimental to some of the strategies we may have used,” Webb said. She claimed the threat to the public had been “mitigated very early on”.

Both NSW Police and the state government have come under fire for the decision to not alert the public or potential targets, with Jewish leaders unaware of the possible threat to the community until Wednesday afternoon.

“The feelings in the Jewish community are not only one of understandable concern and anxiety because of the repeated nature of these attacks, but increasingly one of anger,” Wertheim said.

“We need more action. We need firmer action. But above all, we need a change of attitude within the institutions of our society from which these hate ideologies have found a home, this witch’s brew of extremism, whether it’s at the political right or of the left or of a religious source.

“We need a change of attitude by our universities. We need a change of attitude by our writers’ festivals, our arts and culture centres, by social media platforms in fostering these hateful ideologies which result in violent actions in the name of freedom of expression.”

Hours earlier, police launched an investigation into three separate antisemitic incidents that occurred overnight on Wednesday.

Antisemitic slurs were painted on the wall of Jewish school Mount Sinai College at Maroubra, while a nearby home was targeted with similar graffiti.

“It tells you everything you need to know about how appalling these bastards are that they would rip apart a school on one of the first days of school with a racist, antisemitic attack,” Minns said, labelling the graffiti “shameful”.

Last week, federal police said they were examining whether malicious foreign actors were paying local criminals to carry out antisemitic acts in Sydney.

However, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said the national threat level would remain at “probable”, rather than being elevated to “expected”, noting the current level is the same as at the height of the Islamic State caliphate.

“While the caravan matter in NSW remains under police investigation, ASIO does not believe there is an ongoing threat to public safety,” he said.

“We have seen a disturbing escalation in the targeting of Jewish interests and a disturbing escalation in the severity and recklessness of the targeting, with general harassment and intimidation moving to the targeting of people and places.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese branded the perpetrators of antisemitic attacks “cowards” who would be “hunted down and locked up” as he defended his government’s handling of the matter.

“There’s zero tolerance in Australia for hatred and for antisemitism, and I want any perpetrators to be hunted down and locked up – it’s as simple as that,” Albanese said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the caravan discovery was “intolerable” and declared that an “epidemic of antisemitism is spreading in Australia almost unchecked”.

“This joins a long list of antisemitic attacks in Australia, including setting fire to a childcare centre in Sydney, firebombing a synagogue in Melbourne, and many other antisemitic attacks,” Sa’ar said in a post on X.

“We expect the Australian government to do more to stop this disease!”

Albanese has faced calls from the Coalition to reveal when he was briefed on the caravan investigation, and why details of the suspected terror plot were not made public.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser – whose electorate includes Dural – called for Minns and Albanese to provide more detail on the investigation.

“I think that the police need to allow the community to find out about these investigations at the earliest possible occasion and that’s a matter for judgment for the police and ultimately a responsibility of the premier,” he said.

With Max Maddison, Jessica McSweeney and Christopher Harris

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