By Alasdair Pal
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A fake plan to attack on a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives was fabricated by an organised crime network in order to divert police resources, Australian police said on Monday.
Authorities in January found explosives in a caravan, or trailer, that could have created a blast wave of 40 metres (130 feet), along with the address of a Sydney synagogue.
But police on Monday said the discovery was part of a “criminal con job”, with the ease with which the caravan was found along with the lack of a detonator suggesting there was never any intent to attack Jewish targets.
“The caravan was never going to cause a mass casualty event but instead was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit,” Krissy Barrett, the Australian Federal Police’s Deputy Commissioner for National Security, told a news conference.
“Almost immediately, experienced investigators… believed that the caravan was part of a fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job.”
Police are yet to make any arrests in relation to the planning of the fabricated plot, but have gone public with the information in order to provide comfort to the Jewish community in Sydney, Dave Hudson, New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner, told the news conference.
“It was about causing chaos within the community, causing threat, causing angst, diverting police resources away from their day jobs, to have them focus on matters that would allow them to get up to or engage in other criminal activity,” Hudson said.
Police are investigating a suspect involved in an organised crime network, he added.
Australia has suffered a spate of antisemitic attacks in recent months, with homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles targeted by vandalism and arson, drawing the ire of the country’s traditional ally Israel.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry)
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