{"id":314,"date":"2026-04-28T15:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/314\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T15:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:40:19","slug":"new-police-operation-investigating-crime-syndicates-pulling-the-strings-in-melbourne-firebombings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/314\/","title":{"rendered":"New police operation investigating crime syndicates ‘pulling the strings’ in Melbourne firebombings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police are investigating whether recent firebombings across Melbourne are linked to organised crime groups.<\/p>\n

A new specialist police operation has been established to target organised crime syndicates believed to be involved in recent incidents, including arson attacks, at numerous Melbourne hospitality venues.<\/p>\n

Detective Superintendent Jason Kelly said the operation will focus on “those who are pulling the strings” behind the “extremely concerning” attacks.<\/p>\n

“Predominantly, this has involved arson attacks; however, we are also seeing instances where a firearm has been discharged, or people have been kidnapped,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The potential for death is real here and for that reason we’ve established Operation Eclipse.”\"Detective<\/p>\n

Detective Superintendent Jason Kelly says police are taking recent arson attacks seriously. (ABC News: Natasha Schapova)<\/p>\n

Police said 15 incidents from the past two weeks were likely linked.<\/p>\n

The majority of the attacks occurred across the CBD, South Melbourne and Prahran entertainment precincts, with restaurants and bars the main targets in the arson attacks.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Kelly said some of these venues have been “hit multiple times”.<\/p>\n

A factory that distils alcohol in Keysborough was also found alight on April 23.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

Firefighters attending a venue fire on Chapel Street earlier in the month. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Twelve people have already been arrested over some of the attacks.<\/p>\n

“We can say the majority of them are young people, street gang members and the like,” Superintendent Kelly said.<\/p>\n

“They have been tasked through encrypted apps and the like.”<\/p>\n

He said some of the offenders have been paid “as low as $500 to $1,000 but up to even as high as $20,000” to carry out an arson attack.<\/p>\n

Drug dealing and the illegal alcohol trade are among the possible motives that police are investigating.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Bar Bambi had its windows smashed and was set alight. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca)<\/p>\n

Police said they were also looking into several incidents of people acting suspiciously while filling up jerry cans at service stations.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Kelly said the recent incidents were similar to fire attacks seen during the illegal tobacco wars.<\/p>\n

“This is a methodology we have seen play out previously, especially with regards to the illicit tobacco conflict,” he said.<\/p>\n

“One thing we didn’t see with the illicit tobacco market that we are seeing here is the CBD being subject to arson attacks. So, it is very concerning.<\/p>\n

“People need to be alert to their surroundings.”<\/p>\n

Police want to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the incidents or those who have any relevant information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are investigating whether recent firebombings across Melbourne are linked to organised crime groups. A new specialist police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[847,22,21,844,311,845,846,843,849,848],"class_list":{"0":"post-314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-arson-attacks","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-austrlia","11":"tag-fire","12":"tag-hospitality","13":"tag-hospo-venues","14":"tag-kidnapping","15":"tag-melbourne-firebombing","16":"tag-organised-crime","17":"tag-restaurant-fire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}