{"id":67450,"date":"2026-08-08T00:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/67450\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:23:08","slug":"melbourne-teen-charged-amid-call-the-commission-notes-arson-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/67450\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne teen charged amid ‘call the Commission’ notes, arson investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A teenager has been charged amid an ongoing investigation into notes left on shopfronts across Melbourne telling the owners to “call the Commission” before alleged arson attacks.<\/p>\n

Police believe the 17-year-old may be involved in completing criminal tasks on behalf of an offshore crime syndicate.<\/p>\n

Police said investigators have linked 19 handwritten or typed notes found in various locations across Melbourne and regional Victoria, instructing shop owners to contact a suspected organised crime group known as “the Commission”.<\/p>\n

In early July, shopfronts on Victoria Street in Richmond were damaged in a suspected arson attack<\/a> mere days after a note was found on the front of a local tobacco store instructing the owners to contact “the Commission”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

This note asking a business owner to contact a suspected organised crime group was posted on the door of a Richmond business in the days before a fire in early July. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Yesterday, police conducted a search of a 17-year-old boy’s home home in the Moonee Valley area as part of an investigation into these incidents.<\/p>\n

They seized eight mobile phones and a large number of SIM cards.<\/p>\n

The boy has since been charged with trafficking and possessing drugs including cocaine, amphetamine and ketamine, as well as possessing counterfeit money and failing to provide information or assistance to police.<\/p>\n

He is due to face the children’s court at a later date.<\/p>\n

Investigation into arson attacks expands<\/p>\n

Police established Operation Eclipse in April<\/a> to investigate the suspected organised crime syndicate responsible for arson attacks on nightclubs, bars and restaurants across Melbourne, as well as people associated with those businesses.<\/p>\n

The operation has expanded to examine other acts of violence directed by this syndicate, which police believe have been undertaken to extort other businesses and control the illicit drug and tobacco markets.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

Today’s fire is the fourth arson attack in Richmond in just over a month. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Graham Banks said police were trying to target “every level of the syndicate”.<\/p>\n

“We are quite often arresting youths who were not previously known to police and who have had no prior police contact,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Lured by the prospect of what they are told is some easy cash and anonymity behind encrypted devices, young people are committing serious criminal offences which have grave or life-changing ramifications.”<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Banks said the outcomes could be devastating for the wider community and the alleged offenders’ families.<\/p>\n

“This is not easy cash \u2014 these threats are playing with people’s livelihoods and their own sense of safety and it will not be tolerated,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teenager has been charged amid an ongoing investigation into notes left on shopfronts across Melbourne telling the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[847,1692,86256,4116,1560,86255,260,53074,86254,86257],"class_list":["post-67450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-arson-attacks","tag-blaze","tag-call-the-commission","tag-crime-syndicate","tag-firebombing","tag-firebombs","tag-melbourne","tag-notes","tag-offshore-crime","tag-teen-charged"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67450","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=67450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}