Arrests thwart ‘chilling’ attacks

THREE men have been charged with terrorism offences over a “chilling” ISIS-inspired Melbourne plot that allegedly aimed to kill as many people as possible using at least one semiautomatic rifle.

Two brothers – a 30-yearold from Dallas and a 26year-old from Campbellfield – and a 21-year-old man from Greenvale were arrested during dawn raids at their homes in the city’s northwest yesterday involving more than 200 police.

The men faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday where it was heard police needed to analyse 17,000 intercepted phone calls and 10,500 text messages in order to prepare a brief.

The intercepted phone calls and text messages would run to 325 days if played continuously.

The trio are each charged with one count of acting in preparation for, or planning of terrorist acts.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said the trio had been under investigation since March and become “more energised” in the past week.

“We didn’t have a precise time and a precise location,” Mr Ashton said of the planned attack.

“They were looking at a place of mass gathering. There was a view towards a crowded place, a place where maximum people would be attending, to be able, to kill, we allege, a maximum amount of people as possible.

“I believe, over more recent days, attempts have been made to source a 0.22 semi-automatic rifle to assist with the carrying out of that terrorism event.”

It is also believed radicalisation of the men was quick and involved watching two preachers online.

Mr Ashton said the accused were using encrypted communications and police acted when they had gathered enough evidence.

All three are Australians of Turkish background and had their passports cancelled in January, March and October. Two have no criminal history, while the third was picked up in 2007 for failing to display L plates.

Authorities said the men were influenced by ISIS to carry out the plot. AFP Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney said the arrests were “an excellent result”.

“If we had not acted early in preventing this attack, we will allege the consequences would have been chilling with the potential, as the Commissioner stated, the potential for significant potential loss of life,” he said.

The properties were raided under a joint counter-terrorism operation involving Victorian and Australian Federal Police and ASIO.