New South Wales is all set to have a special police strike force to investigate the Sydney shootings and find underworld connections simultaneously.
Force Osprey will be assigned the task of investigating all the shooting incidents that took place in Sydney over a period of 17 months. The plans have taken a final turn only after the reports of Sydney shooting of underworld member Pasquale Barbaro, who was shot to death this week outside his property in the inner southwest of the city.
Starting from June 2015 to the last shooting instance, the strike force will look into each and every matter and examine if underworld links led to the shootings. NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione announced the setting up of Osprey on Thursday afternoon. He added that the investigators from the State Crime Command will comprise the task force and will be headed by the Homicide Squad.
State Crime Command’s Head Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins considered the cases that took place during the given period and said that the eight victims who have been targeted in the Sydney shooting had been found to have underworld links and that all of them were related in some way. The serial investigations would help the detectives examine all the points and detect the minute details that might have been left out.
Acting Deputy Commissioner Frank Mennilli confirmed that the State Crime Command Homicide Squad will look into the Sydney shooting incidents under one umbrella. “The reason that’s been is because they’re targeted attacks. We’re dealing with individuals involved in criminal enterprises and there are a number of links between each of these individuals,” The ABC quoted him as saying.
“We wanted to make sure we maximized our resources and maximized our intelligence and ensure there is no duplication of investigations.”
List of Sydney shootings to be investigated by the NSW Police Strike Force:
Mark Easter – June 2015
Michael Davey – March 2016
Safwan Charbaji – April 2016
Wally Ahmad – April 2016
Adrian Buxton – May 2016
Mehmet Wylmaz – September 2016
Hamad Assad – October 2016
Pasquale Barbaro – November 2016
Online Source: Aussie Network News.
