Organised crime crackdown also includes new NSW strike team as part of national anti-gangs squad

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Laws mandating five-year minimum sentences for convicted firearms importers will be introduced as part of a national police crackdown on organised crime.

Federal justice minister Michael Keenan said on Friday that the proposed laws would "send the strongest possible message that [authorities] will not tolerate gun crime”.

A NSW strike team, comprising two NSW police officers, three from the Australian federal police (AFP), an Australian Tax Office (ATO) investigator, an AFP assistant and an analyst, has also been announced as part of the $64m national anti-gangs squad. The NSW strike team begins work on Monday.

At a joint NSW/Commonwealth announcement on Friday, the AFP commissioner, Tony Negus, said a national approach would stop gangs exploiting the lack of co-operation between jurisdictions.

"Crime does not stop at the [state] border," he said.

The NSW strike team will work with the state's gang squad and liaise with similar groups in Victoria and Queensland. They will have access to intelligence from the ATO, Centrelink, Customs, AFP and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

The "unexplained wealth" of those involved in organised crime would be targeted by the team, NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione said.

"For us to attack them, to actually take them on, we need to go after the money," Scipione told reporters in Sydney. "It's not until we do that that we will start to make a really big hit.

"This is about getting the choker hold on organised crime."

The NSW police commissioner also called for national anti-gang laws.

"The reality is, if we want to go the full nine yards with organised crime we need to go as a nation, one team, and in doing that we would need national legislation," Scipione said.

Keenan said the government was "looking at a whole range of things ... about what else the Commonwealth can do to help this national effort”.