North West Metro Region Commander Tim Hansen said those arrested on Monday as part of Operation Liege were "the most active and dangerous offenders we have". Operation Liege was launched about four months ago to share intelligence across Victoria Police regions to identify a priority list of offenders. Police arrest an alleged offender in Cranbourne West as part of Operation Liege. Credit:Victoria Police "What we have seen in the last six months is the new crime type, where simultaneously networked groups of youth are concurrently hitting houses, hitting retail premises and committing crimes of harm," Mr Hansen said. "Our structures were set up to be responsive to our regional borders – what we've done is we've broken down those structures and put a new level of co-ordination, from information sharing to specialists responsiveness."

Loading Police have identified hundreds of youths, predominantly male, who they say are committing serious violent crimes. Many of those are seeking notoriety and want to be lauded for their action, Mr Hansen said. "We're seeing an increased trajectory in the offending, so we're seeing offenders entering the criminal justice system for the first time but they're entering in a really violent way," Mr Hansen said. "We do see a large element of this offending cohort that are recidivist or repeat offenders." The youths, most aged between 15 and 23, were "very well networked" on social media and generally planned to strike to cause the most harm they could, police allege.

Mr Hansen said those arrested had little fear of authority and the criminal justice system, with many "thumbing their nose en masse" to their bail conditions of curfew. "So we find ourselves running around metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria checking on curfews," he said. Monday's raids were carried out to send a message to the public that police were "now drawing a line in the sand" and to the offenders that they had "grabbed the attention" of law enforcement, Mr Hansen said. Similar raids could happen before Christmas, while individual arrests will occur over coming days.

"If we didn't arrest you yesterday that doesn't mean you're not on our list," Mr Hansen said. "It doesn't mean we're not watching you or targeting you. If you continue to commit serious crimes of harm, we will come, we will find you and we will be breathing down your neck. Police arrest an alleged offender in Cheltenham. Fifty-seven young people were arrested across the state. Credit:Victoria Police "You're on our radar and your day in court will come." One of the teenagers arrested on Monday was a 19-year-old Truganina, who was allegedly involved in a home invasion in Melbourne's western suburbs in July and the swarming of a petrol station in Richmond in August.

He was remanded in custody to appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court later this week. A 19-year-old Cheltenham man was also arrested on Monday in relation to armed robbery offences, and released pending further inquiries. Those who receive and dispose of stolen goods have been put on notice, with Mr Hansen saying they were also on the radar of police as part of Operation Liege. The youths arrested on Monday were of Asian, African, Caucasian and Pacific Islander appearance.

Clarification: An original version of the story stated that 40 young people had been arrested. Police revised that figure later on Tuesday morning.