Seb Costello

Yeah, I think it first happened with the Love Machine, which is a fairly notorious nightclub in the Paran area.

That was completely gutted by arsonists towards the end of March.

Love Machine has ended in flames.

But when that happened, you know, Love Machine had attracted a lot of attention.

There'd been a fatal shooting there pre-COVID.

Somebody had been jailed for that.

You know, it was...

understood to be a fairly hot drug market for police looking at that very closely.

But over the course of April and into May, we basically had some sort of attack every night, be it an arson or an attempted kidnapping or a bashing.

You know, by the time there are at least a dozen attacks on bars and clubs, that's when the police started to link these.

But what was clearly common between the different attacks was the way they were being carried out.

So it was often, you know, in the early hours of the morning when the venues were empty, it was by young people.

And, you know, it was generally the same sort of MO, smash open the front door, carry a jerry can, splash that around and light it on fire.

It took probably three weeks before Victoria Police formally put together their Operation Eclipse task force, but it was pretty clear by the way these attacks were being carried out that there was some similarities.

What we now know is that there is encrypted apps that I guess crime lords, if you like, are using to try and recruit teenagers to actually do their dirty work.

So, you know, the teenagers are sort of told, you know, you'll be treated with lightly in the justice system.

It's your first offence.

You'll probably not really face any real penalty.

And they lure them in with those promises as well as the offer of cash and sometimes drugs.

And so once they've got these teenagers on the hook, they give them the instruction, we want a firebombing done at this venue.