Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Australian True Crime with Michelle Laurie and this week we have an old friend on the show. She's the artist formerly known as Xanthi Mallett but she's gotten married so she's now known as Dr Xanthi Weston and she is a criminologist. Of course she teaches criminology at university. Xanthi's joining us to talk about the hospitality wars that are gripping Melbourne.
We want to know why nightclubs and even brothels are being firebombed. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. Xanthe, can you please tell us what the hell is going on in Melbourne? Why are nightclubs and bars being firebombed?
Does it have anything to do with the last firebombing scenarios we had in tobacco shops? And also on a personal note, the ice cream shop not far from my house in Williamstown keeps being- It keeps being firebombed. What's going on with these so-called hospitality attacks in Melbourne?
So great question. You know, it's almost like we've reverted back to like the 1920s, isn't it? You know, and you've got like the gangsters taking over the cities.
Chapter 2: What are the 'hospitality wars' causing firebombings in Melbourne?
I think we're kind of seeing a bit more of that now. We're seeing serious organized criminals But what they're doing is actually engaging, recruiting young people, particularly online, and they are recruiting them, paying them a few hundred dollars to undertake these, as you say, you know, firebombings, attempted kidnappings, aggravated break and enters, all targeting these hospitality venues.
And I do think it's a continuation of what we saw with the tobacco wars, as they've been dubbed.
Chapter 3: Why are nightclubs and brothels targeted in Melbourne?
And it is a war. There is a war on the streets. when we saw firebombings of tobacconists over and over again, the same businesses being targeted. Now, the purpose there was to get those, you know, to take control of the illicit tobacco trade. It's so lucrative, and the more expensive things get, the more lucrative it gets for the underground trade, right?
So all of the things that we purchase in the normal world, in the black market world, all the same things are available, alcohol, drugs, you know, everything, right? So I think we've seen an expansion of that. Alcohol is super expensive. It has a huge markup revenue-wise for organized criminals, so of course they're in that market.
But we have seen a shift in the way they're actually undertaking this war, and it's these kids, literally kids, who are taking on these jobs, doing these firebombings, and doing a bad job of it, because they don't know what they're doing, they're amateurs, putting people at risk, putting themselves at risk. And we're just seeing an escalation of that. So it's all tied together.
Yes, is the long, short answer.
I'm going to tie in the stories about youth gangs as well, because oftentimes this is reflected as, you know, our teenagers are wild. There's gangs on the streets. Sometimes there's racial connotations. There'll be like Sudanese gangs or something. But actually, these are young people who are being recruited by proper criminals, aren't they?
They are, and it's almost kind of like it's been described as almost like an Air Tasker. So I'm not suggesting they're being recruited on Air Tasker, but they are being recruited on other similar apps. So that could be Signal or even Roblox, which is a gaming app. And they're literally posting jobs for them to do.
The jobs are being posted anonymously, but often they also want video evidence of the job being done. So there's that post and boast thing because the kids get some cred from, oh, I just did a firebombing amongst their peers. You know, they don't really understand the implications. And a lot of them want to get involved in these gangs because they see the lucrative nature.
You know, they're getting rewarded. Key element of this is reward. So they're posting their videos of their successes, and we're literally talking like $500,000, up to, say, $10,000 or $20,000 for more serious crimes. But the ones the kids are doing, like literally 13-, 14-, 15-year-old kids, a few hundred dollars to firebomb a tobacconist or a nightclub or wherever.
$200 is a lot of money still for a 13-year-old.
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Chapter 4: How are youth gangs involved in the firebombings?
You're being a bit naughty because you're not doing what you're told by... overreach of the government. That's how it feels. Whereas actually by buying them, you're feeding those underground trades, which leads to real serious harm. Every one of our neighbourhoods, there'll be people who've been sex trafficked or being used as free labour in homes.
So if you just look around, you won't see it because it's very covert, but it's there. It's the same people trading in humans as alcohol, as drugs, as cigarettes.
Every now and then we do a story breaks through. You know, in Australia recently we had a story of a couple who were prosecuted because they had a maid in their home who they didn't pay and they didn't always feed. Who was a slave.
We're talking slave labor, literally slave labor. Same people. Do you want to fund them is the question you need to ask yourself when you're buying your cigarettes. And I would also add smoking is really bad for you.
Well, this is it. This is why the government, you know, raised the taxes to try and keep us alive, theoretically. Also, they love big tax. But I guess they never realised that.
I think it's also that.
Yeah. I guess they never realised that somebody would slip in and take advantage of that space in between. But then again, as I said, they should have realised this historically happens. Of course they were going to.
Yeah. Yeah. We've got, yeah, history shows us that when things get too expensive, especially we're in a cost of living crisis now, we've seen, you know, the interest rate go up again, just, you know, very recently. People are struggling. People are hurting. And so, yeah, if they can get their cigarettes for, I don't know, $20 a packet, $25 a packet, they're going to do it, right? $13, Xanthe.
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Chapter 5: What role do online platforms play in recruiting young criminals?
$13. $13. $13.
Massive difference.
Massive difference. Well, that's what it is in my neighborhood anyway. What do you make of this fellow who, again, we don't know what anyone's done, but he's alleged to have been running a criminal organization from Iraq, 23 years old. Again, to me, that's not what we imagine. That's not the kind of person.
These entrepreneurs, these young entrepreneurs doing it.
Yeah. Where does that come from, do you think? I mean, you're our data person.
Well, look, you know, young people are getting more and more involved online. He's probably, allegedly, possibly got connections. He's learned to do this, you know, en masse. We're seeing things, more and more crime being conducted online.
And when you can do it from your computer and you can organize a firebombing via, you know, signal and it's all encrypted and it's hard for that to come back and bite you because it's so anonymous. And it's an easy way to make money. If you've got the connections to bring the goods in, yeah, these young people are very motivated to make a good living at this.
Well, aren't we all? We're all looking for an easy buck, aren't we? We're all looking for a way to make a lot of money easily. It seems like there are ways to do that now. What about this message, this WhatsApp message that's apparently gone around to businesses in Melbourne? It says, hello. Very nice start. That's nice.
That's lovely. Was there a comma after it? Was it well punctuated?
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Chapter 6: How does the illicit tobacco trade relate to the firebombings?
The police are up against it. So, yeah, we have to take away that reward system. And I think the online platforms have got a huge part to play in this.
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The producers of this podcast recognise the traditional owners of the land on which it's recorded. They pay respect to the Aboriginal elders past, present and those emerging.