The increase use of encrypted mobile phones among Sydney bikie gang members is hindering police from solving serious crime
The increase use of encrypted mobile phones among Sydney bikie gang members is hindering police from solving serious crime.
These uncrackable communication devices are being used to organise shootings, murders and drug deals, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
And the latest NSW Crime Commission report states that these phones have already blocked investigations into at least two murders.
The increase use of encrypted mobile phones among Sydney bikie gang members is hindering police from solving serious crime
One of the obstructed Sydney murder investigations is understood to be the 2013 shooting death of Tyrone Slemnik who was a Hells Angel member, the Herald reports.
In the latest NSW Crime Commission annual report, it stated that since about 2011 there has been a 'steady increase in the use of encrypted communication methods'.
Such telecommunications services include Phantom Secure Blackberry devices and free downloadable applications for smart phones.
'The Commission is not aware of any legitimate enterprise in Australia that is using Phantom Secure Blackberry devices and believes that the use of these devices is solely confined to criminal groups.,' the report, released last year, stated.
'In addition to facilitating drug trafficking and fraud, the Commission is aware that encrypted BlackBerry devices have been used to arrange at least two murders. In these cases, the devices were used to lure victims to meetings where they were killed. The level of encryption on these devices has hampered investigation into the murders.'
These uncrackable communication devices are reportedly being used by bikies to organise shootings, murders and drug deals
This comes months after Daily Mail Australia revealed another way in which bikies were getting around the law by finding ways to muscle in on the steroid market estimated at one billion dollars.
It was reported that outlaw motorcycle gangs tried to smuggle steroids into the country by placing the substances inside sex aid packaging labelled as 'gay lube oil'.
Steroid oil in sex lube vials, powders inside green tea packets and ephedrine packed in facial creams, are just some of the methods being used to avoid being caught.
With criminal syndicates having had their supply of amphetamines and cocaine severely affected by a record number of busts, they have increasingly focused on the body-building market and are being supplied by underworld gangs in south-east Asia and the Americas.
In March, it was revealed that outlaw motorcycle gangs tried to smuggle steroids into the country by placing the substances inside sex aid packaging labelled as 'gay lube oil'
'They are getting amongst it more and more, it's a different market for them and we are regularly staging operations targeting them and steroids,' revealed Detective Superintendent Mick Niland, the head of Queensland's Taskforce Maxima.
'They try many different ways to avoid detection, that's for sure.'
This is due to an increasing demand for the illegal performance enhancing substances, one which continues to grow every year.
Taskforce Maxima, which commenced in October of 2013, initially found 'just small quantities of steroids within the gangs'.
'Since then it has grown, both the local production and trafficking of steroids,' Dept Supt Niland said.