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- [00:00]
A
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 Mallet. 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, this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.
- [00:43]
B
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. And I think we're kind of seeing a bit more of that now. We're seeing serious organized criminals. But what they doing is actually engaging, recruiting young people, particularly online. And they are recruiting them, paying them a few hundred dollars to undertake these, you know, firebombings, attempted, 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. And they. 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 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. Cause 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.
- [02:10]
A
I'm gonna 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?
- [02:28]
B
They are. And it's almost kind of like it's been described as almost like an air tasker. And I'm not suggesting they're being recruited on Airtasker, but they are being recruited on other similar apps. So that could be Signal or even Roblox which is a gaming app, you know. 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 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 or 20,000 for more serious crimes. But the ones the kids are doing, like literally 13, 14, 15 year old kids, few hundred dollars to firebomb a tobacconist or, or a nightclub or, or wherever. We don't know whether it's an international group because obviously these jobs can be posted anywhere. Crime is international. Drugs, guns, like all these trades, it's alcohol, tobacco, they're all international. So all these networks are working in different places in the world. You know, it's been suggested to me that this could be a Russian group that are doing this. Is it Russian? Is it. I don't know, it could be anyone. Right. Because it's all anonymous.
- [03:55]
A
I'm fascinated by the Iraqi connection. We. There was a young man, an Australian man, 23 year old, who was based in Iraq. Kazem Hamad. He was allegedly directing a lot of the violence around the tobacco industry. He was arrested in Iraq in January 2026 by the Australian Federal Police and Iraqi authorities.
- [04:16]
B
That's interesting that we managed to get an arrest warrant in Iraq. Yes, but what happens with these gangs though? The problem is if one person is arrested or one piece is taken out of play, as it were, then that void is filled pretty quick. So you know, these gangs are not going away.
- [04:34]
A
Well, it's interesting timing when you look at that. I guess if he was arrested in January, these firebombings have really ramped up since then.
- [04:42]
B
Yeah, absolutely. We've seen something like over the last two, three weeks we've seen at least 15 that have been all connected to this, all the hospitality and it seems to be around that illicit alcohol trade.
- [04:55]
A
Yeah. Right.
- [04:56]
B
And so, yes, somebody has stepped into that void and is really up to the ante in the large.
- [05:02]
A
Okay, so this is about. I hadn't even joined the dots on the alcohol. I couldn't figure out what was going on. But that makes sense because we know that the tobacco war was about importing cigarettes from overseas. Cheap cigarettes, selling them cheaply. I've told you before, every mum I know smokes these illegal cigarettes. A lot of Australians just don't see the problem with it. All they see is that the Australian tobacco has a tax on it that makes it 50 bucks a packet. And these ones are feeding, which I get.
- [05:30]
B
Right, but they're feeding organised crime. Yeah, they're like. And these the same people who are involved in people smuggling and sex trafficking and all these other things that we would go, oh, that's awful.
- [05:43]
A
Yeah, I don't want to support that.
- [05:45]
B
But no, oh my God, we wouldn't support that. But I'll go and buy my, my cheap, cheap cigarettes with. I don't want to pay 50 bucks pack.
- [05:52]
A
Right.
- [05:52]
B
Which, yeah, okay, but you're actually giving this money to these organized criminals, just like when you buy illicit alcohol. But so it feels like it's only one person doing something a bit naughty. But actually the people engaging with black market goods are feeding this industry and causing this harm. If there was no money in it, these criminals wouldn't be doing it. But I totally get why those little acts that look like more like you're being a little bit deviant rather than breaking the law, you know, and it
- [06:24]
A
feels like you're, you're against the government. It feels like you're, you're sticking it
- [06:27]
B
up, you're being a bit naughty because you're not doing what you're told by over overreach of the government. Right. That's how it feels. Whereas actually by buying them, you're feeding those underground trades which leads to real serious harm. You know, every, every one of our neighborhoods, there'll be people who've been sex trafficked or being used as, you know, free labor in homes. So if you just look around, like, you won't see it because it's very covert, but it's there. It's the same people.
- [07:00]
A
What about this message, this WhatsApp message that's apparently gone around to businesses in Melbourne. It says hello, if you. Very nice, Stark.
- [07:07]
B
That's nice.
- [07:08]
A
Hello, that's lovely.
- [07:09]
B
Was there a comma after it?
- [07:10]
A
Was it well punctuated no, the punctuation's terrible. But anyway, it says, hello, if you got this message, we are after you, your family, your business, homes and souls.
- [07:21]
B
Wow.
- [07:22]
A
We will take it by force. If you don't comply, the police can't help you. It's inevitable. We won't stop till we get what we want. Now, this message arrived in the whatsapps of business owners, bar owners around town. There's obviously confusion about whether it's real, is this a copycat group, but also
- [07:42]
B
it doesn't even say what they want. And that's been something that's been a question over all of these bombings. No demands have actually been made. So I did wonder whether they don't actually necessarily want anything from these specific businesses. It's not about we want a ransom from you particularly. It's just about putting the fear of God in all of these hospitality businesses so that when somebody does come knocking on your door and say, you know, we want some money, sell these products, you're not going to say no, because it's like, look what happened to your competitor down the street. We firebombed them three times in two weeks. So it's a warning. Is this a warning that these demands are coming?
- [08:24]
A
Yeah. Preparing people, I guess. And to me, it's terrorism. Isn't it the point?
- [08:28]
B
It absolutely is terrorism.
- [08:29]
A
The point of terrorism is that one attack over here actually terrifies everybody.
- [08:35]
B
And that's the point. Right. You can harm a small group of people, but do it in such a way that you cause fear amongst a whole city. So there's this whole scary online world, and our young people are caught up in it in a myriad of ways. And some of those ways are criminal. And I don't want to scare all the parents out there, but some of those ways are criminal, and these kids are committing serious acts of harm against themselves, against other people, and they will be the ones held to account when actually we need to be finding out who's organizing it, who's orchestrating it, who's generating these activities.
- [09:14]
A
I think we do need to scare parents because I think there's too much.
- [09:18]
B
I think we need to scare the kids, too, like. Absolutely.
- [09:21]
A
Because the messaging is too skewed in the direction of. As I said, it's Sudanese gangs. It's like a certain kind of kid. And I think it's important that we say, no, it's not about that.
- [09:33]
B
It's not a lot of the kids who are committing these criminal acts, like, as part of these gang, you know, these firebombings they're vulnerable kids too. So they're the ones who may be not in school, they may have already had contact with the police, they may be in out of home care. So they're the ones who already don't have adults who are there protecting them, intervening. You know, they're already vulnerable so they are easier to target and coerce into these activities. And I don't think the ban on under 16s on social media has really helped. They found a way around it. Platforms aren't necessarily being particularly supportive of that ban. So I think there are some things that we can do to help help kind of drive kids away from these activities. I think education, we need to educate them and the parents. But an education campaign needs to be from the other young people. Yeah, maybe young people have been caught up in this. Like we can sit here and we can talk to young people till we're blue in the flea site and a 16, 17 year old is going to look at me and think I'm super uncool, although I like to think I'm cool.
- [10:34]
A
Same.
- [10:35]
B
But you know, kids look at us and go, what do they know? Right? Yeah, but another 17 year old who's, who's maybe been to juvenile detention or who was harmed in a firebombing or something, they can reach them on a different level. But also I think we need to take away the rewards generally on these platforms, the likes, the posts, the boasting, the algorithmic upscaling of, of harmful content. If we take away the reward element, kids aren't going to want to do it.
- [11:05]
A
Imagine if you killed somebody. Imagine, you know, you're a 12, 13 year old kid, you've been offered $200.
- [11:12]
B
Horrendous. I know, horrendous.
- [11:14]
A
And so easily can happen in this
- [11:16]
B
scenario because these hospitality venues are well populated, they're in, you know, busy areas. Somebody's going to die soon.
- [11:24]
A
Yeah, absolutely.
- [11:25]
B
And the police absolutely know that. And they're doing everything they can to kind of try and get a handle on this. But we've seen it before. It's very difficult with these online organized networks who are anonymous and organizing. Yeah, it's really hard. 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.
- [11:51]
A
If you need support after listening to this podcast, you can call Lifeline on 131114 or contact 1-800-Respect on 1-800-737-732 or 1-800respect.org au Indigenous Australians can contact 13Yarn on 139276 or 13yarn.org au.
- [12:22]
C
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.