Image: NSW Police highway patrol vehicle. Photo by zombieite via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Fifth man charged over Mt Pritchard ransom kidnapping
A fifth person has been dragged before the courts over the alleged snatch of a man outside a western Sydney tobacconist, after detectives arrested a 29-year-old at Villawood on Friday morning.
NSW Police say the case goes back to the ugly start of a Tuesday morning in February. About 6.15am on February 24, a 53-year-old man was outside a tobacconist on Meadows Road at Mt Pritchard when four masked men allegedly moved in, assaulted him, and forced him into a Hyundai hatchback.
That is the kind of allegation that changes the temperature of a neighbourhood fast. Not a late-night scuffle. Not a quiet theft. A man taken off the street in daylight, allegedly by a group wearing balaclavas, with ransom now part of the charge sheet.
Police launched Strike Force Martinook under the State Crime Command’s Robbery and Serious Crime Squad. Two days after the alleged abduction, detectives and the Tactical Operations Unit went to a property in Dural, where police say they recovered the 53-year-old man alive.
A teenager and three men had already been charged and remain before the courts. The new arrest came after what police described as further inquiries, with detectives taking the 29-year-old man into custody at a home on Goonaroi Street, Villawood, about 9.30am on Friday, June 12.
He was taken to Bankstown Police Station and charged with taking or detaining a person in company with intent to ransom occasioning actual bodily harm, destroying property in company by fire worth more than $5,000, and participating in a criminal group contributing to criminal activity.
Police will allege the man helped store and destroy a vehicle used in the kidnapping. He was refused bail and was due to face Bail Division Local Court 7 on Saturday, June 13.
The latest charge matters because it shows detectives are still working the back end of the alleged kidnapping: not only who was there when the victim was grabbed, but who allegedly helped clean up after it. In organised crime cases, those jobs can be just as important to the machinery of intimidation.
Strike Force Martinook remains active. Police are asking anyone with information about organised criminal activity to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.