00:00 So, Operation Morpheus is overseen by the Raptor Squad.
00:05 It's a nationally coordinated operation which looks at outlaw motorcycle gangs.
00:13 So it's coordinated between state and territory police forces and other government agencies.
00:18 There was a five-day operation last week of action and nationally there were 159 arrests
00:24 across the country, but almost half of those were in New South Wales.
00:29 And we know that there were 74 arrests in New South Wales, 243 charges, they've seized
00:35 15 firearms, almost $900,000 in cash.
00:39 And some notable incidents that the police have reported in the town of Bullerdeel, north
00:45 of Newcastle, on Tuesday last week they were searching a home.
00:49 They found three firearms, two replica firearms, a crossbow, a knife, commercieros, paraphernalia,
00:56 and grow tents containing 32 cannabis plants.
01:01 Another operation in Lethbridge Park in the northwest of Sydney turned up $46,000 in cash,
01:09 as well as firearms, ammunition and knuckle dusters.
01:11 Fair to say they found a lot.
01:14 Sean, we know there's been rising tensions in Sydney's underworld.
01:17 There's been a series of attacks on Sydney streets.
01:21 Police believe they're targeted.
01:22 How does this push and these raids relate to those investigations?
01:27 So Operation Morpheus sits alongside what New South Wales police have set up is Task
01:33 Force Magnus.
01:34 Now, Task Force Magnus was set up to look into what were a series of what police believe
01:41 were targeted attacks on Sydney's streets recently.
01:46 These are dating back to the very sort of prominent shooting of Alan Meradian in Bondi,
01:52 which police believe was linked to underworld tensions.
01:55 There were also in recent weeks a spate of shootings.
01:58 Five people attacked in five days on Sydney's streets.
02:03 And police believe that those are linked to, as I said, those rising tensions in Sydney's
02:07 underworld.
02:09 This is a separate operation, Operation Morpheus, that runs in parallel to that.
02:15 But police have said that there's no doubt that some of these 74 arrests in New South
02:19 Wales will also be of interest to Task Force Magnus.
02:24 Detective Superintendent Andrew Kutsufis, the Raptor Squad commander, spoke on that
02:30 just earlier.
02:32 Bikies are involved in serious violent crime.
02:35 Where there's violent crime, the bikies wouldn't be too far away from it.
02:38 And this just highlights their involvement in such criminal activity.
02:41 And where bikies are, we're not too far away.
02:45 And that highlights what they do.
02:47 They're involved in serious violent crime, and we're here to address it and suppress
02:50 it wherever we can.
02:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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