Sydney anti-Jewish caravan bomb scheme a 'criminal con job'

Investigators have dismissed the discovery of an explosives-laden caravan as a "criminal con job" that was never intended for use in a claimed attack on prominent Jewish sites.

NSW Police have made several arrests after raids in Sydney, although officers are yet to sweep up the mastermind behind the caravan plot and a series of other apparently anti-Semitic incidents.

All of those events, including arson and graffiti attacks on a synagogue and a Jewish leader's former home, were believed to be orchestrated by organised crime figures rather than ideologically motivated actors, investigators revealed today.

A caravan packed with enough industrial explosives to create a 40-metre blast was part of a "fake plot" that culminated in its discovery on a semi-rural road in the city's northwest on January 19.

The apparently abandoned caravan contained a note that contained anti-Semitic sentiments and listed "Jewish entities", police said at the time.

Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett today said the caravan was never going to cause mass casualties but was part of a concocted plot that criminals had come up with to cause fear for their own benefit.

"Almost immediately, experienced investigators ... believed that the caravan was part of a fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job," she said.

"This was because of the information they already had, how easily the caravan was found and how visible the explosives were in the caravan. Also, there was no detonator."

The scheme's mastermind hired locals to carry out various parts of the plan with the goal of securing "changes to their criminal status", Barrett added.

Action was being taken to deal with the person "pulling the strings", she said.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said another 14 arrests had been made by investigators targeting anti-Semitic crimes in the latest raids.

"These individuals are in various forms of processing," he said, adding none of those arrested by the task force to date had shown clear signs of anti-Jewish ideology.

The spate of graffiti and arson attacks have lasted for months and alarmed the nation's Jewish community, drawn criticism from Israel and placed pressure on state and federal authorities to clamp down on the crimes.

Reported cases of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have increased in Australia since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched a war in Gaza in response.