AFP, published Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at 07:34
An organized crime figure was shot dead in the notorious Bondi area of a Sydney suburb on Tuesday, police said.
A police cordon was deployed in one of Sydney’s busiest shopping areas off Bondi Beach after shots were fired in a car park.
A 48-year-old man with “a serious criminal record”, whose name has not been released, was found dead in his vehicle, Police Commissioner Danny Doherty told reporters.
“We believe this is a targeted shooting (against) a senior organized crime figure,” he added.
Olivia Scanlan, a 27-year-old actress and dancer, told AFP she was “shocked” by the shooting, which took place in this generally quiet neighborhood popular with surfers and backpackers.
“Friends come to visit me and tell me: ‘Australia is a dream’. They find it so safe, it’s so different from home,” she said.
“You can walk around at night and feel like nothing can happen.”
With a population of just 26 million, Australia is one of the most lucrative recreational drug markets in the world. Street prices are much higher than in Europe or North America.
In 2019-2020, the most recent period for which data was released, around 39 tons of drugs were seized by police and 166,321 people were arrested.
According to the authorities, biker gangs are increasingly working with Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs into the country, among other things.