Australian man revealed as alleged head of Asian crime gang that ordered Sydney woman’s kidnap and murder

An international drug syndicate allegedly headed by a man formerly from Sydney is believed to have ordered the murder of a woman abducted from her home, stripped naked in front of two children, shot dead and left in a car as it was torched.

Thi Kim Tran, 45, was snatched from her Bankstown home on April 17 by three masked men who broke in, bashed an eight-year-old boy with a baseball bat and forced Tran at gunpoint into a black SUV in front of a second child.

Police allege Tran was targeted after her husband was accused of stealing up to 80 kilograms of methamphetamine from his employers.

While police have not publicly identified the syndicate believed to have ordered Tran’s killing, the Herald can reveal the 45-year-old’s husband was working for a group allegedly helmed by Daniel Rodney Badger, formerly of Sydney.

Badger, 40, was born in Auburn, in Sydney’s west, and has been of interest to authorities since relocating to South-East Asia, a global centre for the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine.

Badger’s syndicate is alleged to be one of the biggest manufacturers and distributors of methamphetamine in Australia, with its operations stretching along the country’s east coast. It is alleged to have large-scale operations in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Badger is believed to be one of the AFP’s highest-value targets.

“Daniel Rodney Badger is of significant interest to the AFP,” Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Ian McCartney told the ABC’s Four Corners last year.

On July 23, 2022, Badger, who was living in Sydney’s west before he relocated to Vietnam with his then-partner almost a decade ago, was granted Cambodian citizenship by naturalisation and given a Khmer name – Sen Sovannarith – according to a royal decree published in the Cambodian government’s Royal Gazette at the time.

Footage aired by Four Corners shows Badger’s lavish wedding celebrations in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City in 2019.

Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation into Tran’s death told the Herald that while there was no evidence Badger personally ordered Tran’s killing, his syndicate was believed to have hired contractors to carry out her execution.

Badger’s father, Rodney, said he hadn’t spoken to his son for several years, but said he didn’t believe the 40-year-old was involved in the drug trade.

“He was in legitimate business in Vietnam,” he said.

He said Badger had run his own business and worked as a security guard at hotels and racecourses before he left the country.

“He never mentioned it to me [and] I never suspected him of anything,” he said.

“He was a great young man.”

In August, homicide squad detectives arrested a senior syndicate member, The Anh Nguyen, and charged him with the joint criminal enterprise murder of Tran and with wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm over the alleged attack on the eight-year-old boy.

Homicide Squad commander Joe Doueihi at the time said Nguyen, who is in the “upper echelons” of Badger’s syndicate, had been tasked with resolving the group’s dispute with Tran’s husband and retrieving the drugs he was alleged to have stolen, and had facilitated Tran’s murder.

“He did this by meeting with the offenders beforehand, travelling in convoy with the offenders to the victim’s residence, parking his car in the driveway and knocking on the front door with the three offenders standing behind him armed with a firearm, a baseball bat and with their faces covered,” Doueihi said.

“He stepped aside and allowed those offenders to seriously assault that child and then to kidnap and strip the woman naked in the street.”

Nguyen allegedly recruited Tran’s husband to the syndicate in 2022 before contracting him to cook a batch of methamphetamine in January this year. Tran’s husband has denied stealing from the syndicate and has not been charged over his alleged involvement in the criminal group.

Shortly after Tran’s murder, detectives raided a vacant property in Springdallah, west of Melbourne, that the syndicate had allegedly used as a drug lab. No one was at the property at the time of the raid.

Police allege Nguyen’s role in the syndicate was to facilitate the use of premises for manufacturing and storing drugs and to hire people to work for the organisation. He has not been charged with any drug offences. Nguyen’s lawyer, Julie Nguyen, said in August that her client intended to plead not guilty to the charges.

Tran’s murder, along with several other violent incidents, has placed Vietnamese organised crime gangs that have long flown under the radar back in police sights.

“They’re usually discreet about what they do – they’re different from the other crime groups in Sydney,” Detective Superintendent Peter Faux told the Herald in August.

Last week, police foiled an alleged murder plot detectives say a Vietnamese crime syndicate, The Final Crime Family, had commissioned to execute an employee who had fallen foul of the group. Police believe Badger’s syndicate is predominantly made up of Vietnamese males.

Nguyen remains in custody and will appear in Burwood Local Court on November 12, while investigations under Strike Force Bushfield are ongoing to identify Tran’s killers.

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