Dural caravan as it happened: Police under pressure to make arrests; Jewish community believes ‘puppet masters’ still at large

Pressure is mounting on NSW Police to make arrests over an apparent plot to target a Sydney synagogue with stolen mining explosives as the number of antisemitic attacks across the city grows.

But authorities are defending the decision to keep the potential threat to the community secret for 10 days, despite criticism from Jewish groups and leaders.

Here’s everything you need to know as we wrap up our coverage for the night:

• A Dural local discovered and moved an abandoned caravan left on Derriwong Road on January 19. When the local looked inside and discovered explosives, they called police.
• Inside the caravan police found a note with the address of a Sydney synagogue.
• The amount of Powergel explosives discovered could create a 40-metre blast wave, police said. The explosives were believed to have been stolen from a mining site.
• More than 100 police officers have been assigned to the investigation.
• Police have arrested several people over recent antisemitic attacks across Sydney under Strike Force Pearl, but none over the explosives.
• Police believe the apparent plot is linked to the “orchestrated” attacks being directed by people above the alleged perpetrators arrested so far. Jewish groups believe the “puppet masters” behind the violence are yet to be apprehended.
• Both police and the state government have defended their decision to stay quiet on the investigation, despite criticism from the Jewish community.
• Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the caravan investigation had been “compromised” when details were leaked to the media, triggering a succession of scrambled police and government press conferences.
• Two people arrested “on the periphery” of this investigation, Tammie Farrugia and her partner Scott Marshall, had already been arrested under Strike Force Pearl. A third person was allegedly named on a police warrant alongside the couple. None of these three people have been charged over the explosives.
• The owner of the caravan is in police custody, but has not been charged in relation to this incident. He was previously arrested for other alleged offending, police said.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled the perpetrators of antisemitic attacks “cowards” who would be “hunted down and locked up” as he defended his government’s handling of the matter. Albanese has faced calls from the Coalition to reveal when he was briefed on the caravan investigation, and why details of the suspected terror plot were not made public.

Thank you for joining our coverage today. You can read our full story on the fallout here.

A “potential mass-casualty event” was discovered at Dural 11 days ago when a caravan packed full of explosives was seized by police.

The public was made aware of the potential act of terrorism after the news leaked to a Sydney newspaper.

Here’s everything you need to know:

• A Dural local discovered and moved the abandoned caravan which was found on Derriwong Road on January 19. When the local looked inside and discovered explosives, they called police.
• Inside the caravan police found a note with the address of a Sydney synagogue.
• The amount of Powergel explosives discovered could create a 40-metre blast wave, police said. The explosives were likely stolen from a mining site.
• Premier Chris Minns was briefed on the matter, however, police and the state government decided to withhold information about the potential “mass-casualty event” from the public. On Wednesday, the operation was leaked to the media.
• Minns said the incident is likely an act of terrorism.
• Two people arrested “on the periphery” of this investigation had already been arrested under Strike Force Pearl. The owner of the caravan has also been arrested, but has not been charged in relation to this incident and had previously been arrested for other alleged offending.
• Police are still looking for those directly responsible for the incident, NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson said.

Children from Jewish schools cover the emblem on their blazers, with many no longer travelling to class by bus.

Their fearful parents drive them instead, and on days when worry is highest, some children are kept at home.

As threats to Sydney’s Jewish community escalate, Rabbi Benjamin Elton from The Great Synagogue has been advised to vary his daily route between home and work.

He won’t be cowed by shadowy criminals, but this is a sensible precaution. He has a wife and children to think about.

“You’re nervous going to sleep, nervous waking up, nervous checking your phone,” says Elton. “That’s what it means to be psychologically terrorising a whole community.”

Read Herald chief reporter Jordan Baker’s full story on the impact the recent spate of antisemitic violence has had on the Jewish community here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has branded the perpetrators of antisemitic attacks “cowards” who will be “hunted down and locked up”, as Israel’s foreign minister accused Australian authorities of allowing attacks on Jews to run rampant.

While police probed the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives and containing the address of a Sydney synagogue, the federal government’s special envoy on antisemitism, Jillian Segal, declared the finding of the vehicle a chilling reminder of the hatred that led to the Holocaust.

“There’s zero tolerance in Australia for hatred and for antisemitism, and I want any perpetrators to be hunted down and locked up - it’s as simple as that,” Albanese said on Thursday as he defended his government’s handling of antisemitism.

You can read the full piece by Matthew Knott here.

The Albanese government’s special envoy on antisemitism, Jillian Segal, has described the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives and containing the address of a synagogue as a “chilling reminder that the same hatred that led to the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust still exists today”.

Segal, who is returning to Australia from commemorations in Poland for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, said: “The discovery in Sydney will only heighten the fear and anxiety within the Jewish community.

“With weekly protests marked by antisemitism, along with threats to property and attacks on places of worship, today’s events are yet another escalation. This hatred must stop.”