Underworld figure's shock admission about Dural caravan bomb plot

News.com.au

05-05-2025

An underworld figure accused of a series of anti-Semitic attacks across Sydney has admitted he was involved in sourcing explosives for the Dural caravan bomb plot.
In mid-January, a caravan with explosives and paper with anti-Semitic slurs and a list of Jewish targets was found in Dural in Sydney's northwest.
While NSW Premier Chris Minns indicated it may have been a 'potential mass casualty event', the Australian Federal Police later revealed it was a 'fabricated terrorist plot' that was 'concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit'.
The plot came months after a spate of anti-Semitic attacks across Sydney, including firebombings, anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed onto homes and synagogues targeted with spray-painted swastikas.
Police said they believed Sayet Erhan Akca – an underworld figure who is hiding out in Turkey – played a key role in the hoax anti-Semitic terror plot in an effort to get a reduced sentence and have his bail reinstated should he return to Australia.
Akca fled the country in 2023 after being charged with conspiracy to import a commercial amount of illicit dugs as part of Operation Ironside, organised in part by the AFP.
Speaking to ABC's Four Corners from his hide-out, Akca admitted he approached the AFP in an attempt to return to Australia on the condition that he would hand stolen explosives over. He claimed he did not purchase the explosives but intercepted them during a black-market sale.
'I was giving them explosives,' he told the outlet.
'I said, 'Look, I've got information on a movement of explosives. I can seize it and I can hand it over'.'
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told NSW parliament there was a 'common source' between the caravan plot and '14 separate incidents' aimed to 'create absolute fear and anxiety in the Jewish community'.
'In exchange for providing information of an imminent threat, they wanted to return to Australia without being sent straight to jail,' he said.
However, Akca denied the allegation, claiming it 'doesn't match (his) timeline', and said he didn't orchestrate the caravan plot.
In the Four Corners interview, he claimed to have instructed the driver of the caravan to remove the detonator from the explosives.
'My clear instruction was, 'Make sure this is not gonna explode',' he said.
Akca also claimed to have no knowledge about the list of Jewish targets inside the vehicle and would have 'taken it out' had he known.
'I'm not in Australia. I don't know who put that in,' he said.