Break the code, take the money, take the power: Inside the plan to dismantle Melbourne’s crime gangs

October 30, 2026 — 11:41am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

No gift articles left

You've used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.

One of the biggest breakthroughs in World War II did not involve a shot being fired or a bomb being dropped – it came from a group of British boffins who cracked the Nazi’s secret Enigma code system.

In what prime minister Winston Churchill referred to as the “Golden Eggs”, the capacity to know the enemy’s plans shortened the war and saved thousands of lives.

Victoria’s Chief Commissioner Mike Bush wants to use his version of Golden Eggs – the capacity to break into the encrypted apps used by organised crime cartels to recruit, order gangland hits, and task kids to firebomb businesses and homes.

For that, he needs experts and sophisticated spy hardware that will be part of a $150 million package to be used to set up the Organised Crime Command.

We know this strategy works – a three-year international police sting operation using the underworld ANoM app allowed police to harvest 27 million encrypted messages from 12,000 phones used by 300 criminal syndicates in 100 countries.

Decades ago the greatest tool in the police kit was telephone intercepts. Now only the dumbest crooks talk on the phone.

In the last few days, Bush has been selling his model to tackle organised crime. But is it really that new?

We will come to that.

Instead of concentrating on individual crimes, he wants to gather intelligence to tackle the cartel leaders, many safely hidden away in the Middle East.

Even if you can’t get them, the idea is to create such disruption that the syndicates fragment and die.

The chief commissioner knows he has to sell the changes to his troops, and for this he will take personal responsibility.

We know this from an insightful interview he did years ago when he was New Zealand’s commissioner.

“Seeing senior leaders within that group championing the operating model of change makes a massive difference … My rule of thumb is – and I got this from others, so it’s not my own rule – you need to dedicate at least 60 per cent of your time inside the organisation to driving a transformation.”

Big Build royal commission

Finally, the royal commission Victoria desperately needs

The Age's ViewEditorial

Bush is in an ideal position to drive change – he is a one-term, five-year chief commissioner. He does not need to go lightly in the........

© The Age