I can finally reveal the true motive behind the coordinated campaign of arsons, drive-by shootings, home invasions and kidnappings that has engulfed Melbourne’s nightclubs, bars, brothels and strip clubs since early March this year.
What mainstream media outlets and even some within the underworld have been calling a straightforward “tax” or protection racket is, in reality, something far more calculated and uncompromising. The group known as The Cartel operates with an unyielding moral and ideological framework that outright rejects the entire after-dark economy. Their explicit demand, delivered directly to venue owners and operators in multiple conversations with sources close to the top, is simple and uncompromising: “This isn’t about money, or illegal booze. If they want to keep this kind of thing happening in Australia they can pay us or burn.”
