By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
TEN of the 33 youths charged and summonsed over the Moomba riot have suspected links to the Apex gang, but copycat offenders are still playing havoc in the south east.
Cranbourne’s top cop, Senior Sergeant Phil Atkins told Star News the term now used to refer to ongoing car thefts and home invasions is, “Apex style offending”.
“There are members of Apex still around, some are in jail but it’s still going on,” Sgt Atkins said.
And not all of them are a part of the infamous gang.
“We believe there’s similar style offending, the message is be vigilant, lock car doors, windows, garages and back doors,” he said.
“They just keep jumping fences until they find one back door that’s open – that’s how they started.”
However the gang’s contempt for the law has sprawled across the state and escalated.
Sgt Atkins said the way they gained entry to homes had “morphed into smashing doors”.
“It’s become more violent in recent times.”
The team tasked with investigating the affrays and robberies at Moomba, Saturday 12 March, dubbed ‘Taskforce Ares’ concluded its investigations on Friday 29 April.
Since the chair throwing scenes at Federation Square, Taskforce Ares has charged 30 people and intends to summons another seven to appear in court.
A further four people have been charged with warrants for their arrest issued and shockingly 33 charged or due to be summonsed are under the age of 18.
The charges laid include affray, riotous behaviour, offensive behaviour, assault, robbery and theft.
