A joint counter-terrorism taskforce relied on intelligence from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation when it raided seven properties linked to a Melbourne man, who has been charged with six counts of making funds available to the Islamic State and another terrorist organisation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Hassan El Sabsabi, 23, was arrested at his Seabrook home on Tuesday morning and charged in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court following an eight-month investigation codenamed Hohensalzburg.
Police believe he was acting alone when he allegedly raised $12,000 to fund a US citizen who had been fighting in Syria for several months, according to Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan.
"We have gone early today as we are of the view that funds were about to be transferred to this person in Syria," Mr Gaughan said.
One of the charges relates to alleged funding of ISIL in March 2014, while five other chargers were laid over alleged financing of terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra between March and August 2014.
"This is the first time in a terrorism environment that we're aware that an Australian citizen has sponsored or paid for a citizen of another country to go into Syria or Iraq to fight," Mr Gaughan said.
But he also said it would be "very naive" to think other money was not flowing out of Australia to fund terrorism overseas.
On Tuesday morning, Victoria Police and the AFP raided seven properties in Flemington, Seabrook, Meadow Heights, Broadmeadows and Kealba.
Mr El Sabsabi made no application for bail during a brief court appearance on Tuesday afternoon that revealed few details about the case against him.
Prosecutor Andrew Doyle told Deputy Chief Magistrate Daniel Muling that police had acquired 25,000 pages of information mainly from social media, as well as transcripts of more than 500 calls and messages intercepted over the past eight months.
Mr Doyle confirmed the investigation had been launched after a tip-off from the FBI.
The AFP insisted the arrest of Mr El Sabsabi was unrelated to the shooting of teenage terror suspect Numan Haider in Endeavour Hills last week or recent anti-terror raids in Brisbane and Sydney.
Earlier this month, Australia's terror-threat level was raised from medium to high, indicating authorities consider an attack likely.
Concerns about recruitment of local jihadists for terrorist organisations in Syria and Iraq were further heightened by the recent seizure of passports from several Melbourne relatives and associates of jailed terror cell leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika.
Two of Benbrika's relatives, along with his fellow Melbourne terror cell members Ezzit Raad, Fadal Sayadi and Shane Kent – who were jailed in 2009 in connection with a home-grown terrorism plot – had their passports seized, or request for a new passport denied, by ASIO.
Fairfax Media can also reveal a Sydney money transfer business owned by the sister and brother-in-law of Sydney terrorist Khaled Sharrouf will be shut down after it failed to convince authorities that millions of dollars sent to the Middle East were not being used to fund terrorism
The cancellation comes amid a warning from the financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC that the risk of terrorism financing is likely to increase with the involvement of Australians in the conflict in Iraq.
AUSTRAC has warned that small-to-moderate transactions, often through charity donations and "commingling" of legitimate funds, are emerging as the most significant terrorism funding channels in Australia and the most difficult to monitor.
However, Fairfax Media understands that investigations through the Australian Federal Police's Terrorism Financing Investigations Unit also include large-scale money transfers and ATM ram-raids in Sydney, such as a 2013 ram-raid in North Ryde allegedly committed by terror suspect Milad Bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said other ongoing terrorism investigations could not yet be discussed.
Mr Ashton expressed further concerns of a backlash against Melbourne's Muslim community.
He said there had been several racially fuelled attacks in the days following Mr Haider's death and his family had received death threats over the weekend.
"This is an innocent family who were not involved in the investigation, they're in the process of grieving, and they need to be left alone to grieve," Mr Ashton said.
Premier Denis Napthine said he had been briefed by Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay about the latest anti-terror raids.
"I am advised they are part of a long-running ongoing operation ... they're not about a specific threat or there is certainly no immediate concern for public safety," he said.
