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A brutal, unsolved killing in remote western Victoria has brought attention to an alleged reign of terror by Middle-Eastern crime gangs targeting Australian sheep farmers.
We already knew that much of Sydney and Melbourne’s biker and drug scene is under the control of Middle-Eastern criminals. Then there’s the Arab criminal controlled tobacco wars.
Now, allegedly, it’s the ‘Merino Mafia’ that’s the latest thread in the vibrant, diverse tapestry of Multicultural Australia.
Police have issued a plea for information about the fatal shooting of Ouyen man Richard Wills, 65, whose body was found in a shallow grave on Tuesday.
Donna Wills described her husband of 32 years as a “kind-hearted” man and a “workaholic”.
“If he saw someone stopped on the side of the road he’d be the one who would turn around, go back, and make sure they were alright,” she said.
“He was one to help anyone ... would give them anything.
“Why would they want to do it to him?”
The murder is described by police as particularly brutal.
His body was found in a shallow grave on the property at about 1:30pm on Tuesday.
Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Trewavas from the Missing Persons Squad said Mr Wills had been fatally shot and buried, with evidence pointing to him being dragged behind a vehicle on the farm.
“This is a vicious killing and it’s not lost on the police that a man who went to work on Easter Sunday, one of the holiest days in his calendar, has not come home,” he said.
Some are tying the killing into a spate of ‘foreigners breaking into Aussie farms and stealing livestock’.
The murder comes after repeated complaints from farmers in the Clunes region about organised foreign crime gangs stealing their sheep over the past year.
It is understood that, shortly before his death, Mr Wills had reported some of his sheep had also been stolen. It seems that they came back for more.
This will only get worse.
This is happening locally to me too. Lots of stories from friends and locals.
It’s a good three or four hours’ drive from Clunes to Ouyen. But, even here in Tasmania, a farmer recently reported that one of his cattle had been shot and butchered on the spot in a paddock in the dead of night. A farmer about an hour north of Clunes reiterated claims about criminal gangs in the area.
Local Kevin Butler claimed farmers had been trying to break the so-called Merino Mafia since last May, when shameless sheep thieves of Middle Eastern appearance were confronted by a woman. She was threatened with physical violence and they sped off, but now there is a possible link to last Sunday’s fatal incident at Ouyen, he posted online.
Mr Butler claimed suspected thieves were spotted crawling through the grass outside sheep farms in Kurting, about 250 kilometres south of where Mr Wills was murdered. Two Middle Eastern men, crawling along the Wedderburn-Brananah Rd, stopping briefly at each property on Tuesday. No rego, he warned locals.
I guess Australia would be just “so boring” without mass immigration, wouldn’t it, Peter Malinauskas?
