Hunt for missing rocket launchers as Bush arrives at APECArticle

WHEN George W. Bush flies into Sydney tonight, one awkward question will be in the minds of Australian security staff: where are the rocket launchers?
The failure to be able to answer that question comes at the end of one of the most extraordinary searches seen in this country - involving, at different times, up to 30 officers from ASIO, the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police. APEC has always been a deadline to find the weapons - people don't take rocket launchers to hold up the corner store so whoever knows where they are is almost certainly prepared to use them to cause major damage. Twenty world leaders are coming to Sydney for APEC. China's President Hu Jintao was the first to touch down, in Perth last night, while George W. Bush arrives in Sydney tonight. Each leader will have the use of a luxury sedan and a personal porter during their stay. But the fact that there are nine rocket launchers believed to be in the vicinity of Sydney as a meeting of world leaders begins has meant in recent months this operation has become one of the highest priorities of ASIO. It is one of the reasons Australian and US security advisers are insistent that protesters will be at least 300m from the President at all times. Theoretically, the launchers can fire from that distance but an amateur would generally be able to fire them only 125m. The most worrying aspect of the weapons is that they are concealable - when folded, they are about 67cm, which means they can fit into a backpack. They can be painted any colour to blend with carry bags. The M-72 launchers are designed to carry warheads that can cut through metal with a small hole then explode. The warheads are designed for a "blast effect". They are often used in warfare to attack bunkers, as they cause maximum damage. The nine rocket launchers were in a batch of 10 allegedly stolen from a private storage facility at Orchard Hills in Sydney's west in 2002. Security agencies believe they were then placed in PVC piping and buried in the national park between Sydney and Wollongong. Various parks around Sydney have been excavated in the search for the rockets. This has led to some remarkable scenes: any bushwalkers who came across the search would have witnessed night-time scenes resembling a movie set. They would have confronted ASIO and AFP officers watching the rescue squad of the NSW Police using generators, lighting equipment and metal detectors. And as no outside labour was used because of the sensitivity of the operation, they would have seen police officers digging with shovels. Even a specialist dog squad - the Firearms and Explosion Detection Dogs - has been brought into the forests in the hope of smelling remnants of the rocket launchers. But the PVC piping has probably ensured the launchers are giving off no smell and are protected from soil and water. The saga has shown a new and disturbing phenomenon - a blurring of the line between organised crime and religious terrorism. It began in 2002 when 10 rocket launchers were stolen from an army base near Sydney (one has been found). The investigation found that after the launchers were stolen, they were sold to criminals associated with bikies. They were then sold to an organised crime gang run by Lebanese Australians, which sold them to Lebanese Australian Islamic fundamentalists. Authorities fear such a crime group could be enlisted to supply weapons to would-be terrorists on a regular basis. "On this occasion, everyone got what they wanted," said a source involved in the investigation. "The crims got money and the fanatics got weapons." The pressure to find the weapons has been extraordinary - the special ASIO/AFP/NSW Police team has frequently been asked about their success. Their masters have not been happy. Army ammunitions technician officer Shane Malcolm Della-Vedova, 46, of Wattle Grove, near Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney, and former soldier Dean Steven Taylor, 39, of Mount Annan, in southwest Sydney, were charged with offences relating to the theft. The two were arrested in April this year after simultaneous raids on their homes. Police alleged Della-Vedova sold one of the rocket launchers in 2003 through a member of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang. The weapon was then allegedly passed on to Sydney gun dealer Taha Abdul Rahman, of Casula. One month later, Della-Vedova allegedly sold the remaining rockets to Rahman, later charged for his role in the deal. He allegedly sold them to Sydney underworld figure Adnan Darwiche, who passed them on to terror suspect Mohammad Elomar

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