source : the age
A Sydney woman was abducted in front of two children, murdered and set alight in a stolen car after detectives say her husband stole drugs from the organised crime network he allegedly worked for, as police reveal they have raided a drug lab linked to the criminal group.
Thi Kim Tran, 45, was in her Bankstown home on Thursday night when a group of masked men broke in, bashed an eight-year-old boy with a baseball bat and forced Tran at gunpoint into a black SUV in front of a second boy.
Thi Kim Tran was abducted from her Sydney home and found dead in a burnt-out car.Credit: Facebook
Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi, commander of NSW Police’s homicide squad, said Tran’s alleged murder was a direct result of her husband’s “conflict” with a Victorian organised crime network.
The Herald earlier revealed that police believe Tran was an innocent victim who was targeted and killed by a gang seeking revenge after their drugs were stolen.
Doueihi said such levels of violence targeted at “innocent family members” of organised crime networks was “rare” and “unprecedented”.
“These offences are clearly targeted offences,” Doueihi told reporters on Tuesday.
“They’re callous, they’re brutal and they’re offences against innocent people … these organised crime groups are breaking their own code of conduct by targeting innocent women and children.”
Tran had no knowledge of her husband’s alleged criminal activities, Doueihi said. He said Tran’s husband, who was interstate at the time of her death, had allegedly been working for the organised crime network when the 45-year-old was killed. He has not been charged over his alleged involvement with the criminal group.
Doueihi said the organised crime network was believed to be involved in large-scale methamphetamine manufacturing and was made up of predominantly Vietnamese males, but he added there was no information or evidence suggesting the leaders of the group were linked to South East Asian organised crime groups.
Thi Kim Tran migrated to Sydney about a decade ago, a friend said.
Detectives executed a search warrant at a vacant rural property in Springdallah, west of Melbourne, that had been used as a drug lab. No one was at the property at the time of the raid, and no arrests have been made.
The eight-year-old boy remains in an induced coma. He was expected to come out of the coma on Tuesday, but could suffer life-long implications from his injuries. The 15-year-old boy was not physically hurt, but suffered psychological injuries from the ordeal, Doueihi said.
On Monday, Tran’s loved ones shared their shock at the 45-year-old’s death.
A close friend of Tran, who chose to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, said Tran migrated from Vietnam about a decade ago, and she became friends with her through Sydney’s Vietnamese community a few years later.
The woman said that even when Tran’s family struggled with the death of a family member about a year ago, her friend was “always happy to see her friends and share meals”.
“This is so awful … She didn’t deserve this … Everyone is in shock.”
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