A GROUP of graffiti vandals have seen their tagging days and nights curtailed after a major police operation saw 10 people across Melbourne, including one in Seaford, charged with various offences.
Operation Samurai targeted nine properties that were raided by transit police in the early hours of Tuesday morning (27 March).
Transit police allege those arrested were involved in graffiti tagging on trains and infrastructure across Melbourne’s rail network.
More than 700 charges were laid including conduct endangering life, criminal damage, burglary and trespass.
Police from Transit’s Divisional Response Unit and the Critical Incident Response Team seized allegedly stolen goods worth more than $100,000 in total.
Two cars, cannabis plants, ecstasy and ice, cash, laptops, phones, memory cards and hard drives were also seized during the raids.
“We’ve seen horrific injuries and even deaths as a result of the risky behaviour people engage it to commit these offences so we take it extremely seriously,” Acting Superintendent Andrew Gustke said.
“This type of offending is often a gateway crime to much more serious offending where we see young people becoming embedded in a culture of crime.
“This culture can lead to robbery, armed robbery and other serious crimes against the person, which is why we do everything we can to target these vandals as early as possible.”
Properties at Seaford, Truganina, Altona, Yarraville, Brunswick, Tarneit and West Footscray were raided by police.
A 30-year-old Seaford man was among the ten alleged graffiti vandals charged.
Arson and explosives experts were called to a Yarraville property after explosive devices were found inside one of the seized cars.