James Phelps EXCLUSIVE
The Sunday Telegraph
October 11 2015.
ISIS is now a powerful Australian prison gang with the international terror outfit threatening to behead NSW Department of Corrective Services staff and inmates who do not convert to radical Islam.
Infamous Darwiche gang member Adnan ‘‘Eddie’’ Darwiche was stabbed eight times last month in a religiously motivated gang war between inmates linked with ISIS and former Sydney street gang the Assyrian Kings.
A terror plot that involved the kidnapping and beheading of prison guards was also uncovered by jail intelligence and the growing group is threatening to murder jail ‘‘infidel’’ who will not convert.
There are believed to be at least 30 members of the growing ISIS gang in Goulburn jail alone and all non-Muslims were last month removed from the ‘‘Lebanese’’ yard to make one section of the prison an exclusively Islamic prison pod.
Goulburn is also home to SuperMax, where the state’s most dangerous inmates are held.
The drastic action to separate inmates by religion and race came after double murderer Darwiche was attacked by two Christian prisoners with links to the Assyrian Kings gang in a brutal stabbing.
Darwiche, who waged a murderous war against some of the Razzak family in Sydney from 2001 to 2009, was stabbed eight times by men wielding prison shivs made from a toilet brush and a sandwich toaster handle.
Although Darwiche was the victim of the stabbing, which arose out of conflict between radical Islamists and Christians, there’s no evidence he is a proponent of ISIS. This was the first act of extreme violence in a new type of prison gang warfare fuelled by terror.
“It was all terror related,’’ a Goulburn corrections officer said.
“Word on the street was most in that yard (had been radicalised) and they were going to take a hostage — one of the six Christians in the yard — and behead them.
“They were going to use mobile phones to post it on the internet. They were going to get them because they refused to join ISIS and convert to Islam.’’
But the ‘‘infidels’’ struck first in a daylight ambush. The attack happened in front of four prison guards.
“He was walking back from a visit and two blokes from his yard jumped him,’’ the officer said. “At the rear of the yard, they ambushed him and started stabbing him in the neck and the shoulder. One of the shivs was a sharpened toilet brush, the other was a handle of a Breville — a sandwich press.
“The intel said it was to do with the Muslims versus Christians war that is going on. The Muslims were going to kill one of the Christians and film it on their phone. There was also intel branching off from that saying they were going to get an officer. There was an Arabic intercepted message saying they were going to abduct an officer and behead him.’’
Bearded men clutching Korans are the new breed of prison ‘‘gang-bangers’’, according to prison officers at Goulburn jail.
Wassim Fayad.
Powerful prison gangs including Brothers 4 Life and Will To Kill are beginning to merge because of the influence of self-styled sheiks such as Wassim Fayad, who was jailed for whipping a man 40 times with an electrical cord for supposedly breaking sharia law.“(At least one influential prisoner) has taken his street gang and joined ISIS,’’ the guard said.
“ISIS is made up of all different gangs like Brothers 4 Life and Will to Kill. They come through and start associating with radical Islam. They’ve never come out and officially claimed they’re an ISIS gang, neither have the bosses, but that’s what is happening. You can definitely tell it’s going on. We’ve found ISIS flags, tattoos, and lots of other indicators. You could call it a prison gang.
“The intel getting around says they are going to attack prison guards and Christians if they get the chance”
“Brothers 4 Life are morphing into an extremist gang. They were based on radical ideals and they are now getting carried away.
‘‘The intel getting around says they are going to attack prison guards and Christians if they get the chance.’’
A series of extreme measures has been introduced in Goulburn’s High Risk Management Unit to prevent inmates convicted of terror-related crimes from plotting attacks.
Men such as Mohamed Elomar and Abdul Hasan, part of the “Terror Five’’ who plotted a series of attacks in Sydney between 2004 and 2005, have been given a “AA” classification and have been banned from speaking Arabic.
“We are finding tattoos, taking photos of flags, and taking terror material from them”
Last month’s attack, which saw ‘‘force’’ used on eight inmates and gas deployed, prompted the removal of non-Muslims from the ‘‘Lebanese yard’’ in the general prison, but the inmates are still allowed to communicate in Arabic.
“There used to be eight of them (Christians) in the yard but they have all been moved,’’ the officer said.
“It is all Muslims now. They can still talk in Arabic on the phone, write Arabic in letters except for the HRMCC, where the sanctions have come in.
‘‘The rest of the jail has not changed. They have a study session — at least once a day — and all of the inmates sit down and listen to one guy.’’
Prison searches are uncovering ISIS indicators including flags and tattoos.
“ISIS is massive in jails now,’’ another prison guard said.
“The Lebanese never fought with each other until now. It’s all religious based and I would call ISIS a gang now. We are finding tattoos, taking photos of flags, and taking terror material from them.
‘‘They are heavily into recruitment and all the extreme guys are trying to convert the younger guys.
‘‘We are trying to bust them up but they’re bashing guys, and growing.’’
