Australia - TOP-SECRET Victoria Police files have been leaked to alleged crime bosses and killers, compromising federal and state drug trafficking investigations.
In one of the most serious security breaches in Australian law enforcement, the leaked information came from the state surveillance squad, which conducts physical and technical surveillance on crime targets.
Alleged drug baron John Higgs, a founder of the Black Uhlans outlaw motorcycle gang, received information from the leaked files, as did other members of his syndicate.
At least two other Melbourne men - one an alleged murderer and the other a suspected drug trafficker - also received their confidential surveillance records. One fled overseas after obtaining copies of the files.
The leak is the latest in a series of corruption scandals to entangle the Victoria Police since 2001 and will prompt new calls for a full inquiry into the links between organised crime and serving and former police.
The revelations will also put pressure on the State Government over its previous commitments to reform Victoria Police's information-handling processes after repeated police files scandals in recent years.
The Office of Police Integrity and the Victoria Police are investigating the latest leak and senior police yesterday briefed the surveillance squad about the investigations. The Australian Federal Police, the Australian Crime Commission and other agencies have been informed of the security breach.
OPI director Michael Strong said: "Information security within the Victoria Police has long been of concern to the OPI and has been addressed in several of our public reports."
Mr Strong said he was conducting "a comprehensive independent review" of police information security. "Any breach can have serious operational issues and even put lives at risk. Victoria Police needs to give the issue a high priority."
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said investigators were "vigorously pursuing" those responsible for the leaks and "that the vast majority of people in the (surveillance) unit are professional". She said Superintendent Paul Sheridan would review the unit's management and operations and that the force was implementing a range of information security reforms.
The latest leaks have compromised Victoria Police investigations, while related probes by the crime commission and the federal police are believed to have been affected.
Surveillance officers create files detailing the movements and associates of a criminal target. If a suspect obtains a file, he will see how long police have been watching him. This can compromise investigations or give criminals warning they could be charged.
Some of the information leaked related to the AFP's Operation Inca, which led to the arrest in August of Higgs and others over the world's largest ecstasy importation.
The Victoria Police surveillance squad monitored several of Inca's criminal targets during the operation's early stages.
Over the past two decades, Higgs' crime syndicate has repeatedly received leaked or stolen police files.
Suspected drug trafficker Mohammed Oueida fled overseas fearing he was to be arrested after he received surveillance files revealing he was under investigation. It is not known if has returned to Australia.
Higgs and Oueida were connected to an alleged crime syndicate - other members are also suspected of receiving leaked information - pursued by state and federal drug trafficking investigators. A Victoria Police operation named Agamas stalled in March because the syndicate pulled out of an alleged importation. It is unknown if this was related to leaked files.
Alleged murderer Bassam Tiba - who was wanted over a 2004 killing in Melbourne until his arrest last month - was also leaked information from the surveillance squad police files.
Federal police officers discovered Tiba had obtained information from surveillance files after they located and arrested him last month in the Solomon Islands.
The leaks suggest there are serious flaws with the Victoria Police's creation and handling of files on surveillance targets.
A former Victoria Police crime department officer familiar with the surveillance squad's operations said the handling of information had been ad hoc, unorganised and hard to audit.
He said the ineffective supervision and technology used to collate and store surveillance files was a result of poor resourcing by the State Government.
Last month, the outgoing Victorian Commissioner for Law Enforcement Data Security, Laurie Bebbington, described as "an ongoing concern" the force's failure to implement its central information security policy to govern the storage and handling of all sensitive information.
Ms Bebbington said the policy was "in a perpetual state of review, edit and partial completion" and there was no sign of when it would be finished.
In late 1996, Higgs and his associates were suspected of masterminding the theft of files from drug squad headquarters, including those detailing the identity of a policy informer. That theft remains unsolved.
In late 2003, close associates of Higgs were among a host of underworld figures who obtained stolen police files detailing the activities of corruption and gangland informer Terence Hodson, who was later murdered along with his wife.
The leaks are likely to further damage relationships between federal and state police.
The Age has known about the leaks for several months, but delayed publishing to avoid jeopardising the investigation.
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