Organised crime syndicates use encrypted apps to recruit vulnerable teenagers for serious crimes

Organised crime syndicates are using encrypted digital platforms to recruit vulnerable teenagers with intellectual disabilities, low IQ and no criminal history, according to a child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist.

The crimes include fire-bombings, home invasions and kidnappings that have been occurring across Melbourne.

Dr Adam Deacon told 7.30 that criminals are preying on minors who may be isolated or struggling with neurodevelopmental challenges, and convincing them to carry out high-risk crimes for money through encrypted platforms.

“They're luring them into behaviour that they otherwise would not even have considered, if not for the attraction of money, some sort of level of notoriety and this sort of false sense of respect and regard,” he said.

“I think at a level they [teenagers] know what they're doing, why they're doing it. [But] I don't think they really have a level of sophistication.”

Dr Deacon, who meets with more than a dozen youth offenders a week, said criminal syndicates are finding and enlisting teenagers online.

“The children seem to be recruited through social media and applications,” he said.

“Encrypted apps [such as] Telegram and Discord and Signal and the like, but also through gaming, kids playing Fortnite and Roblox and the like. There's different means,” he said.

He said many of the targeted teenagers had low IQs and learning disabilities, and may not consider the consequences of their actions.

“Primarily it'll be in response to their need to again have that social connection, some sense of being, belonging somewhere, and including the financial gain which is obviously an incentive for them to participate,” Dr Deacon said.

A perpetrator who paid the ultimate price was Joseph Romano.

He was 19 when he was shot and killed after he carried out a home invasion in 2024.

His father, Francis Romano, discovered his son's criminal activity too late and offered a warning to other parents.

“Find out what your kids are up to. Don't let them do what my son was doing,” he told 7.30.

Police say Joseph was armed and given instructions on Signal to break into a house in Donnybrook, in Melbourne's north, with two other men.

Inside the home was a pregnant woman and a man who police say had links to organised crime.

He fatally shot Joseph in the chest.

Prosecutors dropped charges against the man who shot Joseph on the grounds he had a good case to argue self-defence.

“I get a phone call [at] four o'clock in the morning, 'he's been shot dead'. It's the saddest news I've ever heard in my life,” Mr Romano recalled.

“I don't want to see parents go through the same thing I did.”

Mr Romano also has a warning to teenagers who join criminal syndicates.

Last month in a children's court hearing, police revealed a user named “Iceman” ordered the firebombing of alcohol distribution centre 80Proof in Melbourne in April.

In a chat called “Jobs” on the Signal app, Iceman messaged a teen about how to carry out the attack.

“You want to make a quick 1K?” it said.

They replied, “Yeah done, what I got to do? If the job is taken, I'll do one tomorrow.”

After discussing the location of the job, the car they would use and petrol, Iceman said, “This factory you're doing is full of vodka and alcohol … let everything catch on fire.”

Victoria Police said in court that they do not know the identity of Iceman.

The Australian Federal Police is assisting them in trying to track down who is responsible for orchestrating the attacks across Melbourne.

“We work very closely with our state and territory partners, and we will chase down every lead and explore every viable or potential inquiry there,” AFP Commander Rob Nelson told 7.30.

Commander Nelson, part of the AFP's covert and technical team, said the force was actively trying to stay ahead of tech-savvy criminals using encrypted apps.

“For many years we saw criminals gravitate towards dedicated crypto comms platforms and we worked very successfully with our global law enforcement partners and with industry,” he said.

“We've had a lot of success in that space and we will continue to do that, even with these commercially available applications.”

He disagrees with the idea that banning teenagers from encrypted apps would stop them being lured into the world of organised crime.

“I think it's kind of an oversimplification to say that we ban them,” he said.

“They exist, they're freely available, and certainly I think that there's a high propensity that we would still see the continued use of these.”

While the person behind the Melbourne attacks remains at large, he warns of the huge risk for teenagers who are being recruited to work for this criminal network.

“I don't think they appreciate what they're getting themselves into much of the time.”