Contract crew wanted for alleged murder, torture, kidnappings

Australian Community Media

Detectives investigating the murder of Rich ‘Dylan’ Choup are appealing for information into two other violent incidents they believe could be linked.

Transcript

00:00Rich Coop's remains were located on the 31st of August 2024 in Bushland in Lucas Heights.

00:10During the course of that investigation, investigators established that a further two

00:15violent offences were committed by the same syndicate who we believe are responsible for

00:21Mr Coop's murder. All three offences occurred within a six-day period between the 19th of July

00:28and the 25th of July. We will allege that this syndicate that's responsible for these

00:36three offences are linked to a Victorian drug trafficking syndicate. Now, I'll just quickly

00:42go through the three matters. I believe you all have those details, but I'll just highlight a few

00:47points, relevant points about each matter. Incident one is the kidnapping and torture of a man in

00:54Canley Vale. On Friday the 19th of July, a 31-year-old man was kidnapped from Auburn,

01:01Regent's Park area. He was taken to a location in Canley Vale where he was tortured and had

01:07part of his ear severed off. Later that day, he was released. Detectives from Strikeforce

01:15Hallett executed a search warrant in Canley Vale in August and located a box cutter. We will allege

01:24that was the box cutter that was used to sever part of that man's ear. We have released for this

01:31investigation some CCTV images of vehicles or a vehicle, an Audi-described vehicle, dark-coloured

01:41Audi and a second vehicle, a white Volkswagen that were driving in convoy at the time of this

01:46incident. We believe that these vehicles were used by the offenders in this incident and we have

01:51released an image off the box cutter. The relevance of the Audi is that it was also later used in the

01:59suspicious disappearance of Mr. Chewb. Both vehicles were stolen. Both vehicles had cloned number plates.

02:08One of the vehicles, the Audi was recovered later that month in August, burnt out in Granville.

02:16Incident two, the attempted murder of a man in Jimboomba, Queensland, which is 50 kilometres inland

02:23from Brisbane. On the 21st of July, so two days after the kidnapping offence, a further offence was

02:31committed in Queensland. It was the attempted murder of a 23-year-old man from New South Wales who was

02:37lured from New South Wales to Queensland by a group of males, not knowing of what their ulterior motive was.

02:45The male was shot in the head, through the eye, with a bullet lodged in his brain.

02:49He was buried in a shallow grave. Unbeknown to the offenders who believed he was deceased,

02:55the male crawled out of the grave and made his way to a nearby service station,

03:00where an ambulance was called and the man was taken to a nearby hospital, had surgery and had the bullet

03:06removed. Queensland police are investigating that matter. We have released some CCTV for that incident.

03:15That's a white Hyundai Getz that was seen at the roundhouse in Nambucca, in the mid-north coast,

03:22in the early hours of Saturday, the 20th of July, 24. The vehicle contained four males. One of those males

03:30is believed to be the victim in this matter. Incident three is the primary investigation for

03:37Strikeforce Hallett, and that is the murder of Mr Richard Choop, known as Dylan. Several days after the

03:44Queensland incident, police commenced that investigation into the suspicious disappearance of Mr Choop,

03:50on the 25th of July, from Cabramatta. About 6.25pm that day, Mr Choop was captured on CCTV,

03:59meeting with a male in railway parade. That male is seen to slap Mr Choop across the face,

04:07and that's captured on CCTV. Both men are seen to walk towards a grey outing. Again, the relevance of

04:15that is that that's the same vehicle that was used in the prior offence.

04:18Mr Choop was reported missing by his family several days later on the 29th of July, and then Mr Choop's

04:25remains were found on the 31st of August in Bushland off Heathcote Road. I can indicate a post-mortem

04:33revealed that Mr Choop was fatally shot and also had part of his right ear severed, similar to the first

04:42hostage from the first incident. We've released CCTV in relation to that matter, that relates to

04:51the same vehicles that we used the week earlier, of the male that slapped Mr Choop, and of a white Lexus

04:59and a white Audi that were used by these male offenders to meet up beforehand.

05:07I can tell you that we believe that the persons involved are common to all three incidences. Not every

05:18person depicted on the CCTV is involved in every matter. They are common across those matters.

05:25We believe that these people work for a Victorian drug syndicate.

05:33And I won't go into descriptions. I believe the CCTV is quite self-explanatory with description of

05:39those offenders. They are a combination of both Asian and Pacific Islanders.

05:44And our general appeal is that we're after anyone that has any information as to

05:52the identity of these people depicted in this footage, what their potential involvement, we want

05:58to establish what their potential involvement is in these matters, what information they may be able to

06:04to give us about those matters. We believe that it's very highly likely related to

06:14something that's gone wrong within that drug trafficking syndicate from Melbourne. We believe that

06:21Mr Choop was an employee of that syndicate and has fallen foul of that syndicate for some reason. We don't

06:30have the exact details. That is also part of our appeal today is to establish what the exact motive may have been

06:39in relation to that. We believe the kidnapping of the first male is also linked to a drug trafficking syndicate and

06:47something that's gone wrong within that drug trafficking syndicate. In relation to the attempted murder of the man in Queensland,

06:53that unfortunately is not that clear. It remains unclear at the moment for the exact motive, but there is a possibility

07:02that that also is linked to the drug trafficking syndicate.

Category

Transcript

Recommended