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Police warn of more arrests
Annabelle McDonald
17dec05

POLICE last night warned of more arrests in coming days and weeks as investigators pored over data from a week of race-based warfare across the city, including text messages and media footage.

Three teenagers were being questioned last night in connection with the violent mob attack on a train passenger at the height of Sunday's Cronulla riot, bringing the number of arrests in the past week to more than 50.

Earlier, two men who prepared seven homemade fire-bombs and stored them in their Cronulla unit, claiming they needed the weapons to protect themselves against gang violence, became the first Cronulla locals to be refused bail since the racial violence erupted on the beach a week ago.

Flatmates Mark Barry Miller, 33, and Mathew John Lalor, 24, decided to make their own Molotov cocktails from discarded beer-bottles and methylated spirits after intruders allegedly overran their apartment on Monday night, Sutherland Local Court was told yesterday.

Police discovered seven fire-bombs hidden under a table on the balcony of the men's first-floor unit on Thursday after an anonymous tip-off from a local.

The two men, who were charged with making explosives with the intent to injure, now face a possible five-year jail term.

Yesterday afternoon police arrested an 18-year-old man from Caringbah, near Cronulla, a 19-year-old man from Old Toongabbie in western Sydney and a 14-year-old boy from Woolooware, also near Cronulla, over their involvement in the storming of a train last Sunday. A man of Middle Eastern appearance was bashed on a stationary train at Cronulla station when he tried to flee a mob.

Strike Force Enoggera commander Detective Superintendent Dennis Bray said the arrests were the first of many expected in coming days and weeks.

"Today's arrests should send a clear warning to the community: If you have been involved in criminal and riotous behaviour, expect a knock on the door from police," he said. "I have a large team of detectives analysing information into a string of incidents which have marred suburbs in southern and eastern Sydney."

The catalyst for the riots, the attack on two North Cronulla lifesavers the previous Sunday, resulted in the arrest of an 18-year-old Bankstown concreter at his Petersham workplace.

Most of those arrested in the riot and in subsequent clashes over the following days were released on bail within hours.

The exception was 21-year-old Jay Innes, who was arrested in Penrith early last Monday morning and charged with carrying an offensive weapon - a tree branch - in a public place. He was sentenced to four months' jail after pleading guilty.

Sixteen people were arrested on the day of the riots and another 11 the next day, including a man who had been arrested in relation to racial violence once before and freed on bail. On Thursday, 19 more were arrested in the anti-riot operation.

The violence spread this week to churches, with the Uniting Church heritage hall burnt to the ground two nights ago. Hundreds of people gathered outside the church yesterday afternoon to hear leaders from the Christian, Islamic and Jewish faiths denounce ethnic divisions.

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