CCTV footage has been released showing a western Sydney business being set on fire by two men with suspected bikie links.
A western Sydney tattoo parlour that was torched in an arson attack may have been an innocent victim of two warring bikie gangs.
Police believe the Blacktown Tattoo Shop was set alight on June 22 by two men linked to the Mongols or the Finks, during a period of escalating conflict between the two outlaw groups.
The perpetrators left behind a jerry can when they set the fire at the tattoo shop on Sunnyholt Road about 1.20am, which also damaged the butcher shop next door.
Police say there were two further arson attacks in June – on a property in Kellyville Ridge and another in Minchinbury – which they knew were linked to the Finks-Mongols conflict.
Detectives from the State Crime Command’s Raptor Squad have been investigating the incidents under Strike Force Hollier.
Police on Monday released CCTV footage that shows the fire being lit by two men who had their faces covered.
Detectives are hoping to speak to these individuals and one other man who was captured on CCTV near the tattoo parlour on the night of the fire.
Raptor Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Jason Weinstein said there would be DNA on the jerry can left at the scene and that speaking to the men could lead detectives to those responsible.
“I want to stress that the owner of that tattoo shop and the shop itself has nothing to do with outlaw motorcycle group activity and nor does the butcher shop that was next door,” he told reporters on Monday.
“In essence we have two family businesses which have been impacted by cowards who want to sneak through the night streets and conduct arson attacks on businesses which they either rightly or wrongly believe are part of their outlaw motorcycle group activities.”
Mr Weinstein said it was “mind boggling” the arsonists hadn’t been seriously injured in lighting the fire.
“The explosion that occurs at the point in time of it being ignited is quite significant,” he said.
Mr Weinstein said the residential properties in Kellyville Ridge and Minchinbury that were subject to attempted arsons in June belonged to former Mongols members.
“We haven’t at this point in time established the actual motive for those two instances,” he said.
“But we do know from generalisations around conflicts it doesn’t take much for conflicts within outlaw motorcycle groups to escalate to the behaviour they have in this case.”
He said the Blacktown tattoo business was not involved in any way with either motorcycle group and police were yet to establish why it had been set alight.
“We don’t understand at this point in time, until we know who the perpetrators are, is what was the motive, was it a Finks member or was it a Mongols member?”
