Melbourne terror plotters caught buying bomb-making equipment at Bunnings Warehouse

October 17, 2019

Ahmed Mohamed strolls casually through the front doors of the Bunnings Warehouse store in Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s northwest like he is any other customer. But what fellow shoppers did not know at the time is that the 27-year-old was shopping for everything he needed to carry out what would have been Australia’s deadliest terror attack in the name of Islamic State.

It was December 22, 2016, days out from the planned New Year’s Eve attack at Melbourne’s Federation Square where Mohamed, Abdullah Chaarani, 29, and brothers Hamza Abbas, 24, and Ibrahim Abbas, 25, wanted to behead people and set off bombs.

In CCTV footage released on Wednesday by Victorian Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale, Mohamed can be seen buying 700 nail gun cartridges, taps and pipe from the Bunnings store to prepare his bomb. His co-conspirators, who are each facing life in prison after being convicted of plotting the terror attack, were also filmed shopping at Chemist Warehouse and a Boating, Camping and Fishing store where they purchased machetes.

Mohamed and Chaarani have both renounced Islamic State. Mohamed said he’d been swayed by Islamic State propaganda, particularly IS videos. He said he hopes to study a Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies so he can learn properly about Islam. I’m not sure that’s the best of ideas.

Mohamed, Chaarani and Hamza Abbas are due to be sentenced on November 29. Ibrahim Abbas pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 24 years prison, with 20 years before he’s eligible for parole.