Police search a property in Seabrook, Melbourne, on Tuesday. Photograph: Melissa Davey /Guardian
A 23-year-old Melbourne man will be charged with funding a terrorist organisation to help finance a US citizen fighting in Syria, after a tip-off from the FBI, police said on Tuesday.
Neil Gaughan, an Australian federal police assistant commissioner, told a media conference the man provided $12,000 to support an American citizen now fighting in the war-torn country.
The arrest of the man in Seabrook, about 19km south-west of the Melbourne central business district, came during morning raids in five suburbs – Flemington, Meadow Heights, Kealba, Broadmeadows and Seabrook. All related to the alleged financing of a proscribed terrorist organisation.
Gaughan said the man would be charged with “intentionally making funds available to a terrorist organisation, knowing that the organisation was a terrorist organisation”. He is expected to appear in court later on Tuesday.
Gaughan said seven search warrants were issued and more than 100 AFP and Victoria police officers were involved in Tuesday’s raids. They followed an eight-month investigation after initial information was provided by the FBI.
“We have gone early today because we were of the view that further funds were about to be transferred,” Gaughan said. “There is no information or intelligence that this man was involved in planning an attack.”
The raids were relatively low key, he said, because there was no danger to the public.
In Seabrook, a neighbour of the arrested man said he was in his mid-20s and worked in his father’s pizza shop.
“He was very friendly. He moved in to the house in December with his wife after getting married,” said Herve Du Euisson-Berrine.
Victoria police deputy commissioner Graham Ashton said the family of Abdul Numan Haider, the 18-year-old shot dead by police last week after stabbing two police officers, had received death threats over the weekend. The raids on Tuesday and last week’s incident were unrelated, he said.
“We did get an example where the family, particularly the parents of the young man … received some death threats over the weekend and that was particularly disconcerting to us and very concerning to the family,” said Ashton.
“This is an innocent family … they are in the process of grieving and they need to be left alone to grieve.”
He also said there had been several instances of racially motivated crime and called for tolerance.
More than 800 officers were involved in Australia’s largest counter-terrorism operation on 18 September at homes in Sydney and Melbourne. One man, 22-year-old Omarjan Azari, was charged with preparing to commit a terror attack.
Police search a property in Seabrook, Melbourne, on Tuesday. Photograph: Melissa Davey /Guardian
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