Victoria Police dismantles alleged $10 million organised retail theft syndicate

Exclusive: Victoria Police has struck a major blow against organised retail theft, dismantling an alleged criminal network accused of looting major supermarkets of $10 million worth of goods.

The alleged ring, of which 31 people have now been arrested, stripped store shelves to fuel a lucrative black-market trade, police said.

The professional network allegedly then funneled stolen goods to "receivers" for profit.

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Victoria Police Superintendent Matthew Baynes said the scale of theft was unprecedented.

"It's been one of our largest operations in relation to retail theft," he said.

Eighteen offenders part of the ring have already been jailed with 10 currently before the courts.

A Current Affair's cameras were rolling as the 31st alleged offender was arrested in a morning raid at his Sunshine West home in Melbourne.

It was the result of an almost year-long blitz on the group led by the Box Hill Divisional Response Unit.

The 39-year-old man, in Australia on what police say is an expired visa, allegedly stole $160,000 worth of high-end supermarket items in a matter of months, from electric toothbrushes to razors, vitamins and skincare.

He allegedly targeted numerous supermarkets from across Melbourne, Ballarat and Geelong, police said.

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He was charged with 68 counts of theft and 19 counts of attempted theft and is yet to face court.

Baynes, speaking generally about organised theft rings, said small teams often targeted specific locations they believed were susceptible, travelling long-distances to carry out the raids.

"People might think it's a victimless crime, but it's absolutely not," Baynes said.

"It impacts the business, but then ultimately that's passed onto the consumer — and that impacts working families."

He said retail theft was up more than 6 per cent in Victoria.

"The cost-of-living currently would be a motivating factor, but there are a range of others."

He said while "theft to order" syndicates were stripping shelves on an industrial-scale, the bulk of shoplifters were first-time offenders.

Ongoing crackdown on shoplifting and violence

Baynes said shoplifting and violence at shopping centres remained a top priority for police, following a string of high-profile incidents at major Victorian malls, from cars being driven through centres to organised machete brawls between feuding youths.

He said a Victorian government-funded operation to place police members and Protective Services Officers inside shopping centres, which began in December, was seeing pleasing results.

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"We've affected more than 1000 arrests, laid more than 2000 charges ... and we've taken 165 knives off people," he told A Current Affair.

He said police intelligence and proactive patrols had thwarted planned violence.

"We haven't seen issues of gang conflict, we haven't seen issues of pre-arranged fights."

Operation Pulse, which sees police brought in for extra shifts funded by the Victorian government, will continue until the end of the year.