Nine boys aged 15 to 17 charged with 61 offences over 18 carjackings in Melbourne's north
Detectives seized a firearm, tasers, drugs and steroids during six days of warrants, and all nine boys have been remanded to face a children's court.
Nine teenage boys have been charged with 61 offences between them over a run of alleged carjackings across Melbourne's north.
Fawkner Divisional Response Unit detectives arrested the nine during search warrants executed between 22 and 28 July.
All are aged 15 to 17 and all are from the northern suburbs.
The charges include aggravated carjacking, carjacking, discharge firearm, affray and intentionally cause injury.
Police seized an allegedly stolen car, drugs, tasers, an incorrectly stored firearm, peptides and steroids during the warrants.
The teenagers were all remanded and will face a children's court at a later date.
The charges relate to 18 alleged carjackings in Coburg, Fawkner, Hadfield, Campbellfield, Mickleham and Wallan between 1 and 10 July.
Eighteen in ten days, across six suburbs.
The first arrests came on Saturday 11 July, after a group of youths — some said to be armed — were seen fighting near Southbank Promenade about 1.50am.
Police moved in after the allegedly stolen Hyundai Getz the group was believed to be travelling in was spotted on Stawell Avenue in Dallas.
Five people were in custody by the end of that weekend.
This week's warrants took it to nine.
Victoria Police's own crime figures put the arrests in a frame the media release does not.
Children were the alleged offenders in 55 per cent of carjackings recorded in Victoria in the year to March 2026.
They accounted for 60 per cent of robberies, 49 per cent of home invasions and 48 per cent of aggravated burglaries.
Carjackings fell 5.7 per cent over that year and child offending fell 6 per cent.
Neither number changes who is doing it.
Police arrested 1,237 children in Victoria across the same 12 months, a combined 6,454 times.
Victoria Police has also said a clear link exists between organised crime and young offenders, with adult criminals frequently tasking children to carry out burglaries, car thefts and arsons.
That has not been alleged in this case.
What police have alleged is that nine boys aged 15 to 17 took cars off people at 18 addresses in ten days, and that a firearm, tasers and steroids came out of their houses.