An allegedly stolen SUV rigged with cloned number plates and a jerry can filled with fuel has been intercepted as police work to stem a spate of gang violence gripping Sydney.
The vehicle seizure is one of dozens made in recent months by a NSW Police task force in an attempt to stop crimes before they are committed.
Police charged three people after stopping a Toyota Prado on Wednesday at Warwick Farm, in Sydney's southwest, that was identified as bearing cloned number plates.
During a search of the car and its occupants, officers found two guns, a jerry can full of fuel, $8700 in cash and a quantity of methamphetamine.
The 25-year-old male driver and the car's two passengers, a 24-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman, were arrested and charged with a string of offences.
They include driving or riding in a stolen vehicle and possessing loaded guns in a public place.
Police on Friday said their anti-gang investigators, working under Task Force Magnus, had seized more than 25 allegedly stolen cars since the operation began in July.
Many of the vehicles were bearing cloned number plates and carrying jerry cans in preparation for use in violent crimes.
The task force was set up following a string of gang-related public shootings across Sydney characterised by the use of stolen cars torched immediately after the incidents in an attempt to destroy any evidence.
The spate of tit-for-tat shootings began with the murder of drug kingpin Alen Moradian at Bondi Junction in June, over which two men were recently charged.
Police earlier this month seized a laptop thought to be used by criminals to clone number plates, which investigators said were used to stymie attempts to identify stolen vehicles.
The head of the task force, Detective Superintendent Jason Weinstein, previously said all of the recent organised crime-related shootings and killings had featured the use of stolen cars with fake plates.
All three people arrested on Wednesday were refused bail and appeared in Liverpool Local Court on Thursday.
A series of raids in Sydney's south and southwest on Thursday also uncovered keys to several luxury cars, among other seized items.
