A machete and a pocket-knife were seized during a high-visibility police operation in Wollongong yesterday, under Operation Ares.
Operation Ares is a high visibility operation in which officers use handheld scanners, or electronic metal-detecting ‘wands’, to disrupt, detect and reduce knife crime.
On Thursday 27 November 2025, Wollongong Police conducted the handheld scanning operation at Wollongong Railway Station and within Wollongong Shopping Precinct from 8am to 8pm.
During the operation, 83 people were scanned and 13 people were searched, a 27-year-old was arrested on Bellevue Road, Figtree after running from Police in Wollongong, while a 30-year-old man was arrested on Crown Street, Wollongong, Police discovering the man had gone to a supermarket from which he had been banned for life.
