The secret signals start as soon as the magistrate leaves the bench.
asserted
magistrate → start → bench
It begins with a prisoner holding up a hastily scratched out message on a piece of paper so it can be seen on the video link: “[Name redacted] is in same area as you.”
asserted
Name → begin → you
In a prison video room across the city, a thumbs-up is raised in response, with the hand of his associate moving to make a sweeping gesture from his shoulder.
asserted
hand → raise → shoulder
The courtroom is oblivious to what is occurring on the screens, the lawyers in a little huddle discussing the case during the break and the police informant facing away.
asserted
informant → occur → break
The message, whatever it is, has been received.
asserted
it → receive → ?
The note now destroyed, the sender makes a sign with two interlocked fingers held up to his face.
asserted
fingers → destroy → face
It’s the opening gambit in what will be a multi-day conversation conducted only through hand signals, gestures and mouthed words between two members of the same street crew locked in prisons 25 kilometres apart.
asserted
what → ’ → prisons
Both have beamed in on video links for a joint hearing on a spate of violent crimes connected in part to the state’s “tobacco war”.
asserted
Both → beam → war
The duo is part of a four-man crew accused of staging the kidnapping of a tobacco shop owner, a home invasion to steal a stockpile of firearms, and making threats to kill.
asserted
duo → accuse → threats
They even allegedly planted GPS trackers on their target’s cars before launching their missions.
uncertain
They → plant → missions
The accused on the screens likely haven’t seen each other in person since both were arrested in August 2025.
asserted
both → accuse → August
What is being said is a complete mystery to justice authorities.
asserted
said → say → authorities
Police and prison sources, who cannot be identified publicly, say they simply can’t translate this bespoke sign language.
asserted
they → identify → language
Each time the court goes out of session, over multiple days, the conversations continue.
asserted
conversations → go → days
Some last nearly three minutes.
asserted
Some → last → ?
This is not Auslan, the Australian Sign Language used by the deaf community, according to an expert who reviewed some of the signs documented by The Age.
uncertain
who → use → Age
Corrections Victoria also does not offer Auslan courses in prison.
asserted
Victoria → offer → prison
“The sign language becomes part of the crew, so they’re all on the same page.
asserted
they → become → page
They generally do that sort of shit if they think they’ve been bugged or, you know, watched or listened to,” said a former organised crime figure and inmate in some of the state’s most high security prisons.
asserted
figure → do → prisons
“It just looks sophisticated because you haven’t seen it before.
asserted
you → look → it
Everyone’s got their signs on what this sign means and what that sign means among each crew.
asserted
sign → get → crew
“One might put three fingers up instead of two fingers and a thumb for the same thing.
uncertain
One → put → thing
And people think, ‘What the f---’s that?’
asserted
that → think → ?
But no one knows but me and you, basically.”
asserted
one → know → me
Occasionally, there is a gesture that seems recognisable – a hand making a gun, like a child would; a stabbing motion; a sign to make a phone call.
asserted
child → be → call
Eventually, the conversation becomes so animated that those in the courtroom notice, with a lawyer turning on the audio to warn their client.
asserted
lawyer → become → client
“Everybody can see your link.
asserted
Everybody → see → link
Everyone in the court can see it.
asserted
Everyone → see → it
Anybody online can see it,” the lawyer says.
asserted
lawyer → see → it
The signing stops, but only temporarily.
asserted
signing → stop → ?
The entire “conversation” is also conducted under the sight lines of prison CCTV systems inside the video conference rooms.
asserted
conversation → conduct → rooms
Meanwhile, across the legal district, two teenagers accused of committing a home invasion, kidnapping and torture connected to Melbourne’s so-called bar wars hold a sign language discussion of their own via video links into the Childrens’ Court.
asserted
teenagers → accuse → Court
The underworld and prison system are rife with these bespoke sign language systems, a way for criminals to communicate in code under the noses of authorities and blanket CCTV coverage, underworld and police sources say.
asserted
sources → communicate → coverage
It happens on court video links, between inmates in different yards, during prison visits and on the street, anywhere tightly-knit crews need to be vigilant about surveillance but need to communicate.
asserted
crews → happen → surveillance
Organised crime investigators say it’s almost impossible to get a handle on what’s being said when there is no common dictionary of signs to refer to.
asserted
what → say → signs
And it’s been going on for a long time among the top echelons of Melbourne’s organised crime world.
asserted
it → go → world
In 2017, prison authorities recorded a visit between then-jailed gangland figure Kazem “Kaz” Hamad and his brother Maytham Hamad after a murder that implicated several members of their crew.
asserted
that → record → crew
None were convicted of the crime.
asserted
None → convict → crime
Authorities could never make sense of the covert conversations, which were also even a mystery to one criminal associate who tagged along on the prison visits, but wasn’t a true insider.
“In every single visit when they talk, it’s not like plain normal English, it’s more like, you know, gestures, you know, they use code.
uncertain
they → make → code
Like every person has got a different type of name,” the associate would later testify in court proceedings, after becoming a prosecution witness.
asserted
associate → get → proceedings
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
