POLICE last night made their 18th arrest in the nation’s biggest counter-terrorism operation, charging a 25-year-old Victorian man with being a member of a terrorist organisation.

Acting with a Victorian arrest warrant, NSW police picked up the man in the southwest Sydney suburb of Guildford as part of the joint state and federal police operation.

He will appear in Sydney Central Local Court this morning, with Victorian police expected to seek his extradition to Melbourne.

Police in both states have argued that there are links between the terror cells exposed by this week’s raids in Sydney and Melbourne.

Earlier this week, Victorian authorities said there was a another person they wanted to speak to in relation to the counter-terrorism operation. It is not known if it is the same man.

Police will allege that the terror suspects regularly travelled between Sydney and Melbourne to meet other.

The man arrested last night was a passenger in a car stopped by police on Henson Street, Guildford at 5.40pm. He was arrested “without incident”.

One resident heard a siren on the quiet residential street but otherwise the arrest went largely unnoticed.

He will appear in court as seven other men arrested earlier this week in Sydney face allegations that they conspired to make explosives in preparation for a terrorist act. The seven will not be taken from custody for the court appearance; instead they will make their court appearance by video link from the maximum-security Goulburn jail where they are being held.

The arrest came as federal police seized a burnt-out car believed to have been used to transport bomb-making chemicals across western Sydney.

The maroon four-wheel-drive was discovered abandoned and torched in the early hours of yesterday morning in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown.

Residents in Northam Avenue called the fire brigade at 3am, reporting explosive noises coming from the burning vehicle.

Miria Mahee, 25, told The Australian she heard a “whooshing, popping sound” from the burning car and heard footsteps running away. Ms Mahee said she looked inside the burnt-out car after calling the police, noticing “garden tools and a container of brown liquid”.

As police forensic and bomb specialists checked over the car before taking it away for further forensic examination, Ms Mahee was asked to briefly evacuate her home. Her aunt Kathleen, also in the house at the time of the incident, said she heard what sounded like small explosions coming from the burning car.

Police closed off suburban roads surrounding the burnt-out car for several hours yesterday while they examined the site.

They removed unidentified materials before wrapping the car in a plastic tarpaulin and loading it on a truck.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma confirmed the car’s seizure was part of this week’s counter-terrorism investigations and the arrests of alleged terrorists as part of Operation Pendennis. “The vehicle may contain items that could be of interest to authorities as part of their ongoing investigations,” he said.

The car is believed to have been used to transport chemicals and is understood to have been under surveillance by police for several weeks. The vehicle will be examined for any DNA evidence.

Its discovery came after it was revealed in The Australian yesterday that a chemical supply company in southwest Sydney had alerted police to a series of unusual purchases by men of Middle Eastern appearance. Purchases from two auto supply shops and a hardware store in the region were also investigated.

Yesterday, Australia’s peak chemical industry body said that state and federal governments had failed to implement national controls over chemicals that could pose security threats.