THE Hunter’s gang turf war has
escalated to frightening new levels after the Maitland home of a
jailed Finks bikie boss was sprayed with bullets while his
family still lives there.
The Newcastle Herald can
reveal a rival gang targeted the Chisholm home of Andrew Robert
Manners, the president of the Hunter-based chapter of the Finks,
who was arrested last week and charged on a string of offences.
Mr Manners is in jail but his
partner and her child were inside the Duskdarter Street home at
the time.
It is at least the sixth public
shooting involving bikie gangs since the start of the year.
It comes amid a hostile feud
between the Finks and Nomads in the Hunter.
Neighbours estimated more than
half a dozen bullets were fired during Thursday’s early-morning
drive-by.
“It was just bang, bang, bang,”
one resident said, adding they were amazed no one was hurt and
felt for the woman and child who were inside.
They likened the sound to
“smashing on a window with a bat” and many Fairfax Media spoke
to believed their own home was under attack.
“I feel for the family,” they
said. “You immediately think of your kids.”
A crime scene on Duskdarter Street on Thursday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers
Police are on high alert and
anti-bikie squad Strike Force Raptor now has an ongoing presence
in the Hunter as they brace for the fallout from Thursday’s
attack.
Senior police confirmed there had
been six public shootings and two firebombings between the two
gangs since January.
All are understood to be
tit-for-tat attacks but the underlying reason for the feud is
unclear.
Detectives say they are doing
everything they can to break a “misguided code of silence” that
has to date hindered cooperation with police.
“This is a targeted attack
between two groups who are undertaking this criminality,”
Northern Region operations manager Detective Superintendent
Wayne Humphrey said.
Detective Superintendent Wayne Humphrey says spate of shootings are targeted. Picture: Marina Neil
“They have a misguided code of
silence and we’ve got to try and break that down.
“These people are victims of
very, very serious crimes, despite the fact that they may be
members of the gangs.
“I’m always going to be concerned
that someone innocent might be injured, or worse, and that’s why
it’s essential that we break this code of silence down and bring
this type of behaviour to an end.”
While the reasons for this feud
are unclear, tensions between the rival groups did spike early
last year following a series of crossovers between the gangs.
The Nomads are the region’s most
established bikie gang but they have been dealt two significant
blows in the past month.
The first was the
dismantling of the Nomads’ Newcastle chapter headquarters on
Chin Chen Street, Islington, on
February 5.
The second came on Monday as
specialist police shut down the gang’s
Muswellbrook clubhouse.
Both clubhouses were
declared “restricted premises” by the NSW Supreme Court,
preventing anyone with a criminal record from meeting there and
giving police the extraordinary power to search the venues at
any time. The tough approach is designed to strike to the core
of bikie culture by breaking down the brotherhood between
members.
Life got even more difficult for
gang members with the establishment of Strike Force Darnay after
the February 13 shooting at Tenambit.
Police raid the Chin Chen Street clubhouse of the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang. Picture: Newcastle Herald
The strike force is made up of
locally-based detectives who have a presence in each police
district across the Hunter.
Detective Superintendent Humphrey
said the strike force would “do nothing else” but investigate
outlaw bikie gangs in the Hunter.
Mr Humphrey warned gang members
that someone could get hurt if the shootings persist.
“You have to tell us what’s going
on,” he said. “Eventually someone close to you, or even someone
innocent, could be badly injured or worse. It’s your behaviour
and your activities that are causing this.”
Mr Manners was locked up on
February 22 after a magistrate found the 32-year-old had
breached his bail conditions.
He will next front court on March
8 when he faces the charges of knowingly participating in a
criminal group, affray and common assault.
Police allege the Finks boss
became “aggressive and threatening” when
Strike Force Raptor detectives stopped the
car at Chisholm.
Mr Manners, who was a passenger,
“allegedly resisted before fleeing the scene” as officers went
to arrest him.
The Herald has reported on
numerous shootings in the Maitland area since January.
The first sign of major
hostilities between the gangs came four days into the new year
after the brazen firebombing of the Nomads’ Islington clubhouse
in which multiple Molotov cocktails were thrown into the
building.
About a week later a home on
Clarence Street in Tenambit was sprayed with bullets.
The same home would be targeted
again about a month later. In between those shootings there was
the February 2 drive-by on a Paradise Street home in Gillieston
Heights.
There was also a wild brawl
between members of the
Finks and Rebels in the car park of the Hunter River Hotel at
Maitland in December.
This feud comes against the
backdrop of similar shootings last year.
On March 30, dozens of bullets
were fired into a Wallsend unit,
possibly from a semi-automatic weapon, with the dispute airing
out in the context of a number of gang members “patching over”
to the Finks.
Once close associates had become
sworn enemies.