Hells Angel member Wayne Rodney Schneider, right, outside court in Sydney, in 2008.
FAIRFAX MEDIA
Hells Angel member Wayne Rodney Schneider, right, outside court in
Sydney, in 2008.
Australian bikie Wayne Rodney Schneider has been abducted and
murdered, with his remains found buried a short drive from the Thai
villa he was taken from.
The body of the 38-year-old former NSW Hells Angel was found in a
two-metre-deep grave in roadside bushes near a Chinese temple in
Sattahip district of Chonburi province, Thai police said.
Thai authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of Antonio
Bagnato, 26, on charges of conspiring to assault and detain
Schneider, who was his partner in a Sydney fitness centre, Thai
media reports.
Thai police search for the remains of Wayne Schneider.
Police suspect Bagnato of being among the kidnappers who all
appeared to be foreigners.
Bagnato is also a former motor cycle gang member from Sydney who was
renting a house in Pattaya.
It has been revealed that former Victorian Comanchero president,
Amad "Jay" Malkoun, once considered the state's most powerful bikie
boss, was interviewed by Thai authorities as a witness to the
abduction on Monday.
Attempts to contact Malkoun were unsuccessful.
Schneider, 38, was beaten bloody and unconscious at his rented villa
in the resort town of Pattaya and driven away in the back of a black
Toyota Vigo pick-up truck about 5am, Bangkok time.
Security guards told police they heard a cry for help and saw five
men with scarves over their faces beating Schneider.
BLOOD AND BULLETS
Blood and bullet casings were found at the villa when police
arrived, local media reported.
Police said it was unlikely the body would have been found but for a
GPS tracker that was fitted to a black Toyota pick-up truck that was
used to take Schneider away from his house.
The vehicle been rented from a business in Pattaya.
Malkoun was quoted as saying he slept through the entire ordeal and
only learnt Schneider was missing from the police.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that
Australian Embassy officials were aware a body had been found.
"The Australian Embassy in Bangkok is aware of reports that Thai
authorities have located what is thought to be the grave of an
Australian man earlier reported kidnapped," a spokeswoman said.
Malkoun told the Bangkok Post he had been a guest in Schneider's
villa since Saturday and met Bagnato at the villa. The three men had
gone out drinking on Sunday but Malkoun went home early because he
was feeling ill, the Post reported.
Malkoun said he spoke to Schneider and the other man briefly when
they returned to the house and continued their drinking.
Police suspect Bagnato of being among the kidnappers, who all
appeared to be foreigners.
Thai immigration records show Bagnato has not left the country.
EXTENSIVE BUSINESS INTERESTS
Thai police and Australian law enforcement agencies have been
investigating Australian motorcycle gang members in Thailand who are
believed to have extensive business interests in the country.
Thai police said they found paraphernalia for taking crystal
methamphetamine inside the house Schneider had been sharing with
other motorcycle gang members, according to reports in the Thai
media.
About a month ago, Schneider reportedly arrived at the villa and
paid about $5000 to rent the villa for six months.
Police said they have made contact with Schneider's Thai wife, who
is in Dubai, which is also where Malkoun has spent most of the past
two years.
A source in Melbourne said Schneider was cashed up at the time of
the abduction after recently returning to Thailand with the proceeds
of a large drug trafficking operation in Europe.
The source said Schneider's new bank balance was well known among
Australian bikie gangs and that it was not the first time he had
been stood over.
Schneider was a convicted drug trafficker who had also been charged
with obstructing the Australian Crime Commission, as he failed to
give evidence during a coercive hearing.
LONE WOLF
He had been a member of the Lone Wolf gang, and crossed to the
Angels' Sydney chapter in acrimonious circumstances about 2008.
A court heard in 2010 that he had a Hells Angel tattoo on one arm,
which covered an earlier Lone Wolf tattoo, and a tattoo in Old
English lettering which read "Corruption" on the other.
Malkoun was the president of the Comanchero bikie gang in Melbourne
when it was considered the state's most powerful, lucrative and
dangerous.
He left Australia in mid-2013 for Dubai, handing the state
presidency of the Comanchero to Mick Murray.
He remained state sergeant, or second-in-command, and intended to
stay with his family in Dubai for less than six months.
It is unclear if he has returned to Victoria, which he considers
home, in the past two years. His extended family are understood to
still be based in Melbourne.
Police claim the Comancheros have gone from being the state's most
powerful bikie gang to one that is struggling for members in the
past year, as half their members – including Murray – have been
arrested.
That rise to prominence occurred largely under Malkoun, who became
state president in 2009.
Despite his vast reach in the underworld, including relationships
with corrupt police and being the subject of at least two federal
drug probes, Malkoun has been charged with only one crime in more
than 25 years.
In 1989, he was convicted, along with his brother Elie, of
trafficking heroin, and was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years'
jail. At the time, it was the largest heroin trafficking operation
in Victorian history.
Malkoun was recently spotted in Chechnya and was reported to have
established a Comanchero chapter in Russia by recruiting heavily
armed mercenaries.
He was also reportedly in Singapore and Sydney, where he was
rumoured to be eyeing real estate.
Schneider spent 18 months on NSW's "most wanted" list over the
shooting of a bouncer in 2007 although the charges were later
dropped.
It is not known how long he had been living in Pattaya, a popular
destination for wanted Australians, crime gangs and sex tourists.
- Fairfax Media Australia