Bikie war being fought by police on two
fronts – on the streets and in the courtroom.
After Thursday’s massive show of strength,
during which 280 officers raided 31 properties and charged 13
members and associates of the warring Nomads and Finks, police
will take their battle to eradicate the gangs and stop the
violence back into the NSW Supreme Court.
The Newcastle Herald can reveal
that senior police are seeking to impose the same tough
conditions on five members of the Finks that their bitter
rivals, the Nomads, have been fighting in court.
Police have applied for Serious Crime
Prevention Orders, labelled “draconian” by a judge, against
Hunter Finks members Mitchell Alexander Cole, Benjamin James
Main, Andrew Robert Manners, Matthew Maybury and Troy
Vanderlight.
The orders include restrictions on
associating with other gang members, moving around at night,
entering licensed venues and using encrypted messaging apps. The
matter is listed for hearing next week.
GOING IN: Thirteen people were arrested as part of sweeping dawn raids.
Gangs squad commander Detective
Superintendent Deb Wallace said police had been “relentless” so
far but would “reach out a little further” and use the
legislation against both gangs.
“We’d tried everything we already had in
our tool box … but the violence continued,” she said. “The
legislation was designed for these situations.”
She added: “Are they getting tired of
doing it? It doesn’t appear so and neither are we.”
Thursday’s sweeping dawn raids were a
massive show of strength: an unequivocal message to the gangs
that police were not going away.
Police raided 31 properties, between
Maitland and Muswellbrook, and arrested nine members and
associates of the Finks and four of the Nomads.
They were charged with various
offences, including participating in a criminal group,
possession of a prohibited drug, supplying a prohibited drug,
possession of a prohibited weapon and resisting arrest.
Police seized drugs, a taser, an
extendable baton, firearm parts, ammunition, a knuckle duster,
explosive detonators, a crossbow and five arrows and a python
snake at a property at Hunterview.
“We’ll be relentless in our pursuit of
stopping and oppressing this activity… not only is the conflict
between Nomads and Finks but it is now impacting on community
members and family members. Innocent people are now getting
caught up in this,” Detective Superintendent Wallace said.
EVIDENCE: A police officer holds up a Finks vest, belonging to Troy Vanderlight, during a raid at a home at Tenambit on Thursday morning. Mr Vanderlight is among five Finks who will front the NSW Supreme Court next week.
And police haven’t let up in their attempt
to incapacitate the gangs using legislation usually reserved for
terrorism suspects.
Police have sought to impose Serious Crime
Prevention Orders against Nomads members James Quinnell, Blake
Kevin Martin, Bradley Bowtell, Dylan Patrick Britliffe, and Kane
Benjamin Tamplin.
The five men have opposed the orders and
deny they are engaged in “open warfare” with the Finks.
Justice David Davies has reserved his
judgement.But police will bring similar orders against the Finks
next week and say the escalating acts of violence and
tit-for-tat shootings have left them no choice.
Documents tendered in the NSW Supreme
Court as part of the application against the Nomads reveal there
was a meeting held between police and at least one of the gangs
to try and resolve the ongoing dispute.
How the Hunter turf war ignited
IT BEGAN as an internal dispute between
three mates that would escalate into an all-out turf war.
Senior police believe they can trace the
Hunter bikie war to a single event two years ago when one member
of the Newcastle City Nomads “patched over” to the rival Finks
following a falling out with his former gang.
According to documents lodged with the NSW
Supreme Court, the defection of Zakary Ross in October, 2016,
was the “catalyst” for acts of violence becoming more frequent
and dangerous.
Over the next few months, the bad blood
would bubble away in tit-for-tat attacks, including one instance
where a Finks nominee on his motorbike was rammed from behind,
suffering serious injuries a month after Ross started flying the
Finks flag.
'RELENTLESS': Gangs squad commander Detective Superintendent Deb Wallace. Picture: Jonathan Carroll
Then there was the brawl in a Wallsend pub
where one Nomad was alleged to have pulled out a gun.
A week later, on December 9, 2016, Nomads
and Finks bikies again started brawling at a service station on
Thomas Street in Wallsend. There were allegations a Fink used a
baseball bat to strike a former mate of Ross, Nomad Blake
Martin, across the head.
The festering feud continued into 2017 as
Allan Arnold, who police believed was an unconfirmed member of
the Nomads but is now a patched member of the Finks, was
attacked by Martin and fellow Nomad James Quinnell with a
barbell at a Kotara gym.
The assaults escalated into firebombings
and drive-by shootings.
Shots were fired into clubhouses before
gang members began targeting their rivals’ homes and loved ones.
Ross, the sergeant-at-arms of the
Newcastle City Finks, was first. His home was fired upon while
his partner and two children were inside.
James Quinnell, a Nomad, was next – with
more than 30 shots fired into his Wallsend unit and passing
through into the units of two neighbours. Police set up a
Hunter-based strike force but the retaliations persisted.
This year, after multiple shootings on the
homes of various gang members, police were grappling with an
“emergency”, with the conflict in the Hunter now the most
“significant” dispute between rival bikie gangs anywhere in the
state.
That an innocent member of the public
would become involved was only “a matter of time”, a senior
Strike Force Raptor investigator said in an application to the
Supreme Court.
“The level of violence is now at the most
dangerous levels I have witnessed in this conflict,” he said.