Police to match bikie invasion

HUNDREDS of police have headed to the Territory's borders ahead of a mass bikie invasion this week.

It is estimated about 150 fully patched outlaw motorcycle gang members will arrive in Darwin for what is the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club's annual rally.

More than 30 police vehicles carrying ordinary officers and Territory Response Group members were seen driving down the Stuart Highway from Darwin to Katherine yesterday.

Sources told the NT News the officers were being sent to the South Australian and Queensland borders to "greet" the bikies as they roll into the Territory.

Hayley Roddy, 25, of Parap, was returning from a Mataranka camping trip when she came across swarms of officers in Katherine about 11.30am.

"There were more cops than regular people," she said.

"The whole servo was full of patrol cars. There were the new rapid response cars, heaps of them. They were in full gear. Not just regular uniforms - in the full green gear."

Staff at the Kulgera roadhouse, 21km north of the South Australian border, said they had been told police were massing at the border in preparation.

By 5.30pm yesterday, bikies were coming over the southern border in small groups of six.

"We've had one group come through and another on the way," said a source who cannot be named.

"They're calling themselves the Red Devils."

The Red Devils motorcycle club has been named by some as a "puppet club" of the Hells Angels.

It's understood there will be a massive police presence while the Hells Angels are in the Top End, with one police officer for every bikie.

Police will meet up with the bikies at the borders and then they will ride with them as they begin their journey moving northwards to Darwin.