Police storm bikie clubhouse
-
Nicole Cox, police reporter
-
From: PerthNow
-
October 05, 2010 4:23PM
BIKIE RAID: Police and TRG officers moments after they commenced a raid on the Coffin Cheaters headquarters this afternoon. Picture: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow
BIKIE RAID: Police and TRG officers moments after they commenced a raid on the Coffin Cheaters headquarters this afternoon. Picture: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow
BIKIE RAID: Police and TRG officers moments after they commenced a raid on the Coffin Cheaters headquarters this afternoon. Picture: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow
BIKIE RAID: Police and TRG officers moments after they commenced a raid on the Coffin Cheaters headquarters this afternoon. Picture: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow
BIKIE RAID: Police and TRG officers moments after they commenced a raid on the Coffin Cheaters headquarters this afternoon. Picture: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow
BIKIE RAID: Police and TRG officers moments after they commenced a raid on the Coffin Cheaters headquarters this afternoon. Picture: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow
POLICE have raided the Coffin Cheaters' Beaconsfield clubhouse this afternoon in the wake of a violent clash between gang members and rival Finks bikies at the weekend.
Heavily
armed
Tactical
Response
Group police
and Gang
Crime
detectives
stormed the
Strang Court
clubhouse
about 3.50pm
with a
firearms
search
warrant.
"We are
looking for
the firearm
that was
used in the
offence on
Sunday,'' a
police
spokeswoman
said.
The raid
comes two
days after
Finks and
Coffin
Cheaters
bikies
clashed at
Kwinana's
Motorplex
Harley
Street Bike
Drags about
1.30pm on
Sunday.
Police
arrived on
scene about
2pm.
Three
injured
Finks,
including
one who
reportedly
had three
fingers
severed and
another with
a gunshot
wound to the
leg,
admitted
themselves
to hospital.
Yesterday,
The Finks'
Balga
clubhouse
was raided
by police
along with
Coffin
Cheaters'
properties
at Bayswater
and
Beaconsfield.
A feud
between the
two gangs
was sparked
in January
2008 after
notorious
bikie Troy
Mercanti, a
former
sergeant-at-arms
with the
Coffin
Cheaters,
defected
from the
club.
Mercanti,
who is
currently in
jail for
assault, is
now a member
of the Finks
- an
interstate
outlaw
motorcycle
club that
has tried to
establish a
foothold in
WA for the
past two
years.
Yesterday,
Detective
Senior
Sergeant
Jeff
Christmass
said police
were
monitoring
ongoing
tension
between the
two clubs.
"Mr Mercanti,
we know, is
a member of
the Finks
outlaw
motorcycle
gang and we
are
monitoring
his
movements
and we will
be keeping a
close eye on
that
situation,''
he said.
Det-Snr-Sgt
Christmass
said police
would put as
many
resources as
possible
into dealing
with the
matter and
any
subsequent
fallout from
the clash.
Two years
ago, Finks
bikie
Stephen
Wallace, the
boyfriend of
drug
trafficker
Holly
Deane-Johns,
was injured
in a
sniper-style
bikie
shooting as
he rode his
motorcycle
along Great
Eastern Hwy
in Wooroloo.
Another
member of
the group
was also
hurt in the
shooting
when he fell
from his
motorcycle.