“We don’t want you here.”

That was the strong, stark message sent to more than 130 Bandidos motorcycle gang members arriving in Caloundra yesterday afternoon.

Police, having planned well in advance for what they knew was the national annual meeting for the motorcycle gang on the Coast, were ready – and waiting.

A virtual ambush of the bikers took place half way along Caloundra Road, where the entire entourage was able to be shepherded into a side road – and where police undertook a thorough search of Bandidos members along with checks of their bikes and possessions.

About 130 outlaw motorcycle gang members were intercepted by around 180 police officers.

The intercepting officers came from the North Coast Region, State Crime Operations Command, State Traffic Task Force and Taskforce Hydra. Three Queensland Transport inspectors were also waiting.

Approximately 60 traffic infringement notices were issued, and investigations are ongoing in relation to drugs and weapons offences after a quantity of illicit drugs and a concealable firearm were located.

“Today’s operation response is part of Operation Foxtrot Divorce, which is a strategic attack on outlaw motorcycle gangs, not just in the Sunshine Coast district but right throughout the North Coast region,” police superintendent Ben Hanbidge said.

The huge police operation was intended to send a message not only to the Bandidos but to outlaw motorcycle gangs in general.

“They are unwelcome,” Supt Hanbidge said.

“They tend to instil fear into the community.

“They do intimidate local residents, and they commit traffic violations.

“By and large, the welcome mat isn’t out.”

Supt Hanbidge said the biker gang were organised criminals.

“The bikies do not call themselves outlaw motorcycle gangs without good cause – they are a very well organised crime gang,” he said. "Obviously they are not here to organise a pie drive.''

“While we cannot stop them coming to the Sunshine Coast, we can make it uncomfortable for them, and let them know we know what they are doing.”

Police intend to monitor the gang throughout the weekend – their annual meeting is not scheduled to finish until Sunday.

The motorcycle members are understood to be staying at a nearby hotel, having virtually booked it out.

According to Supt Hanbidge, the interception was one of the largest – and successful – of its kind.

“Certainly to my knowledge this has been one of the largest interception responses,” he said.

“It was not just Coast police involved in the operation. State Operations Command, North Coast police as well as Transport Department officers were involved, along with dog squad, explosives sniffer dogs.”

But the bikers appeared surprised when they were cornered, he said.

“I think (they were) – this was very well planned – we shepherded them into a side road,” he said.

“They had no real option.”

Traffic was banked up along Caloundra Road for almost two hours as drivers slowed down to see the drama.

The bikers were segregated for about an hour

 

Fourth bikie gang member charged in NT



November 9, 2007 - 5:10PM

A fourth man from an outlawed(???? DICKHEAD REPORTERS...) bikie group has been charged after he allegedly asked an Alice Springs businessman to withdraw a complaint against three of his fellow gang members.

Three men from the Finks outlaw Motorcycle Gang were charged with extortion earlier this week after they allegedly bashed and intimidated the local businessman.

The 33-year-old victim told police that the bikies - aged 34, 31 and 22 - broke into his house and assaulted him in August.

They allegedly continued to intimidate him and demand money and goods from his business until he reported the matter to police.

The homes of the trio were searched on Tuesday and they were subsequently charged with extortion, unlawful entry, assault and drug-related offences.

The men were remanded in custody to appear in Alice Springs Magistrates Court.

A fourth bikie, aged 30, will also face court for allegedly trying to stop the victim pursuing the complaint.

The victim told police that the man approached him at his business about 5pm (CST) on Thursday and asked him to withdraw the allegations.

The bikie was arrested shortly before 9pm (CST) and charged with conspiring to pervert justice and attempting to pervert the course of justice

Breaking the bikers

Friday, November 9, 2007

Adelaide's motorcycle gangs are feeling the pressure of the South Australian police crackdown and, if the premier has his way, they may soon be considered terrorists. By Adam Shand.
It's a warthat most bikies have no idea how to fight and are bound to lose. Public relations exercise as much as law enforcement, a national crackdown on outlaw bikie clubs is gathering pace. In Adelaide, South Australian Premier Mike Rann has threatened to wipe the outlaws off the map, take their colours and bulldoze their clubhouses.



In the past year bikie task forces have been set up in NSW and Queensland, while the Australian Crime Commission has promised a national approach for the first time. This battle is fought on paper by lawyers and politicians; the shots are fired in late-night sessions of parliament. If only the enemy would show itself, say the bikies, they could deal with it.

Brenton, 43, sergeant-at-arms of an Adelaide chapter of the Finks Motorcycle Club - reputedly the toughest bikie club in Australia - struggles for words as he talks of what is happening to his club. Then his anger spills over. He grabs a handful of the leather vest that bears his club patch.

"I'd love for him [Rann] to come to me and try to tear it off me. Have a go. Try to take it off me. That's what I would like. Not send his foot soldiers to do his dirty work," says Brenton.

Last week, Rann sent the foot soldiers in once more: 120 police officers in a dramatic series of pre-dawn raids on 25 outlaw club-related premises. There was a trumpeting press release about discovering underground bunkers, caches of illegal firearms and quantities of drugs. Yet when the smoke cleared, there were only five arrests for drug and firearm offences. That's nothing unusual, say the bikies. This is about targeting a minority group for disruption and dismantlement - convictions are a bonus.

"I'm looking forward to the screams from civil libertarians. Then I know I'm doing the right thing," Rann reportedly said.

Some outlaws are feeling the heat already. Five senior Hells Angels from Adelaide's north chapter left the state in the past year due to police pressure, but most have resurfaced in Sydney with other chapters. Meanwhile, the targeting of bikies and their associates has served to harden the bonds between the outlaws.

"Since the police have been putting pressure on the club, more people have wanted to join," says one 15-year veteran of the Finks. "People are seeing this war on bikies for what it is: the government persecuting people, and so people are lining up at the doors [to help]."

Says Brenton: "Our members have been dealing with this all their lives. There are old members who have had their teeth knocked out with [police] batons and [had] the living crap kicked out of them for years. And we are still here."

There is a confrontation looming as a suite of new laws seem set to pass through the South Australian parliament over the next 18 months. Soon courts will be able to restrict with whom outlaw bikies may consort and where they can go to drink. Unexplained wealth will be confiscated, police will get coercive investigative powers that remove the right to remain silent. Aiding-and-abetting laws based on Commonwealth statutes will categorise bikie clubs in South Australia as terrorist organisations.

A new class of laws will be enacted to cover "intimidation" of public officials and their families. In the first Australian example of a state-enforced dress code, police will have the power to ban the wearing of club colours and other insignia where public safety is deemed at risk.

Rann told reporters: "The new laws are aimed at trapping these thugs at every turn. We don't just want to try to run them out of town and turn them into someone else's problem. We want to lock them up - but we also want to break them up." Most of these powers are already available to police, but in tightly controlled form. Rann has complained in the past that the bikies' lawyers have thwarted his attempts to wipe out the clubs, hence the new legislation.

Adelaide's bikies warn nothing will break up the clubs; that Rann's new laws will simply send them underground, unleashing the darkest forces in the membership. Media reports indicate the premier has recently taken to having bodyguards in tow as he walks around Adelaide. For the past five years Operation Avatar has been attacking bikies, without any visible signs of success. Under Avatar there have been more than 1000 arrests and a small truckload of weapons and illicit drugs has been seized, but it has failed to prove any of the clubs are structured for the purposes of organised crime, as Rann has consistently claimed. Now Avatar is to be renamed the Crime Gang Task Force and its numbers beefed up by 11 extra officers.

Brenton says the community should realise that they will not be immune to this authoritarian government. "What they should be asking is: who will be next? Under the kind of regime they are talking about, being innocent is no longer a protection. Just being a member of this club will make you guilty. You have to prove you are innocent, even before you are actually charged with anything," he says.

Brenton makes no secret of his criminal past, which includes a three-year jail stint for assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, but he has recently invested in a small business with bank financing. "If they decide to come in here and confiscate my equipment and ask me to prove how I acquired it, then with all the legal fees and the disruption to my business I would probably have to close the doors anyway. They prove nothing and I am still out of business," he says.

But remarkably there is still a veneer of co-operation between police and the clubs, as demonstrated when The Bulletin attended the funeral of a club member last month. As the premier threatened to wipe the bikies off the map, police officers co-ordinated traffic lights for a 100-strong cortege of motorcycles headed for the cemetery. Members of the Avatar squad stood back respectfully, video cameras whirring, as Mick "The Fink" made his last journey.

At the graveside, the Finks moved Mick's coffin from hand to hand before they laid him gently down. The gravedigger was sent home: the members buried their dead with reverence, passing the shovels between them.

John Michael O'Brien, aka Mick, was not a senior Finks office-bearer. Many of the interstaters in Adelaide for the funeral only learnt his surname from the funeral cards. At 42, he was a rank-and-file "patch" member who had been around the club for three or four years. He had rolled his car at high speed into a tree on September 28 and was killed instantly. A father, grandfather, boxer and bikie, he left behind little more than his motorcycle and the colours on his back. It was sad for his father to hear one speaker say that Mick had been estranged from his family but found a new one in the Finks.

Brenton explains that, contrary to popular myth, men like Mick did not qualify for club membership through the commission of criminal offences. "You've got to get one foot in the door and work like hell to show your heart's here and your soul's here. If you get the respect of everybody, you get the other foot in the door."

The Bulletin met Mick O'Brien nearly two years ago, when we accompanied the Finks on a three-day national run from Adelaide to Mildura in western Victoria ( B, 21/2/2006). He was a "nominee" back then, serving a one-year apprenticeship. He was older than many of the Finks, but would serve the "patch" members drinks, look after their bikes, clean the clubhouse toilets - whatever the members needed done. He hadn't complained when Brenton asked him to double this reporter on his big yellow Triumph.

Later, Brenton peeled off the column, let the others pass and floated back alongside Mick at the rear. There were no words between them as they sped down a straight stretch of sunlit wheat country. There was a look from Brenton to his club brother that said it all: " These are the moments that make this thing work. The shit-storm of cops, politicians, rival clubs and internal politics just falls away. It's only us and the road again."

Brenton had "nommed" Mick into the club and now, two years later, he was burying him. And this after the club had buried another member, Dave D, last December following another high-speed crash into a tree.

The deaths are the latest in a string of dramas for the Finks since The Bulletin's last visit. A long-running feud with the Hells Angels broke into open gunplay at a kick-boxing event at the Royal Pines Resort in March 2006. Then in June this year former Gold Coast Fink, Christopher Wayne Hudson (now known by the Finks as "that defective motherf***er"), burned himself into the national consciousness when he was charged with the killing of one man and serious wounding of two others, including his stripper girlfriend, on a busy Melbourne street.

Hudson had been ejected from the Gold Coast Finks chapter. "We kicked him out because he could not abide by the rules. There is no place in clubs for this type of member. They bring nothing to us whatsoever. We don't want his kind in our club," Brenton says.

Hudson's misadventures demonstrate one thing: the greatest threat to club solidarity comes from within, not from police or politicians.

A voluntary ban on the use of crystal methamphetamine, better known as ice, in all Adelaide biker clubs has created division between different generations of members. Younger members are keeping secrets, hiding their ice habits from senior members who have threatened that any ice users will be severely bashed, ejected from the club and their bikes confiscated. However, Brenton did not join the Finks to police his clubmates. "I could be sitting with the king of England and not know about it. I could be sitting down with a crim and not know about it. It's not my business. If you see something going wrong, you sidestep it and go another direction," he says.

Ice is banned from the clubs for the same reason heroin was placed off limits 30 or 40 years ago. Junkies and ice users, say the clubmen, are weak, malleable creatures whose first allegiance is to their drug. Under police pressure, they will bring the castle down on their club brothers.

There is no doubt Adelaide has a crime and violence problem that involves bikies. Club leaders say they do not control or instigate such activities as a matter of club policy. There has been organised violence against rival clubs over insults and disrespect in the past, but the cause is rarely an organised crime issue.

While in Adelaide compiling this story The Bulletin, through non-club sources, became aware that young members of two clubs were hunting each other out for a confrontation. We were warned there might be gunplay and to stay away from the front of a club in Currie Street in the city's entertainment precinct. Perhaps coincidentally, just after 1.30am on Sunday, October 14, a 23-year-old man was wounded in the neck in a drive-by shooting outside the Gemini Gaming Lounge in Currie Street, which police later said was a targeted attack.

It's clear to this reporter there was nothing in the Rann anti-crime package that could have prevented this violence nor helped bring the perpetrators to justice. Nothing but tighter gun laws could have prevented this or the shooting in Melbourne with which Hudson was later charged.

In NSW, by contrast, Operation Ranmore is achieving better results without the need for new laws that curtail the freedoms of wider society. NSW gang squad chief Detective Superintendent Scott Whyte told The Bulletin his approach has been to target the criminals in the clubs, not the clubs themselves. "They didn't believe it at first, but now it's sinking in. We are going after the criminals," he said. Nearly 200 club members or associates were arrested in the first four months of the operation, with 580 charges laid, mostly related to drugs, weapons or assault. Using existing laws, Whyte's team is also pursuing cases where assets may have been acquired through crime.

Leading criminologist Professor Arthur Veno, of Melbourne's Monash University, says the NSW approach is working while the South Australian strategy is potentially disastrous.

"The [SA] legislation will be driven to reflect the removal of the visible presence of the clubs," he says. "That would be the worst-case scenario. There's a blowtorch on bikies that further coalesces the clubs and moves the moderates into the criminals' camp and they really are a problem then."

What the bikies fail to understand is that it's a dangerous time to stand apart from society. In several states, they are on the verge of being declared terrorist groups. In others, police are set to hunt them into anonymity, if not extinction.

But there will be no surrender, no negotiation, no turning over of crims to the police, no matter how hot life gets for the outlaws, they say. "No chance, no way," Brenton says. "If we did any of that, well, the club would be finished anyway."

Adam Shand is a reporter on Channel Nine's Sunday show and the author of Big Shots, the story of Melbourne's gangland wars.

Bikie chief on drug charge granted bail

November 07, 2007 06:56pm
Article from: AAP


THE Gold Coast president of an outlaw bikie gang charged with trafficking cocaine will be released on bail after Queensland police failed in their bid to keep him in custody.

Sava Cvetkovic, 38, the president of the Gold Coast Chapter of the Bandidos, was charged with trafficking cocaine on Monday following police raids across Queensland and New South Wales.

He was granted bail this afternoon after Brisbane magistrate Tina Previtera ruled police had produced insufficient evidence to warrant keeping him behind bars.

However, Cvetkovic, of Mount Gravatt, will need to provide a $100,000 cash surety to authorities before he can be released.

The magistrate refused a plea from Cvetkovic's barrister Tony Kimmins to allow his client to use property as a surety.

"The evidence before the court, and the charge itself, is such that the court considers the condition of bail to be a cash deposit,'' she said.

Under the magistrate's order Cvetkovic will have to adhere to a strict 8pm (AEST) curfew and report to police seven days a week.

The order also bans Cvetkovic from leaving the Brisbane area, preventing him from visiting his club's Gold Coast headquarters

Bandidos president faces court in Qld

4:01p.m. 6 November 2007

| By Evan Schwarten

An outlaw bikie gang leader has appeared before a Brisbane court charged with drug trafficking after being arrested with six others.

Sava Cvetkovic, 38, president of the Gold Coast chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club was one of seven men arrested during dawn raids on more than 20 properties in Queensland and NSW on Monday.

Cvetkovic made a brief appearance before Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with trafficking cocaine.

Prosecutor Senior Sergeant Peter Treloar said police strenuously opposed bail but asked for more time to provide evidence against Cvetkovic.

Magistrate Tina Previtera adjourned the bail application until Wednesday afternoon.

Queensland police and officers from the Australian Crime Commission, Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission and the NSW Police Gangs Squad swooped on properties linked to the Bandidos on Monday.

More than 20 addresses were searched in the dawn raids which covered Ipswich, Mount Gravatt, Virginia and on the Gold Coast in Queensland and Liverpool, Greenfield Park and Villawood in New South Wales.

The officers seized drugs including ecstasy tablets, cocaine, cannabis and crystal methylamphetamine as well as a handgun and $119,000.

Another five people are expected to face court in Queensland over the next month on trafficking and possession charges, including two who will be extradited from NSW.

A seventh man will face court in Sydney charged with possession of a firearm at a later date.

Cvetkovic is one of several senior Bandidos members arrested this year.

The president, vice president and sergeant-at-arms of the club's Brisbane chapter are currently awaiting trial for an arson attack on rival club the Rebels clubhouse in March.

Seven arrested in 'bikie gang' operation


November 5, 2007 - 6:55PM


Seven men have been arrested on drugs and firearms charges in an operation targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs in NSW and Queensland.

Earlier on Monday, investigators from the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) and the Queensland and NSW police forces raided 23 addresses in south-east Queensland and Sydney.

They swooped on addresses at Ipswich, Mount Gravatt, Virginia and the Gold Coast in Queensland, and Liverpool, Greenfield Park and Villawood in NSW.

The raids, conducted under Operation Bryher, allegedly netted an undisclosed quantity of ecstasy, cocaine, cannabis, and crystal methylamphetamine, or ice, as well as a handgun and $119,000.

ACC chief executive Alastair Milroy said Operation Bryher was part of a nationally coordinated crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs.

"Operation Bryher is part of a wider collaborative effort by federal and state agencies to target and prosecute members of outlaw motorcycle gangs allegedly involved in illegal activity, particularly the trafficking of drugs and firearms," he said.

"By combining our resources, intelligence and investigative strategies, Australia's law enforcement agencies are tightening their grip on those organised criminal groups who engage in this type of criminal activity."

CMC director of intelligence Chris Keen said the arrests would stem the flow of cocaine from NSW into Queensland.

"The arrest of these individuals has highlighted the involvement of outlaw motorcycle gangs in drug trafficking, and we're pleased that this joint operation will disrupt the flow of cocaine into Queensland," Mr Keen said.

A 38-year-old man from Mount Gravatt will appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday, while an Ipswich man, also 38, will appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court also on Tuesday.

A third man arrested in Queensland will appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court at a later date.

Three men arrested in Sydney will be extradited to Brisbane on November 8.

The seventh man, a 44-year-old from Liverpool, will appear in a Sydney court at a later date.

Bikies host students' party

06Nov07

A MAJORITY of Year 12 students from Emmanuel College held their post-formal party at the clubhouse of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang.

A number of students from the Carrara college, whose motto is 'excellence in Christian education', told The Gold Coast Bulletin the venue was kept secret until October 13 -- the day of their school formal at the Gold Coast International Hotel.

"The (student) who organised it had looked at a number of venues and we all had to pay $35 in advance. Then we were told on the day of the formal where it was held," said a Year 12 student, who did not want to be named.

"It was well organised and two thirds of the Year 12s attended.

"There were bikies on the door who had a list with everyone's name on it who had paid and they would not let you in if you hadn't paid and weren't on the list.

"It was a pretty quiet affair and we were told that anyone who played up would be thrown out because the Rebels did not want their clubhouse wrecked. A few guys were asked to leave."

Another student said it was a 'bit frightening' when they first arrived at the clubhouse, in an industrial estate in Indy Court, Carrara, not far from the college.

"But everyone was pretty wasted and you sort of forgot where you were once it got going. There were not many bikies inside the clubhouse while we were there," he said.

Another student described the party as 'boring'.

"But at least there was no chance of it being crashed, which was one reason we went there, I guess," he said.

Last year, The Southport School made headlines when more than 100 of its Year 12 students and partners went to the Bandidos clubhouse at Mermaid Beach for their post-formal party in August. The party became a political issue when National Party MP Alex Douglas and his wife, Cr Susie Douglas, publicly defended it.

Emmanuel College students who spoke to The Bulletin were coy about whether their parents knew about the bikie clubhouse venue before the event. It appeared most parents were unaware of the details of the party.

College principal Graham Leo said he and staff had no idea about the party venue and there would be an investigation into who was behind the party and who attended.

"We will be making it very clear to future Years that if parents or students organise such events, then the students will have their enrolment terminated," said Mr Leo.

In a letter to Year 12 students in August this year when arrangements for this year's formal were announced, Mr Leo drew attention to the college's strict private parties policy.

"In particular, parents and students should note that the college regards the Year 12 formal, and any gatherings relating directly to it -- such as parties before or after -- as having the potential to reflect on the college in a public sense," he said in the letter.

"The college specifically advised parents and students not to organise or engage in such gatherings.

"Consequences for breaches of the college behaviour standards could include a range of sanctions, up to and including expulsion."

Mr Leo said parents of Year 11 students had already approached him about holding an alcohol-free after-formal party next year and it was being considered.
 

Swimmer's ears lopped off in bikie-linked attack

By Phil Bartsch

November 05, 2007 01:00am
Article from: The Courier-Mail



TWO ears were missing but one of the Gold Coast's most popular swimming holes was still echoing with the sound of laughter and splashing water yesterday.

A day earlier, the hinterland oasis was the scene of a gruesome attack in which a man's ears were severed.

But news of the horrific incident yesterday failed to stop day trippers from pouring into Mount Cougal, a section of Springbrook National Park, to cool off in the cascading headwaters of the Currumbin Valley.

Police scoured a bush track for clues to the attack on the man, which took place about 2pm on Saturday.

A police spokeswoman said the victim had not made an official complaint and was refusing to co-operate with investigating detectives.

It is believed initial investigations have linked the violent attack to outlaw motorcycle gang members.

Several detectives from Brisbane's organised crime squad were at the scene yesterday, along with forensic investigators.

They cordoned off the bush track - a private road next to the national park for the search. Traces of blood were found, but it is believed the man's severed ears remain missing.

The victim, 38, of Elanora on the Gold Coast, was transferred from Tweed Heads Hospital to Royal Brisbane Hospital on Saturday night where he underwent emergency surgery.

He was in a stable condition yesterday.

Stunned visitors found the man, covered in blood and sitting near a picnic area at the entrance to the park on Saturday.

With no mobile phone coverage, he was put on the back of a utility and driven 6km to the nearest phone box where an ambulance was called.

Peter Immisch, 17, of Cabarita, in northern NSW, said he and his friends were walking back to their car after swimming at a rock pool known as The Slide when they saw the bare-chested man, who was already being helped by a couple of other visitors.

"We looked around and saw this dude just covered in blood. He had blood all down his front. Down his chest, down his torn pants," he said.

"He was just sitting there moaning and groaning, saying 'I need help'. My friend gave him a towel and he wrapped it around his head.

"I thought he'd cut his head open. Then I got told he had his ears cut off. It's pretty scary."
 

Roadside cameras to track bikies
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)


November 04, 2007 12:15am

SPECIAL roadside cameras would track bikies on the streets under a crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs being pushed by the Federal Government.
The hi-tech cameras – which can photograph up to 15 number plates at the same time – would monitor bikies while on club runs, fleeing from police or smuggling drugs across state borders, Federal Justice Minister David Johnston says.

The Federal Government is spending $2.3 million on a feasibility study on the cameras' use by Commonwealth police agency CrimTrac.

Overseas police already use the devices which have the backing of the Australian Crime Commission and the Federal Labor Party.

"The camera quality and supportive software is already advanced enough to identify individual numberplates in heavy and fast-moving traffic," Senator Johnston said.

"This system would keep track of bikies as they moved within states and across borders; roads would no longer be a safe haven for motorcycle gangs.

"We are looking at a national roll-out of these automatic licence plate cameras if the states and territories agree."

A spokesman for State Attorney-General Michael Atkinson did not rule out in-principle support for the system.

"We would have to see the proposal in more detail, how the technology would work and who would fund the initial infrastructure and ongoing costs," spokesman Rik Morris said.

The Federal Labor Party said yesterday it supported the camera strategy.

A spokesman said: "Labor will conduct a scoping exercise with CrimTrac participation to map out its implementation and will consult with state and territory governments concerning this proposal."

Senator Johnston said co-ordinating police action on a national level was crucial.

Other hard-line measures supported by the Federal Government include:

OUTLAWING bikie gang membership.

BANNING bikies wearing club colours or patches.

RESTRICTING the number of bikies who can gather at one time to eliminate bikie runs.

MONITORING specific members 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Made in China (from goods stolen in Victoria)



Theft of heavy machinery, including excavation vehicles like this, is on the rise.
Photo: Erin Jonasson

AUSTRALIA'S Beijing Olympians could end up competing in sporting facilities built with heavy machinery stolen from Victorian building sites and smuggled into China.

Police suspect vehicles and machinery — such as prime movers, steam-rollers and bobcats — are being stolen to order by bikie gangs and secretly shipped to China amid the frenzied construction in the lead-up to next year's Games.

In a well-organised, brazen operation, many millions of dollars worth of machinery is being lifted from industrial areas and building and roadwork sites across the state.

"It's happening all over," Detective Sergeant John Pinney, head of Victoria's organised motor vehicle theft squad, told The Sunday Age.

"These machines disappear into the ether."

Sergeant Pinney said China's booming construction industry had created a surge in demand for heavy machinery and vehicle parts that was fuelling the illicit trade.

"It's been going crazy over there for the past few years so it's a prime market for stolen heavy machinery," he said.

"It's hard to track these machines and they can be worth half a million dollars, some even up to $2 million. That's the kind of money you're talking about."

A favourite hot spot has been the EastLink road project — which is due to open next year and will connect the Eastern freeway at Donvale to the Frankston freeway on the Mornington Peninsula.

Sergeant Pinney said he was convinced machinery stolen from throughout Victoria was being used to build major sporting facilities and infrastructure for the Beijing Olympics.

Construction of the city's 91,000-seat national stadium is expected to be completed by the end of March next year, while the nearby 17,000-seat national swimming centre, known as the "water cube", should be finished by the end of this year. Other building projects have included a 27-kilometre subway line, the athletes' village, a tennis centre, a hockey stadium, a shooting range and a cycling velodrome.

A spokesman from the Chinese Embassy in Canberra said he had not heard any reports of stolen machinery being used on Beijing construction sites and he doubted the Victoria Police claims.

But Sergeant Pinney said it was all too easy for thieves to steal heavy machinery, such as prime movers, put them in a container and ship them to China.

If a machine was too bulky, it was simply broken down into parts.

Many had left the state within a day of being taken.

Sergeant Pinney said customs officers were only able to check a small number of the thousands of containers leaving Australia each year so many that had valuable stolen machinery hidden inside were slipping through the net.

Anyone with any information on heavy machinery theft should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333000 or visit crimestoppers.com.au.

Heavy-duty thefts

■ OCTOBER: Two bobcat skid-steer loaders stolen from Campbellfield sales yard. Value: $250,000+.

■ AUGUST 2006. Isuzu tipper with bobcat on trailer, a two-tonne twin-cab Daihatsu and a Hino FC truck stolen from a Caulfield North council depot. Value: $300,000+.

Council: Rebels compound OK

ANDREW THOMSON
October 31, 2007

THE Warrnambool chapter of the outlaw Rebels Motorcycle Club appears here to stay after its industrial estate headquarters passed a city council investigation.

The city's physical services director Neil Allen said a council investigation found the Rebels chapter had been complying with its Silverton Park planning permit.

The Rebels occupy shed six at the estate.

However, not everything is running smoothly for Rebels member Terry Thomas Hannah, 40, of Princes Highway, Port Fairy.

An interim intervention order against Mr Hannah was approved by Magistrate Michael Stone in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court on Monday.



The interim order, which runs until November 9, prevents Mr Hannah from stalking, assaulting, harassing, threatening or intimidating an alleged victim.

Mr Hannah is also not allowed to approach or telephone the alleged victim or be within 50 metres of premises where the alleged victim lives or works.

The interim intervention order does not list the alleged victim's home address or place of work.

The only other condition is that Mr Hannah not possess firearms or get other people to act against the interim intervention order.

The usual practice is that Mr Hannah will be served with the interim intervention order and can appear in court on November 9 to oppose a longer order.

Mr Hannah is already on bail after being charged with threatening to seriously injure and using threatening words to a Standard photographer.

Before that Mr Hannah was charged with threatening to inflict serious injury, using threatening words, unlawful assault and using a telecommunication device to harass in relation to an incident at the Gallery Niteclub.

His bail conditions include that he must report to police twice a week.

The Warrnambool Magistrates Court previously heard that in early June the Rebels set up clubrooms at Silverton Park

Bikies to be 'wiped out'
Article from: The Advertiser




October 30, 2007 01:15am

POLICE have vowed to eradicate bikie gangs from South Australia by forcing members interstate or sending them to prison.

Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Tony Harrison made the pledge yesterday after dawn raids on 25 bikie-related properties uncovered loaded firearms, cash and drugs – including marijuana crops inside hidden bunkers in the Adelaide Hills.

Assistant Commissioner Harrison said a new taskforce, which begins operations this week, would use tough anti-bikie laws being introduced by the State Government to take a "heavy-handed approach" to outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Yesterday's raids – which involved 120 detectives and uniformed officers – were the last to be conducted by the current anti-bikie taskforce, Operation Avatar, before it is officially replaced on Thursday by the Crime Gang Taskforce.

The new taskforce would have twice the number of officers assigned to the bikie problem, including forensic and financial experts.

"Police want to make South Australia a hostile environment for outlaw motorcycle clubs and their associates," Mr Harrison said. "We would like to see no more motorcycle gangs or their associates operating in this state now or in the future."

"We will be relentless in our approach to the illegal activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs.

"If that means moving bikies out of South Australia or into custody, that's what we're all about as a law enforcement agency."

Mr Harrison said yesterday's raids targeted four of the eight bikie gangs known to be operating in SA, uncovering marijuana plants, various loaded firearms, ammunition and illicit drugs.

One hydroponic marijuana crop was found inside two shipping containers buried on a property at Bird in Hand Rd, Woodside, along with loaded pistols, amphetamine, various knives and $82,500 in cash.

Mr Harrison said the buried containers were an example of how sophisticated bikies were becoming in a bid to disguise their illegal activities.

"Once again, we have seen a total disregard by outlaw motorcycle gangs to the law," he said. "They believe they are a law unto themselves." Premier Mike Rann welcomed the latest raids, saying the only way to deal with bikies was to keep applying pressure.

"No state has gone in as hard against the bikies as South Australia has," he said.

"We are constantly changing and updating the law in order to continue to put pressure on outlaw motorcycle gangs involved in organised crime."

He said there should be "no tolerance or sympathy for people who are basically drug dealers and manufacturers and who are involved in a range of violent crimes".
 

Drugs found in bikie 'bunker'

By Andrew McGarry

October 30, 2007 02:00am
Article from: The Australian



* Twenty-five properties raided
* Cannabis found in secreted bunkers
* Five people apprehended

POLICE raids on dozens of bikie-related properties in Adelaide have discovered caches of weapons and quantities of cash and drugs, including a haul of cannabis in an underground bunker.

In one of the biggest operations of its type in South Australian history, 120 police, including a group from the anti-bikie unit Operation Avatar, simultaneously launched early-morning raids on 25 properties in the northern and southern suburbs and the Adelaide Hills.

The raids were targeted at five bikie gangs, their members and associates.

Late yesterday, police said they had found cannabis crops in homes and secreted bunkers on properties, cannabis being prepared for sale, amphetamines, steroids, rifles, a number of loaded pistols and $82,900 in cash.

Police said they had found evidence of a clandestine drug laboratory and an unspecified amount of amphetamines at one property in Adelaide's northern suburbs.

A search team at another property at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills found three shipping containers, including two buried underground, containing cannabis plants, cannabis for supply, cash, and pistols with silencers.

"(Bikie gangs) believe they are a law unto themselves, they regularly carry loaded firearms," Assistant Commissioner Tony Harrison said yesterday. "They're traditionally involved in the illicit manufacture of drugs.

"It certainly does send very much a clear message to outlaw motorcycle gangs and emerging gangs as well that we are going to take a very heavy-handed approach in relation to their illegal activities."

Mr Harrison said the raids would not be the end of investigations into local bikie gangs.

"We want to make South Australia a hostile environment for outlaw motorcycle gangs and their associates," he said.

As a result of the raids, five people have been apprehended for offences relating to drug production, trafficking and illegal firearms possession.

Further searches are expected and more arrests have not been ruled out.

Pistols hidden in muscle car

29Oct07

A GOLD Coast bikie allegedly imported six handguns, hidden in the engine of a car and possibly destined for the black market, from the United States to Ormeau.

The weapons were uncovered during a raid on a shipment by the Australian Federal Police and Queensland agencies earlier this month.

Finks outlaw motorcycle gang member Noel McGarry, 34, allegedly tried to disguise the handguns as parts of a 1988 Pontiac Trans Am coupe which was in a container of two cars and a large number of motorcycle parts.

Authorities intercepted the shipment at the Brisbane Container Examination Facility on October 18 and began an operation.

The four .32 calibre handguns, one .25 calibre handgun and one .22 calibre revolver were replaced with replicas and a surveillance operation was launched on the container.

Mr McGarry was arrested on Friday after police raided a motor mechanic's workshop at Ormeau and then Mr McGarry's Helensvale home.

During the raids police allegedly found a fake passport and two other fake forms of identification from the United States.

Australian Federal Police's manager of border operations, Assistant Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg, said the weapons could have been destined for the black market.

"Part of that black market involves outlaw motorcycle gangs which are actively involved in firearms trafficking to support a range of criminal activities, including the perpetration of gang rivalry and violence which poses a threat to the Australian community," he said.

Mr Quaedvlieg said authorities were focused on stopping the illegal importation of weapons.

"This operation demonstrates the commitment of Australian law enforcement in combating the illegal firearms trade," he said.

"From the excellent work done by Customs at the border in detecting the handgun concealment through to the joint AFP and Queensland police investigation resulting in the arrest of the offender."

Mr McGarry was granted bail in Brisbane Magistrates Court on the weekend.

A surety of $20,000 was posted and he was ordered to report to police twice a week.

Mr McGarry will reappear on November 9.

He was charged with one count of importing firearms which are prohibited under the Customs Act.

The latest raid continues a long line of raids involving Gold Coast bikies involving both local and national authorities.
 

Biker jailed over gun
Thursday, 25 October 2007

A Bandidos motorcycle club member was yesterday jailed for 12 months after being caught with a gun.

Gregory Gray, 36, was in the Geelong Magistrates' Court alongside fellow member Ross Brand.

Brand, 50, had been charged with the same offence after police found the gun in the car he was driving at Whittington, with Gray as his passenger.

The charge against Brand was dropped after tests found only Gray's DNA on the gun's magazine.

But Brand was convicted of possessing cannabis.

Magistrate Paul Smith immediately discharged Brand from custody after the conviction because he had served time in custody since the offence in April until bail was granted earlier this month.

Brand was charged with being in possession of cannabis at the same time the gun was found, when police intercepted the stationwagon he was driving near the Bandidos' clubhouse car park in Boundary Rd, Breakwater, on April 20.

Brand, of Darian Rd, Torquay, pleaded guilty to the charge yesterday.

Police found the loaded 22-calibre handgun with live ammunition rounds and an empty shell wrapped in a cloth in the centre console during a search of the car.

Another charge against both bikers of possessing ammunition was withdrawn.

Mr Smith convicted Gray, of O'Connell St, Geelong West, of the firearms charge and ordered he serve a year in prison, with a non-parole period of six months.

But he later granted him appeal bail.

Gang cuts off man's finger for 'narking'
By LANE NICHOLS - The Dominion Post | Saturday, 20 October 2007


A court ruling has lifted the lid on the brutal tactics used by the Headhunters gang, outlining how a man had a finger severed by two torturers who refused to give it back, opting to add it to a collection of digits and ears.

The man, who was punished for "narking", had been given the choice of losing his finger or his tongue. The two gang members refused to hand the finger back so their victim could try to get it reattached.

The grisly details are revealed in a Court of Appeal decision - revealing the macabre aspects of gang life, and highlighting how members hand down their own form of justice.

Moments before the victim was made to hold a large knife over his right little finger and gang prospect Michael Robert Brooks smashed down on it with a sledgehammer, the man had begged not to be deformed, offering money to stave off the attack.

But gang boss Terrence Austin McFarland said it was "either his finger or his tongue", ordering the terrified man to take a hands-on role in the amputation.

Both men were jailed in September last year for maiming the victim - McFarland, 45, for eight years, and Brooks, 35, for six years and eight months. They appealed against their convictions and sentences at a hearing in July.

Justice Terence Arnold has dismissed the appeals, ruling that their jail sentences will stand.

The amputation happened in West Auckland.

The victim, who has name suppression and gave evidence under the police witness protection programme, said he had seen a man being beaten with a metal bar by a group of Headhunters a month earlier for being a "nark". The man was taken away unconscious.

McFarland later told him the man had died and asked for help in burying the body in a freshly dug grave.

The victim refused and was told to keep quiet or "there would be consequences". It later emerged the man had not been killed.

Soon after the victim was remanded in custody for breaching bail while awaiting sentencing for aggravated robbery.

He told a fellow inmate about the alleged killing and that he had been asked to help dispose of the body.

But the inmate is believed to have been a Headhunters member and news of the conversation soon reached McFarland.

On his release, the victim - who was not a Headhunters member but "socialised" with gang members - was called to see McFarland in a room under a house and challenged about being a nark.

"Mr McFarland said he was going to cut the complainant's finger off," court documents say.

"The complainant asked if there was anything else he could do, such as paying some money, but Mr McFarland said that it was either his finger or his tongue."

The victim then wrapped his bleeding hand in a T-shirt, went to hospital and later to police.

When police searched the house they found knives, a sledgehammer and various blood spots and smears on the room's ceiling and walls.

23/10 Fatal shooting gang house demolished

Blenheim's Lone Legion Motorcycle Club gang house, scene of a fatal shooting last month, has been demolished.

Men with chainsaws and sledgehammers took to the house on Saturday morning, removing the roof and walls. All that remained was rubble and a high fence, topped with barbed wire, the Marlborough Express reported.

Carl MacDonald was shot outside the house on September 15. He later died in Wairau Hospital from his wounds.

Lone Legion Motorcycle Club spokesman Vic Faulkner said there was no single reason for the demolition, which started several days ago.

"It's lots of little reasons really.

"There's been a lot of flack from people claiming the club was racist."

At a court appearance on September 24 by the four men accused of Mr MacDonald's murder, it emerged that racist taunts were allegedly heard outside the gang house before the shooting.

Aaron James Harvey, 34, Corey William Mackle, 28, Peter Christopher Tait, 49, and Jason David Warren, 26, have been charged with Mr MacDonald's murder.

They will all reappear in court for a pre-depositions hearing tomorrow.

MacDonald family spokesman Andrew MacDonald said the family, who lived in the neighbourhood, was pleased the house was coming down.

"Now they don't have to drive past and be reminded of what happened at this horrible house."

He said liaison between the family and former Marlborough detective Wayne Stringer, who offered to mediate between the gang and the MacDonald family to prevent further trouble, had led to the decision by older gang members to tear the house down.

Mr Stringer said the club's original members decided to pull the house down as a mark of respect to the MacDonalds.

"It shows quite a bit of maturity I think. It can only get better from here," Mr Stringer said.

Mr Faulkner would not comment on whether the property would be sold
 

Bikies 'active and visible' on the Coast

22Oct07

OUTLAW bikie gangs are 'active and very visible' on the Gold Coast because the city appeals to their illicit operations, says the chairman of a federal parliamentary committee into organised crime.

Northern Queensland Senator Ian Macdonald said yesterday that after hearing evidence before the all parties committee, he had no doubt bikies posed the greatest organised crime threat in Australia.

He said the Coast played a major role in that threat.

"The Gold Coast is attractive to the bikies for a number of reasons, mainly because it is on a state border," he said.

"The bikies know full well that they can slip over the border from NSW and conduct their illegal business by phone safely because Queensland police don't have phone-tapping powers.

"The only way we can fight bikie gangs is through a united national front and Queensland's lack of phone tapping is a real chink in that national armour," he said.

"I have been critical of the Queensland Government over this and it is something the bikies certainly take advantage of and our coppers are powerless to do anything about it."

He said the bikies knew there were many young people on the Coast, which with a transient population, meant there was a huge market for illegal drugs.

"The nightclub scene adds to this and makes the Gold Coast a magnet to these bikie gangs."

Senator Macdonald said much evidence given to his committee had been in secret.

He said much of that information was 'stunning'. Australia had seven different police jurisdictions, but organised crime, like the bikie gangs, had no boundaries.

He said as a result, a a Victorian undercover police officer who had infiltrated a bikie gang could operate with indemnity from criminal charges in that state, but if he had to go the ACT with the bikies for some reason, there was no indemnity for him.

"Different state laws, courts and penalties make it easy for bikie gangs to operate as they do," said Senator Macdonald.

His committee felt a revised version of America's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act could smash the bikies' stronghold on crime around Australia.

"But the states would all have to totally agree to the same uniform laws," he said.
 

Bid to crush bike gangs
Article from: The Courier-Mail


By Des Houghton

October 20, 2007 12:00am

TOUGH anti-racketeering laws used in America to defeat the Mafia are likely to be introduced in Australia to smash lawless Queensland bikie gangs.

This follows a warning from the Australian Crime Commission of increasing motorcycle gang involvement in the manufacture and trafficking of drugs, extortion, theft, identity fraud, illegal gambling, money laundering, prostitution, car rebirthing, arson and murder.

"Most Australians would be absolutely horrified if they knew what a deep hold the bikies have on all kinds of criminal activity in Australia," said Queensland senator Ian Macdonald.

Senator Macdonald is chairman of a federal parliamentary committee investigating organised crime.

The committee has recommended the introduction of so-called RICO laws, based on the American Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act.

The powerful Act gives US crime investigators wider powers to investigate and coerce associates of criminals and to treat gangs as single criminal enterprises.

"Because of the bikie gang stranglehold on organised crime, we need legislation similar to RICO, but updated to suit the times," Senator Macdonald said.

He said legal advisers had also suggested a toughening of old laws to outlaw consorting over the internet or on mobile phones.

Senator Macdonald's joint parliamentary committee recently took evidence into organised crime and the Australian Crime Commission at hearings around Australia.

He said some of the evidence, much of it given in secret, was "stunning".

Police told the inquiry that bikie gangs were now conducting joint ventures with ethnic gangs and had links to international crime syndicates.

They had also established companies to launder drug money and they were recruiting children to fence stolen property.

Queensland police and the Crime and Misconduct Commission backed the introduction of RICO laws and again appealed to the State Government to pass phone-tapping laws.

Veteran investigative crime journalist Bob Bottom – who also gave evidence at the Brisbane hearings – also backed the introduction of RICO laws and telephone taps.

He said the Gold Coast was a crime centre in Australia in much the same way that US gangsters flocked to Florida from where they ran vast criminal networks.

Jailed for keeping quiet, what a c!@# of a law...

Hells Angels 'dropout' escapes jail

Australia - A FORMER Hells Angels bikie was forced to leave the notorious gang this year because he had "mentally outgrown them", a court was told.

Phillip Craig Johns, 37, told the Territory Supreme Court yesterday he was advised by Hells Angels member Ian Hogan not to answer questions for the Australian Crime Commission into bikie gang corruption.

The builder was one of seven NT men to face court this month for refusing ACC questioning and the only one to take the stand.

All seven refused to answer questions about the Hells Angels and Blonks bikie gangs, drugs and bribery of a jury in a rape trial of an Angels member.

The builder told the court he "absolutely" believed in the information he was given by Mr Hogan not to answer questions and did not seek his own legal advice until he was charged with refusing to answer.

And when told he could face five years' jail for all nine times he refused questions -- a total of 45 years -- Johns said that he "didn't believe them".

Defence lawyer Peter Maley told the court that Johns was "not a sophisticated person familiar with the legal process".

Justice Trevor Riley said Johns had taken Mr Hogan's "second-hand advice" and claimed it as his own.

While Johns was now willing to answer questions, the ACC had "resolved not to pursue" the Howard Springs father.

He convicted Johns and sentenced him to a 10-month suspended jail term to be served by a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Darren James Wills, 42, Scott Anthony Eaton, 49, and Ross Ian Dunkerton, 52, were jailed for 12 months earlier this month.

Eaton's sentence was suspended after three months and the other two men's after two months served.

James Scott Parnwell Knight, 39, also had his nine-month sentence suspended after one month.

Paul Anthony Johnson, 50, and Mark Joseph Murphy, 47, were both given nine-month suspended sentences
 

Bikie in court on explosives charges



Reko Rennie
October 15, 2007 - 1:53PM


A bikie gang member arrested for allegedly possessing explosives and a pistol outside a Melbourne strip club has appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Rodney Mathews, 38, a member of the Black Uhlans, appeared before deputy chief magistrate Jelena Popovic on 15 charges, including possessing prohibited weapons, trafficking a drug of dependence and dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Mathews was arrested after police searched his Mercedes Benz coupe outside the Spearmint Rhino strip club in King Street.

Police allegedly found five cylinders marked "explosives" with wicks attached.

Police also allegedly found three bags of a white and yellow powder believed to be amphetamines, $300 cash, a pistol, ammunition, a silver baton, a can of pepper spray and nunchukkas.

Victor Andreou, for Mathews, asked Ms Popovic for the case to be adjourned for a contest mention due to the time required for the prosecution to test the powder found in Mathews' car.

"What I'm told, it takes some time, six to nine months, to have the powder analysed," he said.

Miss Popovic granted an adjournment for a contest mention on March 3 and extended Mathews' bail conditions.

He is ordered to report to police daily and has an 11pm curfew.

Biker empties hospital
Saturday, 13 October 2007

Patients and staff were evacuated from the Gold Coast Hospital as an enraged biker demanding immediate haemorrhoid surgery for his wife threatened to call in his club to "trash the place", a court was told yesterday.

"I'm the king of the Gold Coast and we don't wait in line for anyone," senior Finks member Richard Savage allegedly told hospital staff.

"I'm going to get 30 of my Finks mates and drink piss and party 'til my wife gets her operation."

Savage pleaded guilty yesterday in Southport District Court to threatening violence and wilful damage.

The charges stemmed from a fracas on July 8, 2005, when Savage's wife was in the Gold Coast Hospital awaiting haemmorrhoid surgery.

Crown prosecutor Bob Falconer said Savage became aggressive as the wait for surgery continued.

Mr Falconer said Savage snapped after being told by staff that operating theatres were full and it was doubtful his wife would be operated on that day.

He punched a hole in the wall and told staff: "You better call the police because my mates are on the way.

"We're going to trash this place. My wife has been waiting for surgery for three days and I'm sick of waiting."

Mr Falconer said frightened and tearful patients, some of whom had just had surgery, had to be evacuated from the ward, along with staff.

He said while the Crown accepted that Savage's wife was in "terrible pain" and he was frustrated, his behaviour was unacceptable.

Barrister Tony Glynn, for Savage, said his client had been under great stress but accepted his actions went "well beyond what was a proper and measured reaction to that sort of stress".

Mr Glynn said Savage had completed an anger management course and was so impressed he referred two associates.

Judge Fleur Kingham said she accepted that Savage's wife was in extreme pain and had been for some days.

But she said he had "simply lost control" and reacted in a way which was "firstly out of proportion and, secondly, entirely unacceptable".

"In seeking to alleviate the pain and distress your wife was in, you also caused a great deal of distress, including to patients who had already undergone surgery," Judge Kingham told Savage.

She accepted Crown and defence submissions for a wholly suspended 12-month jail sentence for Savage.
 

Bikie gangs link to murders

By Robyn Ironside

October 13, 2007 01:00am
Article from: The Courier-Mail



THE cold case review of an eight-year-old double murder mystery has taken a dramatic change of direction with detectives linking the crimes to outlaw motorcycle gangs, based in northern NSW.

Detective Sergeant Dave Nicoll said new information from the public had led to the elimination of all earlier suspects in the murders of Christopher Nancarrow and Anne-Maree Kropp, on the Gold Coast in January 1999.

"Information we've received in the last week has caused us to believe that outlaw motorcycle gangs certainly have links to these murders," Sgt Nicoll said.

"We're keeping an open mind of what the motive might be, but we're looking at the possibility of multiple offenders."

Before their deaths, Nancarrow, 27, and Kropp, 24, had moved to Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland from Murwillumbah, but regularly returned to the town to visit friends.

They were not members of any motorcycle gang themselves, Sgt Nicoll said.

The Homicide Investigation Unit was also following up a number of phone calls from the public, following the release of a comfit image of a suspect last week.

The impression is based on the description of one of two men, seen in the couple's carport about the time of their deaths.

"We would be keen to hear from anyone else who may recognise this person, as someone they know, keeping in mind this is how they looked nearly nine years ago," Detective Superintendent Daryl Johnson said
 

Dog disappears
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)


KATE KYRIACOU and ANDREW DRUMMOND in BANGKOK

October 14, 2007 12:15am

AN Adelaide man has vanished hours before he was to give evidence about an alleged Bandidos' crime ring in Thailand having told police of threats to kill him.
Erik Riemsdyk, who is from Elizabeth but now lives in Thailand, told of the attempt in an explosive 14-page report he prepared for Thai police on the gang's activities.

Mr Riemsdyk was going to testify against two alleged Bandidos members on the Thai island of Koh Samui when he vanished on October 4.

He was last seen when he checked into a hotel near the court, but checked out again soon after. Australian officials are trying to find the 44-year-old, who has been reported missing by his South Australian family.

The Thai court has ordered prosecutors to find Mr Riemsdyk in time for a hearing tomorrow at which he is required to give evidence.

Mr Riemsdyk, who moved to the holiday island 10 years ago, said in his dossier that Bandidos members had taken over the tropical paradise with drugs, prostitution and standover tactics.

In his report, seen by the Sunday Mail, Mr Riemsdyk said his accusations "specifically related to money laundering, drug dealing and smuggling, extortion, murder, terrorism, internet and media loading and networking to create an unfair business environment".

'"This letter is a formal request for assistance with respect to the extortion and attempted murder of myself by high-ranking members of foreign organised crime gangs operating in Koh Samui, Thailand – specifically the Bandidos Motorcycle Gang," he wrote.

The report, handed to Thai police in 2005, did not provide further details on the alleged attempt on Mr Riemsdyk's life.

The document was to be used in the case against two accused bikies, both from Europe, who were living in Koh Samui.

They are accused of being members of a secret society of extortion.

One of the pair, a former business partner of Mr Riemsdyk, has claimed the case is nothing more than mistaken identity.

"It was a motorcycle club, nothing more," he said in a statement.

Mr Riemsdyk detailed the names of 36 bars, 46 restaurants, 14 health spas, 74 hotels and resorts, 32 property companies, 40 individual properties, 10 dive companies and seven water sports companies who he says have links to crime syndicates.

He named 73 individuals – including four Australians – as involved in money laundering and drug running on the island.

One of the Australians faced charges last year and was held by police, but he was later released when the charges were dropped.

Mr Riemsdyk also named a former Australian policeman as being involved in the crime syndicate.

The ex-policeman said he had seen the two alleged bikies, who are currently on trial, wearing Bandidos colours, but denied Mr Riemsdyk's allegations.

"His report is totally without substance," he said. "The writings of somebody mentally imbalanced."

The former policeman was used by the prosecution as an expert on motorcycle gangs.

In his report, Mr Riemsdyk said he was forced to join the motorcycle gang after they took over his monthly real estate magazine.

He said bikies were creating fake land title documents claiming they owned vast stretches of picturesque national park.

They would use the land, the report said, to build 5-star villas that would then be sold or rented to rich clientele, he wrote.

From there, the bikies would provide what he described as the "five Cs" – "cigars, caviar, champagne, cocaine and c***" within the walls of the exclusive communities.

"What I have been exposed to is just the tip of the iceberg," Mr Riemsdyk wrote.

"I sincerely believe that Samui has been completely overrun by foreign organised crime and that the Bandidos motorcycle gang, along with British organised crime, are leading the assault."

A Thai news report claimed Mr Riemsdyk went to ground after he refused to transport several kilos of heroin for the Bandidos, but resurfaced to help police in the lead-up to the court case against the two men.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed it was assisting the family of a man reported as missing in Koh Samui "and have recommended that they contact their local police station to report the man as missing".

"Our embassy in Bangkok has been attempting to contact the man," she said.

Members of the Adelaide man's family said they had "no comment to make whatsoever" when contacted by the Sunday Mail.

Dozen charged after bikie club raids


October 12, 2007 - 1:44PM


Queensland police have charged nine men and three women after raids on outlaw motorcycle gang clubhouses on the Sunshine Coast.

Police said search warrants were executed on Friday morning at Bandidos and Gypsy Jokers clubhouses, as well as local businesses and houses.

A police spokeswoman said the officers allegedly located methylamphetamines - also known as ice - cannabis, drug utensils and weapons.

The men and women will face a range of charges including possession of a dangerous drug, possession of a restricted item and obstructing police.

They are expected to appear in court next month.

Gold Coast raids find 1,500 ecstasy tabs

October 11, 2007 - 2:49PM


Authorities have confiscated 1,500 ecstasy tablets after a police investigation targeting people affiliated with outlaw motorcycle gang members on the Gold Coast, police say.

Police raided four homes at Currumbin, Burleigh Heads, Reedy Creek and Lower Beechmont, with the stash allegedly found at the Currumbin home.

Each property had been the home of a person with known contacts to gang members, they said.

The source of the tablets were still being investigated.

A 27-year-old man from Burleigh Heads has been charged with possessing a dangerous weapon, possessing a dangerous drug and possessing tainted property.

A 38-year-old Reedy Creek man has been charged with possessing a dangerous drug, possessing a utensil and possession of illegal fireworks.

A 41-year-old Lower Beechmont man has been charged with possessing utensils.

All three will appear in the Southport Magistrates Court at a later date.

Bikie gang fears prompted shooting

Rebecca Tucker

11Oct07

FEARS a bikie gang was about to attack an East Geelong man's family prompted him to shoot from behind his closed front door, a court heard yesterday.

Grant Lynch, 44, who has links to the Bandidos bikie gang, believed his house was about to be invaded by members of a rival gang Death Before Dishonour.

No-one was injured in the shooting. The unknown people at the door left after the modified 303 gun was discharged, before police arrived.

The Geelong Magistrates' Court heard Lynch, who unsuccessfully contested a charge of reckless conduct endangering persons, had been at home with his de facto wife, Chantelle Davies, and the couple's four-year-old daughter when an unknown number of people began throwing rocks into their McNeill Ave unit.

In a recorded police interview played to the court, Lynch said he was scared for his life and for his young family during the attempted aggravated burglary around 10pm on June 26 this year.

The court heard the incident occurred after an attack on his home on May 4, when their home was peppered with shotgun pellets as they slept.

Police at the time were quoted in the Geelong Advertiser as saying they believed the attack was related to an alleged turf war between the Bandidos and Rebels motorcycle groups. The Death Before Dishonour gang, known as the DBD, is an off-shoot of the Rebels group.

Lynch told police he was a friend of Bandidos bikie gang member Ross Brand, who was on Tuesday bailed in the same court on firearms and drugs charges.

"I'm the closest person to Ross in Geelong who isn't a Bandidos member,'' Lynch said in the police interview.

Police found Bandidos memorabilia inside his home on the night of the shooting.

Lynch, a former concreter who has been unemployed since the June shooting, said he had never been a member of a bikie gang.

Mr Lynch's lawyer, Michael Brugman, also told the court his client had been a victim of an attempt on his life by a passing motorist who tried to run him off the road near the Thomson Reserve shortly before the June shooting.

Mr Brugman said Lynch feared for his safety and that of his family's after the incidents.

Lynch, who was not licensed to possess a gun, told the police after the shooting that the unregistered firearm had been in his possession for about a week, but he declined to say where he got it from.

Mr Brugman said his client fired the shot in self-defence and argued the charge against him should be dismissed.

But Magistrate Michael Coghlan said he accepted Lynch and his partner, who gave evidence in court yesterday, feared for their safety, but the public could not take the law into their own hands.

He said Lynch could not have known where the shell would have ended up when he fired the shot and was lucky he was not facing far more serious charges. The court heard the shell went through both the security and timber front doors but had not been recovered.

Mr Coghlan said there was no evidence to suggest members of the DBD were responsible for the earlier May shooting or that they were the ones who had attempted to break into his home on the June night in question. He convicted Lynch and ordered him to complete 150 hours of unpaid community work.

Lynch had also pleaded guilty to firearms charges, including being an unlicensed person in possession of an unregistered gun.
 

Hells Angel gave girls ice before assault: court hears
Article from: Herald Sun


October 08, 2007 04:00pm

A FORMER Hells Angels member plied teenage girls with ice and other drugs before sexually assaulting them, a court has heard.

Terrence Raymond Tognolini, 42, is accused of committign the offences against eight children over a five-year period from February 2002.

Mr Tognolini is accused of supplying seven girls - aged from 14 years - with drugs and then sexually assaulting them at his home.

The drugs used allegedly included amphetamines, ecstasy and cannabis.

He is also accused of sexually assaulting another girl from the time she was 11 or 12 years years old.

Today the girl's mother gave evidence to Melbourne Magistrates' Court that Mr Tognolini told her he was sorry "for doing what he did".

The woman told the court she confronted Mr Tognolini after asking her daughter if he had ever touched her.

"She started crying and said yes. So I didn't go on with it," the woman said.

Mr Tognolini is charged with 47 charges including rape, committing an indecent assault on a child under the age of 16 and trafficking a drug of dependence to a child.

The preliminary hearing continues before Magistrate Felicity Broughton.
 

Charged bikies quit gang
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)

NIGEL HUNT

October 06, 2007 12:15am

ONE of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang's most notorious members has parted company with the gang, sources have told the Sunday Mail.
Faoud "Fred" Chaptini was one of the Hells Angels North Crew's most senior and well-known members.

Several sources have told the Sunday Mail Chaptini left the gang last month, along with two lesser-known members, Pierre Aoukar and Mark Zerella.

The sources said the reasons for the trio's exit were unknown, but their actions and the timing were unusual – coming on the eve of the introduction of sweeping State Government legislation that will target individual bikie gang members.

"It's not a simple matter of walking away from a club like that," one source said. "Membership is taken very seriously. It would be unusual if it has been by mutual agreement and if that is the case, there would be a reason for it.

"There are usually only two ways out. A member either pays his way out or cops a hiding."

While the police anti-bikie section, Operation Avatar, is aware of Chaptini's move, senior police declined to comment yesterday.

Sources said the strongest theory behind the moves was that they were linked to the pending legislation, which is aimed at smashing the bikie gangs and reining in their growing membership. There is also a suggestion one of the trio could be moving to Sydney to join several other former Adelaide Hells Angels members now living there.

It is also known there has been disquiet within the gang over the level of police attention and publicity some members have been attracting.

Chaptini and two other senior members of the North Crew have been the target of intensive investigations by police and the Australian Crime Commission over the past 18 months.

They are facing ACC-related charges, the nature of which cannot be revealed for legal reasons.

In 1999, Chaptini was charged with three counts of murder over the shooting deaths of three rival Rebels members in Wright St, but the charges were dropped when witnesses refused to testify.

Chaptini, who will face trial in the District Court on the ACC matters in March, could not be contacted this week to confirm his exit from the gang.

Of the two others, Aoukar is before the District Court charged with blackmail, assault and theft. He will appear again on October 9.

Zerella is also before the courts on theft charges after being arrested by Organised Crime Investigation Branch detectives on September 4 during an operation relating to stolen cars.

The sources said an indication of their status as gang members would be whether or not they took part in the Hells Angels' poker run on November 3. The run will be the first to be managed by the new police Crime Gang Task Force, which will start operations on November 1.

It has been established to enforce the new gang legislation, the first stages of which are likely to go before Cabinet next Monday. It will then be introduced in State Parliament the same week.

The Hells Angels are still actively recruiting, with several members of the northern suburbs street gang Dead End Crew recently joining its ranks.

Likewise, the Finks are actively recruiting from several street gangs, notably the FYC.

Members of FYC have been linked to the Tonic nightclub shooting of four Rebels members on June 2.

Bikie expert Arthur Veno told the Sunday Mail he did not believe the timing of the departures and the new anti-gang legislation was a coincidence.

"What is coming in is very targeted and it will either make the clubs self-police and get rid of the criminal elements or go down," he said.

"The relentless heat will continue if they don't clean up their own act, and obviously they are.

"The criminals in the clubs are creating the problems, so I don't think it's a coincidence.

"I believe it to be a decision where on the weight of evidence, these individuals have either been asked to leave or have, in fact, decided to leave in full knowledge they are targeted."

Bikies 'set fire to rival clubhouse'


October 4, 2007 - 5:54PM

Members of an outlaw bikie gang set fire to a rival gang's clubhouse as payback for an earlier clash, a Brisbane court has been told.

The Brisbane Magistrates Court was on Thursday told the Bandidos gang members threw petrol and kerosene through the roof of the Rebels' Brisbane headquarters in Albion on March 27.

They allegedly used a wick to light the fire, which set off an explosion and destroyed the building.

A former member - who cannot be identified due to a suppression order - told the court that the attack was carried out in revenge for an earlier stoush on Bribie Island between the two groups.

Four Bandidos - chapter president Blair Raymond Thomsen, vice president Ivan Glavas, sergeant of arms Kenneth James Whittaker and John Debilla - are facing court over allegations they helped plan and carry out the attack.

Each has been charged with one count of arson.

A heavy contingent of armed police and corrective services officers guarded the court room where the men appeared on Thursday, the first day of their committal hearing.

The former Bandidos member told the court the group had discussed on several occasions the possibility of burning down the clubhouse.

He said an earlier attempt did not eventuate because members got cold feet.

On the night of the attack, the men loaded four cans of petrol into the boot of a car and drove to the clubhouse, the court was told.

The former member said they made sure the surrounding homes were empty before they lit the fire because "no one wanted anyone to die".

They allegedly hoisted the cans of petrol onto the roof and emptied them into the clubhouse before setting it alight.

They then allegedly fled the scene.

The committal hearing continues.
 

Police wankers target bikies
Article from: The Sunday Mail (Qld)

Paula Doneman

September 30, 2007 12:00am

POLICE turned up the heat on warring bikie gangs yesterday, setting up a roadblock at a bike and tattoo show at Caboolture, just north of Brisbane.
Members of the Rebels bikie gang attending their annual show were checked for drugs and driver's licences, and breathalysed at the roadside.

A contingent of Caboolture police, officers with drug detection dogs, and members of the public response safety team conducted the checks.

Before the roadblock was set up, police made similar checks inside the annual show at the Sundowner Hotel.

The crackdown follows Sunshine Coast police raids on members and associates of the Rebels three days ago during which weapons were seized.

Caboolture district inspector Michael Brady said the roadblock was to ensure public safety following a violent roadside clash between the Rebels and Bandidos at Ningi near Bribie Island in February.

"We deployed sufficient resources so that everyone visiting the show would enjoy themselves in a peaceful environment," he said.

Insp Brady said police had not found any drugs and no one had been arrested by yesterday afternoon.

He rejected Rebels' claims that the roadblock would deter people from attending the show, which raises funds for the Leukaemia Foundation.

"I wish them well in their fundraising . . . the safer we can make these sorts of events, the more people that turn up, the more people will donate."

Gloria Ball, the Leukaemia Foundation's Redcliffe branch president, said the show raised much-needed funds; she felt the police presence made it harder for the Rebels.

Condolences to his Brothers and other family.
Dead Fink had gun in car
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)



September 30, 2007 12:15am

AN ARMED Finks motorcycle gang member has been killed in a car crash north of Adelaide.
The fatal smash occurred on the same day a dramatic police raid on the home of another Finks member forced a primary school to be locked down.

Police confirmed a gun was discovered in the car wreckage after the crash, which occurred on Friday about 5pm.

The bikie, 42, whose name has not been released, died when the car he was driving veered out of control and slammed into a tree at Mallala.

Sources said the dead man was a rank and file member of the club. A scrawled note was left at the scene yesterday, apparently from fellow Finks members, paying tribute to the dead man.

"Micko. Going to be deeply missed. In our hearts for eva (sic). FMC," the note read.

Mourners had also hung a black T-shirt on the tree: "I own a bike not just a T-shirt," read the words on the garment. The Sunday Mail understands the gun found in the vehicle was a pistol and it was in the car's glove box. Finks colours were found in the wreck.

The car rolled before slamming into the tree, with the force of the impact so great the tree was knocked over.

A medical retrieval team was called but the man could not be saved.

A police spokesman said: "A car travelling east on Calumba Rd crashed into a tree, killing the 42-year-old male driver."

The bikie's death took South Australia's road toll to 86, compared with 95 at the same time last year.

Earlier on Friday, Avatar and STAR Group officers staged a dramatic raid on the Trott Park home of another Finks member.

The raid, unrelated to the crash, forced a nearby primary school to be locked down as officers stormed the home.

Officers believed a Finks member was inside the house and in possession of a handgun, police revealed.

They cordoned the house off when the 26-year-old bikie – who is on a home-detention order and wearing a security bracelet – did not respond.

Police entered the property, but the man was not home. A loaded semi-automatic handgun and a small number of cannabis plants were seized.

Police were still searching for the man. They would not reveal the charges he was facing.

Bikers running Sydney pubs, clubs: Police
Friday, 28 September 2007
 

NSW police say they are concerned about links some Sydney pubs and clubs have to outlaw motorcycle clubs.

Detective Inspector Whyte says club members are involved in running more than 10 licensed premises in Sydney.

"We've had a look at the involvement of outlaw motorcycle gang members in the liquor industry, the security industry, the tow-truck industry," he said.

"We are taking action against a number of outlaw motorcycle gang members to have some of their licences revoked because it is my view that they are not fit and proper persons to be part of that industry."

He says the role of bikie groups in the drug trade should not be overlooked either.

"It's our contention that motorcycle outlaw gangs are central to the manufacture and distribution of amphetamines in this state," he said.

Kirby pans WA anti-gang laws
28th September 2007, 7:00 WST


High Court Justice Michael Kirby has criticised WA’s anti-gang laws during a hearing into whether it was constitutional for police to demolish fortifications at the Maddington clubhouse of the Gypsy Jokers bikie gang.

The notorious gang, which has been linked to bombings and whose former boss is in jail for drug trafficking, yesterday took its fight to the High Court in Canberra to stop police tearing down concrete walls, steel doors and security cameras at their clubhouse.

Two gang members sat in court, donned reading glasses and made notes on legal papers as their lawyer, David Grace, told the Full Bench the process that allowed the WA judge to issue the tear-down order in 2004 was unconstitutional because key evidence tendered by the WA Police Commissioner in requesting the order remained top secret and could not be viewed by either defence lawyers or the bikies.

Justice Kirby hit out at the process that barred the viewing of the evidence, saying it was another example of State and Federal governments overriding court procedures.

He questioned whether it was similar to new Federal anti-terror laws that allowed trials to be held in closed courts and which prevented secret evidence obtained by agencies such as ASIO being shown to defendants.

“This is part of the growing encroachment of the executive on what can be revealed in judicial proceedings,” Justice Kirby said.

He said the “envelope was always being pushed” by governments in the area of secrecy. “You have to look down the years in this place . . . what comes next?” he said.

David Jackson, for the police , said officers had discovered a secret room in the clubhouse when it was first raided three years ago. The room contained ammunition and storage shelves.

The tear-down notice was nothing extraordinary because councils issued similar zoning notices requiring alterations to buildings all the time, Mr Jackson said. Comparisons with antiterror laws were unfair because the WA fortification laws did not deprive anyone of their liberty.

The WA laws also allow a judge to question why police want evidence to remain secret when applying for the order and to knock back the request if they think the reasoning is not good enough, Mr Jackson said.

Yesterday’s argument followed a 2-1 ruling in favour of the Police Commissioner in February by the WA Court of Appeal. The High Court granted the gang leave to appeal in June.

During that application, WA Solicitor-General Robert Meadows said it was open to the WA Parliament to pass the legislation and the principles of law had been applied correctly when the issue was considered by the Court of Appeal.

The sort of information which would be withheld was likely to relate to details obtained from an informant or to an inquiry which was still in progress, he said.

The final hearing will be held today, with a judgment to be handed down within several months.

Police raids fail to stall bikie gangs' recruitment drive


Dan Box | September 28, 2007

POLICE have conceded that a co-ordinated campaign of raids and arrests has failed to cripple outlaw motorcycle gangs in NSW, which are continuing to recruit new members.

Despite raids on 11 clubhouses and the arrest of 192 people over the past four months, police believe there are still up to 1800 gang members and associates in the state, and that number has increased by 10 per cent in the past two years.

Gangs Squad commander Detective Superintendent Scott Whyte said there were 18 gangs across NSW and several of these were aggressively recruiting new members.

"Particularly in country areas, they are looking to draw members of the community into the clubs. On the face of it, it is to buy beer, but my view is that it goes beyond that to buying drugs and to recruit them," Superintendent Whyte said.

Operation Ranmore, which combines various police squads across the state, was launched in May to target the gangs following a series of retribution attacks between them.

It was possible the increase in numbers could be the result of this renewed effort to identify gang members, rather than the fact these gangs were swelling in size, Superintendent Whyte said.

"It's my view that continued pressure by us on outlaw motorcycle gangs will ultimately result in a reduction of members."
 

Good luck with this...

Gypsy Jokers challenge cops on 'unfair' law
Article from: The Australian


By Paul Maley

September 28, 2007 03:00am

THE Gypsy Jokers have taken the West Australian Police Commissioner to the High Court over a law that denies the motorcycle gang access to the secret information behind an order to dismantle a fortification around its Perth compound.

The Gypsy Jokers are contesting the 2003 West Australian Corruption and Crime Commission Act passed after the car bomb murder of former police detective commander Don Hancock and his companion, Lou Lewis.

It allows the commissioner to base his order on confidential information, such as that from an informant, which the gang says impinges on the integrity of thecourts.

The counsel for the Gypsy Jokers, David Grace QC, said although judges could review the evidence, the defendants could not, and the judges could not disclose it.

In 2004, the gang was issued with a fortification warning notice to dismantle a concrete wall around its clubhouse, the first time such an order had been given in Western Australia.

The gang appealed against the notice to the West Australian Supreme Court, which referred it to the West Australian Court ofAppeal.

Mr Grace argued that the Act made it impossible for the club to contest the order as it did not have access to all the information on which it was based. This constituted a breach of natural justice, which in turn violated the institutional integrity of the courts, he said.

The counsel for the commissioner, David Jackson QC, said police would still have to satisfy judges that the evidence should remainsecret.

The bikies have argued the Act contradicts Chapter III of the Constitution, which prohibits states from legislating to impose procedures on state courts incompatible with the judicial power of the commonwealth.

The case prompted High Court judge Michael Kirby to remark that governments were increasingly dictating to the courts what they could and could not reveal about their proceedings. "The envelope is being pushed," Justice Kirby said.

"You've got to look down the years in this place what comesnext."

Outside the court, Dean Adams, who identified himself as a member of the Gypsy Jokers, said the West Australian Police were "out of control". He said the fortification was there to prevent police harassment.

"(The police) drive by and shine torches into your front window, so we put a fence up," Mr Adams said. "They got the s..ts and said we broke the law, which they made up."

Anti-fortification laws are in place in other states, including Victoria and South Australia.

The hearing before the full bench of the High Court continues.

Bikies take fortification law plea to High Court
27th September 2007, 6:30 WST

The Gypsy Jokers bikie gang will today argue its case in Australia’s highest court against WA’s controversial anti-fortification laws in a bid to stop police knocking down their Maddington clubhouse.

Three years after the Jokers became the first target of the powerful laws when police issued the gang with a demand to tear down a concrete wall and security cameras and modify the doors to the clubhouse, two gang members are expected to attend the High Court in Canberra.

The High Court was called in to adjudicate on the Gypsy Jokers’ claim that the laws were unconstitutional. Under the laws, secret evidence can be used to get an order to remove heavy fortification from clubhouses.

The bikies claim they cannot argue the case without knowing what evidence the Police Commissioner used to make his decision, the court is also kept in the dark and the laws were therefore constitutionally invalid.

The WA Court of Appeal ruled 2-1 in favour of the Police Commissioner in February, but the High Court granted the gang leave to appeal in June.

During that application for leave to appeal to the High Court, WA Solicitor-General Robert Meadows said it was open to the WA Parliament to pass the legislation and the principles of law had been applied correctly when the issue was considered by the Court of Appeal. The sort of information which would be withheld was likely to relate to details obtained from an informant or to an inquiry which was still in progress, he said.

Justice Michael Kirby replied that the legislation gave the Commissioner of Police an opportunity to control the Supreme Court and have the last say. “That is something new,” he said. “It does not look good. It looks like the Commissioner is standing over the court.

NSW bikies crackdown yields 200 arrests


September 27, 2007 - 1:19PM

A crackdown on motorcycle gangs in NSW has led to almost 200 arrests and nearly 600 criminal charges in just four months.

Authorities have declared the initial phase of NSW Police's Operation Ranmore a success.

Police Minister David Campbell said it also showed the effectiveness of new powers granted to police a year ago.

"The NSW Police Gangs Squad has sent a clear message to outlaw bikies that violence, intimidation, drugs and stand-over tactics have no place in NSW," Mr Campbell said.

"The great success of the operation and hard work of police is evident in these strong results."

Police have arrested 192 gang members, including gang chapter presidents and sergeants-at-arms, across the state as part of the operation.

Among the charges, police have laid 152 for drugs offences, 102 for assault, 47 for firearms, 24 for fraud and two for sexual assault.

Police were given new powers to enter fortified club houses and lay charges for participating in a criminal group.

Forty-eight gang members have been charged for participating, while 11 charges have been laid for requiring a child to carry out or assist in criminal activity.

Racial taunts before shooting
The Marlborough Express | Tuesday, 25 September 2007
WARWICK BLACKLER/The Marlborough Express

 

ACCUSED: From left Peter Christopher Tait, 49, Jason David Warren, 26, and Corey William Mackle, 28, have been charged with the murder of Carl MacDonald, along with Aaron James Harvey, 34.


Cries of "shoot the blacks, shoot the niggers" were allegedly heard outside the Lone Legion gang headquarters prior to Carl MacDonald being fatally shot in the stomach, a Blenheim court heard yesterday.

Three more men were charged with murdering Carl Edward MacDonald on September 15 when they appeared in court yesterday.

Corey William Mackle, 28, Peter Christopher Tait, 49, and Jason David Warren, 26, entered no pleas when they appeared before Judge Tony Zohrab. They were charged together with Aaron James Harvey, 34, accused last week of shooting Mr MacDonald, 39.

Mackle's application for bail was denied by Judge Zohrab. The other three accused did not apply for bail. They will all reappear in court for a pre-depositions hearing on October 23.

The four men each face a second charge of unlawful assembly outside the Lone Legion Motorcycle Club gang house on Gasgcoine St, Riversdale, where Mr MacDonald was shot. Two others appearing in court yesterday charged with unlawful assembly, Gregory Ferguson Cleland, 36, and Charmaine Fay, 22, were granted bail until the pre-depositions hearing.

Yesterday Judge Zohrab outlined the alleged events leading up to Mr MacDonald's murder.

About 9am on September 15 all six people before the court were seen outside the gang headquarters on Gasgcoine St.

When a car drove past, rocks were thrown at the vehicle. One smashed the car's windscreen.

The damaged vehicle was taken to Elizabeth St and the driver returned to the gang headquarters on foot with two of his brothers. The defendants retreated into the confines of the motorcycle club property; verbal abuse was exchanged and then weapons were produced including a machete.

Harvey held a .22 calibre rifle and, allegedly encouraged by Tait to: "shoot the blacks", "shoot the niggers", he fired it. Mr MacDonald was hit in the stomach and he later died of his wound at Wairau Hospital.

In court yesterday defence counsel Philip Watson sought bail for Mackle, an apprentice builder. Mr Watson reminded the court that his client was innocent until proven guilty, but police prosecutor Sergeant Steve Frost said evidence against Mackle was quite strong.

Approving bail would also put both the community's and Mackle's personal safety at risk, Mr Frost said. Blenheim was a small, close-knit community, and the situation was still quite "volatile", he said.

Mackle lived at the gang headquarters, was a member of the gang and was wearing his Lone Legion Motorcycle Club patch when arrested, Judge Zohrab said.

Ongoing disharmony between the gang and the victim's associates meant independent witnesses could be easily intimidated if the key suspects were granted bail, he said.

Bail was not sought for Warren and Tait by their counsel, Michael Hardy-Jones.

Witnesses had identified Cleland as being inside the property when the altercation took place and it was said he even went outside before the shooting to tell the victim and his brothers to leave.

Cleland and Fay, described in court as Warren's girlfriend, were granted bail; ordered to live at stated addresses and follow a 7pm to 7am curfew.

Neither may associate with any of the co-offenders or travel within 200m of the Gasgoine St residence.


Dr Yvette Tinsley, senior law lecturer at Victoria University, said it was not unusual for more than one person to be accused of murder.
The conditions are explained in the Crimes Act 1961, Section 66 Parties to Offences. A person who had offered some encouragement or help or had set off on a common purpose and could foresee that someone would be hurt as a result could be found liable for the same offence.

However, sometimes a court would drop the charge against associates to a manslaughter charge, she said.

In August 12 men were accused of the murder of Wanganui toddler Jhia Te Tua, although only one shot from a high powered rifle killed the girl.

The men were in three cars involved in the drive-by shooting at the home of Jhia's Black Power father in Puriri St in Wanganui in May.

Bikies plead guilty after refusing to answer ACC questions


A plea hearing in the Northern Territory Supreme Court for three Darwin men who refused to answer questions put to them by the national corruption watchdog two years ago has been adjourned.

Ross Dunkerton, Scott Eaton and Darren Wills were called before the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) to answer questions about their membership of the Hells Angels and Blonks motorcycle gangs in 2005.

The examiners also wanted to know whether they had ever paid their lawyer, Darwin solicitor Peter Maley with "large amounts of cash" and if so where the money came from.

Other questions focussed on whether they knew anything about a jury being influenced in a rape trial in 2000 involving another Hells Angels member, Gary Watt.

The men refused to answer the questions and were charged under the ACC legislation.

Today they pleaded guilty to all charges in the Supreme Court and are facing a possible five-year jail term.

The case has been adjourned for sentencing later this month.
 

Four charged after Gold Coast drug raids

Posted September 20, 2007 09:42:00



Gold Coast police have raided four properties and charged four people with drugs and weapons-related offences.

Detectives yesterday executed search warrants at addresses in Currumbin Waters and Molendinar and allegedly found a large quantity of drugs, including amphetamines, ecstasy and cannabis, along with weapons and illegal fireworks.

Police say the people arrested have links to outlaw motorcycle clubs the Finks and Lone Wolves.

Two men and two women are due to appear in Southport Magistrates Court next month.

Fury at police deal on Finks

13Sep07

SENIOR police held secret talks with members of the outlaw Finks Motorcycle Gang, reportedly guaranteeing bikies that police would not interfere with a planned 'club run' through the Gold Coast.

Outraged rank-and-file police have accused the police hierarchy of 'cowardice' and said any meeting with outlaw gang members was an insult to 'real police'.

Gang members taunted police throughout the August event, warning officers to 'leave them alone' during the run involving more than 30 gang members.

"We have been told by your boss that we would not have police around and that we would be left alone, as long as we stayed out of Surfers Paradise," the bikies told police.

"No intercepts. No RBTs. That was the deal."

Despite a Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission report labelling the Finks 'the most dangerous gang in Queensland', senior officers ordered police not to intercept gang members without permission.

Internal police emails leaked to The Gold Coast Bulletin show police met with a number of members, including Finks sergeant-at-arms Gregory John Keating who is accused of orchestrating the 'ballroom blitz' melee at the Royal Pines Resort.

Senior officers exchanged contact details with Keating and made no move to stop the ride from going ahead or respond through enforcement.

"No mass intercepts are planned, and as outlined previously, no mass intercepts or intercepts of multiple members are to be conducted without authorisation through the DDO (district duty officer)," states the email.

"The reason for this is based solely on officer safety and back-up."

Police were tasked to follow the bikies during the run and bikies were warned action 'may be taken' if members failed to conform to road rules.

Keating, also known as 'number 25', led the run which they claimed was a combined charity ride for the Gold Coast Hospital and birthday celebration.

Yesterday, a hospital spokeswoman said it had not received any donation from any outlaw gang.

Keating, the organiser of the run, is facing charges of entering a premises to commit affray following the March, 2006, Royal Pines Resort melee where 40 Finks members stormed a Hells Angel-backed kickboxing tournament.

He is currently on bail over it and in November, Keating was charged with assaulting a patron at the Elsewhere nightclub at Surfers Paradise and released on bail, despite already being on bail for the 'ballroom blitz' incident.

Keating personally met with senior police to discuss details of the ride involving chapters from Adelaide, Byron Bay and Brisbane.

He refused to confirm times, routes or planned stops.

Rank-and-file police were 'appalled' senior police would hold talks with members of any outlaw gang.

"Make no mistake, this is a huge problem on the Gold Coast," said one officer.

"By tolerating them and pandering to these mongrels we make it easier for these gangs to take hold.

"We should be turning them over, hitting as hard as we can so they get the hell out of the Gold Coast and go somewhere else."

Officers said the bikies ignored the road rules, running red lights, stopping traffic to allow members to pass through intersections unheeded and riding the wrong way on one-way streets.

Rank-and-file officers have labelled the police reaction and 'enforcement' to the outlaw gangs as a 'joke'.

"They're too scared to do a damn thing about it -- the bosses, not the rank and file. We're furious that we've been basically ordered to leave them alone.

"We knew where they were going to be and roughly when and we did nothing more than follow them around and say don't ride too fast and obey the rules.

"We are the police, we should act like it, not kowtow to these bastards.

"They taunted police, told us they could do whatever they liked. That's the message we're sending -- come to the Gold Coast, the police won't do a thing to stop you."

Gold Coast district Superintendent Jim Keogh said the email quoted above was designed to stop a situation where a single officer or one patrol car would intercept 30 to 100 bikies on the road.

"While the enthusiasm of some officers is commendable, dealing with bikies is a very complex issue, and we have to consider officer and community safety which has always been a cornerstone of planning for operations against these gangs," he said.

"All that needs senior officers involved so they can look at the broader issues.

"I'm sure the public will understand that you need a detailed plan when dealing with bikie gangs and there is nowhere in Queensland where police have taken so much action against organised motorcycle gangs than the Gold Coast. There have been numerous raids and some club houses have been hit several times.

"When the Lone Wolf gang was raided in Currumbin, it followed a major and complex operation involving Burleigh Heads CIB detectives and the NSW Gangs Squad with a covert (officer) used to buy a considerable quantity of hard drugs.

"These operations have been well planned and all have been successful.

"There have been no secret talks with bikies at any stage and every police force in the Western world talks to bikies, it has to be that way.

"In the case of Greg Keating, he had organised a run and we told him we did not want 80 Finks in Surfers and we told him if he or any other Finks broke the rules, they would be dealt with immediately. No rules were broken and that was all there was to it.

"We had another occasion where there was a large number of bikies together in Surfers Paradise CBD and the DDO deemed it would be an inappropriate place to intercept them and that decision was the correct one.

"We have to consider the public in these matters in case anything went wrong."

Since the Government created the anti-bikie squad, all operations against bikies on the Gold Coast are now run by or overseen by this Brisbane-based squad

Bikies refuse to testify over club brawl
7th September 2007, 7:45 WST

Three Coffin Cheaters bikies accused of assaulting bouncers during a brawl outside a nightclub last year declined to give evidence at their trial in Fremantle Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Magistrate Jacqueline Musk will hear closing submissions today and is likely to hand down her verdicts at a later date.

On trial are high-profile bikie Troy Mercanti, 39, of Duncraig, and two Coffin Cheaters mates, Lee Michael Holmes, 27, of Embleton, and Isaac Peter Taylor, 31, of Spearwood.

Mr Holmes, who is alleged to have used a knife to stab three bouncers, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of unlawful wounding.

Mr Taylor has denied three assault charges and Mr Mercanti has denied two assault charges.

Five bouncers were allegedly attacked and assaulted outside the Harbourside club in Fremantle about 5am on August 5 last year. During the four-day hearing, witnesses have been taken frame-byframe through security vision from inside and outside the nightclub to try to identify who’s who.

The brawl allegedly began after head bouncer Paul Samways told Mr Mercanti that he and his bikie mates could not enter the nightclub because they were wearing club colours. This was said to be against the nightclub’s policy. Mr Taylor is then alleged to have thrown the first punch, hitting Mr Samways in the jaw and knocking out a tooth.

Mr Samways testified that, after being punched by Mr Taylor, he was involved in a fist fight with Mr Mercanti. He claimed to have hit Mr Mercanti a few times but also took a few blows in return.

Bouncer David Mulcahy told the court that he had Mr Mercanti pinned down for about 30 seconds during the brawl. He claimed that he was dragged off by Mr Taylor and, as he was getting up, was stabbed twice in the side of the chest by Mr Holmes. He also said he saw Mr Holmes stab bouncer Peter Davis.

Mr Davis, who was stabbed three times, allegedly by Mr Holmes, said that he did not realise he had been injured until he got back inside the club and did not know how it happened.

Kevin Lloyd testified he was punched but did not know who hit him while Brendan Meagher, who suffered two stab wounds, told the court he had no memory of the incident.

Magistrate Musk rejected submissions by defence lawyers that Mr Mercanti had no case to answer on the charge of assaulting Mr Samways and that Mr Holmes had no case to answer on two charges of stabbing Mr Meagher.

Bikies in court over bloody club brawl
3rd September 2007, 14:30 WST

Click here to find out more!
Coffin Cheater Troy Mercanti and two other men have appeared in Fremantle Magistrate’s Court on a string of charges relating to a bloody brawl outside a nightclub last year.

Mr Mercanti, 40, of Duncraig, is charged with two counts of common assault. Lee Michael Holmes, 27, of Embleton, is charged with seven counts of common assault. A third man, Peter Taylor, 31, of Spearwood, is on trial on two counts of common assault and one charge of assault occasioning bodily harm.

Police have alleged the incidents occurred between 4.30am and 5.30am on August 5 last year, when the three men assaulted a group of five security staff working at the Harbourside night club in Fremantle in what the prosecution today labelled a “joint attack”.

Mr Taylor is alleged to have struck one of the bouncers to the mouth during the attack, leaving him with a chipped tooth, before Mr Mercanti allegedly joined Mr Taylor to punch the man and other bouncers who arrived at the scene.

Another bouncer was left with bruising to his left eye and grazes and cuts to his knees and elbows.

Prosecutor Robert Wilson told the court Mr Holmes then used a knife to stab a third bouncer twice in the chest. He said Mr Holmes also stabbed another bouncer involved in the incident once in his arm and twice to the side of his body.

The victims were later treated at Fremantle Hospital. Their injuries were not life-threatening.

During today’s hearing, the court was told the majority of the prosecution witnesses had requested to be referred to only by their first name or a number, to protect their full identities from being revealed to the accused.

Mr Mercanti, Mr Taylor and Mr Holmes appeared in court wearing black shirts and trousers, with Mr Mercanti and Mr Holmes sporting belts displaying the Coffin Cheaters emblem.

Today’s hearing was postponed several times to give the prosecution time to call absent witnesses. At one stage Mr Mercanti’s lawyer, Laurie Levy, questioned the prosecution and Magistrate Jacqueline Musk as to why the three accused were seated in the dock rather than adjacent to their lawyers when they appeared at the hearing on bail.

“This is turning into a circus,” Mr Levy said.

The hearing is scheduled to last four days.

Sunshine Coast bikie testifies in arson case

5:28p.m. 30 August 2007

A Sunshine Coast outlaw bikie has told a court his former landlord tried to burn his own place down for the insurance money.

The man who was embroiled in the arson of the Rebels’ clubhouse in Brisbane testified in the arson case against his former landlord.

The man, who cannot be identified since a court suppression order was issued, was one of two Bandidos motorcycle gang members who pleaded guilty earlier this month to burning down a Rebels’ clubhouse in March.

The clubhouse attack was allegedly carried out in retaliation to a violent roadside clash between the Bandidos and the Rebels near Bribie Island in February, in which witnesses claimed shots were fired and men were beaten with baseball bats.

A suspicious house fire at Kulangoor, north of Nambour, on April 22 was initially linked to the escalating war between the rival outlaw motorcycle gangs.

But today it was the owner Anthony Stanley Kettlewell, 46, who was committed to stand trial after facing a committal hearing in Maroochydore Magistrates Court for the arson of the Mount Combe Road house.

With tight police guard at Maroochydore Courthouse, the self-labelled “outlaw” told the court that he believed Mr Kettlewell had tried to burn his house down amid the escalating bikie war to avoid blame.

“He was obviously trying to blame me for his own arson,” he said.

“What a great time to burn a house down. You don’t have to be Einstein to work that out, fair dinkum.

“The Rebels didn’t do it, Bandidos didn’t do it, I didn’t do it.”

The man said Mr Kettlewell told him the house was insured for $700,000 and that he could not sell it.

“The reason I’m giving evidence is because I believe Tony did it.

“He said) get your kids out the back playing with a box of matches.

“I was pretty shocked because I’ve got seven kids.

“It was our place, with all our stuff, $30,000 of stuff.

“Burning a place, it’s pretty ludicrous I reckon.

“He didn’t give a shit who he hurt.

“That’s why I told police I reckon this bloke’s gonna burn the house down with my gear in it.

“He went through a messy divorce, his repayments were huge and his wages weren’t covering it. He was under a lot of pressure.

“I’m not saying I’m a good pillar of society, but I’m telling the truth.”

Huge weapons haul on Gold Coast

30Aug07

AN arsenal of weapons, including two semi-automatic assault rifles, has been seized at the Tallebudgera Valley home of a bikie gang associate.

Police said they raided the Nancol Drive property at 7am yesterday after a tip-off and found the guns in the house and a car, and arrested a 49-year-old man who they described as an associate of the Black Uhlans.

The cache included five handguns, 15 rifles and shotguns, two stun guns, a baton, flick knives, ammunition, powder and reloaders.

They add to a massive haul of weapons seized from bikies and other crime figures on the Gold Coast during the past 18 months.

There are concerns criminals are 'tooling up' with guns amid increasing tension in the lucrative Gold Coast and northern NSW drug trade and friction between rival gangs.

The source of the weapons is unclear, however bikies in particular have a history of public gunbattles - including one on the Gold Coast in March last year - and there are concerns that an all-out war could again put civilians in the firing line.

Underworld sources last night said the bikie associate, who is known to police, could have been paid to 'mind' the weapons at the rural property.

"He could be paid a fee to store the weapons and prepare ammo for bikies and keep their homes free of weapons," said the source.

"Since the shootout between the Finks and Hells Angels at Royal Pines there has been a lot of heat on the bikies and a paid weapons storer makes heaps of sense.

"There is also the possibility that he is an armourer for those who need to get their hands on illegal weapons and ammo and can pay the price.

"His set-up sure sounded impressive and it was more than someone who is just a gun nut," said the source.

Acting Detective Inspector Marc Hogan of Burleigh Heads said police were staggered by the gun stockpile.

"I cannot say why this man had so many weapons, but that they were out there was obviously of concern to us, epecially the semi-automatic ones," said Insp Hogan. "We are pleased that they are no longer out there."

Police said they found a leather vest with a '1 per cent' badge among the weapons.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs describe themselves as the '1 per cent' of people who refuse to abide by society's rules and standards.

Other clothing found among the guns had 'poker run' badges. Poker runs are organised outings popular with bikies.

Police said the weapons haul was the biggest from one address on the Gold Coast in many years.

Insp Hogan was particularly concerned about the discovery of two semi-automatic assault rifles.

One is similar to the Chinese-made SKS; the other is an Australian-made rifle close in design to an M16 which fires 700-900 rounds per minute.

"These weapons are capable of rapid fire and why they are in a private home I don't know, but we are trying to find that out," he said.

There was a large amount of ammunition of various calibres, plus powder tins and reloaders at the home capable of making ammunition.

Insp Hogan said the raid came as a result of information phoned through to Crime Stoppers.

There were other people at the home when detectives burst in, but only the owner was arrested.

Insp Hogan said the man did not have a licence for any of the weapons.

He is expected to appear in the Southport Magistrates Court today on a number of weapons offences.
 

Bikie Range Rover defected

What the f!@#s wrong with this vehicle, cops are wankers arent they....