Australasian Biker News
Outlaw bikies spur Gold Coast violence
Article from: The Courier-Mail
HEADLINES ... police raid a Finks clubhouse at Labrador last year.
Outlaw motorcycle gangs have been
targeted by authorities cracking down on violence and illegal drugs on
the Gold Coast.
Greg Stolz
March 07, 2008 11:00pm
A MAN'S ears are sliced off over a drug debt, another is pumped with
bullets in broad daylight and left a paraplegic; bikies shoot it out in
a luxury hotel ballroom as hundreds of terrified patrons duck for cover.
These aren't scenes from a Quentin Tarantino movie, gangland America or
Melbourne's underbelly. This is the sinister side of the Gold Coast –
the side you won't find promoted in the glossy tourist brochures.
If it's true that Queensland is a sunny place for shady people, as it
was described during the Fitzgerald era, then many of them lurk in the
highrise shadows of the Glitter Strip . . . and a lot of them seem to
ride motorcycles.
Outlaw motorcycle gangs have established a substantial beach-head on the
Gold Coast in recent years and it has coincided with an upsurge in
violence, standovers and drug activity. While Asian, Russian and
interstate gangsters have found their way to the Coast, the bikies are
easily the most active and dangerous, say law enforcement agencies.
Five bikie gangs: Finks, Rebels, Nomads, Lone Wolf and Black Uhlans –
all have clubhouses on the Gold Coast.
But it is the Finks that have been dominating headlines in the past few
years, notably the infamous "Ballroom Blitz" at Royal Pines Resort in
March 2006. Using guns, knives, glasses and chairs, Finks gang members
fought a pitched battle with Hells Angels bikies at a kickboxing
tournament in the ballroom of the five-star resort at Ashmore.
The violence exploded after a simmering feud between the two gangs over
the defection of former Fink, Christopher Hudson, to the Hells Angels,
who have a clubhouse at Hillcrest in Brisbane's south.
Hudson is in jail awaiting court for a triple shooting in Melbourne's
CBD in June that left one man dead.
Finks members and/or associates also have been implicated in a string of
violent incidents in recent years, including the December 2004 shooting
of Hope Island man Darren Coffey over $7000 in "missing" drug money and
the June 2006 shooting of New Zealand man Pita Wilson, who was hit with
as many as nine bullets on the Southport Spit.
Yassar Bakir, brother of mobile phone entrepreneur and jailed drug
runner Schapelle Corby's former white knight, Ron Bakir, has been
charged with Wilson's attempted murder. While on bail in Sydney, he was
allegedly involved in a wild shootout outside a restaurant;
The Finks were in the news again last week when seven bullets were fired
into a house at Paradise Point, grazing the arm of a gang associate who
was awoken by the early morning volley.
At least a third of the Finks membership is behind bars either serving
sentences or awaiting trial. They include members of the gang's
so-called Terror Team, whose motto is "Violence with Attitude".
Terror Team members include Nick "The Knife" Forbes, who is emblazoned
with tattoos including "revenge", "carnage" and "dead man still
walking".
The most gruesome recent bikie-related crime did not involve the Finks,
however. Members of the Currumbin-based Lone Wolf bikie gang have been
accused of slicing off a man's ears in the Gold Coast hinterland over a
$40,000 drug debt in November.
He was allegedly told that a grave had been dug for him on a remote bush
track.
Police and bikie sources say trouble has been brewing in recent years
since young turks, high on amphetamines and steroids, began taking over
bikie gangs, pushing older members aside.
"Things started to change in the mid-1980s when the gangs started to
dabble in amphetamines," one source said.
The source said structures broke down when the gangs started relaxing
membership rules that had forced wannabe members – "nominees" – to serve
lengthy probations before getting their colours. Ethnic criminal
elements began to infiltrate the clubs.
"The clubs started being taken over by tattooed, ice-addicted,
steroid-injecting s . . . bags who were impervious to common sense," he
said. "The older bikies who had families, businesses and mortgages
didn't want to be involved in violent crime, but were torn by their
loyalty to their club and perhaps captive to their youthful dreams.
Their influence began to wane in the face of people who think they are
10 feet tall and bullet-proof, and who are simply out of control."
Sources say as well as being involved in businesses, such as tattoo
parlours and motor repair shops, bikies have been actively involved
running nightclub security on the strip.
"It has absolutely nothing to do with making money out of security and
everything to do with the supply of drugs to a ready-made market," one
source said. "Some of these gangs are million-dollar enterprises."
A report released this week by the United Nations' International
Narcotics Control Board said Queensland was the main supplier of
amphetamines to the rest of Australia. Police say bikies are major
manufacturers and distributors of amphetamines in the Sunshine State.
Raids on bikie clubhouses and arrests of gang members have become more
prevalent in recent years – especially since the Royal Pines shootout –
as police and other law enforcement agencies step up surveillance and
intelligence-gathering.
In August 2006, Police Minister Judy Spence chose Royal Pines to
announce the formation of a $2 million Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Squad.
Codenamed Taskforce Hydra, the secretive squad includes detectives,
forensic accountants, intelligence analysts and IT specialists.
Hydra, which refused requests from The Courier-Mail for an interview,
was involved in the arrest two weeks ago of several Finks associates and
the seizure of 5000 ecstasy pills, steroids and $16,000 in cash at a
Gold Coast residence. Among those arrested was Francis Keenan, who was
jailed for life for the Darren Coffey shooting only to have his
conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Other agencies including the Australian Crime Commission and Crime and
Misconduct Commission have also been using coercive powers to break the
bikies' bonds of silence. Gang members and associates are regularly
hauled before secret ACC/CMC hearings where they are compelled to give
evidence against their bikie brothers or go to jail for contempt.
"The bikies are under attack from the forces of good like never before,"
a legal source said.