Police warn they will push even harder in the fight against Queensland’s bikie gangs

“This year we will increase our activities and strengthen our focus, which is to disrupt, disable, dis-empower and dismantle criminal motorcycle gangs,’’ acting Taskforce Maxima boss, Detective Inspector Terry Lawrence said.

He warned gang members who hadn’t fled or handed in their colours since the crackdown began in October 2013 that the “over-arching aim is to dismantle gangs’’.

“The State Government introduced this legislation and it is our job to enforce the laws and we will continue to do that. We will push harder,’’ he said.

His comments came as police continued to “mop up’’ in the wake of one of Maxima’s largest and most successful investigations, Operation Lima Hacksaw.

The 15-month operation specifically targeted the Rebels and resulted in more than $500,000 being seized, along with heroin, amphetamines and cannabis with a conservative street value of $5 million.

Of the 87 people arrested on 285 charges, 13 were Rebels “participants”.

The campaign against bikies, one of the most successful against organised crime in Australian history, has resulted in 1706 arrests and 4709 charges.

Since October 2013, 375 participants have been arrested in the Brisbane region on 1054 charges; 549 on 1544 charges in the south east region which includes Logan and Gold Coast; 342 on 936 charges in the southern region; 262 on 588 in the central region; and 159 on 546 in the northern region.

More than half of all charges involved drugs.

The bikie blitz has resulted in 46 clubhouses being closed, seven of them on the Gold Coast where the officer-in-charge of the glitter strip’s police Rapid Action and Patrols squad boasted the streets were now safer.

“When you look at the landscape now, compared with the situation that existed before the new laws were introduced, they are worlds apart,” said Superintendent Jim Keogh outside the former Gold Coast Bandidos clubhouse