FROM the club owners and
licensees to the most dangerous
of the dozens of outlaw
motorcycle clubs that roam the
500 metres of Darlinghurst Road
at the weekend - John Ibrahim
knows them all.
The Tunnel (until recently
called Dragonfly) is where Mr
Ibrahim's long and mysterious
nightclub career began, back in
1990 when he bought into the
12-month-old bar.
Its owner and licensee, David
Robert Auld, is one of Mr
Ibrahim's good friends and the
club is a hangout for Mr
Ibrahim's less salubrious
friends. Mr Auld also has a
stake in the newish strip joint
The Bank. His more well-to-do
mates will be found at the Piano
Room and The Club, near the
southern end of the Darlo strip.
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They are also owned by figures
with close connections to Mr
Ibrahim: at Piano, they are
Poata Okeroa, Mimmo Salvato and
radio jock and wannabe nightclub
mogul Kyle Dalton Sandilands;
Erik Jury, the Hardin family and
two other business partners are
at The Club.
The real estate agent and former
publican who owns the freehold
for the Piano Room, Greg Magree,
is a good friend.
There is Lady Lux - owned by Mr
Ibrahim's close friends and
one-time business partners, the
sons of Sydney criminal identity
George Freeman, David George and
Adam Sonny.
Even Porky's is managed by
''Ashtray Frank'' Amante, one of
Mr Ibrahim's most enduring
associates. And it is not only
the business that Mr Ibrahim has
inextricable ties to. Notorious,
the outlaw bikie club whose
members don't actually ride
bikes, was created by Mr
Ibrahim's youngest brother,
Michael, and still has close
associations with the Ibrahim
family.
The Nomads Motorcycle Club also
has a history with the Ibrahim
clan. John's older brother,
Hassan ''Sam'' Ibrahim, was one
of the first Lebanese-Australian
men to be allowed to join a
local outlaw club, and he rose
through the ranks to become
president of the Nomads'
powerful Granville chapter.
Any police officer who knows the
area will confirm that John
Houssam Ibrahim is an essential
element of Kings Cross. Yet his
name appears nowhere in the
documents obtained by The
Sun-Herald detailing
bikie-related violence in Kings
Cross nightclubs. Unless, of
course, he is one of the
identities named in the police
intelligence reports that remain
hidden, courtesy of a police
black marker.
Dylan Welch has written a book
about the Ibrahim family,
The House of Ibrahim, to be
published by Allen & Unwin early
next year.
Exposed: the
gruesome underbelly of a turf war
Les Kennedy, Vanda Carson and
Eamonn Duff
December 5, 2010
EVERY weekend,
young revellers looking for a
good time spill out of clubs and
fill the streets of Kings Cross
into the early hours.
Lured by the neon lights and
pumping music, the crowds are as
large as the morning peak of
city office workers in Martin
Place.
While the seediness of the Cross
is part of its appeal, many
revellers are oblivious to the
violent turf war raging beneath
the gloss and glamour of its
fashionable drinking holes.
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The Sun-Herald learnt
of the extent of bikie-related
violence in the Cross when a
pile of documents was mailed to
the wrong address in October.
The documents, contained on
paper and compact disc, form a
road map of police intelligence,
some extremely sensitive, of the
battle to regain control of the
streets of the Cross from rival
organised crime gangs and outlaw
bikie groups
A
risk report from Kings Cross
Police Local Area Command crime
intelligence unit to the Office
of Liquor, Gaming and Racing
details 41 alleged violent
bikie-related incidents at 16
hotels, nightclubs and bars
between November 2006 and August
last year, said to have been
committed by the Hells Angels,
Comanchero, Nomads, Rebels,
Bandidos, Gypsy Jokers and
Notorious gangs.
They range from assaults and the
shooting of doormen, kidnapping
and holding to ransom rival gang
members, street fights between
gangs involving up to 30 men,
standing over clubs for
protection money and the alleged
sexual assault of a group of
women in a club. One police
intelligence report says
''members of … Notorious have
begun frequenting [a Kings Cross
nightclub] and demanding
payments of $5000 per week for
protection''.
It
says members of Notorious had
been instructed to ''stand over
and extort monies'' from a pair
of business owners, one of whose
car was ''blown up during the
course of these negotiations''.
Until now, most clubs have
voluntarily agreed to refuse
entry to gang members but in
recent weeks police have upped
the ante by asking the NSW
government department in charge
of licences to forcibly
''impose'' conditions on their
liquor licences, a move that can
be done without the licensees'
consent. Doug Grand, president
of the Kings Cross Licensing
Accord and boss of Club Swans on
busy Darlinghurst Road, said he
believed all clubs open beyond
midnight were willing to consent
to the new licence conditions
banning gang members which are
under consideration by the
government department in charge
of liquor licences.
''If you look at the most
violent incidents that have
occurred in the area over the
past three years, the vast
majority have been gang-related.
From a premise holder's point of
view, it's not good to have them
in,'' Mr Grand said.
Several licensees expressed fear
of speaking publicly about the
issue, out of concern of
potential reprisals by both
bikie gangs and police. Others
felt the conditions imposed on
their trading were better dealt
with openly.
But one nightclub identity,
whose venue has already suffered
problems after denying bikies
entry, described the licence
amendments as ''flawed''.
Speaking on the condition of
anonymity, he said: ''We got the
notification and, in my mind, it
leaves us exposed to a licence
breach, even if we've done
everything by the book.''
He
added: ''Next Saturday we might
let someone in who, on the
surface, looks like your average
customer. Once inside, he
removes his jacket and he's
wearing club colours. All of a
sudden, the police pop by and
we've broken the law.''
The club owner said: ''Our
management strategy has always
been to deny these people entry
and it always will be - the
police already know that - but
additionally, sometimes, it's
not as clear cut as simply
telling someone to go away.
''[Sometimes] it's safer for
everyone to simply let them in
and call the police afterwards.
Is that another breach of
licence?''
David Auld, licensee of The
Tunnel, said if it was
controlled fairly, it had the
potential to be a positive move.
''But if police are going to use
these new rules to continuously
breach premises and have them
moved into different [licensing]
categories, then I'd be
extremely disappointed.''
Mr
Auld said tattoos remained a
grey area. ''Some clearly state
the gang name but others don't.
I personally would have no idea
if a particular symbol belonged
to a particular group. It's not
straightforward and I'll be very
interested to see what
transpires over the coming
months and what action venues
take if they feel they have been
unfairly treated.''
United Motorcycle Council of NSW
barrister Wayne Baffsky, who is
representing the Bandidos and
Hells Angels in a High Court
challenge against
anti-association laws, described
the licence conditions as
''impossible to enforce''.
''Do police honestly believe
this ridiculous plan is going to
lock those people out of the
area? They'll simply dress
differently and waltz straight
through. As for the majority [of
bikies] not involved in
organised crime - it signals the
start of further harassment and
discrimination.''
Bikies fight for
lucrative drug trade
Les Kennedy
December 5, 2010
WHOEVER controls
Kings Cross controls Sydney's
drug trade - and the lucre that
flows from it. The Golden Mile
has long been the setting for
turf wars by gangs trying to
dominate points of distribution
for the drug market.
Nightclubs and bars in the Cross
are the prime place to sell,
mostly amphetamines, to
cashed-up partygoers. So it's no
wonder that bikie gangs are
jostling for a piece of the
action.
For gangs such as the Comanchero,
Hells Angels and Notorious (the
new boys on the block) it has
been ''game on'', with no let-up
in the violent struggle for
supremacy, despite intense
police scrutiny and legislative
attempts to stop them
associating.
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Kings Cross police received
information in January last year
that the Comanchero were trying
to usurp the moves to ban bikies
from clubs by attempting to
covertly purchase the Lincoln
nightclub right in middle of
rival Notorious and Hells Angels
turf, a bid that was
unsuccessful. The next month, a
riot squad was sent to the area
of the Cross known as ''the
strip'' to boost the number of
officers on the street.
In
early October this year Gang
Squad police were bracing for a
flare-up in bikie violence after
receiving fresh information of a
recruitment drive. At that time,
30 Comanchero and Notorious
members clashed in the Cross, an
incident that went
unreported.Later that month,
just kilometres from the Cross,
the gangs clashed again outside
a Bondi tattoo parlour.
Comanchero are suspected of
being behind last Sunday's
drive-by shooting at the Ryde
home of Armani Stelio, the
sister of former Nomads member
Sam Ibrahim and Kings Cross
organised crime figure John
Ibrahim. The next day, Notorious
sergeant-at-arms Saber Murad,
24, was shot at his Doonside
home by a gunman believed to be
a Comanchero.
When police arrested 10 senior
Comancheros and three members of
the Hells Angels over the fatal
brawl at Sydney Airport on March
22 last year they thought it
would break the back of the ''Comos'''
command structure. They were
wrong.