While senior police would not comment on any investigations involving
individual bikie gang members or their whereabouts, they have vowed to
maintain the pressure on SA's outlaw motorcycle gangs.
Detective Superintendent Deane Paynter, the officer in charge of the Drug
and Organised Crime Investigation Branch, said the Operation Avatar
motorcycle gang section was "having a significant impact".
"What we have found is there has been a considerable change in bikie
behaviour because of the influence of Avatar," he said.
"Certainly, their public behaviour has been more controlled and we have had
an impact on some of their criminal ventures. We try and create an
environment that makes it very difficult for them to operate in and
therefore reconsider their position here."
Since 2002, Avatar operations have led to 1035 arrests or reports of gang
members and associates.
The operation also has uncovered 45 amphetamines laboratories and taken
4.3kg of amphetamines, 107kg of designer drugs, 590 grams of cocaine and
100kg of cannabis off the streets.
Almost 250 firearms, including machine guns and pistols, have been seized.
Supt Paynter said gang members' access to firearms remained "a constant
concern". He said they often were able to easily replace guns seized by
police.
It also was difficult to track the history of seized firearms because serial
numbers were often removed or changed and parts were swapped. However,
police have found handguns taken in the state's largest firearms robbery in
the possession of nine gang members or associates in recent years. The
Peterborough premises of Starlight Firearms was robbed at gunpoint in 1999.
Included in the haul were more than 500 handguns, 350 being semi-automatic
weapons such as Glocks, Lugers, Berettas, Mausers and Walthers.
Avatar periodically conducts operations aimed at detecting gang members and
associates with weapons.
Last month one such operation, dubbed Cornerstone, resulted in 28 firearms,
four Tazer stun guns, a silencer, ammunition and a quantity of drugs being
seized. It also resulted in 11 people being reported and six arrested for
firearms offences, drug offences, assault and traffic offences.
Supt Paynter said the area of greatest police concern remained the
involvement of bikie gangs in organised crime. Every club had members
identified as playing key roles in such activity.
"Those key members are in a position to profit personally from their
involvement in organised crime, but they are also in a position to be able
to use other members of their gangs as soldiers to further their pursuits,"
he said.
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