Outlaw Bikies, Australia

Bike gangs target of crackdown

By Simon Kirby
May 10, 2007 11:24am

CRIMINAL motorcycle gangs will be targeted in a crackdown by police in New South Wales.

Strike Force Ranmore will involve officers from local, riot, traffic and licensing police as well as a specialist state crime command squads and local government.

NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said officers would use every legal means possible to harass gang members over what authorities say is a nationwide issue.

outlaw motorcycle gangs had been linked to a string of increasingly violent tit-for-tat incidents, Mr Moroney said today.

Police suspect bikies were responsible for spraying a newspaper delivery van with bullets in the city's west yesterday morning, an attack that followed a drive-by shooting at a central nightclub last weekend.

"I'm not going to tolerate this level of violence, this escalation of violence," Mr Moroney said.

"These are people who seek to operate outside the law but I tell you clearly, not on this fella's patch."

Mr Moroney singled out the Bandidos, Nomads, Comancheros and Rebels groups, who he said were involved in turf wars over illegal drugs and defections from one gang to another.


Police fear Milperra massacre could be repeated
Email Print Normal font Large font Les Kennedy
May 9, 2007

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TWENTY-THREE years after they clashed in a gun battle that became known as the Milperra massacre police fear the Bandido and Comanchero motorcycle gangs are headed for another bloody showdown.

Their growing alarm comes after the fourth arson attack on an outlaw motorcycle club in NSW since March.

The target was the Bandido City Crew chapter in Petersham. Fifteen shots were fired into its armoured door on April 17.

At 10.30pm on Monday, police said, a security camera captured a man wearing a balaclava hurling a petrol bomb onto the fortified building.

The fire was quickly doused and caused more damage to a car in an adjoining yard.

Early on Friday a blaze gutted the Comanchero clubhouse in Marrickville. That was followed by a drive-by shooting outside the Oxford Street nightclub DMC at 3am on Saturday, in which two men were seriously wounded and another grazed.

The gang squad's commander, Detective Superintendent Scott Whyte, said although the two seriously wounded men were not members of a gang DCM was a haunt for Nomad members, whose Parramatta Chapter headquarters in Granville was firebombed on April 4.

The blaze is believed to have been ignited by Comanchero members. The same night, there was a gun attack on a Newtown tattoo shop owned by the Nomad national president, Scott Orrock.

Mr Whyte said it was not clear what had triggered the escalating violence that began in March, when someone set fire to an industrial unit at Wickham, Newcastle, that the Sydney-based Rebels had planned to use for a new club.

Comanchero members are also believed to have been behind the trashing of a former Nomad haunt, the nightclub Mr Goodbar, on March 15, during which a shot was fired.

Police have said 60 members of the Nomad club's Parramatta branch have defected to the Bandidos.

Detective Superintendent Whyte said the gang squad planned to meet gang leaders.

"What I won't be doing is sit them down at a table and make them kiss and make up," he said.

"We are going to say to each of them that this behaviour will not be tolerated."

This post has been edited by Hollander on Jun 18 2007, 07:41 AM

Police broker Rebels, Bandidos 'peace deal'

A PEACE deal between Australia's two most powerful outlaw motorcycle gangs may be brokered by police in the wake of the serious bashing of the Rebels' national enforcer and a suspected shooting by Bandidos.

The peace summit proposal, which comes amid a tri-state feud that has been inflamed by the bashing of the Rebels' national serjeant-at-arms by a fellow inmate at Sydney's Parklea prison.

The Rebels member has been on remand since February over an alleged bashing and robbery of a senior Bandido in June last year.

The fight between him and the inmate allegedly broke out Parklea prison's yard about 3pm last Thursday.

The Rebel came out worse, suffering serious facial injuries.

Under heavy guard, he was taken to hospital where he was admitted overnight for treatment.

It is understood both he and the other inmate involved in the fight were then placed in segregation as prison officials and police began an investigation.

Sources close to the gangs, whose feud has escalated since June last year when a key Rebels member defected to the Bandidos, said the Rebels suspected last week's bashing was organised by the Bandidos.

This prompted a number of Rebels to attend a hotel in Sydney's west, looking for the Bandidos' Castle Hill chapter president, whose home was allegedly shot at by Rebels last year.

They were allegedly chased from the pub by Bandidos' junior members and recruits, who fired numerous shots at the fleeing men.

No one was injured, but four men were arrested by police.

Bikies have recently spoken of escalating tensions between the two gangs, and said the tit-for-tat would continue unless a peace deal was brokered. Last month, an insider told The Daily Telegraph: "Neither side will be happy until the last fight is won."

In a statement to The Daily Telegraph, gangs squad commander Detective Superintendent Scott Whyte refused to confirm the peace summit proposal and "declined to comment on any plans to mediate between conflicting OMCGs (Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs)".

But he said the squad would "continue to target any criminal behaviour by OMCG members and monitor any potential conflicts".

He confirmed police were conducting inquiries into the bashing of a man in jail last week, but would not comment further on that case or the subsequent shooting.

Police seek law to lower bikies' colours

MOTORCYCLE gangs could be outlawed under radical moves banning bikies from meeting and even wearing club colours.

The laws would mirror US legislation combating colour gangs and give police greater powers to prevent bikies from meeting or operating clubhouses.

Commissioner Ken Moroney and Police Minister David Campbell yesterday outlined plans to examine the US Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act as police launched a multi-agency strike force targeting gangs following the escalating war involving the Bandidos, Rebels, Nomads and Comancheros.

Officers from Sydney's 46 police commands will join members of the Middle Eastern organised crime, gangs, firearms and riot squads, traffic services, police air wing and forensics experts for Strike Force Ranmore.

It comes as Mr Moroney conceded police feared members of the public could become victims of the tit-for-tat arson and gun attacks continued.

"Outlaw motorcycle gangs have been put on notice. The violence must stop and the NSW Police Force will stop it," Mr Moroney said.

"We are fed up with bikie gangs launching retribution on the streets of Sydney endangering the lives of innocent people."

Police will target individual gang members as well as motorcycle clubhouses, where officers would look to apply drug house legislation, allowing the premises to be shut down.

The crackdown will also focus on the security industry, which employs many gang members.

Licensing police will crack down on premises with gang links.

Mr Moroney said the bikie problem required a national response.

The current hostilities spread across, NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

Mr Moroney said the states should look to emulate the RICO Act to restrict gang activities.

"The RICO legislation in the US has been very effective and if we can look at that type of legislation and its adoption here in NSW it's something I would encourage my counterparts (to look at)," Mr Moroney said.

"There is a possibility of some extension to existing laws or

me floating with the Government and minister new laws and I'm not averse to doing that."

The crackdown follows three months of escalating violence, sparked by defections between rival gangs.

Heavy security for gang funeral

May 14, 2007 02:41pm
Article from: AAP




THERE was heavy police security as today as hundreds of mourners gathered in Sydney to farewell a Bandidos gang member killed in a crash.

Ken Tanti, 32, died when his motorcycle hit tha back of a parishioner's car at high speed outside Our Lady Queen of Peace church in west Sydney last Monday.

About 150 Bandidos were at today's hour-long service - which was held at the church where Mr Tanti was killed - as dozens of police, including the riot squad, provided tight security.

Mr Tanti's coffin was driven to the church in the sidecar of a Harley Davidson motorcycle in a funeral procession of about 80 Bandidos.

The bikies, wearing gang colours, were given a police escort from the funeral home in Castle Hill to the church and later to the Pine Grove Memorial Park where Mr Tanti was to be buried.

The bikies, including both interstate and overseas members, obeyed a police ban on the funeral tradition of riding without helmets.

Among those gathered at the church were Mr Tanti's parents Salzu and Maria, his sister Renee and his daughter Britany.

Shortly before the service, a minor scuffle broke out when one bikie pushed a cameraman as he filmed Mr Tanti's mother crying as she arrived for the funeral.

Mr Tanti's seven-year-old daughter, Britany, told the congregation she had lit a candle for her father and had added some of his favourite things to the coffin.

The vice-president of Mr Tanti's North Side chapter, identified only as Ray, described him as a strong-spirited and honest man.

"His two great loves were his daughter and his family, and we are all honoured to be part of that family," he said.

"Bandidos forever, forever Bandidos."

Violence between rival clubs has escalated in the past two months, with a series of tit for tat shootings and fire bombings of clubhouses in Sydney and Newcastle.

NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney says the Nomads, Bandidos, Comancheros and Rebels are behind the attacks. Police say they are part of a turf war for the Sydney nightclub drug scene.

Mr Moroney said he would recommend legislation banning gang colours, to help break up organised crime gangs.

Four wounded in Adelaide shooting
Email Print Normal font Large font June 2, 2007 - 12:19PM

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Bikie gang violence may have sparked a nightclub shooting that left four men wounded in Adelaide early on Saturday.

One of them is fighting for his life and the other three victims are listed as stable in Royal Adelaide Hospital.

All are believed to be linked to the Rebels motorcycle gang.

The shooting broke out outside Tonic Nightclub at Light Square in Adelaide's CBD about 4.30am (CST) on Saturday.

Police are hunting up to two shooters but have reassured the public the incident was not a random attack.

They are reviewing CCTV footage to try to identify the gunmen.

"The four persons injured are allegedly linked to the Rebels motorcycle gang, however, we cannot comment at this time on what the motive for the incident was or if it is linked to any other group," a police spokesman said in a statement.

"There was a previous incident at the club at about 2.30am which is possibly linked but police are still to confirm this."

"Police would like to emphasise that this was not a random attack and police are following up on several positive lines of enquiry including reviewing CCTV footage of the incident."

At least two men are believed responsible for the shootings although police say this had yet to be confirmed.

It is not known how many shots were fired.

Police rate the shootings a major crime and are working to compile a description of the gunmen.

A man who was at the night spot said the shooting apparently occurred after an argument at the bar.

He left before the shooting but later returned.

"I got told there were a few bikies and they were at the bar and that's it," the man, who didn't want to be named, told ABC Radio.

"I didn't see any shooting - some bikies went in, that's all I know."

Police check bikie gangs over shooting
3rd June 2007, 14:26 WST

Police are investigating whether rival bikie gangs were involved in an Adelaide nightclub shooting that left four members of the Rebels gang in hospital.

The shooting occurred outside Tonic Nightclub in Light Square about 4.30am (CST) on Saturday morning, with up to 10 shots fired by two offenders.

Assistant commissioner Tony Harrison said two of the victims had since been released from the Royal Adelaide Hospital and a third would be operated on Monday.

According to News Limited, one of those injured in the shooting was Robert Vitale, president of the south chapter of the Rebels.

Assistant commissioner Harrison said he could not comment on whether the shooters were linked to the rival Finks bikie gang.

"Since yesterday we believe we've firmed up some lines of inquiry in relation to who may be involved," he said.

"We are pursuing all lines of inquiry and they do include looking at members of other motorcycle gangs as to whether they had any involvement in the shooting."

Police had recovered closed circuit TV footage of the incident but assistant commissioner Harrison said there was "some difficulty in clearly identifying images" from it.

AAP

Files expose informers
COLIN JAMES, SAM RICHES
June 05, 2007 02:15am
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POLICE hold serious fears for the safety of secret informants following last week's theft of confidential documents from an unmarked police car.

Moves have been made to protect informants who potentially can be identified in the documents amid concerns they could be tracked down by bikies.

Deputy Commissioner Gary Burns yesterday said police were concerned about their welfare, after it was revealed the files had been given to the Finks outlaw motorcycle club. But police would not detail any action taken, such as moving them to safe houses or monitoring their movements.

"We have had some concerns about the safety of informants and we've taken steps to ensure their safety is managed," Mr Burns said. Senior police yesterday said more than 20 files handed to the Finks could easily identify informants involved with up to 10 drug and organised crime operations.

Several operations are expected to be scrapped because they have been compromised by what senior police yesterday admitted was a "major security breach".

Registered informants are tightly guarded within SA Police, with strict rules and regulations controlling the release of details which can lead to their identification.

The Advertiser understands only two of the stolen files have been recovered after they were given to a member of the Finks last Thursday.

The Finks are notorious for their lawlessness, with police regarding them as the most dangerous motorcycle gang in SA because of their history of violence.

Deputy Commissioner Burns said police were "pretty sure" they had "covered" the safety of the officers named in the files.

Police yesterday continued to search for the remaining files, which contain details of drug and organised crime officers - and their cases.

The files were among documents and surveillance equipment stolen from an unmarked police vehicle parked in the driveway of a southern suburbs house last Wednesday night.

The vehicle had been issued to an officer attached to the SA Police undercover surveillance unit, who was visiting a male friend at the property when the car was broken into.

The officer now is the subject of an inquiry by the Internal Investigations Branch, which is examining why the files were left in a police vehicle at a private property.

A senior officer involved with the inquiry yesterday said the documents were highly sensitive because they not only contained details of individual police officers but could identify their informants.

"They have the names of the officers, their work mobile numbers, their private mobile numbers and the jobs they were working on," he said.

"It is definitely possible to identify their informants by looking at the files. You can work it out, for sure.

"What is concerning everyone is that bikies will start tracking them down to do their own interrogations to find out what they have been talking about.

"It looks like anywhere between six to 10 major investigations are going to have to be scrapped."

Recent court cases involving outlaw motorcycle clubs have heard extensive legal arguments, where defence lawyers have been refused access to the identity of police information on the grounds of public interest immunity.

In one case involving a clandestine drug laboratory, hundreds of pages detailing the activities of one informant were blacked out by SA Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions before they were provided to defence lawyers.

Unmasked versions of the documents were provided to a District Court judge on the condition they remained in sealed envelopes.

Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Tony Harrison confirmed the operations detailed in the stolen files were being reviewed to determine whether they could continue.

"We are assessing them to see if they have been compromised," he said.

Assistant Commissioner Harrison said the files were "not just restricted to the activities of motorcycle gangs" but involved other major police operations.



Wanted bikie interstate, police fear
SAM RICHES, NICK HENDERSON and AAP
June 04, 2007 02:30pm
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ONE of four men linked to the Finks and wanted over the shooting of Rebels bikies outside Tonic nightclub may have fled interstate.

"We're looking for four people but there's certainly potential he may have left the state," said deputy commissioner Gary Burns.

Police revealed today they had met with both the Finks and Rebels bikie clubs in attempts to stop escalating or retaliation attacks.

"They've listened and they've been reasonably cooperative so far," deputy commissioner Gary Burns said today, after meeting with police minister Paul Holloway.

"We're aware of who we're looking for. It's a matter of locating those people now. . this is an incident that wasn't part of the general turf warfare that these gangs are involved in, I think it was about other issues and as a result it's got out of hand for both groups," he said.

Deputy Commissioner Burns said while the investigation was "straightforward it could be hampered by the clubs involved.

"The issues we will have to deal with is the motorcycle gangs and whether they will be forthcoming in providing us with statements," he said.

Meanwhile the issues of tougher laws specifically surrounding outlaw motorcycle gangs was a priority.

Mr Holloway said discussions would continue on broadening and strengthening legislation targeting bikies, but that courts needed to take a similarly hard-line to support police and government.

"I just think we'd like to see the appropriate penalties implied," he said.

"If we're going to get rid of this curse from our society, they need the backing of courts to provide the appropriate penalty."

The same meeting addressed concerns surrounding the theft of stolen surveillance documents which were handed to the Finks.

Not only has it compromised sensitive drug and bikie-related investigations, Mr Burns revealed informants had also been compromised.

"We have had some concerns about the safety of informants and once again we've taken steps to ensure their safety is managed," he said.

A major internal inquiry is continuing into the incident as well as protocol and policy procedures and efforts to retrieve outstanding documents.



Rann aims at bikie 'terrorists'

Earlier today, Premier Mike Rann labelled bikies "terrorists within our community" and said the State Government was willing to introduce any law Police Commissioner Mal Hyde asked for.

"I will be asking the police commissioner tell us what you want,'' he said.

"If there are other laws that you need tell us and you will get them.''

His comments follow the early Saturday morning shooting of four Rebels motorcycle club members by two gunmen.

Mr Rann also criticised lawyers that "hold up'' anti-bikie legislation through court appeals.

"My message today to the lawyers is join us in the fight against people who in my view are terrorists within our community rather than frustrate us."

Shooting and theft 'not linked'

Meanwhile, police have denied there is a link between the shooting involving and the theft of confidential police documents that ended up with a bikie gang member.

South Australian Assistant Commissioner Tony Harrison said the theft of the documents last Wednesday was a random incident and not connected with the incident at the Tonic Nightclub on Saturday that put four people in hospital.

"I certainly don't believe there is any correlation between the security breach in relation to the documents and the shooting at the weekend," Mr Harrison told ABC radio today.

Two people remain in hospital in a serious condition after the shooting, with one expected to undergo surgery today. The others have been discharged.


"The shooting is not considered a random attack and police are following up on several lines of inquiry including reviewing closed circuit television footage from the nightclub," a spokesman said.

"The shooting has been declared a major crime mainly due to the serious nature of the incident."

The shooting came just days after confidential police documents and photographic equipment were taken from an unmarked police car.

Police said some of those documents were handed over to a number of people, including a member of a motorcycle gang.

But some documents and the photographic equipment were also recovered when a 46-year-old man was arrested on Thursday night.

Mr Harrison said police were currently reviewing policies in relation to the security of confidential police documents and were assessing the impact of the security breach on current operations.

"The reality is motorcycle gangs have spread their tentacles right across a number of criminal networks in Adelaide and they are able to source such information very quickly," he said.

He said police believed they knew the identity of the person who had broken into the police vehicle, but that person had not yet been apprehended.

Tensions high as Angels in court
09Jun07

BIKIES were believed to be circling Southport Court yesterday while two Hells Angels were inside facing charges following last year's Ballroom Blitz.

While the Hells Angels were unaware of any threat outside, they did have concerns for their safety, asking the court to stop the media from reporting their home addresses through fear of reprisal from Finks bikie members.

The application was rejected by Magistrate Dermot Kehoe.

Outside court yesterday, a silver Holden ute repeatedly drove down Hinze Street and on one occasion someone yelled out the window: "Why would you want to be a little Angel when you can be a big Fink."

There were also three men standing in the car park across the road from the entrance to the court with a pair of binoculars.

The men left in a rented 4WD when the Hells Angels left the court complex.

Inside court, Troy McKever Stewart, 33, of Sydney, and Terry Ian Polley, 44, of South Australia, were due to complete a committal hearing arising out of the bikie brawl at Royal Pines Resort on March 18, last year.

Three people were shot and two stabbed in the brawl between the Finks and Hells Angels motorcycle clubs at a kickboxing match.

It is believed the melee was over a former Finks member, Chris topher Wayne Hudson, 28, defecting to help recruit members to rivals the Hells Angels. During the brawl, it is alleged Mr Stewart shot a member of the Finks.

He is charged with attempted murder and other offences including wounding.

It is alleged Mr Polley, of Adelaide, shot an innocent teenager, who was part of the crowd, in the foot.

Mr Polley has been charged with a number of offences including unlawful wounding.

Unlike previous court appearances by both the Hells Angels and Finks, there was not the usual heavy security surrounding the court for yesterday's hearing.

The committal hearing, which started in January, was due to finish yesterday but the case had to be adjourned as the prosecutor was on unexpected bereavement leave.

Defence counsel for both Mr Stewart and Mr Polley did not oppose the adjournment but did ask that the prosecution notify them whether they would close their case or continue to call witnesses to give evidence when the hearing resumed in December.

Counsel also asked for a bail variation for the men that they cease reporting to police.

In July, Mr Stewart was granted bail under a number of conditions including he supply a $200,000 surety, adhere to a curfew and report daily to police.

Mr Polley was released in April on a $50,000 surety and required to report to police twice a week.

Mr Kehoe revoked the police reporting conditions yesterday.

The case will resume on December 14.

The Finks' clubrooms at Thebarton.

Bikie fortresses still stand


COLIN JAMES, SAM RICHES, JOANNA VAUGHAN
June 09, 2007 02:15am
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BIKIE fortresses remain scattered across Adelaide five years since Premier Mike Rann promised they would be "bulldozed".

Despite the introduction of special laws aimed at demolishing the fortresses, The Advertiser has found at least eight exist in metropolitan suburbs.

The clubrooms are located at Wingfield, Brompton, Clarence Gardens, Royal Park, Mansfield Park, Thebarton, Old Noarlunga and Dry Creek.

They are headquarters for various chapters of the Hells Angels, Rebels, Gypsy Jokers, Finks and Descendants.

All have been the subject of investigations by police attached to the anti-bikie taskforce, Operation Avatar.

Councils responsible for suburbs where the fortresses are located told The Advertiser it was not their responsibility to close them down.

Most mayors said it was up to SA Police and the State Government to take action against the properties, adding they had received few reports from ratepayers about problems with bikies.

Police Minister Paul Holloway yesterday said one fortress in the Adelaide Hills had been dismantled while planning approval for a second facility had been rejected.

Police were planning to object to a third clubroom planned for the inner-western suburbs, he said.

Asked if the anti-fortification laws introduced by the Rann Government had pushed the outlaw motorcycle clubs "underground", he said that "would appear to be the case". "The laws have served their purpose," he said.

"Bikies have changed their activities as a result.

"These laws have allowed police ready access to buildings and if fortifications prevented immediate access they could get the orders.

"Because of these regular visits, bikies have tended to shift their criminal activities."

Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith said yesterday he still had no answer as to exactly how many fortresses, or even club members, there were in South Australia.

This was despite questioning Mr Rann about the issue in State Parliament this week.

"I think the Government is being out-manoeuvred by bikies at every turn," he said.

"By the Government's own admission, they're forcing bikie crime underground."

Victims of Crime co-ordinator Michael O'Connell said knocking down the fortresses would go a long way towards "alleviating the fear of crime".

"Fear of crime can be just as harmful as crime itself," he said. "There is validity in the argument about laws being a tool to prevent premises being built."

Defence lawyers for bikie gangs yesterday argued demolition of the fortresses would be counter-productive to law enforcement because bikies would start congregating at homes or licensed venues.

"At least when they are at their clubrooms police know where to find them," said one lawyer who represents two of the biggest gangs.

"If they knock them down, not only will they get mightily pissed off but they also will just disappear and be very hard to locate." While police surveillance is continuing on at least four of the properties, a spokeswoman refused to provide details of where the fortresses were located or whether police would move to have them demolished.

"SAPOL does not wish to compromise any of these investigations by releasing details prior to any application being made and will neither confirm nor deny that any particular premises may be the subject of any investigation," she said.

Bikies take clubhouse case to High Court

Thursday Jun 14 17:16 AEST

The Gypsy Jokers bikie gang is taking its challenge to the West Australian government's anti-fortification laws to the High Court on Friday.

The motorcycle gang is fighting an order issued in May 2004 to remove fortifications around a clubhouse, under the 2003 Corruption and Crime Commission Act.

The Act says the police commissioner can use secret evidence to get an order removing fortifications from bikie premises if he believes they are habitually used by people involved in organised crime.

The bikies failed in a challenge to the validity of the Act, on the grounds that it was constitutionally invalid, in the West Australian Court of Appeal in February.

On Friday they will seek special leave to appeal to the High Court in Perth, asking whether the majority of the Court of Appeal erred in finding a part of a section of the Act did not infringe a chapter of the Australian constitution.

Arrest of prominent bikie over extortion and arson
Email Print Normal font Large font John Silvester
June 16, 2007

A MAN named as a suspect in three organised crime murders was yesterday arrested at Melbourne Airport on extortion and arson charges.

Former senior Hells Angels member Terrence Raymond Tognolini, 42, was grabbed as he arrived on a London flight and taken for police questioning.

Tognolini was a founding member and major influence in the Hells Angels Nomads Chapter until he was expelled earlier this year. After he fell out with the motorcycle group, he was beaten by 10 gang members who allegedly removed his club tattoos with welding gear and a steam iron.

Previous attempts to build prosecution cases against him have failed when potential witnesses told police they feared reprisals from the Hells Angels, but after he was cut loose police began a new investigation.

Tognolini owns Nefarious, a Thomastown wholesale hydroponic business. He is under investigation over a series of arson attacks involving rival hydroponic firms and retail outlets.

Police have previously alleged Tognolini ordered the murder of Tim Richards and Les Knowles, who were gunned down in an Adelaide auto repair shop on August 15, 1996.

Gerald David Preston, a friend of Tognolini, was sentenced to 32 years' jail after he was found guilty of the murders. The High Court later reported: "The prosecution case was that the killings were carried out at the request of one Tognolini."

Preston's former wife, Vicki Jacobs, was a key prosecution witness in the case. She was murdered on July 12, 1999. Detectives believe the killer was a Hells Angels member from Darwin. There remains a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the murder of Vicki Jacobs.

Good Samaritan shot deadArticle from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment MARK BUTTLER, MATT CUNNINGHAM, MELBOURNE
June 19, 2007 02:15am
IT was an act of kindness, but in the end it was the worst decision the 43-year-old Melbourne father could have made.

Seconds after lawyer Brendan Keilar stepped between the screaming woman and the man dragging her from a taxi by her hair, he was shot and killed. The gunman then turned the gun on the woman and a second good Samaritan who sought to go to her aid, before fleeing the carnage on foot through the crowded city streets.

Police have named Sydney-based Hell's Angel bikie Christopher Wayne Hudson as a suspect in the cold-blooded shooting murder in Melbourne's CBD. He remained at large last night.

Two other people - one fighting for his life - remained in intensive care last night after they were also shot when the gunman opened fire.

Mr Keilar, 43, had run to help Kaera Douglas, a young woman who was being viciously beaten in the heart of Melbourne's King St nightclub strip at 8.05am.

But he suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head as the armed man fired seven times.

The father of three worked as a solicitor for a city law firm and was a devoted family man, friends said.

The other man who rushed to help was last night in a critical condition.

Ms Douglas, 24, a former solarium employee and nightclub door girl, was in a serious but stable condition after emergency surgery for a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Her father, Jim, said the family was in shock.

"Our daughter has been shot and we don't know what the background is yet," Mr Douglas said.

One family friend described Ms Douglas, who is now believed to work in travel consultancy, as a "lovely girl" who "comes and goes" from her parents' home as she also lives interstate.

Witnesses described the gunman as being "cool as a cucumber" as he opened fire on Mr Keilar, Ms Douglas and the other man. He fled on foot and is now being hunted by the homicide squad, special operations group and other sections of Victoria Police.

A discarded pistol believed to be the murder weapon was found with a jacket on a nearby Flinders St worksite after the shooting.

There was pandemonium in the city in the hours after the tragedy with traffic cut and fearful workers barricading themselves in offices.

A witness, Rodney, said he watched from his sixth floor office window as the cold-blooded killer calmly opened fire.

"I heard a woman scream a couple of times," he said.

"I stood up and looked out the window and this guy had the woman by the ear, holding her down. She was screaming. Then I saw some people coming across from the other side. There was a guy in a yellow spray jacket and he stepped in and said something.

"The other guy must have said something as well."

Rodney said the gunman then calmly pulled out a handgun and shot all three people.

"He didn't hesitate, he just popped them off," he said. "They just dropped. The first guy dropped so he had a clear view of the woman, then she dropped and he twisted around and shot the other guy.

"Then he just turned around and casually put the gun away and walked off down Flinders Lane."

Police said the gunman had earlier brutally bashed another woman - thought to be his girlfriend - in the entry to the King St bar Barcode.

A witness said the man punched the girl in the face, threw her around and pushed her into a wall shortly before the shooting. Witnesses said the woman's friend, Ms Douglas, found her hurt and bleeding badly in the foyer before rushing back into the bar to ask staff to call an ambulance.

"She was banged up pretty badly," the witness said. A pool of blood remained on the footpath inside a police cordon outside the club late yesterday.

The woman was taken to hospital but The Advertiser has been told she cannot remember the attack. She was discharged last night after receiving treatment for facial injuries.

Ms Douglas left the club shortly after the ambulance and, according to one witness, got into a taxi with the gunman.

The witness said the gunman began punching her in the taxi. He said the taxi driver stopped the car and the man began to pull the woman out by the hair.

Police have taken a copy of the club's CCTV footage showing the attack and the preceding events.

The Advertiser was told the gunman had walked in and out of the venue several times before the incidents and did not appear to be drunk or aggressive.

The girls are believed to be regulars but staff had not seen the gunman before.

Hudson, 29, is well known to police in Queensland and New South Wales for alleged involvement in the illicit drug trade.

He is known to have access to firearms and is connected with members of Victorian Hell's Angels chapters. Hudson's defection from the Finks Motorcycle Club in Queensland to the local Hell's Angels led to a bloody confrontation at a kick-boxing tournament on the Gold Coast.

Inspector Steve Clark, of the homicide squad, said alerts had been put out in New South Wales and Queensland in an attempt to track down Hudson.

Strip club bouncers shot in bum
Dylan Welch | June 18, 2007 - 8:34AM

Two bouncers have been shot in the buttocks at a strip club in Kings Cross by men allegedly asscoiated with an outlaw bike gang, police say.

About nine men, believed to be members of outlaw motorcycle club the Comancheros, were in the Bada Bing strip club on Darlinghurst Road at about 3am on Sunday, when shots were fired.

Two bouncers were shot once each in the buttocks, police said.

They were both taken to St Vincent's Hospital where they underwent surgery and are currently in a stable condition.

The club was quickly evacuated, closed and police were called.

Four of the nine men were arrested about 200 metres from the strip club inside a car, after being identified by witnesses. They were taken to Kings Cross police station for questioning.

Three men, a 26-year-old Greenacre man, a 25-year-old Westmead man and a 27-year-old Revesby man were all charged with affray and participating in a criminal group. A 26-year-old Arncliffe man was released without charge.

The 27-year-old was also charged with break and enter, after he allegedly attempted to re-enter the strip club before police arrived to steal CCTV footage of the shooting.

Police have yet to establish exactly who fired the two shots, and no gun was recovered.

Officers from the Gang Squad - running the high profile Operation Ranmore, created to target outlaw motorcycle clubs - were also present during the investigation.

Mad Ron's bikie brother's shooting charge
Dylan Welch
February 6, 2008

A senior member of the Finks bikie gang charged over the shoot-out at a busy Leichhardt restaurant last year is the brother of one-time Schapelle Corby financier Ron Bakir.

Yassar Bakir, 33, was arrested this morning by detectives attached to Strike Force Durra, formed to investigate the shooting at Grappa, an Italian restaurant on Norton Street in Sydney's inner west.

He is the brother of phone entrepreneur and former Corby "white knight" financier Ron Bakir, who used to own Mad Ron's.

When contacted this afternoon Ron Bakir would not comment.

"I've got no interest in discussing the subject," he said.

Yassar Bakir was charged with attempting to murder Mahmoud Hawi, Daux Ngakuru and another unknown man during a shoot-out outside the restaurant about 2pm on November 15, according to documents tendered in court today.

Bakir - a large, muscular man with tattoos on both arms, a moustache and close-cropped black hair - faced Parramatta Local Court this afternoon, dressed in an orange T-shirt, blue shorts and sneakers without laces.

He did not apply for bail and will remain in jail until his next hearing at Parramatta Local Court on April 17, when he will appear via video link.

In a police charge sheet tendered in court the magistrate noted that Bakir "has been charged with similar offences in the past and is currently the subject of strict bail conditions as a result of those offences".

AAP reports: Police allege five men went to the restaurant on November 15 and spoke to three other men.

After one of the men produced a gun, all eight left the restaurant, police said.

The group of three ran along Norton Street, pumping bullets from close range into a black Mercedes and black Mazda 6 sedan containing the other five men.

The police charge sheet for Bakir, tendered to the court today, named two of the men they allegedly shot at as Hawi and Ngakuru.

Two vehicles parked nearby and a house with people inside were also damaged by the gunfire, police said.

After the shooting, the group of three had got into a white four-door dual cab utility with an aluminium tray, parked in Henderson Street, and drove off.

Police said they found the black Mercedes later in the day, with bullet holes in its bodywork, in the nearby suburb of Annandale.

Detectives from Strike Force Durra are still looking for another man allegedly involved in the brawl and shooting.

They are also searching for the stolen black Mazda 6 sedan, with NSW registration ASH 01E, and the white ute.

Rival gangs involved in shoot-out
By Steve Larkin | May 05, 2008
ABOUT a dozen men from rival bikie gangs linked to drugs traded shots in a popular restaurant district, police say.

Bystanders ducked for cover as up to 12 men in three cars shot at each other at Gouger Street in central Adelaide about 1.30am CST yesterday.

Police arrested, but later released, three men and today were continuing to search for others involved.

SA Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Harrison said police believed the shooting was linked to the distribution of illicit drugs.

He would not name the outlaw motorcycle gangs involved.

"There is no doubt that we are pursuing individuals who have direct linkages with two outlaw motorcycle gangs in Adelaide," Mr Harrison said.

Blood stains were found in two of the three cars involved, while the third vehicle was found today burnt out in Adelaide's north, but there had been no reports of injuries, Mr Harrison said.

The shooting sparked debate over proposed laws to crack down on outlaw motorcycle gangs, including preventing people associating with gang members.

The legislation is before parliament's upper house.

"If it's passed in its current format, it will provide police with the tools that they do genuinely need and need very quickly in relation to starting to intervene in this gang-type activity," Mr Harrison said.

Fink's violent ride into hell
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/0...coast-news.html

Death of a bikie

John Silvester
October 24, 2008

The murder of a Bandidos member has put the spotlight firmly back on bikie gangs.

A GROUP of outlaw motorcycle gang members targeted by police in South Australia has taken to referring to Victoria under a new name - Switzerland - because it is the ultimate haven.

Adelaide detectives from the Crime Gangs Taskforce say bikies know they can head to Victoria where they will not be subjected to intense police scrutiny.

But senior police in Victoria say that savage new South Australian laws used to declare whole bike groups illegal are counterproductive and will only force problems underground.

Victorian Detective Superintendent Paul Hollowood believes the Victorian crime department's approach of targeting individual bikies involved in criminal activities rather than whole organisations is more effective and efficient.

"We believe the South Australian legislation is draconian and it elevates their status to a level of terrorism, which is not appropriate, will not be successful and will merely force the activity underground," Hollowood says.

He made the comments yesterday while announcing a new taskforce - code named Santiago - to investigate up to 20 street shootings in Victoria in the past 12 months. The taskforce, headed by a detective inspector with 22 staff, will investigate the shootings where the victims were reluctant to co-operate with police. The decision to reveal the new group came just over 12 hours after a Bandidos bikie was shot dead and another wounded in an ambush outside the group's Geelong clubhouse about 6.10pm on Wednesday.

While the motive for the murder and wounding remains unclear, what is known is there has been a violent rivalry between Geelong chapters of the Bandidos and Rebels gangs.

Police intelligence reports show a group of young Rebels members, known as "DBD" (Death Before Dishonour) have been involved in aggravated burglaries. These crimes are known as run-throughs because the offenders attack their victim inside a house during an ambush.

In February last year the Bandidos headquarters was riddled with more than 30 shots fired in a drive-by attack and five weeks later the Bandidos responded by firebombing the Rebels clubhouse.

In July 2007 local police used the special operations group to raid the Rebels, seizing guns, machetes, samurai swords, amphetamines, ecstasy tablets and cannabis. It was a clear message to both gangs.

Weeks later a senior local policeman acted as a go-between between the two groups. While office holders from the chapters refused to be in the same room together, the policeman organised separate meetings in a Melbourne coffee shop last August where he was given a commitment that the simmering dispute would be suspended.

That is until this week.

Wednesday's double shooting was on Geelong Cup day, a local public holiday. The gunmen would have known the industrial estate where the Bandidos clubhouse is located would be almost deserted, with shops and factories shut for the day.

They would also have known that some Bandidos would be in their clubhouse drinking on race day. What homicide squad detectives will have to establish is whether it was a planned attack on any vulnerable member of the Bandidos gang or whether the murder victim - Ross Brand, 51, of Torquay - was the specific target. Police have yet to establish whether it was a spur of the moment attack or a planned shooting. Members of both gangs had been drinking during race day, leaving open the possibility that Rebels members, fresh from the races, carried out the daylight shooting.

Brand often carried a gun and last year police received information that he had a hidden supply of hand grenades. He was a Bandidos enforcer and one policeman told The Age "his card has been marked for a couple of years". The Rebels blamed him for the firebomb attack on their clubhouse and several run-throughs on DBD members.

Police intelligence reports show DBD members attacked Brand's Torquay house early last year but the payback failed because the intended victim was not at home at the time.

"The Rebels won't be crying themselves to sleep over his death. They hated him with a passion," one investigator says.

But he also had some enemies within his own gang who saw him as a loose cannon who brought unnecessary police attention to the Geelong chapter.

THE Australian Crime Commission says there are about 3500 outlaw bikies in Australia and numbers are growing. It says there are 35 gangs operating in Australia, with 17 having a presence in Victoria.

In Victoria police first focused on outlaw motorcycle gangs in 1978, through the then Bureau of Criminal Intelligence.

When the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence was formed in 1981, its major targets included the Mafia and outlaw motorcycle groups.

The ACC still has major gangs and national crime targets. It has found "OMCG (Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs) involvement in outwardly legitimate business enterprises is potentially impacting adversely on a number of key market sectors in Australia, including finance, transport, private security, entertainment, natural resources and construction".

Police investigations have also discovered that outlaw motorcycle gangs have intimidated witnesses until they refuse to give evidence in trials, forced a man to leave Australia after he was involved in a confrontation with a bikie, and invested heavily in natural resources, including Australian mining and Indonesian oil rigs.

They have also frightened off rival bidders at property auctions and are seen as major players in gun running, tax fraud and money-laundering schemes.

According to the US FBI, the Bandidos gang is one of the "Big Four" outlaw groups and was formed by Donald Eugene Chambers in Houston, Texas, in March 1966. It was first established in Australia in 1983 and now consists of 19 chapters around the country.

The Rebels is an Australian outfit that began in Brisbane and now has 29 chapters. Its reputation for violence was cemented when members killed a Hells Angel bikie by beating him to death with a baby's pram.

The Rebels' Geelong chapter has been implicated in the murder of mother-of-three Jane Thurgood-Dove, who was killed in front of her children outside her Niddrie home on November 6, 1997.

Police say the gunman was Rebels member Stephen John Mordy and his friend Jamie Reynolds who accepted a contract to kill a woman in Niddrie but shot the wrong person. Both men later died of natural causes.

In Angels of Death, Inside The Bikers' Global Crime Empire, Canadian experts William Marsden and Julian Sher say Australia has the highest number of bikies per capita in the world.

Marsden and Sher found that since the mid-1990s, Australian bikies have been vying for a slice of the lucrative drug market. "Over the next five years, 32 bikies would die and many more would be beaten as the Hells Angels, Bandidos and other clubs fought over the amphetamine trade."

They wrote of a violent takeover process where the number of clubs dropped from 178 to just over 30.

In 1996 Victoria police successfully infiltrated the Bandidos using two undercover officers in an 18-month operation. As a result more than 100 police in four states conducted co-ordinated raids that resulted in 19 arrests and the seizure of drugs with a street value of more than $1 million. They also found chemicals capable of being used to make amphetamines worth $6 million and seized firearms, including an AK-47 rifle and pen pistols.

Police have developed a policy of consultation rather than confrontation with bikies when possible. In 1997 when the Bandidos were having a "national run", it was to take them through Wangaratta on VCE muck-up day. Local police were horrified at the thought of hundreds of bikies and an equal number of drunken teenagers in the one area. They spoke to the then Bandidos national president, Michael "Chaos" Kulakowski, who assured them there would be no trouble. There was none. Chaos was later murdered in Sydney.

Earlier this month about 200 Bandidos were in Victoria as part of a national run and police again talked to them. There were no reports of misbehaviour.

Police will now have to prepare for even more bikies as they will ride from around the country for Brand's funeral. And their mood will be entirely different.

Homicide detectives say members of the Bandidos gang are co-operating with the murder investigation.

But they are acutely aware of the gangs motto: "God forgives, Bandidos don't."

Tough ride over the border
VICTORIA should take a collective deep breath and resist copying South Australia's anti-bikie legislation, SA Democrat Sandra Kanck says.

Kanck is a critic of Premier Mike Rann's aggressive Serious and Organised Crime (Control) Act, which empowers the Police Commissioner to apply strict control orders over declared bikie groups.

Rann has taken a hard line against bikie gangs, including attempting to shut down bikie "fortresses" - the highly secure suburban headquarters of bikie gangs such as the Hells Angels and Rebels. Lawyers believe this will force them underground, making them harder to locate.

On September 4, the SA Parliament passed its latest anti-bikie laws, which allow gangs to be declared a risk to public safety and order. The most controversial aspect is the new offence of criminal association that stops people associating with members of declared groups.

No bikie gang has been declared under the new law but the Attorney-General expects the first applications to be made before Christmas.

Kanck says this is likely to trigger a long and expensive legal challenge. Bikie gangs have been reported to have set up a fighting fund to pay for a legal challenge. The police powers will include the right to issue 72-hour public safety orders that prevent gang members from attending a public event and associating with other gang members.

"This provides guilt by association which is against all our human rights and obligations," Kanck says.

â– NSW uses existing laws to make life difficult for bikie clubs by nabbing members for any crime they can: drugs, weapons and even licensing violations at clubhouses. Last year, NSW Police set up Operation Ranmore; it has arrested 340 people on 883 charges. -

the s.a laws only drive bikers to be more ingenius and smarter it doesnt solve anything

A clubhouse of HA has been blown up in Sydney.

Peter,

How come the Outlaws MC is not a part of that article?
According to their website they have numerous chapters in Australia?

good point there are many chapter of outlaws in australia?


in qld the bandidos and rebels are the biggest but the finks are making a good show off it in the gold coast

Outlaws mc Australia is at the moment not in conflict with other clubs, I think. At least there is nothing about it in the news. The clubs mentioned are all at the moment at war in one way or other.

Thank you Peter,

It was a very good article.

Bikie's creed, greed and speed

By Paul Kent
February 06, 2009 12:00am

DRUGS and the fortunes they generate have Sydney's bikie war set to go national.

I am told this yesterday over a coffee in Sydney at a table big enough to support a meth lab on. It is hardly big enough to play cards on.

Yet on tables as small as this, cheap chemicals are being manufactured into expensive drugs and great fortunes are made for everybody involved.

The meth labs make the drugs supplied by the bikies, who have created the violence sending fear through this city - explosions and random drive-by shootings into houses where kids toys lie in the front yard.

It sparks fears of another Milperra Massacre, the great fear being that this random killing spree could be coming to a town near you.

And it cannot be stopped because nobody knows what is happening.

The police aren't sure, and they aren't even sure the bikies are sure.

While the Hells Angels have promised retribution following Wednesday's bombing of their clubhouse in Crystal St, Petersham, it is not even clear the gang members know who was behind it.

Creating this confusion, police suspect, are gangs attacking rivals in underhanded attacks - not as a declaration of war - but to provoke battles between other gangs.

The only suitable explanation involves the emergence of a new gang on Sydney's streets.

The gang - Notorious - contains some of the most violent criminals in Sydney. They are breaking all established rules to punch out their own turf.

Now, with the job having started, they are preparing to expand across Australia. It will undoubtedly stir interstate gangs to pick up their weapons.

Notorious represents the changing face of the modern bikie gang. For starters, few of them ride bikes.

Also gone from many are the beer guts and bushranger beards.

Most of all, gone is the rebellious lifestyle that created the outlaw motorcycle gang culture after returned American soldiers struggled to reintegrate with society following the end of World War II.

Today's bikie is familiar with a barbell. He is clean cut and highly tattooed, but, most of all, he is about drugs and money. They are almost all criminals.

As well as the amphetamine trade, which is the bulk of their business, they have expanded into other illegal avenues for profit.

Cars are stolen and chopped - sold for parts or shipped overseas. Extortion has become popular, with victims kidnapped and sold back for a ransom. Standover scams are another earner - shopkeepers forced to pay protection money.

But the biggest change in today's bikie gang is the turn to multiculturalism.

This is no small step.

It began 10 to 12 years ago as the gangs moved deeper into crime and their emphasis shifted away from sharing the outlaw lifestyle to selling drugs.

Gone was the racist doctrine.

Soon, the dominant criteria became earning potential.

If he earned, he was in. If not, no good.

It changed the whole gang culture.

Soon enough, old-style established gang members started walking away from their colours.

They didn't want to share their clubhouse with Islanders or Lebanese.

And as they disappeared, the old rules began to fade.

Where the gang lifestyle had previously been kept within gangland, now everybody became fair game. Bullets began being sent into homes where children slept. Bombs were detonated where anybody could be walking past.

This also sent many old-school bikies into retirement.

Nowadays the old bikie gangs remain in structure only.

There is a national president and each chapter has its own chapter president.

Under the chapter president is the sergeant at arms, responsible for discipline. Below him is the road captain, responsible for leading the runs.

Bikies can wear their colours only when they are on club business, and never anywhere else.

These are the rules Notorious are living by and upsetting at the same time.

After Wednesday's bombing police could hardly wait to take a look inside the Hells Angels clubhouse. Yet for a long time they were unable to, forced to wait because they did not have a warrant.

Meanwhile, the Hells Angels turned up but also could not get in to hide whatever it was they did not want the police to see.

While they had every right to enter their clubhouse, they had no right to enter the police crime scene, inside of which sat there clubhouse.

It was the modern Mexican stand-off, coming soon to a town near you.

does anyone know anything BOUT THIS GANG NOTORIOUS????

From last year.

New bikie gang Notorious patrols Kings Cross

June 16, 2008 12:00am

A NEW breed of criminal gang whose members specialise in drug dealing, extortion and violence is taking over Sydney's premier nightclub district.

Police fear the gang Notorious has become the security muscle for a Kings Cross identity.

The gang is the first known in Sydney to follow an international trend of being outlaw "bikies without bikes".

While its dozens of city-based members wear full bikie colours, only a few members ride motorcycles.

Its members range from seasoned, senior former members of the now-defunct Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang's Parramatta chapter to newly-recruited teenagers as young as 14.

They are largely from Sydney's western suburbs and of Middle Eastern and Pacific Islander background.

The gang is believed to be focused on criminal activities and have links to the security industry.

It is feared they are acting as unofficial security to Kings Cross nightclubs linked to one person in particular.

Late last month, police from the Middle Eastern organised crime squad targeted Notorious in an operation on the nightclub strip.

They arrested two alleged members of Notorious - one an 18-year-old Guildford man arrested with ecstasy tablets at a nightclub.

Court documents show he was charged with two counts of supplying a prohibited drug and two of possessing a prohibited drug.

He was refused bail and is to appear at Central Local Court on June 30.

Another, a 14-year-old from Guildford, was arrested in the same police operation while he was in a car illegally parked in the CBD. A search found more ecstasy tablets and the boy was charged with drugs supply and possession.

Police are also investigating suspected links between Notorious and a 30-year-old Kellyville man arrested last week in an alleyway behind a Surry Hills nightclub.

The man, recently released from prison, allegedly had a home-made machine gun and an ammunition magazine containing 32 bullets concealed in a bag. The man was charged with being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence, possessing a firearm and other firearm-related offences.

Notorious was also believed linked to an assault at an Eastern Suburbs pub last year.

It is speculated that Notorious came into being following a series of attacks targeting a nightclub owner ear last year, coinciding with the firebombing of the Parramatta chapter's Granville clubhouse.

Rival outlaw bikie gang the Comancheros was suspected of being behind the firebombing.

In March 2007, masked gunmen burst into a nightclub, firing shots into the ceiling and smashing up the bar. The nightclub owner's bodyguard was allegedly injured during the incident.

It is feared the Comancheros have been trying to wrestle control of the nightclub strip and conflict with Notorious may be on the agenda.

Outlaws MC have chapters in Western Sydney and St Mary's and along with the Gypsy Jokers and the Black Uhlans it's members are mainly of Anglo-european background and doesn't recruit Middle Easterners which is probably the reason why they fly under the radar and don't cause any heat. Pretty smart if you ask me.

5 parts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icUvMHKCGIU&feature=related

Sydney's outlaw motorcycle gangs at a war footing
Thursday, 19 March , 2009 18:52:00
Reporter: Karen Barlow

KAREN BARLOW: Sydney's outlaw motorcycle gangs appear to be at war after two drive-by shootings in the city's west.

No-one was injured in the attacks but it was a close call for the people inside the two houses.

A gang called Notorious has been named as involved in the shootings, and gang watchers say it's only a matter of time before police have a serious public safety problem on their hands.

Karen Barlow reports.

KAREN BARLOW: Police says multiple shots were fired into a Doonside home just before midnight; two sleeping adults were inside. Five minutes later, in nearby Prospect, a home with five people inside including two children was shot at.

In both cases the bullets missed their mark and police believe the same stolen gold coloured Range Rover ferried the shooter or shooters to the two locations. The car was later found alight back in Blacktown.

Detective superintendent Mal Lanyon is the commander of the NSW Gangs Squad.

MAL LANYON: We believe there may be links between the two locations and a known criminal group. The group in question is the Notorious criminal group.

KAREN BARLOW: Notorious has been linked to a series of violent acts around New South Wales.

There have been other drive by shootings and last month in Sydney, a bomb exploded outside a Hells Angels clubhouse and shots were fired into a nearby tattoo parlour.

ARTHUR VENO: It appears there is a tit-for-tat warfare mentality which has broken out in serious fashion at this point.

KAREN BARLOW: Monash University's Professor Arthur Veno has been researching and surveying gangs and their members for more than 20 years.

He says Notorious is not a typical bikie gang but it is borne from the movement. They wear the colours and have a code but they don't necessarily ride motorcycles.

ARTHUR VENO: Notorious was formed as a splinter or breakaway faction from the Nomads motorcycle club. The individuals have lost respect for positional authority and as such, rely upon the club to give them the authority.

KAREN BARLOW: You say they have all the appearances of the motorcycle gang. They don't ride, what exactly keeps them together?

ARTHUR VENO: It's my belief that it's crime. It's mutually beneficial to have an organisation with a quasi-structure and as such be identified clearly as part of this criminal element; as opposed to the mob, the Russian mafia, the Lebanese mafia etc.

KAREN BARLOW: And at the same time, they have a war mentality?

ARTHUR VENO: Very definitely and I believe that's a problem with the clubs as well. Unfortunately, the war mentality came upon us in Australia in 1972 and in both Adelaide and New South and prior to that all the wars were settled out of the public view.

KAREN BARLOW: He says a serious line was crossed last night when women and children were put in the firing line.

ARTHUR VENO: It's a cardinal rule of the rules of engagement of war for bikies that no retributions or injuries to a former member, or current member would be done in the presence or vision of his family. They have clearly broken the rules and they'd better be ready for the consequences.

MARK COLVIN: Monash University's Professor Arthur Veno ending that report from Karen Barlow.

ARTHUR VENO is a WANKER

ciao amico



che cosa cattivo?




'the king is dead. long live the king'

Man killed during Sydney Airport brawl
Ellie Harvey
March 22, 2009 - 8:54PM

The scenes where a man was beaten by a group of men at the Qantas Domestic Terminal. Photo: James Brickwood

A 29-year-old man has been bludgeoned to death in broad daylight at Sydney Airport in a brawl that police believe involve up to 15 outlaw bikies from possibly two gangs.

The man was treated at the scene after being hit with portable metal bollard but was pronounced dead at Prince of Wales hospital. The bollard, among a number of other items, have been taken for forensic examination. Five crime scenes have been established one at the hospital and several at the airport.

Police said a group of men arrived on a flight to Sydney about 1.30pm (AEDT) on Sunday and were unexpectedly met by another group of men possibly a rival outlaw bikie group.

"A fight ensued [and] moved through various parts of the terminal," Detective Inspector Peter Williams said. He said it "appeared that a certain degree of planning went into it".

Police will review CCTV footage and have begun speaking between 30 and 50 witnesses, many whom Detective Inspector Williams described as ``traumatised''.

Police have four men in custody who are assisting them with inquiries.

Sydney Airport said the matter was now with police so they were unable to comment.

Bikie killed in airport brawl
Dylan Welch, Les Kennedy and Ellie Harvey
March 23, 2009

``They were like a tangled mob''... paramedics work frantically to save the dying Hells Angel. The photo is from a traveller's mobile phone. Four men were later arrested.

A HELLS Angels bikie was killed in a huge brawl at Sydney Airport with rival club the Comanchero, in a brazen attack witnessed by dozens of travellers yesterday afternoon.

The 29-year-old was knocked to the ground during the brawl - involving at least 10 men - and bashed repeatedly in the head with a metal bollard.

The attack took place in terminal three, one of the most secure and monitored public spaces in Australia.

A shocked Premier, Nathan Rees, immediately announced he would meet the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, this morning to discuss tough new anti-bikie legislation.

"I was sickened by this brazen attack. Violence of this nature particularly in front of families and children is nothing short of disgusting," Mr Rees said.

The attack came hours after the Sydney-based Bandidos had been involved in a series of drive-by shootings at six homes in Auburn, though that is believed to be linked to a feud with another club, Notorious.

The Hells Angel was travelling with other interstate bikies who had flown from Adelaide via Melbourne to reinforce the Bandidos' Blacktown chapter in its war with Notorious, underworld sources said.

"Even if there was airport security there was no way they could have intervened. They came across the turnstiles like a tangled mob," a witness, who did not want to be named, said.

"[There was] a man on the ground and a man smashing his head with this silver bollard - there was nothing [security and police] could have done."

Initial police reports suggested the dead man may also have been stabbed.

The brawl is believed to be linked to a feud between the Hells Angels and the Comanchero gang that erupted after the Angels' Petersham clubhouse was bombed last month.

The fight was believed to have been planned and ranged across the terminal, Detective Inspector Peter Williams from Botany Bay police said.

"We have got a lot of cameras and a lot of witnesses," he said.

Four Comanchero members were arrested in a taxi they left the airport in. They were being kept at separate police stations last night, following fears of retribution. At least two more men were being sought by police.

The Police Minister, Tony Kelly, promised to "throw every resource" into the investigation and foreshadowed laws to try to stifle the operations of the clubs. "I will be meeting [today] with the Police Commissioner and the Attorney-General, looking at additional laws that we can bring into place to round these people up," Mr Kelly said.

Last month Mr Scipione requested extra power to combat the upsurge in violence. While detail of the laws is not yet known it is understood they will involve non-association provisions - making it illegal for members of bikie gangs to congregate.

Last night senior commanders were meeting with Australian Federal Police about airport security.

The Australian Crime Commission is likely to become involved in talks on the interstate movement of motorcycle gang members.

The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, added his voice to calls for an end to bikie violence. "We need resolve, not simply to lock up these bikie gang criminals, but to break them up completely," he said.

'I HEARD HIS HEAD CRACK'
The airport attackers moved so fast that only a bullet could have stopped them, witnesses said. NEWS, PAGE 2

I cannot believe that the HA would assist the Bandidos in their war with Notorious.
Anybody here from Australia ?

Very informative and colorfull pdf from The Daily Telegraph about who is fighting whom.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/files/masterbikie.pdf

Thanks for the article, I'm glad I live in Canada.
We only taser people to death at our airports.

Police not ruling out bikie link in double shooting death
Louis Andrews
March 24, 2009 - 8:17PM
Two men have been found dead in a Canberra suburb with police refusing to rule out bikie gang involvement.

Police and ambulance officers found a man dead in the front yard of a home in Couchman Crescent, Chisholm after responding to a call for assistance at 3:10pm today.

The second man was later found dead in the rear yard of the same home.

A third man was taken from the scene and is being questioned by police.

It is believed the man is one of two brothers who live at the house.

A firearm was found one the premises, police say.

ACT policing Superintendent Brett McCann said police believed one shooter was involved but would not say whether gang members were involved.

"At this stage we don't have any firm links to any elements," McCann said.

The quiet suburban street remains cordoned off however police have allowed traffic through nearby streets.

Mick Schimizi, who was working on a roof nearby with a cordless drill, says that he heard the first shot but thought it was a nail gun in his car.

"We thought it could have been the cartridges, we walked outside later and there were police all over the place," he said.

A resident of street, Bryan Perry, said he was shocked by the incident.

"All the neighbours knew each other," he said.

LOL

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/files/masterbikie.pdf