Five bikie gangs: Finks, Rebels, Nomads, Lone Wolf and Black Uhlans – all have clubhouses on the Gold Coast.
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.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.
Comments