The outlaw gangs in your backyard

The Finks, Melbourne. Picture: AAP/Joe Castro. Source: AAP

Suburban Australia is under increasing risk of bikies and their appetite for drugs, violence and gun-running. And their numbers are on the rise.

Bikie gangs create havoc in every Australian state and territory and their turf-war shootings, methamphetamine in backyard "ice" labs and other illicit drug distribution are escalating.

The Australian Crime Commission has issued a warning that organised crime by outlaw motorcycle gangs is putting innocent Australians at growing risk of getting caught up in the crossfire of guns and drug crimes.

The national crime and justice watchdog said the gangs had growing international connections "with sophisticated and high threat organised crime groups".

"The apparent willingness of organised crime, and outlaw motorcycle gangs in particular, to bring their violent disputes into public spaces increases the risk that members of the public will become unintended victims," the ACC says in a new report this week about organised crime.

ACC chief executive John Lawler said bikie gangs were "major players" in Australia's drug trade who carried out "brazen shootings" in public.

He said bikies continued to team with Calabrian mafia and other ethnic-based criminal groups to expand and enhance crime networks here and overseas.

"Hardly a day goes by when an outlaw motorcycle gang in some part of the country isn't brought before the courts," he said.

The colours of The Rebels bikie gang. Source: Supplied

DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR

Values: Loyalty and trust make for a cohesive tribal culture. Members may associate with allied clubs, but maintain a vicious rivalry with enemy clubs.

Hierarchy: The president has absolute rule over all members and he is supported by a vice president, treasurer, secretary, road captain, and sergeant-at-arms.

Place in society: Bikies call themselves "1 per cent-ers", meaning they make up the minority, outlaw component.

A bikie gathering in inner-city Sydney. Picture: AAP/Dean Lewins

Their steeds: It once was the rule for all bikies to ride American bikes like Harley Davidsons, and spit on Japanese-made Hondas and Yamahas. With the expansion in membership, some bikies don't even ride bikes, but prefer their cars loud and fast.

Their style: The tradition of long hair, ponytails and beards, plus headscarves for bald bikies, has given way to the clean shaven, shaven-headed younger breed. Tattoos, still, are virtually mandatory.

Bikies protest new crime laws in Sydney. Picture: AAP/Paul Miller

Their gear: Older bikies still wear jeans with denim or black leather vests bearing the club patches or colours, which mean everything, but the younger breed are less identifiable and don't necessarily wear colours when going about their business.

Their families: While women don't play an active role in the club, they are present at social events with their children and any act against them by a member or rival club is punishable by death.

Their business: Prominent in Australia's amphetamine trade, they also deal in other illicit drugs, car rebirthing, firearms trafficking, debt collecting, and intimidation and violence for hire. They have expanded their skill sets into fraud, money laundering, extortion, prostitution and bribing and corrupting officials. Bikies in the 21st century have lawyers, accountants and even public relations consultants.

Amphetamines seized in a bikie raid. Picture: AAP

Bikie nation: Australia has a 6000-plus and growing bikie army with members belonging to more than 100 chapters of around 45 outlaw gangs, stretching from Darwin to Tasmania. They range in size from tiny clubs of around 10 men like the Tramps in Victoria, to the largest club, the Rebels, with 2000 members.

Bikie wars: The Father's Day Massacre of 1984 between Bandidos and Comancheros in Sydney's west was the landmark with seven deaths, but recent shootings and violence on the Gold Coast, in Sydney and in Victoria suggest the stage may be set for bikie battles this year.

Members of Hells Angels and Finks gangs in Sydney. Picture: AAP/Dean Lewins Source: AAP

Here are the facts about Australia's bikie gangs and where they operate throughout the nation.

NEW SOUTH WALES
Gangs
NSW has chapters of all the major bikie gangs in Australia - Finks, Hells Angels, Black Uhlans, the Bandidos and Comancheros, the two gangs which infamously clashed in the 1984 Father's Day massacre, and the Rebels.

The largest gang in Australia is The Rebels, originally called the Confederates, who wear the confederate flag. Their first NSW chapter was in Dubbo, followed by Sydney and now they have 2000 members split into around 70 chapters across the country.

The Odin's Warriors club is based in the Tweed and has chapters over northern NSW.

Crimes and turf wars
The Nomads, a large club based in Marrickville with three other Sydney chapters, has created havoc in recent years in a brutal war with the Hells Angels of Sydney after its former president Scott Orrock was planning to be "patched over" to the Angels.

There have been a series of drive-by shootings on homes and tattoo parlours at targeted premises in the Sydney suburbs of Newtown, Marrickville, and Rouse Hill. This week's shooting of suspected bikie Bassil Hijazi was linked to the controversial South Chapter of the Comancheros club.

A more recent club, Notorious, was initiated by men of Middle Eastern background and has feuded with the Hells Angels and the Bandidos in a war for supremacy in drug sales, while not necessarily riding motor bikes. The club now has 150-200 members.

Its emblem features a skull with a turban brandishing twin pistols and the words "Original Gangster" beneath it, along with the motto "Only the dead see the end of war".

A Hells Angels member is arrested. Picture: AAP/Julian Smith Source: AAP

QUEENSLAND
Clubs
Bikie gangs exist in major town and cities up the Queensland coats, and in the interior in towns such as Mt Isa, but have proliferated in Southeast Queensland.

Brisbane is home to the "mother" chapter of the Rebels, which has seen its clubhouse torched and riddled with bullets in a war with the Bandidos.

But it is the Gold Coast which has become a major hub for bikies and organised crime with traditional gangs like the Finks, Bandidos, Black Uhlans and the Nomads joined by new clubs like the Brotherhood, and the Cruisers.

Townsville is home to the Rebels and Odin's Warriors and a more recent local chapter of the Renegades.

Crimes and turf wars
The "Ballroom Blitz" was a pitched battle with guns, knives, knuckledusters and chairs at a Gold Coast kickboxing tournament in 2006 between Finks and Hells Angels.

But in the last six months, vicious beltings, a murder, armed robberies as well as other robberies, theft of motor vehicles and drug trafficking, have been attributed by Queensland police to the gangs.

The local Hells Angels and Bandidos have engaged in several bloody fights and earlier this year Finks bikie gang members started a melee at the Cooly Rocks On festival, in which innocent bystanders were injured.

Members of the Finks motorcycle gang, Melbourne. Picture: AAP/Joe Castro Source: AAP

VICTORIA
Enemy gangs, the Hells Angels and Bandidos, have been recruiting members of rival Middle-Eastern families, who have members inside and outside prison.

Two months ago, the Satan's Soldiers gang, which has links to the Hells Angels, had its clubhouse torched only metres from the base of the Bandidos-aligned Diablos.

The Bandidos were shot at in an ambush in March and the Hells Angels allies, the Nomads, are believed to be responsible for the rampage.

Victorian police are concerned the state is becoming Australia's bikie capital, with a massive growth of members.

From the Tramps, the smallest club which is based in Wangaratta, to the Rebels, Victoria has more than 1200 bikies belonging to outfits called the Vikings, Immortals and the Red Devils.

Satans Soldiers clubhouse at the direction of the Hells Angels and were walking to the nearby

Drugs, stun gun and cash seized in a police raid of a bikie gang. Picture: News Limited. Source: AAP

NORTHERN TERRITORY
The Hells Angels are entrenched in the city after overtaking the "Blonks", a tame gang in the 1980s. But more recently the Rebels have muscled in from the south.

Rebels club members were arrested earlier this year and charged with concealing a trafficable quantity of methamphetamine.

In the NT, most serious crime is alleged to be conducted by motorcycle gangs and the Darwin division of the Hells Angels is believed to be responsible for drug and gun rackets, infiltrating army units and stealing firearms and equipment.

Last year, the NT Police Commissioner warned the community members of the Gypsy Jokers club were headed for the annual V8 car event.

A Lone Wold gang clubhouse. Picture: AAP Source: AAP

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Coffin Cheaters and Gypsy Jokers have been the main gangs in Western Australia - with fatal results, including the 2001 blowing up of a car by the Jokers, the explosion killing a former detective and his friend.

The Coffin Cheaters have engaged in violent clashes and more recently, an offshoot of a Canadian gang called the Rock Machine has infiltrated the Perth criminal milieu.

A Rock Machine chapter was established in the Perth suburb of Myaree, and a defection of a Rebels member to the gang has sparked a violent ongoing feud.

In June, police found an illegally manufactured sub-machine gun in the club headquarters.

Rebels' clubhouse, North Hobart. Source: News Limited

TASMANIA
Clubs
Six major motorcycle clubs and a couple of offshoots operate in Tasmania out of 13 clubhouses and up to a dozen other unofficial centres.

The Rebels have clubhouses in North Hobart, the nearby town of Sorell and in the suburb of Kings Meadows in Launceston.

Satan's Riders, the Devil's Henchmen and the Outlaws also operate out of Launceston.

The Finks have established a foothold in the northwest coast town of Penguin, and the Black Uhlans have riders based at East Devonport.

Crimes and turf wars
Last month, a former state president of the Rebels motorcycle gang was sentenced for trafficking in $504,000 worth of methylamphetamine, in what the court described as "a large-scale drug trafficking operation not often seen in Tasmania".

Tasmanian Police Minister, David O'Byrne, says he is concerned about increased membership of the bikie gangs in Tasmania and their extensive criminal links.

Mr O'Byrne has told a June parliamentary hearing bikie gangs were extending operations in the state.

Gypsy Jokers on a run north of Adelaide. Picture: AAP/Rob Hutchison Source: AAP

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The Finks, the Rebels and the Hells Angels are the three major gangs, with the Comancheros coming in fourth.

But it is the feud between the Hells Angels and the Finks which has brought terror to the streets and to hotels, and were linked to a fatal shooting late last year.

The escalating war led to the killing of a gang member's son in an ambush in January 2012.

Last month, two Comancheros members were jailed for a gunfight in a busy Adelaide cafe that put the lives of patrons, including children at risk.

Brothers in arms: a bikie lies over the body of his slain brother after the 1984 Milperra bikie massacre in Sydney's west. Picture: Peter O'Halloran Source: News Limited

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