How SA police wiped out feared Nomads bikie gang
THE inside story on how SA police stopped the feared Nomads bikie gang from gaining a foothold in SA.
- Nomads bikie boss smirks as he’s jailed for 20 years
- How bikie gang was smashed in two states
- More than half of SA’s bikies are behind bars
The mountains of Kurdistan are a world away from the exercise yard at Yatala Prison.
But for wannabe bikie warlord Honar Pishdari, its confines will be the closest he gets to enjoying freedom for at least the next 14 years.
A migrant from the strife-torn region who arrived in Australia with his family in 1996 when aged just six, Pishdari, 26, will serve one of the longest jail sentences ever handed out to a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang member in South Australia – thanks to new laws to wipe out bikie gangs.
A petty criminal, Pishdari was the primary target in Operation Wander, conducted by Crime Gangs Task Force detectives. Launched in late 2014 when police discovered the Nomads bikie gang was establishing a chapter in SA, it was spectacularly successful.
The chapter was eliminated and the likely spectre of another bout of bloody inter-gang wars on Adelaide streets was averted.
Pishdari and seven of his former gang recruits are serving non-parole periods ranging from 16 years behind bars to two years on home detention after being convicted of a range of serious crimes including kidnapping, blackmail, extortion and participating in a criminal organisation. The legal battle to not just convict them but also fight the subsequent appeals has taken three years.
For a reason that still eludes police, Pishdari was chosen as the prime-mover to establish a chapter of the Nomads in SA. His bosses were the infamous Tajjour brothers, the gang’s Sydney-based national leaders.
If successful, in all likelihood the move would have resulted in violent conflict in Adelaide with arch-rivals the Hells Angels. Public safety would have once more been placed in jeopardy, just as it was during the bloody feuds between Hells Angels and other gangs such as the Finks and Rebels over the past 20 years.
Shootings, firebombings and murders have been synonymous with both gangs in Sydney over the past decade as its leaders fought over dominance and valuable drug distribution territory.
Fears of the same behaviour in Adelaide should the Nomads gain a foothold were very real.
Intelligence sources used by detectives alerted them to the plans by the Nomads to establish a chapter in Adelaide in late 2014. Investigations revealed several Sydney-based Nomads had visited Adelaide several times and had all stayed in motels close to Adelaide airport.
Of most concern was one visitor, Moudi Tajjour, national vice-president of the Nomads. Moudi, who served four years prison for the manslaughter of a rival in 2006, and his brother, Simon, the national president, ran the gang with an iron fist.
The repeated presence of Moudi and other senior members in Adelaide meant just one thing – the gang was deadly serious about establishing a chapter in SA.
Detective Chief Inspector Scott Fitzgerald, officer in charge of Crime Gangs, said detectives initially established who the leaders of the SA chapter were and were already conducting inquiries to establish the size of their footprint here when “opportunities’’ for intervention were presented by the gang members themselves.
Interestingly, those chosen to lead the gang in SA were not readily known to SA police. They were not recruited from other gangs, as occurred when the Comancheros drafted many of the New Boys to form a chapter in Adelaide.
To this day, detectives don’t know why Pishdari was chosen by the Tajjour brothers to lead their SA chapter. But they do know why the venture failed so dismally and eventually imploded.
“It is clear they tried to recruit too quickly,’’ Det Chf-Insp. Fitzgerald said.
“Because they were trying to increase their numbers rapidly to get a foothold here, they didn’t abide by the normal, traditional recruiting rules as far as the prospect and nominee periods usually went.
“Normally, it’s 12 months or longer for a nominee to become a full member. Within that it weakens the discipline within the group, there is internal conflict and they don’t have the same conviction and loyalty that someone who has done the 12 month or two year nominee or prospect period.
“We believed they were in a rush to get a foothold here. We don’t know precisely why, but it is reasonable to assume we would potentially be a market for them.’’
The Nomads attempt to establish in SA was the gang’s first. Besides the unnecessary haste, the fact it recruited cleanskins may have also been a factor in the inevitable failure.
“The fact they did not do this may have actually weakened them,’’ Det Chf-Insp.Fitzgerald says.
“If they had used experienced members things may have been a little different, for them and us.’’
Ironically, the catalyst for Operation Wander being ramped up came in February, 2015 – from within the fledgling SA Nomads chapter itself. It was an opportunity too good not to take full advantage of.
Detectives had already obtained warrants to carry out phone intercepts on the mobile phones of key gang members, including Pishdari. The intercepts recorded conversations that revealed Pishdari and several others were trying to obtain information on another gang member – known as Mr B – who was in prison.
Pishdari was angry because he believed Mr B, whose identity remains suppressed, had sought protective custody while incarcerated. Within the bikie code, such conduct is considered weak and punishable.
Pishdari had instructed his sergeant-at-arms – identified only as Mr C – that Mr B’s facial tattoo identifying him as a Nomad would have to be cut off.
Somewhat unfortunately for Mr B, he was released from prison in early February 2015. Pishdari issued an instruction that Mr B was to be grabbed “on sight’’ and brought to him. Pishdari somehow obtained information that Mr B was to attend an appointment at the Elizabeth Community Corrections Centre at a specific time on February 18.
On Pishdari’s instructions, his henchmen – Mr C, full member Luke Johnston, nominee
Shannon Roberts and a demoted nominee Paul Reynolds – staked out the ECCC.
When Mr B spotted them, he burst through the front doors, yelling to staff: “They’re after me, they want to kill me.’’
A duress alarm was sounded and Mr B was placed in a secure room until police arrived.
The incident provided detectives with the first real opportunity to take action against four members of the fledgling chapter. It also enabled detectives to start building an even bigger case against Pishdari under new legislation aimed at crushing bikie gangs and stopping organised crime in SA.
The next internal incident was indicative of just how dysfunctional the gang had become under Pishdari.
Its origin was a club meeting on February 15 during which Pishdari had expelled his then vice-president, identified only as Mr D. At the same meeting, he had demoted Reynolds from full member to nominee and had expelled his son, Josh Reynolds.
At the meeting, Pishdari directed Johnston, Roberts, Nathan Mackay and Michael Kotz to take Mr D to his home and recover any gang property – another strict club rule.
This apparently didn’t happen, with Pishdari particularly angry that Mr D had not returned a hat with the words “vice president” embroidered on it.
Over the ensuing weeks, Pishdari instructed members and nominees to find Mr D and seize the property. He also wanted Mr D to repay a $60,000 debt to the Nomads.
Eventually, Roberts and Kotz located Mr D, but only after performing their own surveillance – which would later be revealed when detectives found pictures of his home on Kotz’s mobile phone.
On March 20, 2015, Mr C – along with Roberts, Kotz and Jason Fraser – broke into Mr D’s home. While they didn’t find any Nomads property, they did find another item of considerable interest.
It was a partially completed application to join SA police. It, along with almost everything else of value including a flat screen TV, printer, kitchen appliances and bottles of alcohol, was taken by them.
The discovery of the application form would, in turn, lead to more unrest within the gang. This was even more evidence of the lack of discipline and loyalty among its membership. The gang had descended into an organised rabble that lacked any cohesion and direction.
At a meeting convened at the home of then sergeant-at-arms Nathan Mackay on March 23, Pishdari ordered the four who attended Mr D’s home to sit along one wall. He then instructed them not to talk to anyone about finding Mr D’s SAPOL application and, if he found out they had, he would “cut their faces and shoot them’’.
For an unknown reason, he then kicked Fraser out of the gang and banned him from any association with members.
At that stage, the lack of respect among some members for their leader was becoming evident. Mr C told Pishdari that he thought the Sydney Nomad members should be advised of Mr D’s SAPOL application. Roberts and Kotz agreed.
In response to this open defiance, Pishdari told Mr C to shut up, demoted him to nominee status and stated that he, Kotz and Roberts each owed him a $5000 fine. Mackay and Johnston – two of Pishdari’s dwindling number of allies – were instructed to obtain the cash from each of them.
Over the next few hours their efforts to initially get cash from Mr C were almost comical. He was driven from location to location to obtain the money while being threatened.
He finally managed to escape and contact police, but not before handing $4220 to Mackay that was obtained from several friends during the lengthy trek across the suburbs.
Finally, on May 27 – after months of work finalising the complex brief of evidence – detectives swooped on Nomads members in SA and NSW. All up, 13 members were arrested and charged with offences ranging from kidnapping to blackmail.
In sentencing Pishdari to 20 years in prison with a 16-year non-parole period, Supreme Court Justice David Peek said the bikie boss was “dictatorial’’ and “the directing mind of the Nomads’’.
“You were fully aware of what its members, nominees and associates were doing,’’ he said.
Justice Peek said that to instigate the kidnapping of a member of the public by OMCG members in broad daylight was a crime calculated “to cause great concern’’ not just to those who may witness it, but those who may read or hear about it.
“Such outrageous action by an organised gang would likely be perceived to be tantamount to the operations of a paramilitary organisation, openly contemptuous of the rule of law in our society. This simply cannot be tolerated,’’ Justice Peek said.
Reflecting on the intricacy of the operation, Det-Chf Insp. Fitzgerald said it was difficult on several fronts.
The fact lives were at risk and the sheer size and nature of the brief required – it included more than 900 statements – to prove both the offending and organised crime offences ensured this.
“When you’re giving evidence against an organised crime group that has a reach – in this case a national reach – then there are always concerns for people who give evidence,’’ he said.
“You’re dealing with people who have been exposed to the extreme violence that gangs operate within. They are acutely aware of what repercussions for speaking out are.
“What has happened here is very significant. A gang that is quite strong on the eastern seaboard has been prevented from entering SA. It’s a big win for us.’’