Angelo Pandeli: Hells Angels in turmoil after arrest

The Australian Hells Angels bikie gang will have a battle for control of the multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise after its leader was detained in Dubai.

The Australian Hells Angels bikie gang will have a battle for control of the multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise after its leader was detained in Dubai.

Angelo Pandeli was in custody in the Middle East cash haven on Thursday, after local police arrested him.

The bikie enforcer, who allegedly shipped tons of drugs across the globe in partnership with an Irish crime gang, was Australia’s most wanted bikie.

He has been in the top 20 of the Australian Priority Organisation Target list for several years, but his importance has grown since the arrest of Comanchero linked figure Hakan Ayik in Turkey last year.

Angelo Pandeli leaves a Sydney court. Picture: Matthew Vasilescu

Pandeli has been a target of the Australian Federal Police’s offshore disruption task force Operation Gain.

The AFP would have needed a provisional arrest warrant, often known as an Interpol Red Notice, to be able to extradite him to Australia.

The AFP said it has “no comment” on Thursday.

Pandeli had been living large in Dubai, posing for photos with his family on the water in front of the Burj Al Arab luxury tower.

He was also renovating a double-storey home in the tax haven, which has become a base for international money laundering and organised crime.

Prof Mark Lauchs of the Queensland University of Technology said Pandeli’s absence would create changes to the Australian drug market.

“He was the last man standing of the Aussie cartel that we were aware of,” he said, referring to a group of Australian criminals who were in control of up to $3 billion of annual drug sales here.

Prof Lauchs said that Pandeli being detained would change the balance of power in the criminal world.

Angelo Pandeli with his family in Dubai. Picture: Supplied / Nine

“I’m not saying there’s not someone taking over but we don’t know who that is,” he said.

“This will mean we’re moving away from the bikies and back to the Sydney crime families and the Ndrangheta controlling the market,

“That doesn’t mean they won’t mean they won’t use bikies to do the distribution in Australia but they Pandeli’s role was the connection with the Mexicans.”

Pandeli was expected to attend a Hells Angels’ meeting in Cancun, Mexico, next weekend.

The bikie run was right in the heart of territory controlled by the Sinaloa cartel, and it was expected there would be discussions about major drug deals on the edges of the event.

Pandeli has been on the radar of Australian police for more than a decade.

They tried the Al Capone tactic of charging him with tax fraud but he was cleared in court in 2017 after his accountant told the court it was his mistake that his returns were not filed.

Pandeli, 52, grew up in South Australia to Turkish immigrant parents.

He became a nightclub bouncer in Adelaide and then moved to Sydney where he climbed the ranks of the Hells Angels before he departed for Dubai after his tax court case.

Pandeli sold an apartment in Pyrmont, Sydney, last year, making a $6 million profit.

His wife Kerry had been living with him on the run.

The Australian Federal Police has been picking off key alleged drug kingpins in recent years.

Comanchero figure Mark Buddle has been fighting drug importation charges after being arrested in Turkey in 2022 and extradited to Australia.

Radha Stirling, a lawyer and advocate who runs the agency Detained in Dubai, said Pandeli may fight any attempts to extradite him to Australia.

“If he fights the extradition it will be interesting to see whether the UAE actually cooperates given Australia has declined extradition to the UAE in the past,” she said.

“It’s unlikely that many people will be extradited from Australia to the UAE because of the human rights concerns there.

“Does the UAE want to extradite someone when they’re unlikely to get that same reciprocation from Australia?”

Ms Stirling said Pandeli’s wealth also meant he would have made connections with Dubai’s elite.

“You are obviously in a more powerful position the more you have integrated there,” she said.

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Originally published as Angelo Pandeli: Hells Angels in turmoil after arrest