Gold Coast bikie war: How police can stop it by focusing on the Glitter Strip

Police are being warned to move specialist officers from north of the Gold Coast back to the Glitter Strip to stop a bikie war after last week’s violence.

POLICE are being warned to move specialist officers from north of the Gold Coast back to the Glitter Strip to stop a bikie war.

Gunshot victim Gokhan Turkyilmaz, a patched member of the Rebels motorcycle gang, since his release from hospital on the weekend has been taunting his attackers with posts on social media saying “I’ve had harder sparring sessions”.

Alleged Rebels bikie Gokhan Turkyilmaz pictured in Gold Coast University Hospital after being shot.

Coast detectives are continuing to investigate the shooting at the front yard of Turkyilmaz’s Upper Coomera home as police in Brisbane investigate a potential revenge attack by the Bandidos on a tattoo parlour owned by a Rebels boss.

Bond University criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy, a former Coast detective, has linked the increased bikie tensions with the decision to move RAP officers to Coomera.

“You can’t take your eye off the ball. It has all the hallmarks of 2013 again (with the Broadbeach bikie brawl),” Dr Goldsworthy said.

A post to social media by Rebels gang member Gokhan Turkyilmaz saying he has "had harder sparring sessions" after he was shot eight times. Source: Instagram.

“It will be to the peril of the police unless they focus on the bikies. I think they (the RAP officers) need to be taken back and refocus. They should be on the bikie threat and working with Corrections (officers).”

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The Queensland Police Service has maintained that Gold Coast Rapid Action Patrols had a strength of 98 Officers attached to its Varsity Lakes office and “this staffing model has not changed since the inception of RAP”.

But QPS admits RAP has 20 officers comprising of two teams working from Coomera Headquarters on a temporary deployment which started on the June 25, 2016.

Dr Terry Goldsworthy — this is not going to stop. Pic by Richard Gosling

Police sources say only a handful of RAP officers can be found on duty at their desks at Varsity Lakes covering the southern Coast.

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RAP in its initial years had police working with Correction officers to ensure bikies on parole underwent drug and steroid checks, a source said.

“That’s gone by the wayside. They don’t have the staff to do it. The bikies are like a cancer. You have to keep on it, to stop it,” a police source said.

Dr Goldsworthy said RAP needed to focus again on targeting bikies at Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach.

“The bikies don’t come to the Gold Coast to operate out of Nerang. They come to the Glitter Strip, to the party precinct. That’s where the police resources should be focused,” he said.

“I think RAP should be pulled back from general policing duties. With the bikies, this is not going to stop. It will continue to bubble up.”

Originally published as Gold Coast bikie war: How police can stop it by focusing on the Glitter Strip