Descendants bikie gang banned from their Pooraka clubhouse under SA Police crackdown

Members of a notorious outlaw bikie gang have been banned from a northern suburbs property under a police crackdown.

Members of the Descendants outlaw motorcycle gang face up to three years in jail if they set foot in their clubhouse in Adelaide’s north from today.

SA Police and the state government on Thursday declared the bikie gang’s meeting place – at 5/96 Research Rd, Pooraka – a “prescribed place”.

This means any member of the Descendants who enters the premises can be arrested and charged under the state’s tough anti-bikie laws.

The Descendants are “highly active and highly organised” when it comes to crime, SA Police say.

The maximum penalty for such an offence is up to three years behind bars.

SA Police Deputy Commissioner Linda Williams said contact would be made with senior members of the Descendants, as well as the owner of the property, to make them aware of the declaration.

The move comes after a comprehensive investigation and intelligence-gathering exercise identified the premises as the gang’s clubhouse.

Ms Williams described the Descendants as “highly active and highly organised” and said the declaration aimed to disrupt their illegal activities.

“They’re a very active participant in organised crime, particularly violent crime and the distribution of drugs in this state,” she said.

“We know through intelligence and evidence that’s been gathered about these premises that they are used by members of the outlaw motorcycle gang the Descendants, their family and their friends as a meeting place not only for social activity but for planning activities and for the execution of criminal activity in this state.”

SA Police Deputy Commissioner Linda Williams. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

The Pooraka address brings the number of prescribed places in SA to four.

The other prescribed places include the clubhouses of both the Gypsy Jokers and Hells Angels.

In 2015, the government introduced new laws to crack down on outlaw bikie gangs and since then there have been up to 10 prescribed places.

Declarations have been removed on premises over the years once police are satisfied the gangs no longer use the properties.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the decision to make a declaration over the Descendants’ Pooraka clubhouse was made primarily “in the name of community safety”.

“We definitively know that outlaw motorcycle gangs are responsible for much of the organised crime that occurs in the state of South Australia,” he said.

“We have to take every action we can to protect not just the community in the immediate proximity, like the one in Pooraka, but we also take this action to disrupt the activity of outlaw motorcycle gangs.

“By disrupting their activity through the declaration of a prescribed place it makes it harder for organised crime to get together, plan, operate, contemplate their next criminal act.”

Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the government made no apology for “cracking down harshly” on outlaw motorcycle gangs.

“The misery that these thugs and criminals pedal on families and communities in South Australia will not be tolerated,” he said.

“The drugs that they sell into South Australia, the crimes that they plan, the intimidation that goes along with it, has no place here.”