Descendants bikie gang’s rise in notoriety following wild Blair Athol car yard brawl
The Descendants may not be as well known as the Hells Angels, Finks, Rebels or Gypsy Jokers. But they’ve risen in notoriety this week after 11 members were arrested over a wild car yard brawl.
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- Eleven Descendants bikies arrested over car yard brawl
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A little more than 11 years ago, Descendants motorcycle club co-founder Tom Mackie declared that it took greater strength to resolve conflicts in peace and goodwill.
“If these fellas can get on and talk, sort out problems before they get out of hand, then there’s no reason for pissed fights to become gunfights,” Mackie told The Advertiser during a rare meeting of rival gangs at the height of their opposition to controversial State Government control orders on bikies.
However, this week he and his brother Perry – co-founders of the Descendants in South Australia in 1974 – and nine other gang members were charged over an ambush-style attack in a Blair Athol car yard.
The Magistrates Court heard the brawl between gang members – some armed with poles, knives and hammers – and two alleged victims was over the sale of a car on Facebook Marketplace. The court was also told the alleged instigator, Christopher Platt, threatened to shoot one of the victims if he called police.
According to prosecutors, one of the alleged victims bought a car from Platt and later tried to sell it only to discover there was finance owing and the odometer had been possibly tampered.
They allege the man asked Platt to meet him at the car yard and requested he either pay the outstanding finance or fix the vehicle.
A court heard the brawl broke out when Platt became enraged and offered to buy back the car for $3000 having sold it to the victim for $10,000.
Platt is charged with one aggravated count of causing harm with intent, one count of threatening to cause harm and one count of criminal association.
The other 10 members, including Mackie, were charged with one aggravated count each of affray and one count each of criminal association.
It is against state law for three or more bikie gang members to be together in public. The Descendants gang is one of the 10 declared criminal organisations in South Australia and, according to police, currently has 25 members.
The Mackie brothers founded the club after arriving from South Auckland, New Zealand, where Maori gangs ruled the streets.
During the interview with The Advertiser, Tom Mackie declared his former home was a brutal environment and that he had never won a fight until he got to Australia.
He conceded the club had quickly made a name for themselves in Adelaide and got carried away by their notoriety.
Mackie said clubs needed to shed their criminal image and return to their roots. But his club has not been without its problems.
In January 2012, a Descendants bikie was behind the attempted assassination of notorious gang leader Vince Focarelli and murder of his son Giovanni at Dry Creek.
The man, who is no longer a gang member, lured the Focarellis to a meeting at Dry Creek, where he fired up to eight shots, killing Giovanni.
Vince, who was hit by four bullets, sped away and survived after flagging down a police patrol at Prospect.
The Descendants have also been linked to some of the bigger drug busts in South Australia over the past decade.
Among them was the discovery of a 112kg, $56 million shipment of methamphetamine, which was intercepted by authorities upon arrival in Australia from Malaysia in 2017.
In an elaborate sting, police substituted the drugs and allowed the shipment to continue to its location in Bowhill in the Murraylands, where officers swooped and arrested three men.
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Those men – John Farrelly, John McInerney and Aidan Nelson – were earlier this year given head sentences averaging 8 ½ years with non-parole periods averaging 5 ½ years.
The trio were foot soldiers of an organised crime syndicate closely linked to the Descendants.