Adelaide bikies: SA’s notorious clubs and the crimes they’re linked to
Brawls, shots fired and drug busts – it’s the opposite of an honour roll. These are South Australia’s bikie gangs and the crimes of their patched and dangerous members.
Police & Courts
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From violent car yard brawls to rival gang shootings, we’ve compiled a list of the Adelaide bikies to go through court, their crimes and the clubs who they are linked to.
THE DESCENDANTS
Founded: South Australia, 1974
Patch: A gold griffin with the letters “SA” likely referring to South Australia
Crimes linked to the Descendants
Club members’ violent brawl
Eight members of Descendants outlaw motorcycle gang were spared jail for their roles in a vicious brawl at a Blair Athol car yard.
Dylan Thomas Mackie, 30, Jordan Alex Mackie, 25, Matthew Aaron Pepper, 36, Troy Robert Nissen, 42, Kurt Bradley Mackie, 30, Benjamin Adam Boin, 40, Jason Andrew Ruddick, 37, and Nicholas Anthony Doublet, 30, were sentenced in the Adelaide Magistrates Court over their involvement.
Members of the gang armed with hammers, knives, and poles became involved in the scuffle on June 2, last year.
The court heard that there was a financial dispute between the men’s co-accused, Christopher Platt, 47, and the victim, who he had recently sold a car to.
Platt attended the car yard to recover the car.
The court heard there was a physical altercation between Platt and the victim and all the men, besides Boin then became involved.
“Jordan Mackie, you enter the car yard and begin fighting … you are also seen to be using a hammer to strike another,” Mr Smart said.
The court heard Platt, who is also a member of the Descendants, was earlier sentenced to seven months jail.
All men had previously pleaded guilty to affray and being present with two or more criminal organisation participants, besides Boin, who had only pleaded guilty to the latter.
All eight men were ordered to serve between seven and eight months on home detention.
Descendant bikie’s loaded Christmas present
SEARCH THE LIST: SA BIKIES TOO DANGEROUS TO OWN A GUN
A Descendant bikie was jailed for over three years after he ordered his son to try and flush a loaded revolver disguised as a Christmas present down the toilet.
Mark Barford, 59, pleaded guilty to possessing the firearm as well as 67.29g of “non-premium” quality methamphetamine found hidden in the backyard of his northern suburbs home.
During sentencing, District Court heard both Barford and his son Adam were arrested shortly on December 14, 2019 when police arrived at their northern suburbs home to serve a firearms prohibition notice.
When police arrived Barford was not home and police called his mobile phone.
Barford answered their call but was also talking on a different phone to his son, telling him to flush the contents of a particular present down the toilet.
Police seized the Harrington and Richardson Young double action seven shot revolver from the cistern of the toilet.
The gun was loaded with six rounds and was able to be fired.
The container of methamphetamine – which was found to be of extremely poor quality – was found buried in the backyard of the property.
Barford was sentenced to three years and two months jail, with a non-parole period of one year and four months.
THE REBELS
Founded: Brisbane, 1969
Patch: A confederate flag with a skull wearing a cap
Crimes linked to the Rebels
Big boss sentenced for consorting
The boss of the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, his cousin – the son of a notorious exiled bikie, and a local Adelaide bikie were arrested after socialising for three minutes outside a restaurant.
Rebels president Damien Vella, 43, and Alex Vella Jnr, 39, son of exiled bikie chief Alex Vella, were arrested in Adelaide in March last year after a meeting outside a Gouger St restaurant.
Carmelo Rositano, 46, was arrested weeks later and all three were charged with being present with two or more members of a criminal organisation in public.
All three pleaded guilty to the charge.
Lawyer, Harry Patsouris said the pair had gone to great efforts to ensure they obeyed the law in South Australia which prohibits members of motorcycle gangs consorting in public.
Instead dinners had been arranged in private dining rooms to ensure they complied with the law.
After dinner on March 11 the Vellas left the restaurant and were seated outside smoking when Rositano exited the venue.
Rositano had already ordered an Uber to take him and briefly chatted with the Vellas before shaking them both by the hand and leaving.
The whole interaction lasted for around three minutes and was caught on a nearby security camera.
The Vella’s were arrested and refused police bail. They spent a day in the Adelaide Watchhouse before being released on bail on the proviso they leave SA.
The Vellas were convicted and had no further penalty imposed because of their time in custody.
Damien Vella was also fined $700 for wearing a gold Rebels emblem and 1%er medallion in Gaucho’s Argentinian Restaurant later that same evening.
Rositano was sentenced to 21 days on home detention.
THE FINKS
Founded: Adelaide, 1969
Patch: ‘Bung’ from the Wizard of Id cartoon, after which the gang is named
Crimes linked to the Finks
Drug lord bikie learns fate
A Finks bikie with an “insidious” drug addiction stored drugs and a tick list in palm trees at the yard of his family’s northern suburbs home.
Raffaele Daniel Marrone, 45, had also told police he stored $11,100 in cash in a bush outside his Penfield Gardens home “in case the home burnt down”.
The father-of-seven – who has taken steps to leave the outlaw motorcycle club – was jailed in the District Court for six years.
In sentencing, Judge Rauf Soulio said Marrone was first arrested in early June 2020 when police found 7.3g of mixed weight methylamphetamine in a bedroom.
He said that during the search, police seized CCTV footage from the home which showed Marrone and his wife “concealing items throughout the property”.
“The footage also appears to show people attending at the property purchasing drugs,” Judge Soulio said.
When they returned to again search his home, they located a plastic resealable bag containing 28.3g of MDMA “secreted in a palm tree in the front yard”.
In the same tree they found a handwritten tick list, while in another palm tree they found a bag containing 6.85g of mixed weight material including methamphetamine.
During another search, in July 2020, officers found a bag hidden in a bush containing $11,100 cash.
Marrone, who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of drug trafficking, told the court he had taken steps to leave the Finks since his arrest, with the final step to remove his tattoos.
Judge Soulio set a head sentence of six years with a three-year non-parole period.
On appeal, it was determined the sentence was “manifestly inadequate” and Marrone was re-sentenced to eight years and eight months jail, with a non-parole period of six years and nine months.
The sentence was backdated to February 14, 2023.
Consorting at a funeral
Three bikies were sentenced after associating with each other for less than a minute at a funeral – in what their lawyer described as a “disgraceful execution”.
David John Anderson, 49, Raffaele Daniel Marrone, 44, and Timothy John Byrne, 31, were stung with a consorting charge while grieving the loss of a close friend.
The Adelaide Magistrates Court heard the trio were present at fellow Finks bikie Boban Jokic’s Serbian Orthodox funeral on May 8, 2020.
The funeral started at Distinctive Funerals in West Hindmarsh and concluded at the Cheltenham cemetery.
The court heard the men conversed as they lifted a banner reading ‘Finks World Rest in Peace Boban Jokic’.
Anderson, of Paralowie, Marrone, of Virginia, and Byrne, of Tarpeena, were found guilty of being present with two or more members of a criminal organisation.
The court heard the men paid and organised the funeral for Mr Jokic and had calculated only 41 seconds of “inadvertent” contact between the men.
Magistrate Roderick Jensen sentenced Marrone to one month in jail.
Byrne and Anderson were also sentenced to one month in jail but ordered to serve their sentence on home detention.
THE NOMADS
Founded: Sydney, 1980
Patch: A skull wearing a helmet with wings and a swastika
Crimes linked to the Nomads
Club wiped out as presidents jailed
Two bikie presidents caught with a significant drug and weapons haul were jailed for more than a decade after they were lured into the lifestyle for easy money.
Dion Jay Madden, 42, and fellow Nomad bikie Beau James Cochrane’s crimes were exposed after police set up listening devices during a covert operation.
Thousands of dollars worth of heroin and meth were taken off the streets, as well as 11 firearms, five vehicles, four Harley Davidson motorcycles and a jetski after seven properties were searched in Adelaide’s north and east on April 23, 2021.
The Nomads were put under the spotlight during Operation Leo, an investigation that began in December 2020.
During sentencing, the court heard surveillance and listening devices were installed in a Magill shed to monitor Madden and 32-year-old Cochrane’s conversations and movements.
Police attended at the premises found 720g of “very high purity” mixed methamphetamine, valued between $112,000 and $130,000 if sold in ounces.
They also found 702g of heroin – valued between $150,000 and $175,000 if sold in ounces – and 83.5g of methamphetamine and $9600 secreted in a car used by Cochrane.
Cochrane, of Highbury, and Madden, of Glynde, pleaded guilty to trafficking commercial amounts of heroin and meth, as well as laundering $27,200, for the benefit of a criminal organisation.
Cochrane also pleaded guilty to possessing 11 firearms without a licence, including two pistols, six rifles and three shotguns for the benefit of a criminal organisation.
The court heard Madden started using cocaine and steroids, which is when he came into contact with the Nomads and became president of the East side chapter in a “significant lack of judgment”.
The court heard Cochrane, who was a Nomads chapter president at the time of the offending, had been involved with a number of other bikie gangs – including the New Boys and Rock Machine.
The court heard the Nomads ceased to exist in South Australia after the men were arrested.
Another Nomad member, Brayden Mark Hunter was jailed after police searched his Bolivar cabin on December 11, 2020 and found over 90g of methamphetamine.
Cochrane was sentenced to 17 years and nine months jail, with a non-parole period of 14 years and two months.
Cochrane’s sentence was backdated to June 24, 2021.
Madden was sentenced to 10 years and nine months jail, with a non-parole period of six years and nine months.
The sentence was backdated to November 21, 2021.
THE HELLS ANGELS
Founded: Sydney and Melbourne, 1975, after starting in the USA
Patch: The Hells Angels ‘Death Head’
Crimes linked to the Hells Angels
Bikies sentenced for bungled shooting
READ THE RULE BOOK: THE HELLS ANGELS BIBLE
A tradie who fired shots at the wrong house in an intended act of revenge has been given a chance by a judge to get off the drugs and turn his life around.
Hells Angels OMCG member, Thomas Mortiz O’Connor, 32, was in the middle of an ice addiction when he fired the shots in an act of retribution.
The District Court heard O’Connor fired bullets into the garage door of a Salisbury North property on November 26, 2020.
Fellow member, Thomas Wilshire Patterson, 29, was also involved in the mistaken shooting by removing traces of gunshot residue from the car after the shooting.
The men’s co-accused organised the group to take revenge for her brother.
The court heard both men had left the Hells Angels since the incident.
O’Connor, of Mile End, pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm to injure, annoy or frighten a person.
Judge Kudelka sentenced O’Connor to one year and 10 months, with a non-parole period of eight months.
Taking into account the eight months O’Connor had spent in custody and his good family support, she ordered the sentence be served on home detention.
Patterson, who pleaded guilty to assisting an offender and drug trafficking, was sentenced to two years and six months jail, with a non-parole period of eight months.
He was ordered to serve the sentence on home detention.
THE COMANCHEROS
Founded: Sydney, 1966
Patch: A condor on a red, yellow and black background
Crimes linked to the Comancheros
Bikie jailed over terrifying stunt
Comanchero bikie
Matthew Kokotis,45, was jailed for threatening a man and woman with a replica firearm in front of a young child.
45, was jailed for threatening a man and woman with a replica firearm in front of a young child.
During sentencing, the District Court heard Kokotis and his co-accused Stilianis Orfanidis pulled up in front of a Reynella home on October 19, 2019, blocking off another car which had just pulled into the driveway.
Both men emerged armed with baseball bats and began threatening a woman who was standing in front of the driver’s side door of the car.
Kokotis shouted “give me bag, give me f***ing bag”.
The man in the driver’s seat, a current member of the Hells Angels, refused to get out.
“I’ll just shoot you now,” Kokotis said, returning to his car and emerging wearing black gloves and holding a large replica hand gun.
The driver of the car had emerged and for 43 seconds Kokotis chased him around the vehicle, pointing the replica firearm at his head while the man ducked and wove.
Kokotis eventually got back in his car and Orfanidis drove away.
Seconds later the female victim removed a young child, her son, from the car and an unrelated child rode by on a bicycle.
The incident was filmed on a bystander’s phone, providing the only evidence of the crime as the two victims refused to co-operate with police.
During sentencing submissions police revealed that Kokotis, a former member of the Hells Angels, had joined the Comanchero motorcycle gang around September 2019.
A search of Kokotis’ house had turned up official colours and patches of the club.
Judge Heffernan said that while Kokotis’ membership of the club was not an aggravating feature or against the law, it indicated his prospects of rehabilitation were poor.
Judge Heffernan sentenced Kokotis to two years and five months jail, with a non-parole period of one year and five months.
Bikie’s fury after jail for shooting up home
A young bikie who shot up a rival gang member’s northern-suburbs home was jailed for the “unacceptable” offending, leading to an outburst in court.
Wearing a hoodie and dark clothing, Ethan Ericson, 26, of Andrews Farm, exited the passenger seat of a car and walked “purposefully” up to the front of the Hells Angel member’s home about 7.30pm on June 23 2022 and fired four rounds.
In sentencing, Judge Geraldine Davison said he then picked up some of the spent shells, returned to the waiting car and drove off.
The rival gang member, his partner and young child arrived home about a minute later.
“Your offending was extremely serious as you were not only in possession of an illegal firearm but you used this firearm to fire shots at a residential property four times where the victim, his partner and young child usually resided,” Judge Davison said.
“The fact that violence is commonplace within the motorcycle gang towards rival outlaw motorcycle gangs is an unacceptable part of that society … it puts the lives of innocent members of the community at risk.”
Judge Davison said Ericson had joined the Comanchero while incarcerated for earlier offences in 2019 and had offended within months of serving a prison term.
At the time of the incident, police said the shooting was part of escalating tensions between the Comanchero and Hells Angels – the state’s two most powerful bikie gangs.
Ericson was jailed for three years, seven months and seven days.
Judge Davison set a non-parole period of two years and two months and imposed a firearms prohibition order.
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