SA and federal police target senior SA Hells Angels, Descendants bikies in drugs battle

Two senior SA bikies are key targets in the battle to stop tonnes of meth being trafficked into SA – and millions of dollars out – it can be revealed.

Two senior South Australian bikies are high-level targets in the international battle to stop tonnes of methamphetamines being trafficked into the state, it can be revealed.

One is a Hells Angels member who now resides in Dubai, while the other is a senior Descendants member who resides in a northern Adelaide suburb.

The Descendants bikie is suspected of importing at least a tonne of methamphetamines into SA in recent years, while the Hells Angel is linked to major drug syndicates in the eastern states and to trafficking operations in SA with other gang members and associates.

The Hells Angel, who hasn’t been charged and whose family still reside in SA, is among 16 men designated as APOTs – Australian Priority Organisation Targets – by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission while the Descendants member has just been taken off the list because multiple policing operations have significantly restricted his operations.

ACIC SA director Simon Warwick, in Adelaide. Picture: Tom Huntley

The Descendants bikie, who has never been charged with any drug offences, was residing in a South-East Asian country until recently when he was deported after his visa was cancelled following an operation conducted by the ACIC and Federal Police.

The 16 APOTs are residing in countries spanning the Middle East, Europe and Asia and police allege they continue to be involved in organised crime and drug trafficking networks across Australia, importing tonnes of methamphetamine, cocaine and other illicit drugs annually.

ACIC state director of SA and NT Simon Warwick said police suspected the APOTs had extensive criminal networks behind them responsible for receiving and distribution methamphetamines after they were smuggled into Australia.

“When you have the level of criminality that leads to them being designated an APOT, their capability is extensive,’’ he said.

“If they have originated from a jurisdiction such as SA, you would expect their relationships and networks that support them are here, therefore, the vast majority of the drugs that are imported into SA would usually have a nexus to those groups.’’

Mr Warwick said the APOTs moved offshore to frustrate attempts by Australian policing agencies and the ACIC to investigate their suspected activities and prosecute them.

“Removing them from one of those comfort zones is a strategy to be able to disrupt their ability to keep functioning at that level,’’ he said.

He said several APOTs have been arrested and returned to Australia in the past 12 months.

Last financial year the ACIC disrupted three APOT networks to the extent they were no longer considered a threat and a further nine networks were significantly disrupted, decreasing their overall threat to the community.

“What the public may not always see is that those disruptions may not occur in Australia. We will take the fight to wherever they are and that may not always be here in South Australia or in Australia,’’ Mr Warwick said.

“If we can target, dismantle and disrupt APOT level networks offshore and have a foreign partner disrupt them, that is a win for the Australian community.’’

The deportation of the Descendants bikie from the South-East Asian country in 2020 was an example of the collaboration between policing jurisdictions to disrupt an APOT. Police believe his activities have been diminished since returning to Adelaide and because of the sustained pressure of both federal police and SA police operations in recent years.

The headquarters of the Descendants Motorcycle Club at Dry Creek.

Police intelligence indicates the man’s syndicate imported more than a tonne of methamphetamines into SA in recent years prior to the disruptive efforts mounted against the group.

“We don’t believe they are still acting at the same level they were because of the disruptive efforts of law enforcement,’’ Mr Warwick said.

“Disruption is an outcome as much as an arrest and the vast majority of this work done behind the scenes covertly. The work that goes into disruption can be as much or more than what could go into arrests and prosecutions, depending on the desired effect.’’

In recent years federal police have conducted several operations targeting the man’s syndicate in SA, resulting in numerous convictions.

In one major operation, dubbed Jarmo, numerous members of the syndicate or their associates faced charges in connection with the trafficking of methamphetamine, money laundering and firearms offences.

Combined operations targeting the Descendants syndicate have resulted in more than $1 million in cash and methamphetamines worth more than $90 million being seized.

A Descendants drug mule led police to find cash hidden inside a new concealment method. Picture: SAPOL

Besides smashing an elaborate street-level trafficking operation – which involved hi-tech secret compartments built into courier vehicles – they resulted in the seizure of 112kg of methamphetamine the syndicate attempted to import concealed in an aircraft stand.

The shipment was tracked by detectives to a property at Bowhill, 100km east of Adelaide, which was owned by a family trust controlled by a well-known member of the Descendants – but not the senior member suspected of being the syndicate leader.

Investigations discovered the same stands were also being used to export cash from drug sales in Adelaide to Malaysia where it would be deposited in offshore accounts – with $1,237,955 seized from two stands.

Meth was hidden inside an aircraft stand for this Piper Warrior plane, which at the time in 2017 was SA’s largest meth haul. Picture: Australian Federal Police

Detectives also discovered the syndicate had imported hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamines into SA by hiding the drug inside items of machinery – such as cylinder heads and 4WD winches. More than 100 such consignments from Malaysia and the Philippines to addresses linked to the syndicate were uncovered and several arrests made.

As part of Operation Jarmo detectives intercepted two men at Adelaide airport carrying $519,000 in cash in two suitcases.

Investigations revealed the cash was to be delivered to the Descendants bikie in South-East Asia and it was delivered to the two “cash mules’’ at a city hotel by the man’s son the previous evening.

Cash seized by the Australian Federal Police at Adelaide Airport that was bound for a bikie in South-East Asia. Picture: AFP

Operation Jarmo detectives also investigated whether the syndicate was using an Adelaide accountant to assist in laundering vast amounts of cash generated by drug sales.

At the height of the operation the accountant was intercepted at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport attempting to leave Australia after he was summonsed to attend an ACIC coercive hearing to be grilled about his connection to the syndicate.

The summons was eventually withdrawn after the man’s lawyers, Brett Walker SC and Michael Abbott QC, challenged it in the High Court – with the ACIC forced to pay his legal fees. The accountant was never charged with any wrongdoing.

More than 14kg of methamphetamine was hidden inside 4WD winches imported from Malaysia in March 2019.

Mr Warwick said the ACIC’s coercive powers were unique and meant the organisation was “essentially a standing Royal Commission against organised crime”.

Highly regulated and oversighted, the coercive powers enable it to summons witnesses to hearings at which they are compelled to answers questions truthfully, otherwise they are found to be in contempt or face criminal sanctions.

“It is something the public have little understanding and visibility of and there are reasons for this,’’ Mr Warwick said.

The use of the coercive hearings, conducted by especially appointed examiners, features in almost all ACIC investigations and examiners are now retained in all mainland capitals except Darwin.

Drugs were hidden inside the welded aircraft stands on the ute at Bowhill. Picture: Australian Federal Police

The hearings are somewhat brutal affairs and not unlike a courtroom. The witness is accompanied by his lawyers, but the major difference is they can’t refuse to answer questions.

“However, there is an immunity applied that when they come and talk about their criminality within our hearings, that can’t be used as evidence against the witness,’’ Mr Warwick said.

While they can’t incriminate themselves, what they do say can prove vital in investigations into key targets higher up in the organised crime group being targeted.

In recent years there have been a number of witnesses charged for giving false evidence or refusing to answer questions at such hearings. In the most recent example a witness who refused to answer questions served a 15-month sentence for contempt.

Mr Warwick said methamphetamine was the major drug consumed both in SA and nationally and as such, it was the ACIC’s major priority.

“Methamphetamine is a scourge on the community, therefore it is our highest threat and consumes a lot of our resources accordingly,’’ he said.

Methamphetamine found hidden inside the stands on a ute on a Bowhill property in 2017. Picture: Australian Federal Police

He said while some was manufactured domestically, the majority was imported in sea cargo via ports along the east coast – Sydney and Melbourne – and a small percentage is imported directly into SA.

The shipments are hidden within legitimate freight and then find their way to SA by road.

“The difference is the criminal groups and their capabilities and their access points. They will exploit the environment wherever they see an opportunity, from the bottom of Tasmania to the tip of the NT,’’ he said.

“If they have access or a capability they will exploit it. It is not driven by a population centre, it is driven by where they can get it in.’’

South Australian’s consistently rank among the highest methamphetamines users in the nation. The latest wastewater report published in June found that 8.8 tonnes of methamphetamine worth $7.7bn was being consumed nationally – with more than a tonne of that worth more than $1bn – by SA users.

“That is a significant amount of money just on methamphetamine,’’ Mr Warwick said.

The Descendants bikie declined to comment to the Sunday Mail when approached through his lawyer.