Senior Hells Angels bikie Zoran Nikolic loses appeal over $50,000 meth trafficking conviction, now faces gun sentencing

Senior Hells Angels bikie Zoran Nikolic’s appeal to overturn his conviction for trafficking $50,000 in meth has been thrown out — now he is facing sentencing on a serious gun charge.

The state’s highest court has quashed a bid by a senior Hells Angels bikie to have his conviction for trafficking $50,000 worth of methamphetamines overturned.

In a unanimous judgment, the Full Court of the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal by Zoran Nikolic, 54, who admitted possessing 106 grams of the dead­ly drug after being caught in a police surveillance operation.

Nikolic has now lodged an appeal against the six-year prison sentence given to him by District Court Judge Geraldine Davison following his conviction by a jury last September.

The court heard Nikolic was charged following a surveillance operation on a Prospect property during which police intercepted conversations between him and another man about drug purchases.

Hells Angels bikie Zoran Nikolic. Picture: Supplied

The court heard police watched Nikolic visit the house and then pulled him over when he left. During a search, police noticed Nikolic had something under his jumper, but he pushed the officers out of his way and fled. He was seen throwing an object as he ran.

During his trial, Nikolic said another man had performed mechanical work on the car he was driving at the time and that the phone conversations recorded by police were in relation to organising catering and strippers for a Hells Angels party the night he was arrested.

He said he had stopped at the Prospect address to see if the occupant was going to the party. He told the court when police asked for his licence he looked in the console of the car and saw the package of methamphetamines, but he had never seen it before.

In rejecting Nikolic’s appeal, the Full Court — comprising Chief Justice Chris Kourakis, Justice David Lovell, and Justice Tim Stanley — said the jury had accepted the prosecution allegations and the judge had not erred in her directions.

Zoran Nikolic at his Andrews Farm house, which was shot at several times during the bikies’ war between 2008-2011.

Justice Lovell said Nikolic did not say “he took control of the drugs to discard them’’ and had only done so after police informed him they wanted to conduct a body search.

“It was during the chase that he discarded the drugs,’’ he found.

Nikolic was a key player in the bikie wars that raged over a three-year period from 2008-2011 with his Andrews Farm home the subject to several drive-by shootings carried out by now-defunct New Boys gang members.

Nikolic, who is being held in Yatala Labour Prison, is awaiting sentencing on other offences committed while he was awaiting trial on the trafficking charges.

In March last year, he was charged with breaching a firearms prohibition order, possessing an illegal firearm and possessing a silencer. The charges followed a search of Nikolic’s commercial premises at Edinburgh North that uncovered a .22 Ruger pistol, a silencer, pistol magazine and handgrips for the pistol.

While Nikolic initially denied any knowledge of the pistol, his DNA was found on it.

Nikolic pleaded guilty to the charges in Adelaide Magistrates Court last November and has been arraigned for sentencing in the District Court next month.