New police taskforce, Viper, to ‘smash’ gangs, bikies, organised crime

Victoria Police denies its new anti-gang unit will duplicate the role of existing organised crime taskforces or drain resources from other areas as it tries to tackle gun violence after the attempted assassination of ex-Mongol Suleiman ‘Sam’ Abdulrahim.

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton announced on Friday that police had launched the Viper taskforce to disrupt and dismantle outlaw motorcycle gangs, organised crime networks and street gangs.

Patton unveiling the new taskforce.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Victoria Police already has two separate units which target organised crime groups: the Echo taskforce and the armed crime squad.

Patton said Viper officers would complement their efforts and offer up a mobile workforce, allowing police to be deployed anywhere in the state at short notice, giving the force an “on-tap” resource.

The new taskforce comes after a series of shootings in Melbourne in recent weeks, the most prominent being the brazen daylight attack on former Mongols bikie and professional boxer Abdulrahim, who was shot multiple times in his car as he left a funeral at Fawkner cemetery on Saturday.

Moments later, the two masked shooters carjacked a woman and her four-year-old son to make their getaway. They are still on the run.

A Mercedes-Benz G-Class four-wheel-drive outside Fawkner police station.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Abdulrahim, known in boxing circles as “The Punisher”, drove himself to a nearby police station after being shot in the chest. The shooting of the 30-year-old boxer who departed the Mongols bikie gang earlier this year has prompted fears of retaliation attacks.

“Our aim is to smash these individuals and these gangs. We will be doing everything we can,” Patton said.

An Epping home was sprayed with bullets on Wednesday morning, which police have said was not related to the Fawkner shooting. It followed a similar drive-by shooting at a home at Pascoe Vale on June 14.

Patton denied he was pressured to establish the new taskforce after the violence in Fawkner and other suburban shootings.

Images from a video posted to social media showing one of the masked offenders fleeing.

“[There’s] no pressure at all in respect to the shootings,” he said.

The new taskforce, led by former Purana taskforce Detective Inspector Anthony Brown, will redeploy 80 officers on Monday from units including road policing.

Patton denied suggestions the redeployment would stretch resources in other areas, saying he was confident the force had enough officers to man the Viper taskforce.

But he acknowledged Victoria’s anti-association laws were yet to be used, with work being done to make them more user-friendly.

Patton said significant resources were being poured into solving the public shooting of Abdulrahim, describing the subsequent carjacking as “horrendous”.

“We won’t tolerate that. We’re throwing huge resources at that, I’m very confident we will resolve that,” he said.

Patton said he was unaware of suggestions that an increasing number of outlaw motorcycle gang members were moving to Victoria from other states due to tougher laws elsewhere and believed most of Victoria’s gun violence this year had been perpetrated by members of Middle Eastern organised crime groups.

Viper, an acronym for “visibility, intelligence, prevention, enforcement and reassurance”, was recommended following a 2021 review, he said.

A screenshot of Suleiman “Sam” Abdulrahim flipping the bird at his attackers from his hospital bed.

Former Gold Coast superintendent Jim Keogh said Viper was a step in the right direction but “you’ve got to have legislation to back it up”.

“You’ve got to have a holistic perspective that involves legislation,” he said.

A senior policeman behind Queensland’s successful crackdown on organised motorcycle gangs, he said the Viper taskforce should also operate independently.

“They must be autonomous. They must be totally focused on simply the criminal motorcycle gang activities,” he said.

It will target criminal groups through firearm prohibition orders, bail compliance checks, vehicle checks and policing bikie runs and other events frequented by outlaw motorcycle gang members and Middle Eastern crime figures.

A Victorian Government spokesperson said the state had a range of laws in place to prevent and disrupt organised crime – including Firearm Prohibition Orders, which allow Victoria Police to target illegal firearms and the organised crime networks who use them.

“We commissioned the stage two review of Victoria’s criminal organisation laws to ensure the laws on organised crime in Victoria are as strong as possible and we’ll continue to work through the recommendations and any other considerations with Victoria Police to give them the tools and resources they need to continue to tackle this kind of criminal behaviour,” they said.

Opposition police spokesman Brad Battin said Victoria’s anti-association laws were “watered down” and “rolled out the welcome mat” to bikie gangs.

He called on the premier to act, saying the force needed tougher powers, like those in NSW and Queensland, to crack down on bikies.

“We can’t afford to go back to the days of the Carlton Crew when it was on the media every night that someone was being shot, and eventually innocent people in restaurants were being killed because their wars were getting out of hand,” Battin said.

“We can’t afford to see this violence increase on the streets.”

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