The bad blood behind Queensland’s bikie war

THE savage attack on ex-bikie Jacques Teamo in a Brisbane jail this week comes after a decades-long turf war for supremacy in southeast Queensland.

• Jacques Teamo brutally bashed in jail
• Ballroom Blitz shatters illusion of innocence
• Broadbeach brawl: All accused walk from court
• Bikie jailed over shopping centre shooting

IT’S the rivalry that makes State of Origin look like child’s play.

And like the rugby league showdown, the bitter feud between the Bandidos and the Mongols all started with an invisible line.

Behind the bright lights of the Gold Coast, rival bikie gangs have been engaged in a decades-long turf war for Glitter Strip supremacy.

For years the warfare was underground, where rival gangs dished out their own form of justice in the shadows.

Jacques Teamo outside court after appearing over the Broadbeach bikie brawl.

It’s a dark underworld that occasionally boils over in front of a terrified public.

The Newman government’s controversial bikie laws pushed most of the gangs deeper underground, but tensions remain high.

After years of stealthy attacks and reprisals, the bikie wars exploded on to the public stage at the Ballroom Blitz in 2006, a wild night of violence that sent shockwaves around the country.

Like most Gold Coast bikie spats, the Finks were right in the thick of it.

Their former member Christopher Hudson had patched over to the Hells Angels, sparking rising hostility which erupted like a volcano at a kickboxing tournament at the Royal Pines Resort.

The next time the public were caught in the crosshairs also involved the Finks, who by 2012 were locked in a fierce turf war with the Bandidos on the Gold Coast.

With a heavily-fortified compound in trendy Mermaid Beach, the Bandidos were dangerously close to the territory of the Finks, who had long considered themselves the kings of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach to the north.

In April 2012, Fink Mark Graham shot Bandidos heavyweight Jacques Teamo — and an innocent bystander — in a broad daylight shooting at one of the Gold Coast’s biggest shopping centres, Robina.

Graham was sentenced to 12 years in jail for attempted murder while Teamo — and the innocent civilian, both recovered from their injuries.

Teamo, who was brutally bashed in a Brisbane jail this week, was involved in another infamous bikie brawl the following year when dozens of Bandidos stormed Broadbeach to confront a Mongols associate at a busy restaurant.

The Mongols had just arrived as a force in Australia, with many of their local members patching over from the Finks.

In other parts of the world, the Mongols have traditionally been the sworn enemies of the Hells Angels, but when the Gold Coast members patched over from the Finks, they carried their hatred of the Bandidos with them.

The dramatic Broadbeach incident led to dozens of arrests, sweeping law changes and court cases that dragged on for years.

It also forced remaining members of the Mongols to head across the border to NSW, where they maintain a strong presence at Chinderah on the Tweed Coast, an easy ride from the Glitter Strip nightclub scene.

Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy, who was a Gold Coast detective at the time of the infamous Ballroom Blitz in 2006, said tensions often ran high between Glitter Strip bikie gangs, particularly the Bandidos and Mongols.

“There’s been bad blood there for a while now,” he said.

“They contest similar territory, there’s some personality clashes — it’s almost inevitable that you are going to see increased tensions.

“The Finks thought they owned Surfers Paradise, and the Bandidos were building a strong presence just down the road.

“These gangs feel like they have to protect their brand and their reputation and the best way they know how to do that is with violence.”

MONGOLS vs BANDIDOS: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

• April 28, 2012: Bandidos bikie Jacques Teamo is shot at a crowded Robina Town Centre by Mongols rival Mark Graham. An innocent bystander also suffers a bullet wound to the leg. Graham is jailed for attempted murder.

• September 27, 2013: The Broadbeach Brawl

Teamo is again at the centre of tensions between rival bikie gangs, leading dozens of thugs in to the crowded Broadbeach entertainment precinct to bash a Mongols associate.