Drill rap gang teens ‘being groomed by bikies’

School-aged thugs wanting to belong to a rap subculture are being targeted by bikie gangs as they brag about their crimes on social media.

The romance of belonging to a rap subculture and filming acts of defiance for social media entertainment has created a “perfect storm” for turning disengaged youths into suburban gangsters fighting over turf, culture and pride.

Divided by suburban postcodes or cultural backgrounds, school-aged thugs in defined gangs have been linked to a spike in young offender crimes in a nationwide phenomena, partly revolving around inciting drill rap, a dark hip hop style of music.

And critically it is these youth gangs police have found that are being specifically targeted for recruitment by adult Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCG) as muscle and runners for their drug distribution and extortion enterprises.

Mt Druitt rap group Onefour - which shares the name of a notorious Mt Druitt gang - say they are "fkn frustrated" after NSW police shut down their third scheduled performance where they would have performed songs like 'shanks and shivs'. Picture: YouTube

In NSW it’s the warring OneFour and District 21 and at least three other youth gangs in clashes and taunts with police, in Melbourne its gangs like Eastside Drillers, Next Gen Shooters (aka 710) and the Brotherhood fighting for turf, posing with weapons and using social media to taunt police and boast about “killing for fun”.

In Adelaide gangs of eshay – or delinquent youth – involved in public brawls and terrorising commuters and shop owners, and in Brisbane police have created a multi task force to tackle youth crime and is looking to trial GPS tracking devices on criminal youths.

Detective Superintendent Jason Weinstein, commander of the famed NSW Police Raptor Squad, said in NSW youth gangs were not as much as a problem as they were two years ago when police began various programs including in youth detention centres.

But he confirmed there was clear evidence the rap gangs, in his state dominated by Pacific Islander youths, were being targeted by the OMCG.

“We talk to elders of the Pacific Islander community, they are doing their best and they see the issues with it but what is happening is that these groups are going back to the days when we looked at Asian organised crime in the early days. Kids who are disenfranchised or who are starting to morph away from general society, they bring them into the fold and give them that connection, that love that they are not getting in other places and then slowly morphing them into criminal activity and thinking that’s the norm of life.

“It’s certainly an ongoing problem, I don’t think it’s as bad as two years ago, but certainly is an undercurrent and alive today.

“We know that there is organised crime entities and OMCG groups themselves will start to feed on the Pacific Islander kids and groups as their muscle as they get older and because they are semi-entrenched in this street level stuff initially, that’s where they keep going on in the cycle. We are very much intent on breaking that cycle.”

Monash University criminologist Professor Alex Piquero said a rise in youth crime was not just an Australian problem but a global phenomena.

He said the trend and apparent spike in youth crime was more than just a culture or phase but was a potentially serious issue that required a deep dive by police and the justice system into causes rather than just a punitive action.

He said COVID-19 had had an effect, particularly with that period of isolation and movement and social restrictions, and there may have been a broader societal shift in youth behaviour.

“All this happens at the same time so it’s not about these kids following someone wearing a man purse,” he said, referring to the eshay subculture noted for carrying a cross body bum bag or fanny pack.

Leading youth psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg has long predicted Australia was creating a new breed of extremely narcissistic mostly male youths with no solid role models, defaulting to peer groups and social media as arbiters of everything.

He said with the reach of social media and influences particularly from North America, many were feeling disaffected and disaffiliated and relying on gangs for meaning, purpose and belonging.

He said society had become so mobile the kinship network of male role models had been destroyed, creating a “perfect storm” for gang membership.

“Social media has given them kudos, not only do you do it (violence) but you now have the capacity to replay it over and over again so where as in previous generations there was just the dopamine hit from doing it, now you can multiply that hit by replaying it again and again,” he said.

“This is a generation that has grown up with a truck load of social media and a major component of that has been a diet of violence as entertainment. That has normalised, sanitised and glamorised a lot of the behaviour that creates a desire to keep doing it.”

Youth gang members are taunting police by boasting about their crimes online. Picture: Instagram

He said some youths formed culture-based gangs because of a disconnect they felt between their families that clung to the values of their original cultures and an Australian culture.

A long list of youth gangs have emerged on the Gold Coast since the new millennium, with the likes of the Palmy Army, Gold Coast Brotherhood, Southside Soldiers and the Red Devils all once having a presence on the Glitter Strip.

Many of these youth gangs were feeder groups to Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCG) across the Gold Coast, including the Nomads, Bandidos and the Hells Angels.

The young members would “graduate” from the feeder gangs into the aligned OMCG when they proved themselves to the club.

The trend and apparent spike in youth crime is more than just a culture or phase, say criminologists.

Since the Queensland Government cracked down on gangs in 2013 with the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act, the presence of these bikie-feeder youth gangs has reduced.

In recent years the Gold Coast has felt the effects of the Southside Gang from Brisbane, who try to outdo rival club the Northside Gang by sharing videos of criminal activity on social media.

In early 2020, the Southside Gang were linked to a number of stolen cars on the Gold Coast following the group of teens bragging about their antics on Instagram.

Dr Carr-Gregg said the Queensland produced “Triple P – Positive Parenting Program”, providing practical skills and tools for parents and was now being used around the world, was achieving amazing results and questioned why it was not being used elsewhere in Australia.

Queensland Police said youth crime had decreased in recent times but a “small cohort” of high risk juvenile offenders remained which was the focus of a new multi-agency Youth Justice Task Force.

“Youth crime in Queensland is a serious and complicated issue, with offenders coming from various backgrounds … this task force is targeting the 10 per cent of all youth offenders who account for 48 per cent of all youth crime in Queensland, with more traditional measures focusing on the other 90 per cent.”

It too noted the short step for youth crime to move into adult organised criminal activity.

The National Youth Commission Australia (NYCA), an independent body tasked with looking at youth issues, said while it hadn’t specifically investigated youth culture and crime, it did not believe it existed.

“From our current research across the country, we have found no evidence of a growing culture around youth gangs or that there’s a widespread problem,” a spokeswoman said.

– Additional reporting Suzan Delibasic and Kyle Wisniewski