Shane Bowden death: Bikie boss had $250k bounty, owed $10k for drugs

Finks enforcer turned Mongols heavyweight Shane Bowden had a bounty on his head and owed a drug debt when he perished in a hail of bullets, it has been revealed.

• Watch Mayhem in the Moguls: Bowden’s execution

Slain Gold Coast bikie Shane Bowden had a $250,000 bounty on his head and owed a $10,000 drug debt to an outlaw motorcycle gang, underworld sources have revealed.

The former Finks bikie gang ‘Terror Team” enforcer turned Mongols heavyweight was shot 21 times as he arrived home from a late-night gym session in a black BMW in October 2020.

Police alleged that a GPS tracker had been fitted to the car three weeks earlier while he was visiting his lawyer, in what they said was a well-planned hit.

Ten Mongols members including Haydn Forbes – son of the gang’s Gold Coast-based national president Nick ‘The Knife’ Forbes – have been charged with Bowden’s murder.

All have declared their innocence and vowed to fight the charges.

Sources close to Bowden contacted The Courier-Mail after its Mayhem in the Mongols mini-documentary series, released last month, revealed shocking new details on his dramatic execution.

The sources claimed Bowden had revealed he had a “$250k hit on my head” and had named an outlaw bikie figure as being behind the bounty.

The Sunday Mail does not suggest the alleged bounty is linked to the defendants currently before the court.

Shane Bowden at a court appearance

They claimed Bowden left Victoria for Queensland in the weeks before he was killed to “go after” those who were out to get him.

Bowden owed fellow bikies $10,000 and had “many enemies”, the sources said.

He was shot in a drive-by shooting in Melbourne in June 2020 just 15 days after being released from jail over a violent home invasion in which he wore camouflage and night vision goggles.

He had been picked up from jail in a stretch limousine by fellow Mongols bikies including the Insta-famous Toby Mitchell, a close associate.

But Bowden was soon booted from the gang and defected back to the Finks, who sources said were trying to protect him before he was killed.

He flew to Queensland with a badly-infected leg from the drive-by shooting but was thrown straight into hotel quarantine after it was discovered that he’d had Covid and lied on his border pass.

Weeks later, he was dead, killed in a hail of bullets including 19 fired from a machine gun pistol by hooded assassins.

The shameless lothario’s then-girlfriend and one of her children were at home at the time.

Sources said Bowden had reported seeing a drone flying around the Pimpama townhouse in which he was shot dead in the lead-up to the execution.

Forensic police scour Bowden’s garage after his slaying.

They claimed the Melbourne drive-by shooting was carried out by a bikie “brother” with whom Bowden had served time in jail.

Mitchell and fellow high-profile Melbourne-based former Mongols bikies Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim, Mark Balsillie and Jason Addison were kicked out of the gang earlier this year as Nick Forbes reasserted authority after his latest stint in jail.

Mitchell, Abdulrahim, Balsillie and Addison have not been charged in relation to the death of Bowden.

Forbes was recently charged with ice trafficking but there’s no suggestion he had anything to do with Bowden’s murder.

The Sunday Mail revealed last week that a prisoner who allegedly obtained a jailhouse confession from one of the Mongols accused of Bowden’s murder had received a bullet in the mail and the warning: “Tick Tock Time’s Up!”

However, police have said that the threat was not linked to Bowden’s killing.

Sources claimed the Mongols had been significantly weakened by the loss of Mitchell, Abdulrahim, Balsillie and Addison and had lost key Middle Eastern gang links.

But Mongols insiders insist the gang is stronger than ever, with an influx of new recruits including ex-members of rival clubs.