Top Hells Angels bikies to plot major Aussie drug imports

Hells Angels bikies from around the world, including Australian kingpin Angelo Pandeli, are expected to attend a celebration in Mexico where members will plot major drug imports.

The top echelons of the Hells Angels bikie group are heading to a holiday hotspot in Mexico next weekend to plot major drug importations into Australia.

Bikies from around the world will fly into Cancun, with Australian kingpin Angelo Pandeli expected to attend the run to celebrate the club’s links with the Nomads in Mexico.

Pandeli, who owns property in Dubai, was due to be joined by Australian bikies based in Thailand, along with Hells Angels from Canada, the Netherlands, Russia and eastern Europe.

The meeting will be held in the heart of the coastal city, which is controlled by the notorious Sinaloa cartel.

Australian kingpin Angelo Pandeli. Picture: Supplied

A source close to the Hells Angels compared the gathering, which begins on September 5, to a “scout jamboree”.

“There are levels, there will be people there who will go to a strip club, ride their bikes and drink alcohol,” the source said.

“It’s not like a Google conference where there’s a pulse meeting and they celebrate their achievements, saying we moved 10 tons of coke, this much meth.

“But there will be others, and it could be as few as 10 people who will discuss drug shipments. They keep it small, it’s a need to know basis.”

The Hells Angels has a multi-storey clubhouse in Cancun, decorated with stacked white tiles, where some of the meetings would happen.

But they were also expected to take in the area’s beaches and nightclubs.

The Hells Angels members were expected to take in Cancun’s beaches. Picture: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Hells Angels decision to hold its run in Cancun has highlighted the outlaw motorcycle group’s close relationship with the Sinaloa cartel.

The cartel, which was controlled by the drug lord known as El Chapo before his arrest in the United States, has been responsible for a flood of cut-price ice being sent to Australia.

Two men were charged in Sydney last month over their alleged involvement in a plot to import 21kg of Sinaloa cartel ice.

The Sinaloa cartel has been dominant in the trade in Cancun but has been battling skirmishes with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel for control of the lucrative tourist strip.

Five dismembered bodies were found in a taxi in Cancun in January this year, with police saying they were hacked to death with machetes.

Bikie expert Professor Mark Lauchs said the majority of Hells Angels in Cancun would be there because of their friendships and links with the club, not organised crime.

Bikie expert Mark Lauchs. Picture: Supplied

“Not all of the people there will be directly involved in the Hells Angels. They could be people outside the club who work with them,” he said.

“And there’s two cultures going on in parallel. There’s a group of people who want their club to be the toughest club in the world and are not involved in organised crime.

“And there’s another group that is making a lot of money and they don’t ask, they don’t want to know what they are doing but they need funding to fight their wars against the Outlaws and the Bandidos so they say thanks for the contribution.”

Prof Lauchs, of the Queensland University of Technology, said some Australian bikies would be there to climb the club’s ladder of hierarchy.

“It’s a chance to meet people, a chance to be seen with the right people and to make those connections that take you up to the next level,” he said.

“It’s not different to the Davos meeting (annual World Economic Forum) in Switzerland, everybody is trying to network, it doesn’t matter that they are bikies, it’s just business.”

The Hells Angels have become dominant players in Australia’s drug trade following the arrest of a string of Comanchero leaders who remain before the courts.

However, the meeting was also likely to attract other senior drug players that wanted to do business with Hells Angels bosses in sideline meetings.

The Hells Angels have become dominant players in Australia’s drug trade. Picture: AFP

Former police officer Duncan McNab said face-to-face meetings had become more important since the Australian Federal Police and the FBI hacked into a supposedly secret messaging app.

That sting, known as Operation Ironside, resulted in hundreds of arrests in 2021, with cases still before the courts in Australia.

“It’s incredibly important to meet face-to-face so that there is no electronic trace of their discussions,” he said.

“They were hit hard by the AN0M sting. Now if someone says they have an app that’s secure that’s a sign they don’t know as much as they should.”

McNab said that bikies needed to keep up their standing in the group.

“A bikie once told me that the biggest threat to a Hells Angel is another Hells Angel,” he said.

“If they think you have done the wrong thing, if there’s any doubt, they will eliminate that doubt.”

Originally published as Top Hells Angels bikies to plot major Aussie drug imports