Inside Strike Force Raptor: Bringing down the gangs
FRUSTRATED and furious, the President of the outlaw motorcycle gang’s Newcastle chapter stormed up to the police investigator and handed over his club colours.
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FRUSTRATED and furious, the President of the Life and Death outlaw motorcycle gang’s Newcastle chapter stormed up to the police investigator and handed over his club colours.
“I’ve had enough,” he fumed.
The dismantling of his gang’s club house by investigators from Strike Force Raptor was the final straw. He quit the gang, handed in his leather jacket emblazoned with its colours and gave up life as a “one percenter”.
On the fifth anniversary of Strike Force Raptor’s formation, The Daily Telegraph was given an exclusive insight into the working of the elite NSW police squad that proactively targets and disrupts outlaw motorcycle gang members in every aspect of their lives.
“They view themselves as the 1 per cent who don’t want to live by community standards and we view it as our job to make them conform,” said a senior investigator.
It’s the same principle that Eliot Ness used to bring down the famous US prohibition era gangster Al Capone — Ness jailed him for failing to pay his taxes.
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They view themselves as the 1 one per cent who don’t want to live by community standards and we view it as our job to make them conform 
Following that lead, Raptor investigators and officials from the Australian Tax Office have hit 18 NSW Rebels gang members with 273 tax offences including not lodging their return or Business Activity Statements in time.
“They were flouting the law and had 20 years of not paying tax returns. That’s not acceptable for you or me and it’s not acceptable for them,” said the investigator.
The message is clear: if you are a criminal and a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang, the highly proactive members of Strike Force Raptor will come after you with whatever law is at their disposal.
And that means anything that works, including laws on planning, alcohol, livestock, national parks, tow trucks and even teaming up with Centrelink to identify bikies who are rorting the welfare system.
“When an outlaw motorcycle gang puts in a request to stage a ride without motorcycle helmets, the answer is always no. What makes them special? Nothing,” the investigator said.
It is part of the “in your face” style of policing that has seen 2455 bikies busted and charged with 5599 offences for everything from murder to illegal parking. Investigators have laid over 1000 drug charges, 627 firearms charges and 344 for crimes involving violence.
Investigators have also worked closely with the NSW government to develop new laws, such as Firearms Prohibition Orders, which allow them to search anyone they suspect of having an illegal firearm.
A search on an extremely self-confident Hells Angels associate in Cabarita turned up nothing in the house. But the order also let them search his car, which had $2.5 million worth of the drug ice hidden inside. “He wasn’t so cocky when we found that,” said the investigator.
The Strike Force was formed after a brawl between rival gangs the Comancheros and Hells Angels at Sydney Airport left one bikie dead and the entire community of NSW outraged.
Gangs were big news and the most violent, Notorious, was recruiting young Middle Eastern men who did not even have motorbikes. Known as the Nike bikies, they were flaunting society’s rules as a powerless public looked on.
Investigators from Raptor targeted the gang, found CCTV footage of a senior member involved in a fight in Kings Cross, arrested him and took the rest of the gang down. Notorious no longer exists.
The newly appointed Commander of the Gangs Squad, Detective Superintendent Deb Wallace, said: “It is important that the community feels safe. If we receive information that bikies are intimidating other members of the community, you can rest assured they will be visited by officers from Raptor and their anti-social ways will be toned down quick smart.”
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A wardrobe installer at a Milperra business park was working back late when members of the Comancheros came round from their clubhouse next door.
They told him to close up because they did not want the police to come round and check. He asked for some time to finish and they bashed him.
“He was too scared to make a complaint. But every action has a reaction,” said the investigator. “That guy was just trying to earn a living. We pulled their clubhouse down. They did not have a DA to run a clubhouse and were not licensed to serve alcohol.”
The squad has completely dismantled 19 bikie clubhouses. As word spread that officers from Raptor were targeting club houses north of Newcastle, the Bandidos Port Stephens chapter beat them to it and closed themselves down. At the Hells Angels East Chapter clubhouse in Alexandria, police burst in to find the words “Raptor you dogs” painted on the wall.
When a senior Rebels bikie on the Central Coast was arrested and charged with raping an under-aged girl in the clubhouse, the clubhouse was dismantled and closed down.
“We get a lot of feedback and it is clear they don’t like us in their lives,” said the investigator.
A big part of gang culture is taking steroids to muscle up and take part in combat sports.
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“It’s all part of what they do so that they can stand over and intimidate people,” said the investigator. So the investigators found the biggest steroid supplier in NSW, arrested him, cut off the supply and shut down an illegal business that had been worth millions of dollars.
Then investigators trained and registered as officials for combat sports. When a bikie gets the bindings on his hands checked before a bout he knows he could be staring straight into the eyes of a police officer just waiting for him to put a foot wrong.
“At one fight a known bikie was not officially registered so we had him banned from the sport,” said the investigator. “He thought he was special and above the rules but we showed him he wasn’t.”
Detective Superintendent Wallace said that the real measure of the squad’s success was not just in what it had achieved but also in what it had prevented.
“We have much to celebrate from the last five years but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said.
The community has a key role to play in keeping the outlaw motorcycle gangs in check.
“If anyone has any information concerning the anti-social or criminal behaviour of outlaw motorcycle gangs, they should contact Crime Stoppers or Strike Force Raptor directly,” she said.
And that would put a tough, no-nonsense member of Strike Force Raptor right in their face.
Anyone with information to assist police is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report it directly to detectives via the Strike Force Raptor online reporting page.