Fentanyl could disrupt the Australian drug market like cocaine and methamphetamine
Experts can’t believe a cheap drug that destroys lives isn’t here yet – but when it does it could disrupt bikies and organised crime in a massive way.
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Bikies are preparing to cash in the deadly drug fentanyl, which is expected to up-end the Australian market in the same way cocaine did methamphetamine, it can be revealed.
“If it’s going to be coming in through motorcycle clubs, it will be ones with international connections,” Queensland University of Technology Associate Professor Mark Lauchs, an outlaw motorcycle gang expert, said.
The drug, which is incredibly cheap to produce, has emerged as the leading killer of Americans aged 18 to 45 — it is 50 times stronger than heroin — and has been linked to a huge rise in homelessness and street crime.
“It will get here – and it will be a new marketplace, just like when cocaine took over from meth. Fentanyl could take over from cocaine,” Prof Lauchs said.
Just last month, the Commission – a loose group of Comanchero bikies and other crime figures – sent text messages to underworld figures, warning of a “WAR” if they brought the drug in, as it would challenge their existing stronghold on the cocaine market.
“Australia will be a Fentanyl-Free Nation, any attempts will be dealt with immediate WAR. F … up your own countries not ours!” News Corp reported the texts as having said at the time.
Fentanyl could be disguised as prescriptions drugs, which made it harder to detect at the border, and authorities have already warned of the social havoc the drug could cause if it was rampant in Australia.
A joint operation between the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force in late 2021 stopped more than five million doses hitting the streets.
Prof Lauchs said experts in the US couldn’t believe the fentanyl epidemic hadn’t begun yet, given how closely Australia followed international trends.
“[They’ve said] ‘wow, watch out because that’s a whole other world again’, that we haven’t begun in Australia. So it’s not going to get better anytime soon,” Prof Lauchs said.
“When it comes it’s going to come through the Mexican connections that are supplying the cocaine. It’s much easier to transport costs, the quantities are small compared to cocaine.”
Cocaine was fuelling the violence between gangs and organised crime in Australia, he said, and contributing to an unstable situation.
“Wherever the money this is what’s going to drive the violence because like, no one’s looking for an even playing field in the marketplace,” he said.
“The marketplace for cocaine is there. It’s not going away. It’s extremely lucrative and someone’s going to supply it and they don’t want to share the market. So violence is the way you resolve all issues in any form of crime.”
In next 12 months, Prof Lauchs said there would be a “re-evaluation” over “who is doing what”.
“I would say if they’ve closed down this network associated with the Comanchero (whose senior leadership was disrupted through the AN0M sting) – that’s a lot of drugs not coming to Australia through that source.”
He said a period of “catharsis” could follow “when a big group like that gets knocked out”, similar to what occurred in Melbourne in 2007 after the so-called “tomato tin case”.
This was the world’s biggest ecstasy bust, with 15 million pills found hidden inside tomato tins.
BIKIES IN 2023
COMANCHERO
Spanish bikie Alex Vare took over from Australian Mark Buddle at the top of the gang’s international ranks this year.
Buddle and others are waiting on a legal ruling over the legality of the AN0M stings — which saw 800 people arrested in 16 countries for alleged organised crime links.
He was deported in 2022 from Turkey and is now awaiting trial in Melbourne.
Comanchero kingpin Hakan Ayik was also arrested in Turkey where he was accused of running an “armed organised crime” network.
Melbourne-based Bemir Saravic is the National President of the club, which has been in turmoil since Buddle’s arrest and deportation to Victoria.
Saravic drives a $700,000 Lamborghini Aventator.
It was revealed this year the Comanchero gang was leading The Commission, a drug cartel that tries to dictate the price of cocaine and ice by implementing a tax on other drug imports.
HELLS ANGELS
After Hakan Ayik’s arrest, The Hells Angels are poised to take over Australia’s wholesale international drug trade.
News Corp revealed the arrest may have created an opportunity for others to fill the void.
That would mean looking for a safe haven to evade Australian authorities.
Once place could be Mexico – although it has an extradition treaty with Australia, and it is an easy place to avoid detection.
The Hells Angels are one of the world’s most connected criminal enterprises and have long been in the sights of federal police.
It’s international network places it as alikely new key player in cocaine and ice shipments into Australia.
They have a major footprint in Australia that allows them to move drugs easily throughout the country after they are smuggled in from South America.
LONE WOLF
Like the Hells Angels and Comanchero gangs, Lone Wolf are establishing new drug deals from bases in Mexico, Colombia, Laos and Thailand.
The outlaw motorcycle groups are working together to move tonnes of drugs, then dividing up their retail territories once the shipments land in Australia.
In Thailand, they have taken over Pattaya, while in Mexico they are basing themselves in Cancun, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Mexico City.
The Comanchero and Lone Wolf teamed up to import four tonnes of ice hidden in Tequila from Mexico in April. The huge haul was intercepted before it reached Australia.
The national president of the Lone Wolf bikie gang was one of three people arrested by NSW police after over a major ice sting.
Medhat Mankaryous, 41, was charged after sweeping raids by Strike Force raptor officers.
BANDIDOS
Former Bandidos national president Bandido Jason Fahey patched over to The Hells Angels which led to speculation of a feud – which the two countered when senior figures from both, including Fahey, were later seen having coffee together in public.
A bikie insider told The Daily Telegraph Fahey’s departure could be followed by others because he was such a “big name”.
“There will be a lot of guys who will follow him,” the insider said.
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