Gold Coast bikies: Police reveal surprise changes to outlaw motorcycle clubs
Gold Coast outlaw motorcycle gangs are constantly recruiting but are less territorial than at the height of the bikie war seven years ago, police say.
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GOLD Coast outlaw motorcycle gangs are constantly recruiting but are less territorial than at the height of the bikie war seven years ago, police say.
They have become “less traditional” as they spread their criminal tentacles across the country, and globe.
Detective Inspector Ian Galpin, of the Major and Organised Crime Squad south east region, said the Mongols – the club linked to the execution-style death of Shane Bowden last week – were displaying a “noticeable desire to engage in sophisticated organised crime” in the region.
He said they were actively targeting young men with criminal histories.
Aside from the Mongols, the main clubs on the Gold Coast were the Lone Wolf, Finks and Hells Angels, he said.
Insp Galpin said a club no longer had a specific clubhouse on the Gold Coast.
However, the Bulletin this year revealed clubs were continuing to flout organised crime laws by meeting at public places.
Insp Galpin said bikie clubs were predominantly involved in trafficking methamphetamine and he didn’t believe it was now the case that “a club owns a particular area”.
He said bikie clubs were “less traditional” and now had international and national reach.
“They all operate the same. From a national perspective the most common gang-related criminal activity is illicit drugs, specifically methamphetamine,” he told the Bulletin.
“It (the Gold Coast) would be consistent with the national perspective.
“All clubs are consistently attempting to recruit other persons into their clubs. It’s something that we monitor and we try to disrupt and try to prevent.”
Insp Galpin said detectives knew where bikies were and engaged with them frequently.
“We are constantly working with intelligence resources to monitor their movements, to monitor their behaviour and certainly step in … at any time to disrupt their enterprise,” he said.
Police have downplayed any talk of a bikie-war following the death of Bowden, who was gunned down by two hooded men after arriving at his Pimpama unit on October 12.
In the wake of his death, bikie sources told the Bulletin that southeast Queensland clubs had been recruiting in huge numbers and stockpiling weapons.
Bowden, who was booted from the Mongols after a prison stint, was believed to have been working to strengthen the Gold Coast chapter of the Finks.
Retired Superintendent Jim Keogh recently told the Bulletin bikies had become “perhaps more covert” and far “more violent”.
When the bikie war was raging in 2013, the Bulletin reported that gangs would intimidate restaurants by “hanging around’’ or refusing to pay for dinner.
“Bikies are looking to plant money into businesses all the time and they know which ones to approach,’’ a hospitality identity said in 2013, just weeks after the infamous Broadbeach brawl.
“It’s like putting cash in the bank, but my concern is what happens to legitimate owners and their staff when police discover bikies have a 20 per cent stake in the business.”
A restaurateur at the time said bikies were targeting late-night restaurant/bars.
“They’re not interested in the restaurant that closes at 10.30pm,’’ he said.
“They want the ones that turn into trendy bars later in the night because that’s where the drug market is.’’
Traditional clubhouses began closing in 2013 following the introduction of tough organised crime legislation.
But it was a different story back in 2006, the year of the infamous “Ballroom Blitz” fight in which Bowden and about 40 other Finks walked into a kickboxing event and started a brawl with the Hells Angels.
Bowden left a note at Finks headquarters when police came knocking. Likewise, clubhouses were scattered across the Gold Coast.
At Labrador the Finks’ clubhouse was painted black with a 6m emblem, while at Mermaid Beach the Bandidos’ base was fortified with heavy security systems and surveillance systems.
The Lone Wolf clubhouse at Currumbin – one of the last to leave the Gold Coast in 2013 – had the plain black lettering L.W.M.C. Australia written over the doorway of an industrial warehouse.
The Hells Angels also packed up and left their Burleigh Heads base in 2013.
At the time the Rebels and Nomads were sited within 2km of one another, and the Black Uhlans, the only club to own their pad, put their clubhouse up for sale.
Originally published as Gold Coast bikies: Police reveal surprise changes to outlaw motorcycle clubs