Bikie murders: Bikie murders: String of senior Rebels turn up dead
TWO months after a senior former bikie was found dead in a car in the state’s central west police are no closer to figuring out how he died. Ricky Ciano, 35, is the latest of five of Rebels killed or found dead over the past two years.
NSW
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- Ricky Ciano: Former Rebels bikie found dead in car
- Sydney’s crime gang kingpins and their kill squads
TWO months after a senior former Rebel bikie was found dead in a car in the state’s central west police are no closer to figuring out how he died.
Ricky Ciano, 35, is the latest of five of Rebels killed or found dead as they tried to or had left the nation’s largest bikie in the last two years. Several others have been bashed to within an inch of their lives. The motives for the murders and attacks are murky — some wanted out, others had internal fights or had upset rival drugs dealers and gangs.
A number of Rebels are fleeing Sydney for the Gold Coast, such as Ciano, who supposedly quit the gang to go straight in Queensland. Many have homes in Sydney and the Gold Coast, with high profile members believing its safer on the Gold Coast than in Sydney where there friends seem to be dying more frequently.
Police are treating Ciano’s death as suspicious after both an autopsy and toxicology results were inconclusive.
He was found with no visible sign of injury that would indicate a gunshot or knife wound, or beating.
“Police will continue to treat Mr Ciano’s death as suspicious until there is definitive evidence to prove otherwise,” the Homicide Squad said.
“A post-mortem examination was inconclusive and police are awaiting further results to assist their inquiries.”
After leaving the Rebels Ciano fled to the Gold Coast after an attempt was made on his life in 2015 when a fellow alleged Rebel, Abuzar Sultani, allegedly accepted a $500,000 contract to kill the 35 year-old. Sulatani is also accused of murdering gangland kingpin Pasquale Barbaro last year.
Police allege Ciano’s would be killer posed as a pizza delivery man and knocked on Ciano’s door at his Central Coast home with the intention of killing him but Ciano already fearing retaliation for leaving the club refused to open the door. No motive for his murder or who ordered the hit has been given by police.
His Gold Coast friends have said they doubt he would have taken his own life. They said he lived for his pregnant wife Rachel, who was the last person to see him alive in Penrith a day before he was found dead, and a young Sydney-based daughter.
Ciano’s former pals Rebels bosses Michael Davey and Mark Easter along with another Sergeant at Arms for the Picton chapter Darren Wallace have all been murdered.
Wallace’s killer, Tevita Daunibau another Rebel who wanted to quit, killed himself after shooting Wallace dead.
The Rebels don’t take kindly to members leaving making them hand in their colours, motor bikes and have tattoos removed
Exits payments of thousands of dollars as well as beatings are also par for the course for anyone daring to leave the fold.
NSW Gangs Squad boss Detective Superintendent Debbie Wallace said bikies had no loyalties when members wanted to leave.
“It may seem romantic to join some sort of brotherhood but if you want to leave it comes at a significant cost — personal, financial and physical. Tattoos have to be removed and possession handed over including cash. Beatings are not uncommon and that violence can lead to deaths,’’ she said.
High profile bikies are often pulled over by Raptor at least once a day, sometimes a lot more. Their homes can and are searched without warrants regularly under tough Firearm Prohibition Orders. The bikies are loathe to admit it but this type of in your face tactics, the banning of wearing colours in the Cross and other pubs and clubs have made life all too hard in Sydney.
Add to these hassles the fact that Sydney appears to have many more willing guns for hire to shoot you if you want to leave and its understandable many members are spending more time interstate and making flying visits to Sydney to run their businesses.
In February this year Ciano, 35, was found dead in the back of a white BMW on a lonely stretch of road near Oberon in the state’s central west.
His cause of death is still being investigated by the NSW Homicide Squad and while murder has not been ruled out there is also the strong possibility he took his own life or died from some sort of overdose.
DEAD REBELS
Michael Davey
Jailed for manslaughter at 17 years old, Davey’s underworld life finally caught up to him at age 30.
The Rebels bikie got a call on his mobile in March last year, telling him to go outside where he was shot dead on the driveway of his western Sydney home.
Mark Easter
A Rebels sergeant of arms, Easter was executed and his body dumped in bushland north of Sydney in June 2015.
Police believe he was held captive for days before being shot repeatedly in the head to end the ordeal.
Council security cameras captured a white van allegedly dumping the body.
Ricky Ciano
A former high-ranking Rebels enforcer, Ciano was found dead in his luxury $130,000 BMW in suspicious circumstances in February.
He thought he had managed to leave the gang in 2015, when he had his club tattoo removed. There was an attempt on his life on the Central Coast a short time later.
Ciano’s car and body were found on a secluded road in Duckmaloi, near Oberon in the state’s central west.
Darren Wallace and Tevita Daunibau
In a chilling murder suicide, Daunibau calmly shot Darren Wallace, a fellow Rebel and a sergeant of arms, following a tense argument in Picton.
Daunibau then walked to a nearby creek where he turned the weapon on himself.
It is believed the row escalated when one of the men tried to “patch out” of the club.
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