Police dismantle Nomads bikie clubhouse at Muswellbrook

BULLETS, brawls and kneecappings — a deadly underworld war has gripped the Hunter Region and now elite gang cops have had enough.

BULLETS, brawls and kneecappings — a deadly underworld war has gripped the Hunter Region and now elite gang cops have had enough.

The simmering internal feud between senior figures in the Nomads and including members of the Finks gang too, has been raging for months, with shootings, kneecappings and bar brawls grabbing the attention of the anti-bikie Gang Squad.

On Wednesday the squad’s elite Strike Force Raptor had seen enough, raiding the Nomads’ Hunter Valley clubhouse in Muswellbrook at 8am.

Police shut down a Nomads bikie clubhouse suspected of operating as an illegal bar.

The closure cam days after the clubhouse was firebombed.

Alcohol, a bar, bikie colours and paraphernalia were seized during the police operation.

The same clubhouse was firebombed last Tuesday, the day after a drive-by shooting at the home of a former Nomad near Maitland.

That followed a weekend of violence in Newcastle, which began when a 26-year-old Finks member was attacked with a metal bar in a Kotara gym on March 26, fracturing his arm.

A pub brawl in the up-market Honeysuckle area the following day involved a Nomads member holding a beer, slamming a 40-year-old man in the neck.

Just hours later the Nomads clubhouse in nearby Islington was showered with about 30 bullets.

Alcohol, a bar, bikie colours and paraphernalia were seized during the police operation.

Police speak with a man during searches of bikies’ properties in the Hunter.

A turf war is currently raging between the Finks and the Nomads in the Hunter.

Wednesday’s raid had all the hallmarks of gang life — a dancing pole for entertainment, fully stocked bar, club colours and a long board table for club business.

Gang paraphernalia included the large timber letters NFFN (Nomads Forever Forever Nomads) above a fireplace, dart boards and club banners, with police in no doubt the premises was operating contrary to its classification as a “restricted premises”.

Police raided 10 other properties across the Hunter and Port Stephens in the week prior to seize weapons from bikies.

It has been a huge month for the Gang Squad in the Hunter and non-metropolitan regions.

It busted a major Finks drug syndicate in the Riverina on March 8, less than a week after Bandidos, Finks and Rebels members were all arrested on the Central Coast.

But the Hunter has been a flashpoint since December when brawls broke out in a pub car park, then a service station.

And almost a year ago a Nomads enforcer was found dumped in a Port Stephens alley with a shattered leg from a suspected kneecapping.

Raptor troops will remain active in the Hunter, the region’s Superintendent Steven Clarke said.

“Highly-visible and high-impact operations like this are part of our ongoing strategies to target and disrupt the activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs and their associates,” Supt Clarke said.

“This will be complemented by a range of other overt and covert strategies led by the Gangs Squad.

“Our priority is the safety of the community, and we will not tolerate public acts of violence — or any activity — that puts that safety at risk.”