Police uncover secret gun library used by bikie gangs
IT WAS the secret gun library where bikies from a variety of gangs could borrow anything from a pump action shotgun to a sniper rifle — at least it was until Strike Force Raptor came knocking.
NSW
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- Strike Force Raptor: The cops who crushed the bikies
- Strike Force Raptor: Inside the real-life police fight club
IT WAS the secret gun library where police believe bikies from a variety of gangs could borrow anything from a pump action shotgun to a sniper rifle — at least it was until Strike Force Raptor came knocking.
When officers from the state’s bikie-busting task force raided unit 136 at Hawkesbury Self Storage back in June 2015, they found a stockpile of guns and ammunition.
The details of the gun library, which also rented out 1630 rounds of ammunition, drug-making equipment and a book titled Secrets Of Methylamphetamine Manufacture By Uncle Fester, have only recently been revealed at the sentencing hearing of the so-called librarian.
Nomads bikie Sean Smith, who also goes by the name Sean Steele, was renting the storage unit, according to police documents tendered at his sentencing hearing.
But police didn’t know who owned the guns, with detectives noting in those documents that “the precise ownership” remained “unclear”.
However, the documents stated that Smith’s job as a member of the Nomads was to be “responsible for the security of weapons, including firearms”.
When police raided the storage facility they seized a Remington sniper rifle, a Colt AR 15 semiautomatic rifle with a scope, two pen guns, a Ruger 14 semiautomatic rifle, the pump action shotgun, a Remington Savage rifle with a scope and a sawn-off shotgun.
Smith is a former amateur boxer and one police source said: “You’d have to be punch-drunk to take the job of holding everyone else’s guns”.
The investigation led police to believe it wasn’t just Nomads who used the weapons and that other gangs had access to them.
“It is not unusual in situations like this that the weapons are used by any number of other criminals or criminal groups provided there is an alliance, which there appeared to be in this case,” Gang Squad Commander Deb Wallace said.
Police established that Smith had alliances with at least one other criminal group through the second part of their investigation.
Despite Smith being a member of the Nomads, he was involved in a methylamphetamine manufacturing operation with Lone Wolf bikie Simon Campbell, court documents said.
Smith and Campbell were cooking drugs in a shed on a Howes Valley property. They were taken down after the police broke in and installed covert surveillance devices.
Smith was charged with 42 drug and firearm offences. But, following negotiations by his lawyer Leo Premutico, he pleaded guilty to just five while the rest were taken into account as form one offences. This means he was not convicted of the charge but the judge took them into account when sentencing.
Smith was sentenced to a minimum seven years and four months jail.
Mr Premutico said: “I won’t be making any comment on the case.”
Campbell was sentenced to five years and seven months on five drugs related charges. His lawyer Michael Croke declined to comment.
Ms Wallace said: “We will be seeking further advice from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions about the prospects of appealing the sentences.”
A spokeswoman for the ODPP did not respond to questions about whether the sentences will be appealed.
► CHAPTER ONE: Inside the squad that beat Sydney’s gangs
► CHAPTER TWO: The real-life police fight club
