THE bikie-busting cops of Strike Force Raptor have spread their wings by forming two new specialist squads to swoop on outlaw gangs in regional centres and the bush.
Mini-Raptor teams have been set up in Newcastle and Wollongong because outlaw motorcycle club gang chapters haven’t been effectively deterred by sporadic raids out of Sydney.
Since the establishment of the two mini-Raptor forces in April, a violent turf war between the Nomads and Finks in the Hunter Region has come to a halt and a Brothers for Life gang chapter in the Illawarra has been obliterated.
The Raptor North and Raptor South teams in Newcastle and Wollongong each have 23 officers.
Over nine years, Strike Force Raptor’s aggressive and confrontational policing has seen some powerful Sydney bikie figures take their exploits further afield.
STRIKE FORCE RAPTOR IN-DEPTH
HOW POLICE BROUGHT DOWN OUTLAW BIKIE GANGS
INSIDE THE REAL-LIFE POLICE FIGHT CLUB
But State Crime Command director Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Smith said sending Strike Force Raptor to Newcastle for a short but intensive operation didn’t have the desired immediate impact.
“Travelling to the area doesn’t give you the same capability as being geographically located there,” he said.
“It’s about these people knowing we have a full-time presence in these two cities.”
Regional cities with major ports such as Newcastle and Wollongong are also vulnerable to organised crime activity and police believe the huge increase in tonne-scale drug seizures in recent years is the proof.
Det Chief Supt Smith said the level of bikie activity in the Hunter and Illawarra regions warranted placing permanent Raptor teams in each location.
“State crime ran a number of Strike Force investigations into public place shootings, organised crime and the drug trade in both these areas … and identified significant activity by OMCGs,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
“We have to move where the problem is.”
Police Minister Troy Grant said when bikie gangs like the Finks, Nomads and Bandidos set up shop drug distribution increased, violence erupted and the community was put at risk.
“We know numerous motorcycle gangs including the Finks, Nomads and Bandidos have bases in the Hunter and Illawarra regions,” he said.
“So I’m extremely pleased that police have installed these specialist units to proactively target these groups and hit them where it hurts.”
In a bid to quell an increasingly violent feud between Nomads and Finks in the Hunter Region this year, police applied for a suite of serious crime prevention orders.
The extraordinary orders, granted by the Supreme Court, limited five Finks’ and five Nomads’ movements and communication for 12 months.
The bikie turf war has resulted in dozens of violent incidents around the Hunter, including drive by shootings, fire bombings and brawls.
Det Chief Supt Smith said Raptor North has had immediate success in disrupting the violence.
“We have smashed them to bits,” he said.
Raptor South was established after police discovered a simmering feud between a local Finks chapter and a new Brothers for Life group.
The BFL Illawarra was allegedly conspiring to shoot a senior Finks figure and gathering firearms, dealing drugs and dishing out violence in the process.
The members of the disorganised chapter were allegedly street criminals who had converted to Islam.
Raptor arrested the senior Finks figure in North Wollongong in February and a group of alleged BFL members in April.
The new Raptor teams will be reviewed after six months with the option of diverting them to other towns plagued by bikie gangs.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
► CHAPTER ONE: Inside the squad that beat Sydney’s gangs
► CHAPTER TWO: The real-life police fight club
