Northern NSW bikie hot spots revealed, gangs infiltrate QLD
Bikies have changed their tactics and abandoned traditional clubhouses as they spread through northern NSW. Here’s how the key gangs are adapting and the new players emerging.
Tweed Heads
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A stretch of coastline spanning Hunter to Tweed Heads has become a haven for outlaw motorcycle gangs and home to a majority of NSW’s bikies.
NSW Police Force Raptor Squad commander Superintendent Jason Weinstein said “feeder groups” of up-and-coming organised crime gangs were used to help established bikie gangs increase their operations going unnoticed.
“They get young, dispensable people to do the dirty work, get caught, spend time in jail, while those who are profiting don’t come to the attention of law enforcement because they’ve outsourced,” Supt Weinstein said.
While Newcastle is still considered the arterial gateway and home base for bikies – with interconnected highways to peddle drugs and grow their ranks – Supt Weinstein said gangs were spreading their tentacles right across the state’s north.
Newcastle to Tweed Heads now accounts for about 60 per cent of outlaw motorcycle gang activity in NSW with chapters popping up all across the region.
Supt Weinstein said not only was the bikie scourge more prominent north of Newcastle than it ever had been, but the way gangs operated and the places they thrived were changing.
Here’s the inside story of how bikie clubs have spread their networks, changed their tactics and abandoned traditional clubhouses, leading to a crawl from urban centres and major hubs to regional and coastal towns in the state’s north.
Growing presence
Bikie ranks are moving north, with Raptor Squad intelligence suggesting the number of suspected gangs members has surged.
Supt Weinstein said bikies had followed the population shift caused by Covid-19 as people move to the regions over cities.
He said the move also helped bikies operate where there were less police to keep an eye on them.
There are now 11 different known clubs operating from Newcastle to the Queensland border.
These include Lone Wolves, Comancheros, Finks and Mongols, but the group that is most on Raptor’s radar is the Bandidos.
Supt Weinstein said the gang had 11 chapters from Newcastle to Tweed Heads and each chapter ranged in size from six to 25 members.
For a chapter to exist it needs a president, sergeant-at-arms and secretary, which is how smaller chapters are formed.
Alongside the Bandidos, the Rebels and Mongols have a known presence in northern NSW.
The Lone Wolves have gained prominence in the Tweed.
Supt Weinstein said the regions were an attractive option because “things are cheaper and there’s less attention sometimes to those activities, because of the geographic space”.
He said the coastline also tended to attract a presence due to its closeness to the motorway, while further south in the Hunter, inland chapters were more common due to a connection to the inner New England Highway.
The Gold Coast influence
Supt Weinstein said a potential gang war was thwarted as 23 Bandidos bikies were prevented from entering NSW.
Intelligence suggested a three-way rivalry between the Bandidos, the Finks and the Mongols was set to erupt in June last year.
He said it started because the Bandidos had attempted to infiltrate the Gold Coast to Sydney drug route.
“The thing that drives outlaw motorcycle gangs is drug territories,” Supt Weinstein said.
“In the Gold Coast-Tweed area there would be rub between a Gold Coast chapter wanting to expand where there is an existing chapter.”
He said the war had been bubbling below the surface, threatening to explode for some time.
In 2017 a brawl ruined State of Origin celebrations where more than a dozen patched Lone Wolf and Bandidos bikies clashed.
A year later police seized firearms, explosives and drugs after raids on outlaw motorcycle gangs in Cudgen, Banora Point, Tugun and Carrara ended in members of the Mongols and Lone Wolves being arrested.
More recently, things have been quiet in the Tweed, however Supt Weinstein said he was concerned about the Northern Region and expected the Raptor Squad to have a targeted response in the area this year.
Queensland may be known for its Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment laws but Superintendent Weinstein said New South Wales had mirroring anti-consorting laws and liquor by-laws around the North Coast that didn’t allow patrons to wear gang colours.
Hunter hub
Newcastle has quickly reclaimed its title as a hub for outlaw motorcycle gangs and the main connector between Sydney and the state’s north.
Member numbers dropped by 10 per cent in the Hunter between 2018 and 2019, according to intel from the Raptor Squad.
It came after strict new laws were introduced into the supreme court meaning bikies could not meet due to it being an offence for two or more convicted offenders to repeatedly associate with each other.
But Supt Weinstein said numbers were going back up partly due to the Finks expanding through the area.
He said bikies had more of an inland presence around the Hunter, including west into Muswellbrook and Maitland – partly due to the area’s connection to the New England Highway, which made it easier to move drugs and other commodities.
He said the main hub was around Newcastle with activity tethering out into other areas.
Who’s involved
Bandidos Sergeant-at-arms Benjamin Adams is spending time in custodyafter pleading guilty to two counts of affray.
According to Superintendent Weinstein, not much got past Adams when it came to the Bandidos.
“No chapter could do anything without his approval,” Superintendent Weinstein said.
Adams, 33, was arrested on October 22, 2021 after punching a 27-year-old man in the head at a boat ramp in Port Stephens on October 19.
Upon his arrest police seized outlaw motorcycle gang clothing, more than $12,000 cash, a mobile phone, prescription drugs and a modified weapon.
On November 2, Adams was sentenced to 12 months behind bars, with a non-parole period of six months in Maitland Local Court.
Adams was also banned from being in the company of, or communicating with, any known member or nominee of any outlaw bikie gang, for a period of 12 months.
Feeder gangs
Late last year, alleged members of an organised crime gang known as Loyal Crims were arrested by police around Lismore, Ballina and Byron Bay.
Supt Weinstein said groups like the Loyal Crims were known as “feeder groups” used by bikie gangs to do their “dirty work” – in this case for the Lone Wolf club.
“Two clubs in particular, Comancheros and the Lone Wolves, use feeder groups or feeder clubs to undertake all of their operations on a local level while they remain focused on organised crime of the business,” he said.
“They get young, dispensable people to do the dirty work, get caught, spend time in jail, while those who are profiting don’t come to the attention of law enforcement because they’ve outsourced.”
How clubs meet has also changed.
Three new clubhouses were discovered in Wauchope, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour last year – but gone are the days of clubhouses with large bars, pole dancing and stages with impressive sound systems.
Instead Supt Weinstein said the club members would meet at sheds or Airbnb properties.
Not so minor drug deals
Supt Weinstein said for all of northern NSW’s bikie growth, Sydney was still the main hub for activity.
He said there were 22 NSW outlaw motorcycle gangs with links to other states and 11 of them had international chapters.
“What we are finding are some of our traditional outlaw motorcycle gangs are no longer outlaw motorcycle gangs – they’re more organised crime entities and businesses,” Supt Weinstein said.
“Some of the groups have stuck to traditional one per cent theology – with localised chapters, ride our bikes, wear our colours, traditional outlaw motorcycle activities.
“But a number are not really outlaw motorcycle groups, they’re purely just drug dealing business organised crime.”
He said at the end of the day the public acts of violence and other criminal activities all stemmed from a market for drugs.
“Every time somebody buys a piece of drug - 1g from a pub or a street dealer - they are fuelling organised crime and outlaw motorcycle gangs, that’s where the profit goes back to,” Supt Weinstein said.
“As innocent as cannabis, MDMA, meth or cocaine might seem, at the end of the day they are making contribution to the bolstering of any outlaw motorcycle gangs.”
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