Who detained Hells Angels boss Angelo Pandeli remains a mystery
Who detained Australia’s most wanted man Angelo Pandeli in the Middle East and why it happened remains a mystery as rumours swirl about the accused international drug kingpin.
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Who detained Hells Angels boss Angelo Pandeli in the Middle East and why it happened remained a mystery on Thursday evening.
There has been scant information coming from the opulent desert city of Dubai, which Pandeli has called home since leaving Australia in 2018.
It remained unclear whether the 52-year-old was back in his family’s luxury apartment in the United Arab Emirates or was still being held.
Rumours flew that he had been picked up on an Interpol Red Notice.
Whatever happened has been carefully described as Pandeli being detained, not arrested.
There has long been talk that authorities in Australia would like to bring him back here.
“The AFP has no comment,” a spokesperson for the agency said.
But the fact is that Pandeli has grown into such a huge player on the international crime stage that multiple other jurisdictions would have an interest in him.
He has established firm connections with crime syndicates on every continent, in the process making himself Australia’s top law enforcement target.
Pandeli has been a target of the Australian Federal Police’s offshore disruption task force Operation Gain.
Before leaving Australia, authorities charged Pandeli with tax fraud but he was cleared in court in 2017 after his accountant told the court it was his mistake that his returns were not filed.
Pandeli, 52, grew up in South Australia to Turkish immigrant parents.
He became a nightclub bouncer in Adelaide and then moved to Sydney where he climbed the ranks of the Hells Angels before he departed for Dubai after the tax court case.
Pandeli sold an apartment in Pyrmont, Sydney, last year, making a $6m profit.
His wife Kerry had been living with him.
Radha Stirling, a lawyer and advocate who runs the agency Detained in Dubai, said Pandeli may fight any attempts to extradite him to Australia, if it came to that.
“If he fights the extradition it will be interesting to see whether the UAE actually cooperates given Australia has declined extradition to the UAE in the past,” she said.
“It’s unlikely that many people will be extradited from Australia to the UAE because of the human rights concerns there.
“Does the UAE want to extradite someone when they’re unlikely to get that same reciprocation from Australia?”
Ms Stirling said Pandeli’s wealth also meant he would have made connections with Dubai’s elite.
“You are obviously in a more powerful position the more you have integrated there,” she said.
Originally published as Who detained Hells Angels boss Angelo Pandeli remains a mystery
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