Police restart conspire to shoot case against ex-B4L leader Damien Featherstone

By the time police issued a warrant for Damien Featherstone’s arrest in February 2018, he’d already fled interstate. Five years later, he’s back.

A former Brothers 4 Life leader who fled interstate five years ago allegedly to avoid arrest over a plot to gun-down a well-known Wollongong bikie has finally been returned to New South Wales to stand trial.

Damien Featherstone was facing more than a dozen charges including illegal gun possession and conspiring to shoot then-Finks south coast chapter president Troy Fornaciari when he fled to Canberra in 2018 after police issued a warrant for his arrest amid a crackdown on gang activity in the Illawarra.

Featherstone, an Aboriginal man once considered the leader of the B4L Illawarra chapter and who is understood to have converted to Islam in his 20s, was arrested on unrelated charges soon after he arrived in the capital.

He has been in custody in Canberra’s maximum security Alexander Maconochie Correctional Centre ever since, however The Daily Telegraph can reveal NSW Police successfully applied to have the 34-year-old extradited to Sydney late last year to recommence the gun and conspiracy cases against him.

Featherstone did not appear in Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday during a brief mention of the matters, with his lawyer seeking a two-month adjournment for police to serve their briefs of evidence.

Damien Featherstone. Supplied

A court has previously heard Featherstone and Fornaciari developed an intense dislike for each other in late 2017, with Featherstone allegedly overheard referring to Fornaciari as “Panda” and “F—k face” in telephone calls intercepted by police.

Police will allege Featherstone and one of his B4L disciples, Andrew Coe, conspired to shoot Fornaciari in the Wollongong CBD in late January 2018 by having a friend lure him out of the Finks clubhouse in North Wollongong under the pretence of selling him a gold ring.

Troy Fornaciari.

The court at the time heard both Featherstone and Coe allegedly gathered guns and ammunition for the job and set a date, however the plan fell apart when the car they were driving that night ran out of petrol half-way into the city centre.

The pair allegedly spoke about regrouping and organising the hit on a later date, however Fornaciari was arrested on unrelated charges on February 1.

Meanwhile, detectives raided Featherstone’s North Wollongong unit later that same day, allegedly uncovering a rifle and a single barrel shotgun.

Police allege Featherstone absconded to Canberra just days later.

Court documents reveal he is facing 11 firearms charges including one count of acquiring a prohibited firearm while subjected to a firearm prohibition order, two counts of possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm and one count each of knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group, conspiring to discharge a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and conspiring to fire a firearm in a public place.

The case will return to court in April.