Police warn matter of time before public caught in bikie war crossfire
An alarming escalation of bikie-related violence in a hot spot where shootings, attempted murder, bashings, kidnappings and fire bombings occur, comes amid warnings it is only a matter of time before innocent people are injured.
Canberra police thought they had seen it all when fitness instructor, male model and acting national president of the violent Comanchero Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Hasan Topal smashed a glass of beer into his own forehead before diving into a wild brawl.
The scene, captured on a 10-minute CCTV clip from a Canberra strip club in 2017, saw the Victorian biker boss joining fellow NSW and Queensland Comanchero bikers in the disturbing fight with their own unstable gang for which he and five others would later be jailed.
For police and Topal, who is set to be released from jail next month, it was a clear sign the national membership was imploding and for the nation’s capital a wake-up call.
“For Canberra it was certainly a moment when the public could appreciate these people are violent,” ACT Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Scott Moller told News Corp Australia yesterday. “The violence they administered to their own club members certainly proved to me how violent they can be out in the public.”
But the brawl, is now just one of more than 60 bikie gang-related incidents recorded in the nation’s capital (35 last year alone) which authorities concede has seen an alarming escalation of OMCG-related violence including shootings with assault rifles, attempted murder, bashings, kidnappings, fire bombings, arsons, aggravated robberies, extortions and home invasions amid warnings it is only a matter of time before innocent members of the public are injured.
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In 2015, the ACT was a one gang town with 60 Rebels in six chapters the only known OMCG presence but there was a split in the ranks and the following year Nomads set up a chapter with patched over former Rebels. In 2017 Commancheros set up in Canberra following a mass defection from the Rebels and late last year Satudarah completed its national aim to have a chapter in every state and territory in Australia with an established chapter in Canberra. Also late last year at least 10 Comanchero apparently defected and were now patched members of the Finks, who don’t have an ACT clubhouse but are based in regional NSW, prompting the remnants of the ACT Rebels to move away to Yass.
Much of the issues have been linked to inter-gang rivalries, an internal split into two blocs with the Comanchero and significant interstate groups predominantly from NSW and notably the Finks looking to muscle in on the city’s huge lucrative illegal drugs market.
But Canberra, in the eyes of both NSW Police and Australian Federal Police, has set itself up as an oasis of biker crime with the territory the only state in Australia that does not have anti-consorting laws. NSW Police warned ACT counterparts as far back as 2009 that the tough NSW anti-gangs laws would force bikies to flee to the ACT. Ludicrous as it sounds, OMCG members load their bikes onto Pantec trucks and drive out of NSW to then unload, dress in their patched jackets and ride freely through Canberra city.
In the face of rising crime, the ACT Labor Government cites human rights as a reason for not wanting the nationally-adopted laws designed to disrupt criminal gangs but others point to pressure from interest groups and associations.
In January a brawl at a restaurant at a public club in southern ACT district of Woden between a dozen bikers shocked ordinary patrons, last month a house in Kambah was shot up with a .45 calibre weapon and three cars torched but the city is still talking about an attack last year when three hooded armed bikies were attempting to kill another in a gunbattle in suburban Calwell.
Supt Moller said there was no doubt Canberra was in the middle of an OMCG battle for supremacy for control and outside the ACT the issue had been largely under reported with the territory seen only as home to politicians and public servants
“Being honest we suffer from that in Canberra ourselves as a community,” Supt Moller said. “I think we suffer from the same thoughts that we are a sleepy little town and it’s still a country town and we don’t have much crime here. The reality is the population has changed, we are at 400,000 to 450,000 people, we are a large city, the city feeds a lot of the rural country outlying areas into Young, Wagga Wagga, down the South Coast so we have a considerable feed. And also as part of Canberra there are outlying suburbs and cities, you’ve got Queanbeyan which is a substantial city in itself, you’ve got Yass and into Bungendore, these cities contributing to the population of Canberra which sits at 400,000-450,000 population but when you bring those people in day to day to work the population would swell quite considerably. What I’m saying is we are not just a little country town anymore and certainly from a crime perspective ….”
His bikie-busting Task Force Nemesis last year responded to 35 gang-related incidents, conducted 78 raids, laid 80 charges and seized more than 20 weapons.
“These clubs are significant players in terms of organised crime,” Supt Moller said. “They really command their little areas but have links across the States nationally and internationally into other illicit markets and these are very substantial organised crime members living and operating in our community.” He said money from illicit trade was the central issue. “They want to protect that.
“That one significant attack on the club in Canberra, the restaurant was fully booked with patrons including children and the violence the public was exposed was significant. You’ve got neighbours living next door to these houses getting shot at and the type of ammunition they (OMCG) are using is going straight through walls into neighbour’s houses. One shooting in Calwell, one of the rounds went through the neighbour’s wall and lodged above a man’s bed within one metre. This is how the general public are affected by this violence, it’s prevalent.”
ACT Opposition Attorney-General spokesman Jeremy Hanson last week launched another anti consorting bill, drafting around Human Rights legislation, but the Labor government has already rejected it. The first time he publicly proposed the bill was exactly a decade ago this month.
“In terms of the potential for an innocent member of the community to get injured or killed, I believe it’s inevitable because in the absence of anti-consorting laws the bikie war that is raging in the ACT will continue and we’ve seen the bikies show no regard to the safety of the population,” he said. “When that occurs the ACT Government will have blood on its hands and they are going to have to look at the family of someone who has been killed or badly injured and explain why it is after repeated warnings they still refuse to take action needed to end this.”
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