Shane Bowden death: Police allege a group of murder accused ‘test fired’ weapons in the lead up to shooting

Alleged Mongols bikies accused of having a role in the execution-style killing of Shane Bowden test-fired weapons on a rural property in the lead-up to the gangland leader’s death, police allege.

Police at the scene in Cox St Pimpama where notorious bikie Shane Bowden was gunned down in his driveway. Picture Glenn Hampson

ALLEGED Mongols bikies accused of having a role in the execution-style killing of Shane Bowden test-fired weapons on a rural property in the lead-up to the gangland leader’s death, police allege.

Mongol-turned-Finks enforcer Bowden was gunned down by hooded men in a Pimpama driveway on October 12, 2020. Police allege he was shot 21 times – 19 times with a machine pistol and twice with a shotgun.

Police allege some of the men charged with Bowden’s murder test-fired weapons at a rural property in Ipswich, the Bulletin can reveal.

Detectives conducted forensic testing at the site. It is not known who police allege was at the property and fired the weapons.

Outlaw Motorcycle Gang OMCG Shane Bowden

Police released images of a machine pistol, likened to one used in the shooting, weeks before a breakthrough.

Police allege that the firearm was similar to weapons seized at an accused Mongols associate’s home days after the shooting.

Bowden was part of the Finks “Terror Team” on the Gold Coast before patching over to the Mongols and moving to Victoria. He was shot in a Melbourne driveway and had defected back to his former club in the weeks before his death.

In July, 10 alleged Mongols gang members and associates were arrested in police raids and charged with murder.

Police at the scene in Cox St Pimpama where notorious bikie Shane Bowden was gunned down in his driveway. Picture Glenn Hampson

Police allege most of the accused were part of the Brisbane West chapter of the Mongols.

After the arrest, Detective Superintendent Brendan Smith said police had “decimated a whole chapter of the Mongols” – a claim labelled by the accused’s lawyer as grandstanding.

Shane Bowden is transferred from from the Voco Hotel at Surfers Paradise to Gold Coast University Hospital prior to his shooting death. Picture Glenn HampsonPicture Glenn Hampson

At the time, Superintendent Smith said the alleged murder “involved significant planning by those involved resulting in a long and complicated inves­tigation”. Police allege Bowden was being monitored and a GPS tracker had been planted on his car in the lead-up to the shooting.

Some of the 10 accused are expected to apply for Supreme Court bail, but are yet to do so.

Among the charged are Haydn Forbes – son of Bowden’s old Terror Team mate and alleged former Mongols national president Nick “The Knife” Forbes – and accused ringleader Ian Ronald Crowden, 46.

David Meatuai, Peter Michael Cummins, Joshua James Small, Junior Torope, Fidel Gunes, James Mau’u, Jake Taylor and Adam John Murphy have been charged with one count of murder involving serious organised crime.

The charges remain before the court.

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