Bikie boss Alex Vella tells of his life in exile

HE once led a feared band of thugs and criminals but former bikie boss Alex Vella now spends his days writing poetry and raising pet budgerigars.

HE once led a feared band of thugs and criminals but former bikie boss Alex Vella now spends his days writing poetry and raising pet budgerigars.

The Maltese Falcon, as he’s known to both loved ones and his enemies, had a ferocious reputation but now, at 64, he hardly seemed a threat with his pet bird “Champion” pressed against his cheek.

News Corp met Vella outside a small cafe in Mosta, a small town in central Malta, armed with a folder of old news stories and poetry scribbled on the back of envelopes and loose pieces of paper.

Alex Vella in the Mosta district of Malta with Father Raphael Martino. Picture: David Dyson

He no longer wore club colours of the gang he once headed, the Rebels, because, he says “they are more trouble than they’re worth”.

The thick moustache, snakeskin boots and mullet hairstyle remain the same, and stand out in the crowd on this small Mediterranean island where he’s been in exile since 2014.

Two fat golden rings sparkled as he shook hands with the strength worthy of a retired professional boxer who was named light-heavyweight champion of Malta in 1978.

Standing next to Vella was his old friend, Father Raphael DeMartino from the Mosta Catholic Church, which overlooked the cafe.

“Alex is a good man and it isn’t fair what they are doing to him,” he said with apparent bewilderment that anyone could question his friend’s integrity.

“I hear what they have done and it breaks my heart.”

Alex Vella and his son Alex Vella Jnr.

Vella did not speak about his former gang at first but instead heads to the back of the cafe, ordered a round of cappuccinos and started reciting his favourite poems.

“Charlie was no fool, he came from the old school,” he quotes a verse about a cousin of his who died a few years back.

The colourful father-of-two chuckled when he revealed he could not read or write and often asked passers-by and friends in Malta to scribble down words and rhymes as they came to him.

“I cannot read and write but I can count,” he said when pressed about how he earned his money.

“I worked hard as a bricklayer and a labourer and even as a bouncer at the clubs for a while.

“My cousin taught me how to make smart investments and that’s what I did. (The Australian Government) made me prove where all my money came from a while back and I was able to do so.”

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Vella also spoke about terrorism and issues with unemployment and crime in Malta.

A man who was being investigated for human trafficking was critically injured in a car bombing on the northeast coast of Malta one day earlier and Vella noted there was a high police presence in the city.

“In my experience no one ever gets attacked unless they have done something to deserve it,” he said.

“I really do worry about terrorism though. We are a very important place, right between everyone, and I’m telling you one day we will be hit and it will be awful.”

Alex Vella in his Malta apartment. Picture: David Dyson

After a second round of cappuccinos and several stories about his former boxing glory, Vella agreed to show the dilapidated apartment block he now called home.

The unit was owned by a friend who let Vella stay for free.

It was tucked away on a side-street filled with buildings that were crumbling with age, and stray cats out the front searching for food.

No walls separated his bedroom from his kitchen and his small balcony was crowded by a large cage filled with a small army of squawking budgies.

It was a far-cry from his home in western Sydney which came with a fleet of luxury cars and motorcycles.

“This is Champion,” he says proudly, holding up a white and red-splashed bird which lets Vella handle him without much fuss.

“I used to have so many animals and birds in Australia but these are all I have now.”

Above all, he misses his wife Heather Vella deeply and says their time apart has taken a toll on their marriage.

He described her as an angel and his rock to lean on in tough times and although she doesn’t often visit, she calls every day.

Vella said he spent most of his time in Western Sydney lounging around his big Australian suburban backyard with his wife.

Now he barely leaves his apartment, preferring instead to care for his budgies.

Alex Vella on the balcony of his apartment. Picture: David Dyson

“My wife is a beautiful woman and she calls me every day, every day she calls me to talk,” he said.

“It is very tough. The distance.

“My son gave me this phone to stay in contact with them all but I miss them very much. I just want to go home.”

Vella adamantly denies being involved in organised crime.

Police data sheds a different light on the club that he ran.

During 2011 and 2012, while Vella was in charge, more than 700 Rebels gang members were investigated in relation to 1200 charges.

The evidence of a criminal culture was enough for the Government to revoke his visa — and for the Federal Court to chuck out his appeal.

Vella, an immensely proud man, said he was glad his sons never took over the reins of his club after his exile.

“It wasn’t up to me, the club has to vote on that,” he said when asked about a power vacuum being created when he stood down.

“My sons never wanted to be in charge anyway, they saw what happened to me, how police target me.

“And I wouldn’t have wanted them to do it for the same reason.”

Alex Vella with his budgie “Champion” on the balcony of his apartment in the Mosta district of Malta. picture David Dyson

Originally published as Bikie boss Alex Vella tells of his life in exile