Three years on the shooting of Gokhan Turkyilmaz unsolved
We revisit four unsolved Gold Coast bikie crimes, as a city police detective reveals the OMCG code of silence is “shifting”. TAKE A LOOK INTO THE CITY’S SEEDY UNDERBELLY
Police & Courts
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The bikie code of silence that often hinders police investigations is “shifting” as there’s no loyalty among gang members, a senior detective says.
And police say senior members are more frequently looking out for themselves, leaving their underlings to sit in jail.
Speaking generally, Organised Crime Gangs Group Detective Superintendent Brendan Smith said feedback from the gang exit program revealed many were questioning why they joined a club after being left without support behind bars.
“I think it’s important to note that (the code of silence) is shifting, there is no loyalty among these gangs,” he said.
“Each member, particularly the higher-ranked members seemed to be about protecting themselves and not doing things to support the junior members.
“We have many outlaw motorcycle (club) members sitting in jails, who thought they were doing the right thing by the club, and now they’re getting no support whatsoever and they’re wondering ‘why did I join the gang’.”
Supt Smith said senior bikies would get junior members to “commit the crimes”, giving themselves a layer of protection.
“The junior members are doing this with an expectation that they’ll be looked after, but they’re not. We’ve been saying for some time that if people knew the truth, they wouldn’t join a gang … there’s no loyalty, it’s not like the movies.”
Supt Smith said there were many ways around the “code of silence” including using powers held by different agencies.
“They need to understand that it’s not a bulletproof protection for them,” he said.
“We don’t stop … we don’t suddenly say this is too hard and move on. We adapt and adjust our strategies and our investigative techniques to get the result needed by the community.”
Recent unsolved bikie cases
Three stabbed in Burleigh Park
Mystery still surrounds the triple stabbing outside of a Burleigh Heads restaurant involving men with alleged ties to the Mongols bikie gang.
The incident was one of four acts of violence allegedly by bikies on the last weekend of November last year. Police have since revealed the incidents were not related.
“Investigations continue into the November 2021 incident with no arrest or charges. It is believed the victims were associated with the Mongols Outlaw Motorcycle Gang,” police said in a statement.
The Bulletin understands phones were seized over the incident.
“We cannot comment in relation to investigation methodologies,” police said when asked about the seizures.
“No complaints have been made by three men who were attacked. No one has been charged as a result of the investigation.”
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Tina Greer
The now-dead bikie Les ‘Grumpy’ Sharman was identified as a person of interest in the suspected murder of Gold Coast mother Tina Greer.
The Finks hard man died in a traffic crash in 2018 taking whatever he might have known to the grave.
Ms Greer was 32 when she headed west to Spicer’s Gap to visit her boyfriend Sharman on January 18, 2012.
She was never seen again. Her vehicle was found days later abandoned at Governor’s Chair Lookout, off Spicers Gap Rd, west of Beaudesert.
In August 2020 police raided a Bonogin property, formerly owned by a Lone Wolf bikie, but called off the search after three days.
Detective Inspector David Briese, of Ipswich District Crime Services, last year told the Bulletin police were still investigating and searching for Ms Greer.
“The case is not closed and we continue to work towards finding Tina and prosecuting anyone involved in her disappearance,” he said.
A $250,000 reward is in place for information in the case.
Upper Coomera ‘bikie’ shooting
After being shot eight times former MMA fighter Gokhan Turkyilmaz wrote to social media taunting his attackers: “I’ve had harder sparring sessions”.
The then-Rebel’s bikie then posted a photo of himself drinking a beer.
Turkyilmaz, 33, was shot up to eight times and bashed with a baseball bat by a group of balaclava-clad men who stormed his Upper Coomera home in February 2019, according to reports at the time.
Police were then investigating whether it was a “get back” for a shooting at the Logan Hyperdome shopping centre earlier that month, in which it is alleged members of the Logan chapter of the Rebels ambushed members of the Beenleigh chapter of the Bandidos.
Police have not discounted this theory, the Bulletin understands.
Five months after the shooting, sources said a bikie code of silence was holding back an investigation into the incident.
“Investigations are ongoing and no charges have been laid,” police told the Bulletin almost three years on from the attack.
Shot Gold Coast Rebel Gokhan Turkyilmaz celebrates release from hospital with beers
Mystery gunshot wound
Police are still investigating the shooting of a man linked to the Finks.
The 26-year-old was injured in a mystery shooting on the final weekend of November 2021. He presented to Gold Coast University Hospital with a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the left arm.
At the time police initially believed the shooting occurred in Southport but the man – who detectives say has links to the Finks Outlaw Motorcycle Gang – was refusing to help investigators.
The Bulletin later revealed he was charged with drug offences after an early morning bust by police days after the shooting.
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