Bikie war fears as Victoria Police on high alert after gang tit-for-tat attacks
POLICE are on high alert as two of the state’s leading bikie gangs could be set to reignite a war, after tit-for-tat attacks on each other by the Comancheros and Rebels.
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POLICE are on high alert as two of the state’s leading bikie gangs could be set to reignite a war, after tit-for-tat attacks on each other by the Comancheros and Rebels.
A bashing and retaliatory firebombing in recent weeks has heralded an end to a truce between the two rival outlaw motorcycle gangs, which had lasted just over a year.
Police brokered the peace deal between the gangs in a meeting in Sydney in May 2015. But the recent violence in Melbourne has shattered the peace and it is understood police could consider turning to anti-consorting laws in a bid to stop the feud.
SPECIAL FEATURE: DIRTY DEEDS — OUR BIKIE UNDERWORLD
The Rebels’ clubhouse in Dandenong South was destroyed in a blaze on Friday morning.
A fight between rival gang members that broke out in the Dandenong area in the past fortnight resulted in police raids at properties in Beaconsfield, Dandenong, Endeavour Hills and Lyndhurst last week.
A Rebels member, 24, was arrested at 7.30am on Wednesday outside a house in Beaconsfield.
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He is suspected of being one of two Rebels members involved in inflicting injuries on a Comancheros member.
The Rebels member was recently charged with affray but he was also a target of the violence that threatened to turn into a national feud last year.
Such is the threat to him, a suppression order banning his or his co-accused’s name or details being published has been put in place.
The alleged confrontation he had with a Comanchero in a chance meeting in Dandenong is also feared to have put his family and club under threat.
The friction between the two bikie clubs began when Comancheros boss Mick Murray was involved in a confrontation with Rebels bikies while on holiday in Darwin in April last year. There was a brawl in a local strip club involving Murray and members of the local Rebels.
The Comancheros bikies allegedly responded by sending an interstate team, which used baseball bats to batter Rebels Darwin president Jax Smith in retaliation.
In this latest outbreak of violence, it is likely anti-bikie Echo Taskforce detective will be required to keep the gangs at bay, so members of the public don’t get injured.
SPECIAL FEATURE: DIRTY DEEDS — OUR BIKIE UNDERWORLD