NewsBite

Bikies linked to drive-by at Toby Mitchell’s City of Ink tattoo parlour

BIKIE links are suspected in a drive-by shooting attack on gangland figure Toby Mitchell’s tattoo parlour, after it was peppered with bullets during the weekend. It comes as Mitchell mocked the perpetrators on social media.

Bikies are suspected to be linked to a drive-by shooting at Toby Mitchell’s South Melbourne tattoo parlour. Picture: David Crosling
Bikies are suspected to be linked to a drive-by shooting at Toby Mitchell’s South Melbourne tattoo parlour. Picture: David Crosling

BIKIE links are suspected in a drive-by shooting attack on gangland figure Toby Mitchell’s tattoo parlour.

Detectives from the anti-bikie Echo taskforce are heading the investigation into who peppered City of Ink in South Melbourne with shots early on Saturday morning.

Echo specialises in investigating outlaw motorcycle gang-related crimes.

MITCHELL’S TATTOO PARLOUR SPRAYED WITH BULLETS

TOBY MITCHELL COURT FASHION: COOL OR CRIMINAL?

Former Bandido member Toby Mitchell has many enemies. Picture: AAP Image/Joe Castro
Former Bandido member Toby Mitchell has many enemies. Picture: AAP Image/Joe Castro
Bullet holes in the City of Ink signage. Picture: David Crosling
Bullet holes in the City of Ink signage. Picture: David Crosling

The shooting at Mitchell’s Clarendon St parlour has similarities to many previous OMCG-linked attacks.

A defiant Mitchell — a former senior member of the Bandidos motorcycle club — has taken to social media to mock those behind the incident.

“2am in the morning so tuff what a gangster,” he wrote on Instagram.

Police are expected to explore a number of potential avenues in their hunt for the culprits.

Mitchell has made himself some dangerous enemies in Melbourne’s underworld in the past decade.

Former Richmond player Jake King at the shop after the incident. Picture: David Crosling
Former Richmond player Jake King at the shop after the incident. Picture: David Crosling
Rocco Arico is one of Toby Mitchell’s enemies. Picture: Ellen Smith
Rocco Arico is one of Toby Mitchell’s enemies. Picture: Ellen Smith

Mafia figure Rocco Arico was allegedly ripped off in a drug deal by Mitchell in 2010, resulting in a chain of events which led to jail.

Arico is understood to harbour ill-will towards Mitchell, blaming him for the imprisonment and near-certain deportation at the end of his stretch.

A notorious bikie-linked gunman connected to multiple shootings across Melbourne is also a foe.

GANGSTER ARICO GETS SENTENCE CUT

MORE TRUE CRIME AUSTRALIA

Former bikie Toby Mitchell attends Melbourne court

That man is suspected of being a member of the two-man hit-team responsible for shooting Mitchell outside the Bandidos’ clubhouse in Brunswick in 2011, an ambush which almost claimed the ex-kickboxer’s life.

He was wounded again in a later shooting at the Diablos MC clubhouse in Melton.

Mitchell has left the Bandidos but maintains strong links with some members.

City of Ink is also run by former Richmond footballer Jake King, who declined to comment when contacted by the Herald Sun.

mark.buttler@news.com.au

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/bikies-linked-to-driveby-at-toby-mitchells-city-of-ink-tattoo-parlour/news-story/2b3eb2bd0ef96cdc801ee9a0c4e316b2