The Australian bikies wanted by Australian Border Force

The Australian Border Force has revealed more details about a watchlist of 1000 criminals which includes bikies who have a suspected stranglehold on Australia’s cocaine industry.

A hit list of 500 bikies suspected of bringing tonnes of cocaine into Australia are under surveillance.

The Hells Angels and Comanchero dominate the list of bikie members and their associates being monitored for their activity at ports across the country.

Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram revealed bikies were top targets.

“We’ve got about 1000 people that we’re looking at. Just under half of that number are linked to outlaw motorcycle gangs,” he said in an interview for the Cocaine Inc. podcast, a global investigation by True Crime Australia and the UK’s Times and Sunday Times.

“We see other crime groups, whether it be mafia type crime groups or linked to Asian crime groups or linked to Middle Eastern crime groups, we see that,” Mr Outram said.

“But primarily outlaw motorcycle gangs is the problem that I would point to in relation to infiltration of the Australian border.”

Watch the video above to see more in our Cocaine Inc. investigation.

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Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram. Picture revealed bikies are his top target: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Almost five tonnes of cocaine was seized in the 2022/23 financial year, more than five times the average amount stopped at the border each year over the past decade.

Bikie gangs continue to dominate distribution on Australia’s streets, with some groups owning transport companies.

“Some outlaw motorcycle gangs are vertically integrated, they control the whole supply chain,” Mr Outram said.

The information about the bikies’ stranglehold on Australia’s drug networks was confirmed as part of the ABF’s Operation Jardena.

The targeted program involves ABF members at ports across Australia as well as internationally, including the United States.

Listen to the Cocaine Inc. podcast below:

The operation has a focus on the corrupt officials who allow shipments through.

Mr Outram said bikie gangs were experts at grooming vulnerable dock workers who have already passed security checks.

“It’s not infallible. People who pass those tests, unfortunately, can easily become involved in the activities and supporting organised crime either for money or because they’re being coerced in some way,” he said.

“They’re good at exploiting people, they work out where their vulnerability is.

“It’s the perfect storm if you’re in a bad point in your life, you’re in debt or you’re in strife somehow, and all of a sudden somebody comes along with a golden bullet, a solution. Some people will choose the wrong path,” Mr Outram said.

The Hells Angels dominate the list of bikie members and associates being monitored.

So too do the Comanchero, whose activities at ports across the country are being watched closely.

A total of 58 countries participated in the operation, which has led to further strategies on how to combat drug trafficking.

However, the ABF was only able to stop in its best year about half of the cocaine coming into Australia.

New data from shipping companies was helping the ABF intercept more drugs, while Artificial intelligence was also likely to help target more shipments.

The Australian Border Force led Operation Tin Can, which seized 100 tonnes of cocaine in six weeks.

It comes as episode 5 of Cocaine Inc. launches today taking listeners inside London’s Woodchurch Estate – the home of 23-year-old Connor Chapman who was jailed for life in 2023 for the murder of innocent bystander Elle Edwards.

He fired a Skorpian sub-machine gun multiple times outside a pub, injuring five others, while trying to kill two gang rivals.

Originally published as The Australian bikies wanted by Australian Border Force