Blitz planned to smash notorious bikie gang

A major police blitz is about to be unleashed on the notorious Hells Angels as the powerful outlaw bikie gang’s network continues to grow.

Hells Angels‘ East County chapter in Dennis St, Campbellfield.

Infamous bikie gang the Hells Angels will be the target of a major police crackdown in 2022.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal the Australian Federal Police-led National Anti-Gangs Squad is working on combating the Angels’ rapidly growing crime networks across Australia and internationally.

A focus on the gang comes in the wake of the unprecedented police strike on their rivals, the Comanchero, last year through Operation Ironside.

AFP NAGS top cop Detective Superintendent Jason McArthur said his investigators were constantly monitoring the criminal activities of all outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) using an array of investigative “tools’’ to infiltrate their illicit operations – dominated by drug trafficking.

“The Hells Angels are definitely one of the OMCGs we’ve got our eyes on at the moment given the damage and disruption to the Comanchero over the past six months,’’ Superintendent McArthur said.

Australian Federal Police National Anti-Gangs Squad Detective Superintendent Jason McArthur. Picture: AFP.

Infamous bikie gang the Hells Angels will be the target of a major police crackdown.

“We see the Hells Angels as a significant criminal threat to Australia.’’

The notorious gang, which opened its first Melbourne chapter in 1975, was the target of a national operation in 2020 which resulted in 24 people being charged and the seizure of firearms, ammunition, cash and drugs.

But the club’s recruiting drive has led to it expanding its Australian footprint over the past decade in line with rival OMCGs.

The Angels have five charters across Melbourne, outnumbered only by their expansion in Sydney.

Nationwide, the Angels have launched 13 charters in a decade, doubling the total number.

Two of those charters are in Melbourne, with the gang opening Darkside (2013) in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs, and the newly established Angel City (2021), which has no designated clubhouse.

The Comanchero and Hells Angels are considered the nation’s two most powerful outlaw motorcycle clubs.

Although not the largest in gang members, both outfits operate sophisticated criminal operations in Australia and offshore.

The “Comos’’, however, were dealt a major blow in 2021 by the AFP’s Operation Ironside – which has led to 340 people being charged with 1011 offences. More than 6.3 tonnes of drugs were seized along with 141 weapons.

In Victoria, 58 people have been charged with 174 offences while seizures included 38 weapons and 1.1 tonnes of drugs.

Hells Angels headquarters on Heidelberg Rd, Alphington.

The Comanchero, along with other crime syndicates, fell prey to the ingenious sting operation which involved members adopting an encrypted communication app dubbed AN0M, which was introduced to them by undercover operatives.

That was effectively an electronic Trojan horse developed by the AFP and FBI, who then set about reading gang members’ messages.

The intelligence received included kidnapping and murder plots, major drug trafficking internal feuds and interclub violence.

Superintendent McArthur said the lure of a lifestyle promoted on social media by senior bikies was not a reality for the vast majority of the young men the gangs recruit.

“The main business is drug trafficking,’’ he said.

“If you make a decision to deal drugs for a bikie gang, realistically there’s not many good outcomes for you.

“If you look at some of the gang violence that occurs, people are shot and some of the things we have seen out of the Ironside investigation include family of OMCG members who have been targeted for violent acts, including kidnapping.

“You wouldn’t join a gang if you knew the truth.’’

GIAKOUMIS’ DISAPPEARANCE ‘OPENED PANDORA’S BOX’

Victorian Hells Angels have come under heavy police scrutiny since the disappearance of Adelaide gang associate Kerry Giakoumis in June 2020.

The 29-year-old is presumed murdered after last being seen alive at the Thomastown clubhouse operated by the Nomads division of the Angels.

It is believed he was killed inside the Lipton Drive stronghold and his body later dumped.

Victoria Police last year searched an area around Jacksons Creek in Diggers Rest for signs of him.

A special task force made up of detectives from the homicide and missing persons squad, the anti-bikie Echo task force and South Australian officers has been working intensively on the case.

Missing Adelaide bikie associate Kerry Giakoumis.

The Sunday Herald Sun believes that it has made strong progress in the inquiry but also gathered substantial amounts of broader intelligence on members and their operations.

“It’s opened a Pandora’s box, to some extent,” one investigator said.

The Comanchero and Mongols have attracted far more law enforcement attention in the past decade.

Their links to public displays of firearms violence, including murders, made them prime targets for organised crime investigators.

“It does tend to focus attention,” the officer said.

He said the Angels had been able to keep a low profile until the Giakoumis killing.

Members knew the dire consequences of breaching their powerful code of silence, the officer said.

“It’s the fear of repercussions,” he said.

The Angels were traditionally more disciplined than those in other clubs, the officer said. This extended to not unnecessarily attracting police attention, and avoiding ostentatious social media displays.