Cobram stunned ‘polite’ shop owner Joshua Eddy is alleged bikie enforcer

To many Cobram locals Joshua Eddy was a polite car wash owner. He now stands accused of moonlighting as a bikie enforcer and high-level drug dealer.

A businessman allegedly moonlit as a bikie enforcer and high-level drug dealer before a major police bust centred on the state’s north.

The arrests of Joshua Eddy, his father David and teenage sister Jaide have stunned many in the Murray River town of Cobram.

Those who wanted their car looking spiffy knew Joshua Eddy as the operator of the Cartel Auto Detailing business.

A professional-looking promotional video for Cartel, on Colgan St, shows what appears to be a slick, well-equipped business.

The tattooed Mr Eddy is shown giving luxury vehicles and watercraft the once-over.

But Echo taskforce police allege Mr Eddy was cleaning up in other ways.

They say he was a Mongols OMCG sergeant-at-arms and was involved, with his sister and father, in large-scale cross-border trafficking.

Locals who wanted their car looking spiffy knew Joshua Eddy as the operator of the Cartel Auto Detailing business. Picture: Supplied

The sergeant-at-arms’ role is to enforce rules and maintain order within bikie gangs.

Many in Cobram (population 6000) suspected nothing and could only recall him as a “polite and nice” presence around town.

Mr Eddy was arrested last Sunday morning at his Cobram home and charged in connection with a swoop police say yielded 2.5kg of cocaine and 1kg of methamphetamine.

Cartel was also searched under warrant and a motorcycle taken away on a tray-truck by investigators.

His current and former partner were arrested and bailed in connection with the same inquiry.

The Mongols’ clubhouse in Echuca, further down the Murray, was also searched under warrant.

Most of the members in that town are former members of the Bandidos MC who patched over in recent years.

Supplied Editorial Jaide Eddy was bailed for her alleged involvement. Photo: Facebook.

His arrest is the second stroke of misfortune for Mr Eddy in the past two years.

In September, 2019, he was on a roadside in Greenvale when a man he was with allegedly opened fire on Australian Federal Police members.

The shots missed but the AFP members did not, wounding the associate.

Investigators later searched a VW car bearing cloned number plates, which the men had been standing beside.

It allegedly contained balaclavas, gloves, two tracksuits and four pump-style water bottles filled with petrol.

A court has been told he was the “ringleader” of the alleged Cobram drug operation and that his sister and father were secondary players.

Social media images give no indication of the grave allegations now confronting Jaide Eddy, a fair-haired bespectacled 18-year-old.

A 26 year old Cobram man was also arrested as part of the raids.

Police arrested a 49 year old Cobram man.

But the former Finley High School student is free on bail after being charged on four counts of trafficking a large quantity of drugs.

Joshua and Jaide’s 51-year-old father David is also entangled in the Echo probe.

He was arrested on the Barooga-Cobram bridge as he travelled back into Victoria last Saturday night.

Police allegedly seized more than $100,000 in cash and a loaded gun from his vehicle.

Mr Eddy, who is locked up on remand, faces four counts of trafficking a large commercial quantity of drugs, possessing the proceeds of crime and possessing a handgun.

Police this week told Shepparton Magistrates that the cocaine and methamphetamine were in vacuum-sealed bags concealed in a false wall behind a refrigerator at the Gemmill St home shared by father and daughter.

Louis Vuitton handbags and 30 pairs of high-end sneakers were allegedly found at another property.