How G-Fam became Victoria's most feared jailhouse gang

A jailhouse gang with a reputation for ultra-violence has risen to become the strongest faction in Victoria’s prisons.

G-Fam – a jailhouse gang with a fearsome reputation for violence – has risen to be the strongest faction in Victoria’s jails.

Prison sources say G-Fam has grown in the space of a few years to move above the feared Prisoners of War outfit in the hierarchy.

Its reputation for ultra-violence was reinforced last year in a brutal shiv attack at a maximum security jail.

A source told the Herald Sun that, not content with slashing his victim with the makeshift blade, the perpetrator wrote G-Fam in blood on a wall at the scene.

Many members came into contact at a young age via the justice system and later coalesced into what is now G-Fam.

Matthew Charles Johnson.

Joining affords new inmates a high level of protection but they must pay a price to qualify.

A succession of attacks on staff over recent years has been attributed to newer inmates trying to earn their place.

“They are a definite presence. They’re young, they’re brazen and they’re actively recruiting,” one source told the Herald Sun.

A recently released inmate said: “Young kids come in and they are scared and they want a place to feel like home and to be free from violence. But you have to commit some violence to be protected.”

G-Fam members were responsible for attacking crime boss Tony Mokbel.

G-Fam members were responsible for the horrific 2019 attack on crime boss Tony Mokbel.

Teira Bennett and Eldea Teuira had no chance of avoiding detection but went ahead and almost killed Mokbel in a brutal stabbing and stomping ambush at Barwon Prison that earned them an extra nine years each.

There have been indications of friction between G-Fam and POW in recent years.

That was evident in an online video apparently posted by POW in 2020.

It purported to show a G-Fam inmate fighting off two POW members at Port Phillip Prison, before he is overwhelmed and stabbed.

Teira Bennett.

Eldea Teuira. Picture: Facebook

The POW remain strong at Barwon where their leader Matthew Charles Johnson is detained.

Sources believe his reach beyond prison walls should not be underestimated.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs are viewed as having influence behind jail walls but there is little interclub conflict between them.

Mostly, they are kept separated in their own units, with the Rebels, Mongols and Comanchero in Port Phillip and Hells Angels at Barwon.

The bikies are feared but do not go out of their way to find trouble, preferring to train together and let the days pass quietly until release.

“They largely play the game so they can stay together,” a source said.

The HA’s showed their strength some years ago when they bashed members of the Chaouk Middle Eastern organised crime family, who were once their allies.

Christopher Wayne Hudson is regarded as a prominent player with the Hells Angels.

CBD gunman Christopher Wayne Hudson is regarded as a prominent player with the Angels.

MEOCs have remained strong in the corrections system, having a strong hand in drug trafficking.

The head of one family was, before his release several years ago, said to have wielded extraordinary influence at one of the main jails.

Inter-gang violence is believed to have declined in recent years and what conflict that does occur is frequently driven by drugs.

“You’ve got the drugs; you’re the man,” one former officer said.

The most commonly found illicit substance is buprenorphine, a highly prized heroin substitute which is the easiest drug to smuggle because it comes in thin concealable strips.

“It’s so hard to find. Bupe is by far the biggest problem in the prisons,” the ex-officer said.

“For every one we found, there were probably 10 getting through.”

Drones are something prison authorities find themselves having to increasingly monitor.

Once, drugs were tossed over walls in tennis balls but the threat from the air now comes from technology.

The Herald Sun has been told of one shipment containing buprenorphine and powders which came in via a drone disguised as a bird which landed in a corridor.