Inside Melbourne bikie gangs: Mongols, Hells Angels, Rebels, Bandidos, Finks, Comanchero
From patches to presidents, codes of honour to cruelty, we take you inside the ugly underbelly of Australia’s outlaw bikie gangs.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
They’re the “big six” Australian outlaw bikies gangs, which fascinate but strike fear into ordinary Aussies.
Because of their trademark secrecy, little is known publicly about the ugly underworld workings of the Bandidos, Hells Angels, Comanchero, Mongols, Rebels and Finks bikies gangs. Until now that is.
Herald Sun crime writer Anthony Dowsley provides the ultimate run-down on our outlaw bikie gangs.
BIKIE CODE
Patched over: To defect from one gang to another.
One-percenters: The minority of bikers who have embraced the outlaw tag.
Bad standing: To be expelled from a gang because of behaviour. Usually used in the context of bikies leaving a gang “in bad standing”.
COMANCHERO BIKIE GANG
PATCH: A condor is the focus with a red symbol set behind it depicting an old western wagon wheel.
ESTABLISHED: Sydney, Australia: 1966
MOTTO: ACCA “Always Comanchero, Comanchero Always’’
NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Allan Meehan
MEMBERSHIP: Approx 400-500
LOCAL TURF: Powerful club Australia-wide with international presence.
INTERNATIONAL CHAPTERS: Includes USA, Canada, Thailand, Spain, Russia, Serbia, New Zealand.
VICTORIAN CLUBHOUSES: Club no longer makes use of clubhouses.
INFAMY: Linked to a spate of shootings and murders over recent years, particularly in Melbourne. Club leaders have also set up “The Commission’’ in an effort to tax drug syndicates importing illicit drugs through Australia’s docks.
The 1984 Father’s Day Massacre shootout between the Comanchero and Bandidos in Milperra, Sydney, brought the gang to national attention.
HISTORY: The Comanchero has been the most aggressive club in Australia for at least a decade. Its members number no more than 500 nationwide but the gang has spread internationally since 2010.
Its former national president Mark Buddle and ex-Victorian president Jay Malkoun have both lived in Dubai to conduct club business. Buddle remains there.
Malkoun is no longer believed to be a ‘Como’ but was influential in gaining the club’s traction in Europe, particularly Russia. But it is in Australia the Comanchero is dominant.
Under former national president Mick Murray, it shook up the security industry, particularly in Victoria. It has been involved in drive-by shootings of security guards and has links to a shooting outside South Yarra nightclub, Love Machine.
THE PLAYERS:
ALLAN MEEHAN – NATIONAL PRESIDENT
Meehan was appointed national president this week, taking over from Comanchero heavyweight Mick Murray who has been arrested on a murder charge.
Law enforcement figures have compiled an intelligence dossier on Meehan stretching back as far as his teenage friendship with exiled crime boss Mark Buddle, one of Australia’s most wanted men.
HASAN TOPAL
Sources say the one-time model and gym owner is living overseas for the “long term’’. Topal, a senior member of the Comanchero, smashed a glass against his own head during a wild brawl between members at a Canberra strip club in 2017. He was sentenced to 10-months jail over the brawl.
Topal was touted as a possible national president of the “Comos’’ but that now seems a remote possibility. He is understood to have visited Turkey and Greece after leaving Melbourne for reasons unclear.
MARK BUDDLE
The former national president is suspected of being involved in the formation of “The Commission" which taxes other criminal syndicates importing illicit drugs into Sydney, although he denies any involvement.
It is now speculated the “Commission" operates in all states of Australia and is controlled by senior figures inside the Comanchero.
Buddle, who lives in Dubai, is known as Australia’s richest bikie with a fortune estimated at more than $100 million.
He fled Australia while under investigation over a death.
MONGOLS BIKIE GANG
PATCH: The Mongols Motorcycle Club patch consists of a Harley Davidson motorcycle being ridden by a member of Ghengis Khan’s Mongol Empire. The Mongols Motorcycle Club colours are black and white. One of the abbreviations used by the club is “MFFM”, which stands for “Mongols Forever, Forever Mongols”. This style of abbreviation is very commonplace among outlaw motorcycle clubs.
ESTABLISHED: Montebello, California, USA, in 1969. Formed as a Hispanic rival to the Hells Angels.
MOTTO: Mongols Forever, Forever Mongols. Club also uses: Respect Few, Fear None.
NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Nick "The Knife".
MEMBERSHIP: Unknown but more than 100 in Victoria.
LOCAL TURF: Port Melbourne, (Melbourne), Bendigo, Echuca, Northside (Coburg), and Southside (Seaford)
INTERNATIONAL CHAPTERS: Includes USA, Thailand, Mexico, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Switzerland, New Zealand.
VICTORIAN CLUBHOUSES: Melbourne, Ferntree Gully, Coburg, Echuca.
INFAMY: The alleged shooting of fruiterer Paul Virgona as he drove on the Eastern Freeway in November, 2019.
HISTORY: The Mongols arrived in Australia in 2011-2012 and immediately made its presence felt. Instead of recruiting members, it conducted a national “patch over’’ of the Finks the following year. The Mongols are a heavyweight international gang which began as a club for returned Hispanic veteran soldiers who the Hells Angels rejected because of their race.
In Victoria, the Mongols have had a turnover of presidents since taking over the former Finks clubhouse in Port Melbourne, among them former members Frank Dieni and Greg Keating and former state president Toby Mitchell. The murder of fruiterer Paul Virgona has been linked to the Mongols. Two members, Josh Rider and Aaron Ong, are charged with the execution of Mr Virgona, 46, who was shot while driving along EastLink, near Donvale, in November, 2019. Mr Virgona, a Croydon footy coach, was struck as his van was pelted with bullets in the early hours of November 9. The tragic death is believed to be a case of mistaken identity.
THE PLAYERS
NICK ‘THE KNIFE’ FORBES - NATIONAL PRESIDENT
The Queenslander rose to prominence more than 15 years ago when part of the Finks “Terror Team” which started one of the wildest bikie brawls this country has seen, The Ballroom Blitz.
Since then he has served stints in prison for that brawl, another wild melee in South Australia against the Hells Angels, and for randomly bashing innocent people on the Gold Coast.
LACHLAN FLOYD
One of its founding Melbourne members, Lachlan James Floyd, was among the legion of Finks to cross over. The ex-soldier would last less than four years in the club before being kicked out in “bad standing’’ as illicit drug use took over his life.
Before his downfall, Floyd was stereotypical of the modern bikie.
His Instagram profile flaunted a gangster lifestyle – body image, gold chains, beach locations and beautiful women.
Floyd would graduate from intimidating bikie to killer in 2016.
The imposing Floyd shot a love rival, Stuart Townsend – also a bikie – in a Hughesdale park.
He was jealous Townsend had started a relationship with his ex-girlfriend.
Floyd pleaded guilty to manslaughter after being charged with murder and was sentenced to six years jail and is likely to be released soon.
Before he shot Townsend, he was afraid, but not of him. Floyd kept a shotgun in his pillow case after being kicked out of the gang over “disputes’’.
SHANE BOWDEN
Veteran bikie Shane Bowden went from champion to chump.
In his youth, he was a powerful cyclist, and could have been an Olympian.
By 2006, Bowden was best known for the Ballroom Blitz, where he shot Hells Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson in the face.
Now Bowden is a murder victim.
Within weeks of June 2020, Bowden went from being driven from Loddon jail, Castlemaine, in a limousine by his Mongol mates to a shooting victim fearing for his life.
Bowden knew his time was limited and he fled Victoria, catching a plane to Queensland in breach of COVID-19 protocols. It didn’t save him. Four months after being shot in Epping, Bowden was ambushed in the driveway of his Gold Coast home.
His murder is unsolved.
Authorities have intelligence Bowden booked himself a plane ticket to Brisbane after a fallout with the Finks, a club in which he was once a prominent member.
It is understood among the 48 year-old’s concerns was his affair with the wife of a Finks bikie.
Police continue to investigate aspects of Bowden’s life which could have led to his execution.
Mongol gang members were suspected of a drive-by shooting in which Bowden was wounded at an Epping property on July 1.
Although the Mongols have distanced themselves from Bowden’s shootings, they do not shy away from his booting from the club in “bad standing’’.
Sources also say Bowden’s drug addicted lifestyle resumed soon after walking out of prison where Mongols members, including Toby Mitchell, had him chauffeur-driven to Melbourne in a stretch limousine.
But Bowden’s fallout with the Finks – his original club – was also potentially deadly.
Sources say Bowden had re-established links with the Finks post his release, possibly to get protection.
Whatever the reason he fled Victoria, it couldn’t save him.
HELLS ANGELS BIKIE GANG
PATCH: “Death Head’’
ESTABLISHED: Fontana, California, USA, 1948.
MOTTO: Angels Forever, Forever Angels
NATIONAL PRESIDENT:Luke Moloney
MEMBERSHIP: Approx 250 members
LOCAL TURF: Includes Alphington (Melbourne), Campbellfield (East County), Thomastown (Nomads), and “Darkside’’ in Melbourne’s south east.
AUSTRALIA: Clubs in most states of Australia.
INTERNATIONAL CHAPTERS: 467 chapters in 59 counties across five continents.
INFAMY: Member Christopher Wayne Hudson goes on a shooting spree high on ice in Melbourne’s CBD
HISTORY: The Hells Angels are the world’s most recognisable outlaw bikie gang.
It expanded its “death head’’ logo to Melbourne in 1975.
The gate to its Melbourne clubhouse in Alphington is unmistakable with its formidable skull and wings insignia emblazoned across it.
The Hells Angels impact on Australia’s drug culture cannot be overstated.
In 1980, Melbourne chapter founding member Peter Hill flew to America to visit the mother chapter in Oakland and returned with the recipe for manufacturing amphetamines.
It would eventually cause a split within the Melbourne Hells Angels leading to almost 40 violent incidents.
On March 22, 2009, violence erupted at Sydney Airport terminal three when Hells Angels and Comancheros brawled.
About 10 gang members fought but it was Hells Angels associate, Anthony Zervas, who was killed after being bashed with a metal bollard.
In Melbourne, the clubs have also endangered the public. In September, 2013, the Angels attacked Comanchero boss Mick Murray’s gymnasium in Hallam and a Comanchero linked tattoo parlour in Dandenong.
A machine gun was used to spray bullets into the properties and a bomb was exploded at the gym.
The retaliation was swift.
The Hells Angels Darkside Chapter was sprayed with bullets within hours.
THE PLAYERS:
LUKE MALONEY – NATIONAL PRESIDENT
Veteran Hells Angel and former fighter Luke Moloney, 42, was president of the Nomads chapter before being elevated to national president
Moloney has not sought the limelight during his time as an Hells Angel and has been a quiet achiever at the Nomads clubhouse in Lipton Drive, Thomastown.
This year he was charged with assaulting a man who wanted out of his bikie gang
Mr Moloney says he will contest the charges of intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing serious injury, assault, assault with a weapon, extortion, possessing a schedule four poison and committing an indictable offence while on bail.
CHRISTOPHER WAYNE HUDSON
Out of control Hells Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson was high on ice on June 18, 2007, when he bashed a woman outside a King Street bar in the CBD after a night at the strippers.
The carnage continued into the streets when he attacked his girlfriend and then pulled out a gun and fired upon two men who ran to her aid, killing a lawyer and wounding a backpacker.
He then shot his girlfriend, who survived, before escaping to the bush.
Hudson was on the run for two days before giving himself up. He remains in jail.
PETER “SKITZO’’ HEWAT
Enforcer Peter “Skitzo’’Hewat has been a key member of the Hells Angels East County chapter in Campbellfield for decades.
Hewat runs a heavy haulage towing operation and is well-known for his strongarm business tactics. But it was a 62 year-old woman who stood up to him in 2013, flaring his hair-trigger temper.
The kind-hearted woman had demanded proof of ownership for “Skitzo’s’’ lost little Shih tzu terrier when he turned up on her doorstep to collect his runaway pooch called Harley.
Hewat responded by trying to force open the woman’s door.
When she stopped him, he punched her in the face.
Following the assault, the woman called the police only to be later confronted by two men who threatened her with a pistol, demanding she withdraw her complaint.
Grandma, however, would not be intimidated.
She returned Harley and continued with her case.
Police raided Hewat’s properties finding ecstasy tablets, a stun gun and ammunition.
He also went down for the assault.
BANDIDOS BIKIE GANG
PATCH: “Fat Mexican’’ wearing a sombrero and carrying a gun and sword.
ESTABLISHED: San Antonio, Texas, 1966.
MOTTOS: “Bandidos Forever, Forever Bandidos’’, “Expect No Mercy’’ and “Bad Company’’.
NATIONAL PRESIDENT: “Big Tony’’ Vartiainen (NSW based)
AUSTRALIAN MEMBERSHIP: 350 plus
LOCAL TURF: Melbourne, Geelong, Central Victoria.
AUSTRALIA: Clubhouses in most states of Australia but none in South Australia.
INTERNATIONAL CHAPTERS: USA, New Zealand, Europe and Asia.
INFAMY: Father’s Day Massacre shootout in Milperra in 1984.
HISTORY: The Bandidos, also known as the “Bandits’’, were established in 1966.
Its Australian arm was formed in Sydney by an ex-member of the Comanchero MC, Anthony ‘Snodgrass’ Spencer,in 1983, after a trip to the United States.
Tensions between the “Comos’’ and Bandidos led to the Milperra Massacre, where seven people were killed including a 14 year-old innocent bystander.
In 2020, the Bandidos shut down their Melbourne headquarters in Brunswick.
It had been the scene of some horrific events.
In November, 2011, then senior Bandido Toby Mitchell was talking to mate and gym owner Tony Doherty on Weston St, outside the gym and the neighbouring Bandido clubhouse, when two armed men ambushed Mitchell.
One of the suspected gunmen, now murdered, became a Comanchero associate.
Mitchell survived, just, but a second shooting in 2013 would see him leave the Bandidos.
The Bandidos replaced its long-time national president, the Echuca-based Jason Addison, with a Sydney bikie known as “Big Tony’’ Vartiainen.
The Bandidos clubhouse was the scene of the brutal bashing of hapless Michael Strike in May, 2014.
Strike was bashed inside the Bandidos clubhouse after getting into an argument with a Bandido about a dog named “Trouble’’.
Mr Strike was found dead outside East Keilor Cemetery and three Bandidos were jailed – two for manslaughter and one for assisting an offender.
In April, 2017, three Bandidos were shot in a drive-by shooting as they stood outside the Weston St headquarters.
Peter Walker, a veteran Bandido, was the Melbourne chapter president, but shut down the Brunswick headquarters due to a split between members.
THE PLAYERS:
“BIG TONY’’ VARTIAINEN – EL PRESIDENTE
Little is known about “Big Tony’’ other than he lives in Sydney.
The Bandido boss takes over from long-time national president or “El Presidente’’, Jason Addison, who is now a Mongol.
Vartiainen is known as polite, controlled and flies under the radar.
CAMERON STANKOVSKI
Geelong chapter president Cameron Stankovski has been three years at the helm.
Stankovski has been known to have run-ins with the law but last year dragged an elderly woman from a burning home.
REBELS BIKIE GANG
PATCH: Confederate flag with a skull wearing a cap
ESTABLISHED: Brisbane, Australia, 1969.
MOTTO: “Rebels Forever, Forever Rebels’’.
NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Damien Vella
AUSTRALIAN MEMBERSHIP: 1000+
LOCAL TURF: Melbourne, Geelong, Mildura, Gippsland, Whittlesea
AUSTRALIA: Chapters Australia-wide, including Tasmania.
INTERNATIONAL CHAPTERS: Worldwide including New Zealand, Asia, USA, Spain, France, England, Greece, Malta, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica.
INFAMY: The shooting of deposed Rebels president Nick Martin at Perth Motorplex, in the city’s south in December, 2020.
HISTORY: The Rebels are the largest gang, by numbers, of the “Big Six’’ clubs.
Formed in 1969 in Brisbane by Clint Jacks, the Rebels grew into an international gang under Alex Vella who became leader in 1973.
Originally to be named the ‘Confederates’ before a boozy brawl broke out, it was named Rebels at a second meeting months later.
The MC quickly caught on with chapters in Dubbo, Rockhampton, Sydney and Canberra.
They now number 70 chapters and more than 1100 members and 900 associates.
The Rebels have been branded a “high threat to the Australian community’’ by the Federal Government.
Business interests include construction, transport and tattoo parlours.
After Vella was exiled in 2014, a leadership vacuum caused some Rebels to ‘’patch-out’’ or defect to rival gangs.
Among other prominent Rebels to be booted by Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was Aaron ‘AJ’ Graham, who was deported to his native New Zealand.
The Rebels and Comancheros remain enemies.
Violence began after a confrontation between Comanchero national president Mick Murray and Rebels members at a Darwin strip club in 2015.
A Comanchero “team’’ was sent to Darwin to resume hostilities with Rebels’ Darwin president Jax Smith.
Within months of the Darwin fracas, two tattoo parlours owned by Rebels members in Melbourne’s outer-east were firebombed.
There was also an arson attack on the Rebels Dandenong clubhouse.
THE PLAYERS:
DANIEL VELLA – LAST KNOWN NATIONAL PRESIDENT
Known as‘Big D’, Daniel Vellahas the right surname to lead the largest bikie gang in the land. Vella became national president after a leadership vacuum developed in the aftermath of Australian authorities cancelling his uncle Alex’s visa in 2014.
He was with his uncle in Malta at the time.
Daniel and his cousin, Alex Jnr, were also stranded after an airline refused to fly them back to Sydney.
No order, however, had been made against them and were allowed to return.
ALEX VELLA
Uncle of Daniel Vella
A trip to his home country, Malta, left Rebels president Alex Vella stranded in 2014.
The former boxer known as the ‘Maltese Falcon’ had been an Australian resident for 47 years, when he was stripped of his visa on character grounds while abroad.
Vella, who joined aged 19, had been the Rebels national president since 1973.
Vella’s took his fight to the High Court, but he failed.
It was a victory for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and law enforcement agencies in their attempts to disrupt outlaw motorcycle gang operations.
Many more outlaw bikies who do not have Australian citizenship, have since been booted.
Rebel Shane Martin, father of AFL star, Dustin, was among those whose residency in Australia came to an end.
His brother, Dean Martin, a security manager in the construction industry, handed over the Rebels Victorian presidency in 2018 in a peaceful handover.
NICK MARTIN
Perth bikie president Nick Martin rose to the top of the Rebels in 2010.
Early in his reign the Rebels were at war with Rock Machine in Western Australia.
A gunman made an attempt on his life in 2011.
Just weeks before his murder he was bashed by Hells Angels’ sergeant-at-arms Dayne Brajkovich at a bar in Scarborough in front of terrified diners.
Martin was also battling internal squabbling over Rebels defections to the Mongols and suspicions he had misappropriated the gangs funds.
Martin, duly, made a sudden exit from the Rebels after a decade at the helm.
It did not save him.
On December 12, 2020, a single bullet was fired by a sniper from hundreds of metres away at Perth Motorplex, where Martin had taken his family to see some speedway action.
The round pierced Martin’s chest and wounded another Bandido in the arm, Ricky Chapman, who was sitting directly behind him.
Retaliation attacks were thwarted by a massive police reaction.
An arrest has been made.
More than 400 mourners, including bikies, farewelled Martin on December 23.
FINKS BIKIE GANG
PATCH: Bung
ESTABLISHED: Adelaide in 1969
MOTTO: ‘Attitude & Violence’
NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Kosh Radford
AUSTRALIAN MEMBERSHIP: 100+
LOCAL TURF: Melbourne (Cranbourne)
INTERNATIONAL CHAPTERS:Interests in Indonesia
INFAMY: The 2006 Ballroom Blitz made national headlines as Finks and Hells Angels attacked each other at kickboxing tournament on the Gold Coast. The incident occurred at the Royal Pines Resort Grand Ballroom at Carrara.
In 2012, the Finks MC were the first club declared a criminal organisation in Australia.
The impact was dramatic.
The following year the club’s members voted to “patch over’’ to the international Mongols.
Some Finks, however, refused.
In March this year the gang held a national ‘run’ to show their strength.
National president Kosh Radford was at the front of the convoy as it roared its way between Melbourne and Wodonga, starting at its Cranbourne clubhouse.
Four years ago the Finks then national president, BJ, declared they were back in Melbourne.
There were plans to open clubhouse across Melbourne.
The Finks nearly collapsed in 2015 during a police crackdown on its Melbourne members operating out of Ringwood, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Raids were conducted on 20 Finks’ properties and 17 members arrested.
Police had conducted a bugging operation which allowed them lay charges over extortion attempts and planned kidnapping.
The Finks were desperate to prop up the struggling Ringwood chapter and pay ballooning legal fees.
THE PLAYERS
KOSH RADFORD – NATIONAL PRESIDENT
Finks ‘world’ president Kosh Radford is another bikie who has been chased by the tax man.
Radford has lived a comfortable lifestyle in Endeavour Hills in Melbourne’s southeast while accumulating wealth.
He moved from Sydney to Melbourne in 2018 as the Finks established a foothold in Victoria.
In the same year Radford was asked to pay the ATO almost $600,000 in tax debts dating back 15 years.
The Finks boss, who has been a senior figure since 2013, also had his holidays ruined a year earlier when he and his family were denied entry into Bali.
The hot-headed Radford is also facing an assault charge stemming from a brawl outside a King St strip club.
But he has signalled he intends to fight the charge, arguing self-defence.
SIONE HOKAFONU
Senior Fink Sione Hokafonu has been trying to get bail since his arrest for allegedly shooting Rocco Curra in 2019.
Mr Curra is alleged to have been lured to a location through a fake Instagram account before two men ambushed him.
It’s alleged Mr Curra believed he was about to meet a woman for a date before 12 rounds were fired into his car.
Mr Curra survived even though a bullet had to be removed from his brain.
The August, 2019, shooting has been linked with escalating tensions, resulting in a series of shootings, between the Mongols and Finks.
Hokafonu has been denied bail despite his parents offering a $200,000 surety because he is deemed an ‘’unacceptable risk’’ to the public.
MOHAMMED RAFIQ
Emerging Fink Mohammed Rafiq has been linked to multiple clubs over the years.
Although defection is not treated with severe punishment as it once was, Rafiq is known as a flipper.
Sources say his prominence within the Finks is rising.
Prior to joining the Finks he has associated with the Mongols, Hells Angels and Bandidos.
The muscular bikie has spent time in Victoria’s prison system.
He now resides in Sydney.
‘Highly volatile’: Stark warning after tragic death linked to illegal fireworks
Christmas will “never be the same” for the family of a young man killed in an explosion in Kalkallo, as police warn against buying illegal fireworks online.
Husband allegedly stabbed wife to death hours after family Christmas lunch
A 63-year-old Langwarrin man has fronted court charged with murdering his wife shortly after hosting relatives at their house on Christmas.