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Police & Courts
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Lamborghini-driving Melbourne bikie Bemir Saracevic is the new national head of the Comanchero bikie gang.
The Herald Sun has confirmed Saracevic, whose occupation is listed as housepainter, is now at the helm after a succession of forced leadership changes in the feared OMCG
Saracevic has in the past been closely linked to former Comanchero national supremo Mick Murray.
But he had better watch his step.
The Comanchero leadership has been battered by anti-organised crime investigators with a succession of its top men locked up both here and overseas.
Some other Victorian big wheels, including state sergeant-at-arms Christian Taumoefolau, are behind bars after being entangled in the Australian Federal Police’s sprawling Ironside operation, which climaxed in 2021.
Others have been forced into foreign exile.
Melbourne’s Mick Murray remains in custody after being arrested and charged over the 2019 murder of gangland figure Mitat Rasimi.
The man who was set to take over, Tarek Zahed, was shot in mid-last year and has since been charged with an underworld murder in Sydney.
Next in line was New South Wales-based Allan Meehan but he was arrested last month on the Gold Coast where he had relocated after it emerged there was a $3 million contract on his head.
Duax N’gakuru, until recently the gang’s international supreme commander, was arrested in Turkey in January while his mate Mark Buddle was last year extradited back to Melbourne to face cocaine trafficking charges.
“What will be interesting is if the change of leadership is a takeover or a handover, and if it leads to any internal tensions,’’ said one police officer.
“The club has been through a very destabilising period, been targeted by police and is a bit all over the place. It’s no surprise they are trying to restructure and send a message they are organised,’’ he said.
The Herald Sun revealed last year that Saracevic was moving through the Comanchero ranks amid the instability and appeared to be doing well financially.
The 35-year-old arrived at a gang run in a Hallam industrial estate driving a $700,000 Lamborghini Aventator.
Saracevic’s past associates have also included the formidable Mark Balsillie, an ex-Comanchero who transferred to the Mongols several years ago but is now affiliated to no gang.
He joined the Comancheros in 2013 and has done a stint as the Melbourne chapter’s treasurer.
Saracevic was previously sentenced to three years in jail for the blackmail of two property developers, Lance Pinder and Keith Tribe but his standing has continued to grow within the gang.
He was pulled over by police with a loaded handgun on his way to a meeting at a Nitro Inc tattoo shop.
In recent years, Saracevic has moved into the Comanchero upper echelon.
He was a guest of Meehan last year when he came to Melbourne for the George Kambosos-Devin Haney title fight at Marvel Stadium last June.
Saracevic is a good mate of Zahed and the pair have been pictured together on social media in the past.
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