Shooting of Sam Abdulrahim latest chapter in dark history of Mongols
The Mongols started as a gang for army veterans rejected by the Hells Angels but morphed into a heavyweight international syndicate with a shocking history of violence.
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The shooting of Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim on Saturday — suspected of being ordered by Mongols bosses — marks the latest chapter in the violent history of the bikie gang.
Less than three turbulent months ago, Abdulrahim was among more than a dozen power players who left the gang alongside high profile former state president Toby Mitchell.
Mitchell was booted out by national president Nick “The Knife” Forbes on April Fools day in a move Mitchell at first thought was a joke.
But since arriving in Australia in 2011, the gang has proven they don’t do jokes.
The Mongols are a heavyweight international gang which began as a club for returned Hispanic army veterans in California, rejected by the Hells Angels due to their ethnicity.
A year after they arrived in Australia, instead of recruiting members, they conducted a national “patch over’’ of the Finks.
In Victoria, the Mongols have had a turnover of presidents among them former members Frank Dieni, Greg Keating and Mitchell.
The gang’s members, and former members like Abdulrahim, have also been involved in serious acts of violence, both as targets and as perpetrators.
In 2020, the gang’s former national sergeant-at-arms Shane Bowden was killed in his driveway in a hit on the Gold Coast. He had been shot earlier that year in Epping, just 15 days after being released from prison.
Bowden himself, then a Fink, served time for his role in the infamous “ballroom blitz” attack on Hells Angels members.
In 2019, Rocco Curra was shot and nearly died following an ambush allegedly perpetrated by members of the Finks.
Forbes — referred to internally as NTKF — is national president and Main, who moved to Victoria some years ago, his sergeant-at-arms.
In 2017, Mongols member Lachlan Floyd pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to the manslaughter of former Fink, and love rival, Stuart Townsend, 26, at a park in Hughesdale in February 2016.
While the Mongols have a proven reputation for violence, there have been some exceptions.
In 2014, the gang’s first Victorian state president, Dieni, was expelled from the gang without the usual “beat out”.
Around the country, dozens of gang members are behind bars on serious charges including murder and drug trafficking.
The gang has recruited heavily in recent years, patching over many members of the Bandidos outfit.
Among them was that club’s former national president Jason Addison, an OMCG powerbroker in the Echuca area, which is viewed as a strategically important piece of the bikie landscape.
Abdulrahim was another high-profile recruit whose links with Middle Eastern Organised Crime families proved lucrative to the gang.
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