Taskforce Morpheus week-long operation: Bikies arrested and guns and drugs seized

A crackdown on bikie gangs has resulted in 159 arrests in one week as authorities warn: “there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide”.

Bikie gangs have been slammed in a nationwide week of action by police who seized 43 guns and made 159 arrests.

The disruption operation, part of taskforce Morpheus, resulted in 693 charges and the seizure of drugs, $200,000 cash and 11 cars.

A total of 2100 police across the country zeroed in on drugs, firearms, weapons and explosives offences as part of the operation.

Members from Shepparton CIU involved in Morpheus charged a 38-year-old local man with a range of serious offences after finding two rifles, a shotgun, a gel blaster and a silencer in the northeast Victorian town.

Police arrested 159 people as part of the nationwide operation.

Some of the guns seized as part of the operation.

A range of weapons were seized.

Hells Angels gear was seized.

The operation targeted bikie gangs.

That man, who was already on a firearm prohibition order, was charged with being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, possessing a prohibited weapon without an exemption, possessing cartridge ammunition, drug possession, possessing a silencer and an imitation weapon, storing a gun insecurely, possessing two or more firearms and committing an indictable offence while on bail.

Another man was arrested in the Bendigo suburb of Eaglehawk.

There were 71 search warrants and 252 firearms prohibition orders carried out across Australia.

Morpheus includes officers from all Australian states and territories, New Zealand police, Australian Federal Police members and officials from the Australian Border Force, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Australian Defence Force, Australian Taxation Office, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and Services Australia.

It targets criminal assets, the unexplained wealth of key bikies and aims to protect vulnerable people and find ways to deter recruitment by the gangs and reduce their membership.

Other objectives are cutting recidivism and working on the enablers of their organised crime activities.

Cash was seized.

Cannabis seized from a grow house.

Detective Supt Jason Kelly of the Victoria Police state anti-gangs division said OMCGs were involved in high levels of illicit drug importation, production and distribution, illicit firearms trafficking, money-laundering and extreme violent crime.

“To support and facilitate their offending, they are highly territorial and utilise intimidation and violence to exert power and control. This violence can take place in public, exposing members of the community to an unacceptable risk,” Supt Kelly said.

“Alongside our partners and with specialist taskforces such as Echo and VIPER, we will continue to use our full range of capabilities to proactively target OMCGs at every opportunity. Our message to OMCGs and their facilitators is clear – we are working together, and we will be relentless. We will not stop.”

The chair of the Morpheus taskforce, AFP detective Supt Anthony Conway, said the objective was to cause maximum disruption to the transnational serious and organised criminal operations of bikie gangs.

“There is no mistaking that OMCGs are violent, organised criminal networks obsessed with obtaining illicit wealth and power at any cost,” Supt Conway said.

“The success of this Week of Action should serve as a fresh warning to OMCG members in Australia and those seeking to hideout offshore. There is nowhere to run, and there is nowhere to hide.”