These are the Sydney bikies making their mark in Victoria
Some of the country’s most notorious bikies have moved from NSW to Victoria because it’s considered “a safer place to be for bikies”.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Victoria has become the unenviable bikie capital of Australia.
The state’s anti-association laws, which have not been used once in the past six years while bikie numbers have soared, have encouraged OMCG members to flock south.
An academic who specialises in researching the OMCG world said it was no surprise Sydney bikies were making their mark in Melbourne.
“Victoria is a safer place to be for bikies at the moment,” Associate Professor Mark Lauchs from the Queensland University of Technology said.
“Especially if you are from Sydney, the anti-association laws are against you. It is also physically dangerous to be in Sydney at the moment if you are a bikie.”
Prof Lauchs said he expected to see more bikies flock to Victoria from interstate in coming months.
“On any particular day of the week, if you hang out at the right clubs or casinos, you’ll find a bikie group meeting up in Melbourne,” he said.
So who are the key Sydney players who have made a splash in Melbourne?
TAREK ZAHED
CLUB: Comancheros
This week Comanchero boss Tarek Zahed was spotted dining at a Melbourne restaurant for the first time since he was shot ten times in Sydney in May.
Zahed smiled while holding up a finger as he posed next to the new Comanchero national president Allan Meehan.
“Welcome back Tarek ‘hard2kill’ Zahed,” Meehan captioned the photo.
Meehan crouched with his arm around Zahed, who was wearing sunglasses and a Fendi jumper.
The group drank a premium bottle of French grey goose vodka.
At the time he was shot, Zahed was in the middle of moving to Melbourne to escape tough anti-association bikie laws enforced by NSW police.
ALLAN MEEHAN
CLUB: Comancheros
ROLE: National president
Allan Meehan, 35, grew up in housing commission in Liverpool in Sydney’s western suburbs.
He became a Rebels OMCG member at 18, before he rose through the ranks to become Cronulla chapter president.
The now former Comanchero Mark Buddle later enticed Meehan to “patch over” to the Comancheros where he has been commander of both the Canberra and Sydney chapters.
Meehan’s appointment as national president earlier this year makes him among the most powerful outlaws in the country.
Meehan runs the gang out of Sydney but travels frequently to Melbourne to oversee club business.
MARK BUDDLE
CLUB: Comancheros
ROLE: Former national president
Former Comancheros boss Mark Buddle, 37, was born in Sydney.
He joined the feared club at a young age before declaring himself leader after the jailing of then-boss Mick Hawi in 2009.
Buddle left Australia in 2016.
Despite being overseas, Buddle declared himself the Comanchero ‘Commander of the World’ and ran the club abroad.
He was living in Northern Cyprus after being granted a residency permit in August last year.
He was recently extradited from Darwin to Melbourne to face court over the alleged importation of $40 million worth of cocaine into Australia.
Buddle is currently on remand at the maximum security Barwon prison in Victoria.
He faces two charges over the alleged importation of more than 160 kilograms of cocaine in 2021.
Both the charges of importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug and conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
JOSH FAULKHEAD
CLUB: Comancheros
Josh Faulkhead was recruited by the Comancheros while working in a Queensland gym before moving to Sydney to be physically closer to the feared chapter.
The former ex-army sniper moved to his home town of Mildura, where he was the head of drug syndicate controlled by the Sydney based Comanchero branch.
He was the ringleader of the syndicate, where he sourced and supplied ice into the regional city.
Faulkhead was tracked by the bikie-busting Echo taskforce within a year of his return to Mildura.
In 2015 he was sentenced to a minimum of six years in jail after he pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking a commercial quantity of ice and related drug, dishonesty and violence offences.
Police claimed he terrorised people who owed drug debts by telling them he was an infamous Army sniper known as “The White Devil’’ by terrified Afghani villagers.
He has been released jail and is understood to be living in Melbourne.
MICK MURRAY
CLUB: Comancheros
ROLE: Former national president
Comanchero heavyweight Mick Murray, 44, was recently stood down from his role as national president of the powerful bikie gang, two months after being arrested on a murder charge.
Murray led the gang for most of the 2010s and spent time in both Sydney and Melbourne running the club.
In April this year Murray was detained in a pre-dawn raid at his Lysterfield South home, in Melbourne’s south east.
He is currently on remand after being charged by police investigating the 2019 murder of gangland figure Mitat Rasimi in Dandenong.
He faces one count of murder.
Murray previously had plans to retire overseas to Asia or the Middle East.
He now faces a life behind bars if convicted.
Danny Nikolic, Pat Lennon charged over Carlton burglary
Champion jockey Danny Nikolic and troubled lawyer Pat Lennon have been charged over a burglary at a townhouse in Carlton.
‘Innocent’ house-sitting sister dies after wrong home firebombed
A 27-year-old woman believed to be house-sitting for her brother during his honeymoon has been killed in a house fire that police are treating as a ‘targeted attack’ gone wrong.