Toby Mitchell promoted to Melbourne president of Mongols
Toby Mitchell has ascended to the top of the Mongols in Melbourne at a time when the bikie gang is on an aggressive recruiting drive to sign up members of rival bikie gangs.
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High-profile bikie strongman Toby Mitchell is the new Melbourne president of the Mongols gang.
Mitchell, a former senior Bandido, has taken the reins as the Mongols sign up long-time members of rival outfits in an aggressive recruitment drive.
The feared outlaw motorcycle club, one of the state’s most powerful, has recently drafted in former national Bandidos boss Jason Addison.
Addison, a low-profile heavy-hitter, served as the Bandidos’ national president for about two decades and the reason for his departure is unclear.
The Herald Sun can reveal Addison’s sons have patched over to the Mongols along with the remaining membership of the chapter at Echuca, on the Victoria-New South Wales border.
Sources say a total of about 10 former Bandidos have joined the Mongols in recent months.
The Herald Sun revealed last year they had signed up the well-connected Mitchell, but their ambitions clearly did not end there.
As he has ascended to be Melbourne supremo, the chapter’s membership has swelled to more than 100.
Some of that recruiting has been taking place behind bars.
Two other former Bandidos, John Peter Walker and Luke Paul Maybus, are new Mongol signings.
Walker and Maybus are currently doing jail terms.
Bradley Azzopardi, an ex-Bandido from Geelong, is also on board with the Mongols.
Azzopardi is doing time for a fatal crash at Anakie in 2015 which claimed the life of cyclist Gordon Ibbs.
Another Geelong crime figure, Aaron Burnie, has also joined, sources say.
The Mongols have ambitions to bring in Comanchero members in Australia.
Senior Mongol Mark Balsillie last year travelled to Russia as part of a patch-over of Comanchero members in that country.
Images posted online also show him fraternising with suspected Russian Mongols in Thailand.
Balsillie — whose $500,000 Lamborghini was seized by Echo task force detectives during a series of raids last month — is a former Comanchero who has moved to the Mongols in recent years.
Last year’s Russian takeover helped fuel speculation that former top Victorian Comanchero Jay Malkoun has saddled up with the Mongols.
But outlaw bikie insiders have told the Herald Sun Malkoun remains a Comanchero.
Malkoun, who left Melbourne in 2013, set up a Comanchero chapter in Russia in 2015 and is believed to have had strong contacts in that country for years.
He is known to be at odds with current Australian supremo Mick Murray, a situation which has led to tensions in the lower ranks in recent years.
The past year has not all been smooth sailing for the Mongols.
In August last year, member Rocco Curra was shot as he sat in his car late at night in Bulleen.
In January, Aaron Ong and Josh Rider were arrested and charged over the Eastern Freeway murder of fruiterer Paul Virgona.
Shane Bowden, who was escorted back to Melbourne in a stretch limousine by gang members in a July prison release, was wounded two weeks later in a drive-by shooting ambush in the northern suburbs.
Bowden has reportedly since switched to the rival Finks outfit and is now in Queensland.
There has been ongoing friction between the Mongols and the Finks last year.
Shootings, firebombings and drive-by attacks are suspected of being linked to that hostility.
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