Australian Border Force reveals how bikies infiltrate footy fields, pubs, airports to move drugs

Border Force has revealed the sophisticated lengths bikies will undertake to import cocaine and ice — which starts at footy fields and pubs. Listen to the Bikies Inc. podcast.

Bikies are infiltrating suburban football clubs and pubs to glean information from freight forwarding and logistics staff to smuggle drugs into Australia.

Loose-lipped supply chain staff are unknowingly handing over crucial details about how their authorities deal with containers and packages to smooth-talking bikies.

The Australian Border Force has revealed the sneaky, sophisticated lengths bikies will undertake to import cocaine and ice.

“Some people are groomed for what they know about the supply chain, and they might not even know that they’re sharing information with someone who is deliberately talking to them at their kid’s footy game or at the pub to find out what they know,” Assistant Commissioner Phil Brezzo told the Bikies Inc podcast.

“So they don’t all sort of amount to people who are deliberately and consciously breaking the law.”

Asst Commissioner Brezzo said bikies also groomed supply chain workers directly, standing over them for information about the tactics of Border Force officers.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 6 OF THE BIKIES INC PODCAST:

ABF acting Deputy Commissioner Phil Brezzo. Picture: Supplied

John Mafiti, was arrested at Sydney International airport. He has been linked to a criminal syndicate operating. Picture: Supplied NSW Police

Trusted insiders such as customs brokers, warehouse staff, shipping companies, airline crew or staff, freight forwarders and transport companies were key targets, he said.

Bikies have even targeted the Qantas airline, with reports more than 100 staff had linked to gangs, including the Comanchero.

Damion Flower, a former Qantas baggage handler was jailed for 28 years in February this year (2022) for his role in a $68 million three-year cocaine smuggling operation.

Damion Flower at the Magic Millions. Picture: Luke Marsden.

He was a prominent racing figure – paying $1.8 million to enter Clearly Innocent in Sydney’s first Everest horse race in 2017, which finished eighth.

A Sydney court heard Flower would send coded messages to John Mafiti, who worked as a Qantas baggage handler for almost 20 years.

Airport baggage handler John Mafiti, from Oran Park. Picture: Facebook

Mafiti, who was jailed for 23 years, would pick up packages identified in the coded messages and take them out through the staff entrance to avoid detection.

Most of the drugs smuggled into Australia come by sea in the more than 8 million containers that arrive in the nation’s ports each year.

Following the arrest of horse racing identity Damion Flower, AFP seized approximately $8 million in cash from a Hoxton Park property in Sydney.

Some ships have “parasite” cargo – metal boxes attached to the hull of massive ships used to hide drugs.

Bruno Borges, 31, died when he tried to pull $20 million worth of cocaine from underneath a ship docked in Newcastle port in May 2022.

The Brazilian was using a rebreather, a complicated piece of diving equipment.

Bruno Borges, 31, was found dead near a cocaine shipment. Picture: Facebook

Bricks of cocaine weighing 50kg were found in the water near his body.

Mr Brezzo said the Australian Border Force had to keep changing its tactics against smugglers to try to stay ahead of bikie gangs, who had links to the Mafia in Italy and South American drug cartels.

A drug mule has drowned while trying to smuggle an estimated more than 50 kilograms of cocaine to shore near the Port of Newcastle.

“At times certain methodologies become less prominent, not just in Australia but internationally, and then they come back into vogue because there’s been a focus on something else. And then crooks identify, well, perhaps we’ll try this again,” he said.

The bulk carrier container ship from which a drug mule was trying to collect more than 50kgs of cocaine when he drowned arrived in Newcastle from Argentina. Picture: Supplied

Mr Brezzo said bikie gangs were keyed in with lawyers and accountants to help move their money into legitimate businesses.

“Outlaw motorcycle gangs are really sophisticated in what they do, and sometimes what we might see popularised on TV or the like – it’s not by any means the full extent of how they work,” he said.

“They employ accountants. They employ a whole range of people, and they operate like a business. It’s a transnational business that’s sophisticated in nature. And that’s why, you know, the Border Force and other law enforcement partners need to be equally sophisticated and constantly evolving the methods that we use to disrupt, whether it’s importations of illicit goods or other crimes.”

Originally published as Australian Border Force reveals how bikies infiltrate footy fields, pubs, airports to move drugs