By Clare Sibthorpe and Perry Duffin
Hells Angels bikie boss and alleged drug kingpin Angelo Pandeli has been deported from his safe haven of Dubai and landed in Australia after years overseas.
Pandeli has long been suspected of being among Australia’s most influential drug traffickers, according to several serving and former law enforcement officials who spoke to this masthead earlier on condition of anonymity.
Hells Angels figure Angelo Pandeli in Sydney in 2017.
While Pandeli was deported from Dubai on Thursday, sources say he was not extradited by Australian authorities.
In 2021, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) alleged Pandeli was part of the “Aussie cartel”, an offshore transnational drug trafficking organisation estimated to be importing $1.5 billion worth of drugs into Australia yearly.
The “Aussie cartel” was allegedly based on finding backdoors into Australia by bypassing border controls and moving huge drug loads via maritime or air freight.
Pandeli allegedly took the helm of the international drug empire after authorities arrested several high-profile Comanchero bosses in Turkey.
Angelo Pandeli and his family in Dubai.
The inner circle of that cartel was broken up in 2021 by the Australian Federal Police, who were intercepting their messages through the encrypted phone application An0m.
For several years, Pandeli has been listed as a top target by the ACIC regarding threats considered most significant to Australia’s organised crime environment.
In 2017, the ACIC designated him as an Australian Priority Organisation Target (APOT) because of intelligence suspecting him of orchestrating massive drug shipments to Australia’s shores.
A person or company can only be categorised as APOT – a list of the “baddest of the bad” – if they are accused of posing a grave organised crime threat to the country.
Pandeli grew up in the town of Whyalla on the South Australian coast and moved to Adelaide in the 2000s, where he joined the Hells Angels.
He later moved to Sydney and became president of its City Crew chapter.
He left Australia in 2018 and has been moving between the UAE, Asia and Greece, sources say, and owns a luxury villa resort in Dubai as well as several businesses there.
He allegedly built his criminal network before he fled, but his reach in the global drug game allegedly grew in the years following.
Photos circulating online show him living it up in Dubai, smiling with his wife and children on the waterfront.
Pandeli was arrested in Dubai, put on an Emirates flight by UAE authorities and landed in Sydney just before 6pm on Thursday.
He has not been charged with any offences in Australia.
An AFP spokesperson said a 53-year-old Australian man has been deported by Dubai authorities. They said no further comment would be made at this stage.
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