How Australian bikies make $8 million a day from cocaine, ice using youth gangs

Aussie bikies have found new ways to become global billion-dollar businesses as they outsource their violence. Listen to Episode One the new Bikies Inc. podcast.

Australian outlaw motorcycle gangs are making $8 million a day from the sale of cocaine and ice, with new international business models turning them into billion dollar bikies.

The eye-watering figures are revealed in the Bikies Inc podcast – which launches today – an eight-month investigation exposing the inner workings of Australia’s Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs).

Featuring exclusive interviews with some of Australia’s top law enforcers – the podcast reveals how the outlaw motorcycle gangs are outsourcing their violence to youth crime gangs, who are offering themselves as “murder for hire” or “kidnapping for hire”.

There are now 38 officially recognised bikie gangs in Australia, with the Comanchero now the most powerful, along with the Hells Angels.

There are more than 4700 patched members – half of those in NSW – with another 1000 waiting in the wings to join.

Bikie gangs are now working hand-in-glove with the mafia, Asian drug lords and South American cartels as they move from hired muscle to multi-billion dollar distribution networks.

And top of the tree bikies are keeping their hands clean by outsourcing their violence to ambitious young gangs such as OneFour who follow orders for “very little money”.

Battles for control of the rivers of dirty cash has led to open warfare on Australia’s streets, with Comanchero Sergeant-at-Arms Tarek Zahed shot at a Sydney gym and former Mongols bikie Sam Abdulrahim sprayed with bullets at a funeral in Melbourne.

Former Mongols bikie Sam Abdulramin, who was gunned down in Melbourne. Picture: Instagram

Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim in hospital after he was dramatically shot at a funeral. Picture: Supplied

Comanchero Sergeant-at-Arms Tarek Zahed who survived a shooting in Sydney’s west. Picture: Picture: NCA NewsWire

Zahed and his brother Omar were shot at the Bodyfit gym in Auburn. Picture: Supplied

Both survived, leading to concerns about potential retaliatory attacks.

Mike Phelan, chief executive of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, reveals in the podcast that bikie gangs are raking in billions as they have become sophisticated international organisations.

Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission boss Michael Phelan tells the Bikies Inc podcast OMCGs are raking in billions of dollars from drugs. Picture: Kym Smith

He said people who “started years ago as foot soldiers within bikie gangs … are now making hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”

Outlaw motorcycle gangs now control as much as a third of Australia’s $10 billion illicit drug trade.

That’s $3 billion a year, or $8 million a day, flowing to bikies from the sale of ice and cocaine.

Listen to Episode 1 of the Bikies Inc. podcast below:

“That’s actual cash being handed over by mums and dads buying their gram deals,” Mr Phelan told the Bikies Inc podcast.

A gram of cocaine on Sydney’s streets can sell for up to $400 – or more than $400,000 a kilogram at wholesale prices.

The coca leaf used to make that kilogram of cocaine costs as little as $1.90.

Bikies gangs have now seized on the distribution of cocaine on our streets, making millions a day. Picture: Getty

Bikies are also running networks to get more crystal meth into Australia. Picture: Getty

Bikies are now taking a step up the criminal ladder, outsourcing their crime to other groups, in a similar way to how mafia bosses protected themselves from prosecution by using foot soldiers to do their dirty work.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith tells Bikies Inc rapper gangs such as One Four and KVT are being used by the bikies.

“We’ve seen is this transition into a more market driven world so that murder for hire, kidnapping for hire, illicit drug distribution gets offloaded to other syndicates and other gangs,” Mr Smith said.

“We’ve seen Comancheros interacting with the Alameddine family who are interacting with rapper gangs – one called KVT, another one called the One Four.

Police have revealed street gangs including KVT are being used by bikies. Picture: Supplied

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith. Picture: Gary Ramage

“Those people offer themselves up to carry out violent acts for probably very little money in the scheme of things, but they’re happy to carry that out.

“The Comancheros are happy to throw them away because they’re not linked in evidence to the key members that obviously ask for something to be done,” Mr Smith said.

Bikies have been under pressure since the arrest of hundreds of alleged criminals through the AN0M app sting.

Hakan Ayik, a western Sydney raised criminal now on the run in Turkey, was the key salesman for the app that was downloaded by 12,000 criminals.

The AFP and the FBI were monitoring those messages in real time – more than 28 million of them – and have arrested dozens of Comanchero bikies, disrupting their hierarchy.

Detective Superintendent Jason McArthur, head of the AFP’s national anti gangs squad, explains in the podcast how bikies are turning on each other.

Hakan Ayik, who has links to the Comanchero, was outed by authorities as a key endorser of the AN0M app.

Ayik at a pharmaceutical factory in India where he is alleged to have purchased drug precursors.

“There’s numerous examples now where they turn on each other, they organise to bash each other, they organise to rip each other off,” Mr McArthur said.

“And it’s all fuelled by money, so they’re not what they used to call themselves as the brotherhood. It’s all about making money.”

Detective Superintendent Peter Brigham reveals how Victoria Police is fighting gun crime, with Firearm Prevention Orders slashing the number of shootings in that state until the attempt on Adbulrahim’s life.

Border Force Assistant Commissioner Phil Brezzo warns that bikies are corrupting legitimate businesses, sometimes without them even knowing they have been compromised.

Police are also concerned for women linked to bikies, who are six times more likely to be victims of domestic violence.

The rise in the power of bikies has prompted calls for new national legislation to crack down on their influence.

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Originally published as How Australian bikies make $8 million a day from cocaine, ice using youth gangs