Operation Ironside: How Mafia, bikies get illicit drugs to Australia together

Publicly they’re mortal enemies. But some of Australia’s most feared gangs have joined forces with Mafia and drug cartels to move illicit drugs and make millions.

Exclusive: Mafia, bikie gangs and international drug cartels are secretly working together to flood Australia with drugs.

Operation Ironside has obtained the hidden communications which proves some of Australia’s most fearsome and dangerous gangs are public enemies but secret business partners.

The millions of messages police captured, decrypted and read gave investigators a rails run in identifying exactly how crime works in Australia.

It shows different groups were using the same corrupt trusted insiders or “doors’’ to get their deadly cargoes onshore, with individuals setting themselves up as “facilitators-for-hire’’ in return for a cut of up to 20 per cent of the drug shipments.

Bikies were also using seemingly-legitimate transport companies set up by organised crime to move drugs across the country.

And bikie gangs that proclaim a brotherhood which extends only to members of their own gang were making deals with rival gangs behind the scenes in order to make hugely-profitable drug importations.

Operation Ironside uncovered more criminal links to the Comanchero OMCG. Picture: Supplied

Ironside exposed how Comanchero gang members imported shipments of drugs and worked with Lone Wolf bikies who used their domestic networks to distribute it onto the streets.

Kirsty Schofield, the AFP Commander of Investigations in New South Wales, said the amount of “crossover’’ between criminal gangs was revealing.

“You’re talking about groups that traditionally would have been almost at war on the streets but when there’s an opportunity to make money, they come together for that collective purpose,” Comm Schofield said.

Comm Schofield said while the development did not spell the end of gang violence, “it’s very clear there’s a real acceptance that these bikie groups will put money and greed above gang rivalries”.

Lone Wolf bikies are also working with organised crime groups. Picture: Supplied

“So I question the allegiance that bikies have with their group and with each other,” she said.

South American drug cartels, Middle Eastern money launderers, Italian organised crime and outlaw motorcycle groups had all established working relationships to import drugs into Australia and distribute onto the streets.

And New South Wales was the ground zero of Australia’s drug trafficking activity, with more than half of all crime detected by Ironside happening in that state.

Comm Kirsty Schofield can now explain how Operation Ironside linked bikie gangs to Mafia and international drug cartels. Picture: Richard Dobson

Acting Inspector Rob Dzaja said the insights provided by AN0M into organised crime in Australia and globally was “absolutely unprecedented’’.

“How those individual networks interact with each other …. moving away from where traditionally an ethnicity-based organised crime group would only operate within their own groups … they’re now using bikies to do the trafficking and South American cartels to do the transport,’’ he said.

“We see Italian organised crime and outlaw motorcycle gangs working together.”

Acting Insp Dzaja said Ironside had showed how organised crime reacted to fluctuating prices, and would ship drugs across to Perth where the substance sold for $400,000 a kilogram, compared to $180,000 in Adelaide or eastern states.

AFP Detective Superintendent Matt Ciantar said criminal relationships were developed not because of the group a person belonged to, but the skill or capability a person could bring to a criminal enterprise.

Loads of cash has been seized as part of Operation Ironside. Picture: Supplied

This could be a person who distributed encrypted communications devices to multiple criminal groups, or facilitated the passage of drugs through ports, airports, a freight forwarder or a transport company.

Jason McArthur, Detective Superintendent of the AFP-led National Anti-Gangs Squad, said a number of links had been established through Ironside between the Comanchero and Lone Wolf bikie gangs.

He said the gangs were similar in that people who wielded power within them had moved offshore to evade police and continued to use their positions to organise drug imports into the country.

“I think some of the things coming out of Ironside operation would be the Lone Wolf and Comanchero working together. There’s a lot of links there and they facilitate criminal activity among themselves,’’ Det Supt McArthur said.

“Some of the other groups are violently opposed to each other and at times will attack each other on sight whereas these guys (Lone Wolfs and Comanchero) are in the business of drug trafficking, so it suits them both to work together.”

“To the higher end, the top tier of the outlaw motorcycle gang, it’s about making money so they will do what they have to do to make money.

“And if that involves using other outlaw motorcycle gangs, sure. That’s something you’d never seen back in the old days.’’

CRIMS DO ‘DUMMY RUNS’ TO BRING DRUGS TO AUSTRALIA

Crime syndicates spend years doing up to 20 “dummy runs’’ before attempting to bring drugs onto Australian soil.

Intelligence obtained from Operation Ironside shows the tactics used by crime figures to evade law enforcement, including the use of UV ink and drones.

Operation Ironside Acting Inspector Rob Dzaja said some groups would spend up to two years establishing the bona fides of a fake importation company, doing up to 20 “dummy runs’’ of legitimate goods in order to establish their credentials with Australian Border Force inspectors, before attempting a drugs importation.

He said a new company doing its first importation would generally raise alerts with the ABF, so the syndicates would spend months establishing a pattern of imports, picking up the items and taking them straight to the rubbish tip.

“We’ve had groups on here (AN0M) for 18 months and going back through ABF records that have done 15 to 20 plus importations in preparation of a live drug import,” Act Insp Dzaja said.

Cash seized as part of Operation Ironside. Picture: Supplied

“And they’ll only do that live import when they’re absolutely satisfied that the company has a history.’’

Acting Insp Dzaja said Ironside also revealed that some syndicates were using UV ink on packing tape, to check if law enforcement had opened their packages for inspection.

Commander Kirsty Schofield from AFP in New South Wales said Ironside had also identified the way criminals were using hi-tech solutions to assist their illegal enterprises.

“We have seen instances of drones being used and other sorts of surveillance devices to better position themselves for law enforcement. Not that this is overly-surprising but the scale is surprising,’’ Comm Schofield said.

“Make no mistake organised crime groups use counter surveillance measures to enable them to facilitate their criminal activity.”

One plot identified by Operation Ironside involved South American drug traffickers, Italian organised crime and outlaw motorcycle gangs working together to get tonnes of cocaine onto the streets.

The cocaine had a street value in excess of $350 million.

AFP Detective-Superintendent Matt Ciantar said: “We have identified source countries for illicit drugs and key figures offshore who are impacting the security of Australia and Australians.

“We have seen organised crime syndicates importing drugs and transporting them across the country. We’re working closely with our international partners to ensure we disrupt crime at its source, preventing it from reaching Australian shores wherever possible.”

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Originally published as Operation Ironside: How Mafia, bikies get illicit drugs to Australia together