By Riley Walter
Almost two years after sourcing a stolen Italian passport, chartering a private plane in Western Australia and fleeing to Thailand, high-ranking Hells Angels chief Rodrigo Elices’ life on the run was over.
Sitting handcuffed aboard a flight from Manila to Melbourne after weeks of country-hopping while trying to escape extradition to Australia to face dozens of firearm and drug charges, Elices was a man with nowhere left to run.
Rodrigo Elices on the flight from Manila to Melbourne.
In footage posted to TikTok on Saturday that has since amassed almost 10 million views, Elices peered over the rows of seats at passengers, occasionally offering a wink or a smile, according to the creator of the viral video.
“I think it’s been a long journey for him being in custody over in Thailand, Manila and a number of other countries, so I think by the time he got back into the country, he sort of succumbed to the fact that he was going to face court in NSW for these offences,” NSW Police Raptor Squad’s Detective Inspector Matthew Smith said on Monday.
Elices, 32, arrived in Sydney at the weekend, more than two years after NSW Police started investigating his alleged involvement in the supply and distribution of cocaine.
Strike Force Caste detectives started hunting Elices after a drug house in Kogarah caught fire in October 2022, police sources who cannot be named for operational reasons previously said.
At the time, police found a badly burnt 51-year-old man outside the house, and searches in Kogarah and at other properties across the city unravelled an alleged drug supply network. Three men have previously been charged and remain before the courts.
When Elices became aware of the investigation into the syndicate, he sourced a stolen passport and hired a charter plane bound for Thailand, Smith said.
NSW detectives last January enlisted the Australian Federal Police to track down Elices in Bangkok after learning he had travelled there on the stolen passport. Ten months later, on November 8, Elices was arrested before being tried and jailed for 11 months on immigration charges.
Alleged Hells Angels chief Rodrigo Elices has been arrested after a two-year manhunt spanning four countries.Credit: NSW Police
In October this year, he received a royal pardon and was directed to return to Australia, NSW Police said. He was deported from Thailand and put on a flight, via Manila in the Philippines, to Brisbane. In Manila, he allegedly staged a medical episode and booked a flight to Istanbul via Abu Dhabi in an alleged attempt to escape a return to Australia, Smith said.
AFP officers in Manila, Abu Dhabi and Ankara in Turkey were alerted, and Elices was denied entry into the country before being redirected to Abu Dhabi, where he landed on November 7. Elices then tried to book a flight to Lebanon before being sent back to Manila.
After the Philippines Bureau of Immigration gave him the opportunity to return voluntarily to Australia, police allege Elices instead purchased a return ticket to Taiwan. Again, he was thwarted and stopped from boarding the flight.
Rather than return to Australia, police said, Elices remained under guard for three weeks in a lounge area at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport. On November 11, Philippines Bureau of Immigration commissioner Joel Anthony Viado issued an order preventing Elices from entering the country and directed him to return to Australia.
“He was confined to a chair and guarded by two staff from the [Philippines] Bureau of Immigration ... and the only way he was allowed to leave that chair was to book a flight to Australia and return home,” Smith said.
“All other avenues had been blocked for him so ultimately he had to return to Australia.”
Elices was deported on November 29 and arrested at Melbourne Airport by officers from Victoria Police’s Viper taskforce. On Saturday morning, NSW Police’s Raptor Squad took custody of Elices, who was taken to Albury Police Station and charged with 55 drug and firearms offences.
Elices was arrested and jailed in Thailand over immigration offences after entering the country illegally.Credit: Thailand Immigration Bureau
“It was very evident that he was trying to avoid coming back to Australia and facing the charges, the serious drug and firearms charges that are held against him,” Smith said.
AFP Assistant Commissioner David McLean thanked officers in Manila, Bangkok, Ankara and Abu Dhabi for their work.
The firearms offences Elices is charged with include nine counts of possessing an unregistered pistol, one count of acquiring ammunition subject to a prohibition order and six further counts of possessing an unauthorised pistol.
Elices has also been charged with one count of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime and four counts of supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
Police said the charges related to the raid of a Kensington property on December 15, 2022. During the search, police allegedly found and seized 11 firearms, ammunition, ballistic vests, almost four kilograms of gamma butyrolactone, also known as GBL, a substance similar to GHB or fantasy, 282 grams of MDMA and 409 grams of methylamphetamine.
“He was a key figure within an organised crime syndicate manufacturing drugs, supplying drugs, and also [in] possession of a large amount of firearms,” Smith said on Monday.
Smith said investigations were ongoing to establish who was helping Elices book the flights to evade authorities and how he accessed funds while overseas.
Elices was refused police bail on Saturday before being formally refused bail in Parramatta Local Court on Sunday. He will appear in Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.
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