Bikies.
Drugs. Guns. Violence.
The women who love the men who love the lifestyle.
In Sweden, the Hells Angels are allegedly @ war with the Black Cobras… and criminal gangs are mushrooming (according to state authorities). In Denmark, police have arrested members of the Bandidos on drugs and weapons violations. This forms the latest chapter in an ongoing crackdown on criminal gang activity: “Last year, police managed to charge and convict a record number of criminal elements within biker groups and immigrant gangs, according to the National Police Investigation Centre annual report on gang crime which is soon to be published. According to the report, police managed a record 400 convictions for serious crime involving members of the Hells Angels and its support group AK81, the Bandidos and five immigrant gangs” (Record arrests did not stop gang war, Politiken, March 17, 2009). On the same day, in the US, “Four… Hells Angels accused of ambushing, beating and stabbing [Bandidos] members… on July 29, 2007, pleaded guilty to reduced felony charges Monday and received five-year suspended sentences and $4,000 fines” (Hells Angels plead, Ginger Shiras, Harrison Daily Times).
In Geelong, “A MASSIVE weapons and drugs cache was found at the home of the grandparents whose grandsons have been charged with the murder of Bandidos bikie Ross Brand, a court heard today [March 13]”.
In Sydney…
On Saturday March 14, Abdul Qadier Darwiche was shot dead. One of the men wanted for questioning over his murder is Mohamed “Blackie” Fahda; the younger brother of Ahmad Fahda, a Razzak family associate murdered in 2003 (Suspect in Darwiche murder is named, Dylan Welch, Sydney Morning Herald, March 19, 2009).
Ahmad was linked to the Razzak family, who were fighting the Darwiche family over drug territory. Two men have been convicted for the murder and Adnan “Eddie” Darwiche, serving a life sentence for two related murders, was convicted of soliciting the hit.
A community source says Fahda spent the past six years blaming Abdul Darwiche, 37, among others, for the murder of his brother. Police have spent the past five days investigating the murder of Darwiche on Saturday and raided a house in Wiley Park on Tuesday night. They have been unable to find Fahda, whom they suspect of committing the murder.
Investigators fear the tensions between the two families will remain at dangerous levels. The situation between the Razzak and Darwiche families may also be providing a convenient smokescreen for other people to settle scores.
That may be why the Auburn home of a senior Bandidos motorcycle club member, Mahmoud Dib, was hit by about a dozen bullets on Monday morning.
According to Arjun Ramachandran and Dylan Welch, “RELATIVES of members of the bikie club Notorious may have been targeted in one of two drive-by shootings in Sydney’s west early yesterday” (Family bikie link seen in shooting, Sydney Morning Herald, March 20, 2009).
Police said the homes might have been targeted because of the occupants’ links to Notorious. “We believe there may be links between the two locations and … the Notorious criminal group,” said the commander of the Gangs Squad, Detective Superintendent Mal Lanyon.
The Herald understands the mother of Notorious’s sergeant-at-arms is the owner of the Doonside home.
The attacks may be retaliation for a drive-by shooting at the house of a senior member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club’s Blacktown chapter early on Monday. Notorious is suspected of being behind that shooting, as well as attacks on the Nomads’ clubhouse in Marrickville and the Hells Angels’ clubhouse in Petersham in recent months.
Notorious, thought to have been formed in 2007, is run by a Lebanese-Australian Christian with longstanding links to one of Sydney’s most well-known underworld families. Police and underworld sources have indicated that Notorious is relying heavily on “Islander muscle” and has opened a clubhouse in Kings Cross – an area traditionally treated as neutral by the older clubs.
“Since Notorious have been around things have been getting hotter and hotter,” an underworld source told the Herald.
“If [the Notorious president] and his crew were taken [out of the equation] things would calm down really f—ing quickly.”
On Sunday, March 22, Anthony Zervas, brother of Hells Angel Peter Zervas, was beaten to death at Sydney Airport (‘Come on boys, let’s go’- battle cry that led to a brutal killing, Dylan Welch, Rick Feneley, Bellinda Kontominas and Arjun Ramachandran, Sydney Morning Herald, March 24, 2009).
…some critical background on this conflict. On February 4, an explosion tore apart the facade of the Hells Angels City Crew clubhouse at Petersham. Police suspected Notorious, a group commonly misnamed as a bikie gang. Most of its members, while they compete for turf with bike gangs over the amphetamine trade, are not bikies in the traditional sense. They rarely ride bikes and travel in black-tinted luxury four-wheel-drives. But criminal sources say the bombing culprits were not from Notorious but the Comanchero.
Four days later, four men wearing Hells Angels colours kneecapped a 33-year-old man near a Christian motorcycle show at Silverwater. That man, sources say, was a Comanchero.
These were just two of dozens of violent attacks involving bikies in Sydney in the past year. Not all are related but all point to a growing willingness to shed blood, even when children are present. On Monday morning last week, a bullet that struck the Auburn house of Mahmoud Dib, a senior Bandido, came close to striking his four-year-old son.
Four Comanchero members have been charged with affray over Sunday’s airport brawl.
So, on the one hand, Hells Angels & Bandidos vs. Comanchero & Notorious. On the other hand, Razzak vs. Darwiche. (Plus, the rival MCs/gangs are reportedly recruiting allies. “Notorious has aligned itself with the Rebels and the Bandidos have joined forces with the Auburn-based Brothers 4 Life street gang”: Rival bikie gangs recruiting allies for war, Kara Lawrence, The Daily Telegraph, March 26, 2009.)
The bikie scene has been in flux since Notorious formed in 2007. The new club has demonstrated a violent streak that has alarmed traditional clubs.
As a result, other gangs have responded in kind. In October last year, men believed to be associated with the Comanchero gang exploded a bomb under the Notorious president’s car at Lane Cove.
Notorious is believed to be associated with a powerful Sydney crime family that controls valuable drug turf in the inner city. The drug trade is believed to be behind much of the escalating violence.
The warring gangs might take note of one of Notorious’s mottos: “Only the dead see the end of war.”
But then there’s Rebels and Nomads too [Daily Telegraph, PDF]. And Finks. And Gypsy Jokers. And Black Uhlans, Coffin Cheaters, Fourth Reich, Outlaws, and who knows what else.
Arthur Veno, probably.
- Bikie violence will get worse: expert, Kellee Nolan, Sydney Morning Herald, March 23, 2009 | Putting the wild ones off the road, Arthur Veno, The Age, March 26, 2009.
Finally, in Canberra, two more murders (March 24) have been blamed on bikies. Rick Roberts, 57, a former leader of the Rebels MC in Perth, and another man, 48, were shot dead on Tuesday. Police have accused Russell Field, 20, of the murders (Accused’s court appearance cancelled over fears of revenge, Noel Towell and Victor Violante, Sydney Morning Herald, March 26, 2009).
See also : BiKiE mAdNeSs! (August 18, 2008) | Arthur Veno, The Brotherhoods: Inside the Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, Allen and Unwin, 2002 | Jay (Bird) Dobyns with Nils Johnson-Shelton, No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of The Hells Angels, Crown, 2009
