The World's Most Evil Gangs by Nigel Blundell

Author:Nigel Blundell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781782198031
Publisher: John Blake Publishing

CHAPTER 15

‘BIKIES’ RIDE OUT… INTO AN ALL-OUT WAR

On Australia’s affluent East Coast, gang warfare has erupted between rival outfits across two states, conducted on high-powered machines by modern-day ‘bikies’. The motorcycle-riding old guard is being supplanted by a violent new breed of steroid-pumped, amphetamine-taking young rebels, often of Middle Eastern or Eastern European descent. They shun leathers and straggly hair, preferring designer clothes and ‘gansta’ bling.

According to police, the feud between rival gangs is now a step away from an all-out war. The epicentre of the current outbreak of violence is Sydney, where there were more than 60 drive-by shootings in 2012 alone. Homes have been sprayed with bullets while children have slept inside.

Tensions in the city go back to an infamous massacre in 1984 when six bikers were shot dead in a pub car park and a teenage girl killed in the crossfire. Since the 1980s there have been about 100 biker killings across the country and 1,000 shootings. The most dramatic was the 2009 murder of a biker in the crowded main terminal of Sydney Airport. The scale of the problem was highlighted by police in a major crackdown on the gun-toting gangs – which, in Sydney alone, resulted in 555 people being arrested and 908 charges laid.

As well as an epidemic of violence centred on Sydney, New South Wales, there have been several related shootings in South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. The main target of Sydney gangs is the lucrative drugs trade on Queensland’s Gold Coast, where in April 2012 a tattooed gunman shot a rival and a woman bystander in the region’s biggest shopping mall.

It is estimated there are 35 ‘outlaw’ motorcycle groups in Australia with an inner circle of 3,500 fully ‘patched’ members and many thousands more followers. Among this assortment of bikie groups, a handful are especially powerful, some of them with international branches. Among them are the gangs profiled below – not a comprehensive list but one that reflects the sometimes typical, sometimes differing aspects, attitudes and histories of these Aussie outlaws.

Pre-eminent are the Bandidos, which the American FBI has identified as one of the ‘world’s Big Four’ outlaw motorcycle gangs, with an estimated 210 chapters in 16 countries. Nineteen of these chapters are located across Australia, comprised of up to 400 members. The Bandidos’ international origins go back to 1966 when it was formed by a Texan named Don Chambers. The Australian chapter was not founded until 1983, by Anthony Mark ‘Snodgrass’ Spencer, its first national president, following a split from the existing Comanchero Motorcycle Club. Its motto is: ‘We are the people our parents warned us about’.

The Bandidos is one of the clubs that has actively recruited from ethnic groups in recent years. Wannabe members are called ‘hangarounds’ and the chapter president decides when they can become a ‘prospect’. To become patched members, other full members must unanimously vote them in. Members wear leather or denim vests known as ‘cuts’ because the sleeves are cut off. The logo is a Mexican bandit.

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