Interstate chapter bosses for two of Australia's biggest bikie gangs, the Hells Angels and the Comancheros, used Canberra as their covert meeting location in recent months, fuelling concerns of the gangs' fresh interest in building their networks in the territory.
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ACT chief police officer Neil Gaughan this week told an ACT Assembly committee hearing there were around 30 "patched" members now residing in Canberra and these were supplemented by an unknown number of "associates".
"As to why they are meeting here [in Canberra], well that's something we will have to ask them at some stage," Deputy Commissioner Gaughan said.
He confirmed the ACT presence of four gangs - the Hells Angels, Finks, Rebels and Comancheros - most with access to onshore and offshore criminal networks.
These gangs are regarded by Australia's peak law enforcement agencies as the biggest distributors of drugs and illegal firearms across state and territory borders.
A Rebels OMCG (outlaw motor cycle gang) ride to Canberra, which would have draw gang members from all over the country, had been planned for this year has been postponed to 2024.
For decades, the Rebels OMCG had been the dominant gang in the ACT but in recent years their influence has waned as members "patched over" to other, more active gangs.
The ACT's lack of anti-consorting laws compared with states such as Queensland, Victoria and NSW, has been a repeated, thorny and politically fuelled discussion in the territory.
Senior federal police officers have expressed their views on a number of occasions that the new ACT drug decriminalisation laws could be the trigger for inviting more drug trade - in which the OMCGs are primary players - in the territory.
Two gangs which had a small chapter presence in the ACT - the Nomads and the European-based Satudarah - now appear to have left the territory.
The arrival of the Hells Angels OMCG into the ACT is a relatively new development. One of the oldest and most established of international gangs with direct links to the US, the Hells Angels are reported to be in an expansionary phase across the country, opening new chapters.
An ACT member of the Hells Angels, 22-year-old Thomas Carmichael, was last month arrested in Franklin after a search warrant. He was refused bail for a breach of section 3 of the Commonwealth Crimes Act, for allegedly withholding access to his mobile phone's encrypted messaging.
So as not to attract attention in the ACT, the chief police officer said gang members were "more likely to wear T-shirts rather than their [patched] leather jackets".
These were described by police as so-called "soft colours".
"We know that in the meetings they have had in Canberra in recent months they [gang members] were wearing soft colours," he said.
He also said a number of bikie members arrested interstate in recent months "had links back to the ACT".
One of the big-name Australian bikies arrested most recently was Hakan Ayik, one of Australia's most-wanted men, who was taken into custody in Turkey two weeks ago, together with other Australian Comanchero bikie members, for allegedly running a global drug trafficking syndicate.
Police in Istanbul seized $246.7 million worth of assets, including bank accounts, property, luxury vehicles and partnership shares in 22 companies.
