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| How Bikie Gangs Have Changed | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 10th, 2008 08:52 |
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1st Post |
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RK Guest
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I came across this little snippet which bought a tear to my eye, a little incident that happened a long time ago, but I digress....lol. Drive-by shootings, stabbings, molotov cocktail attacks and assaults with baseball bats, crowbars and other weapons were all part of the gang arsenal as the Mongrel Mob and Black Power gangs squared off in turf wars in the streets of Porirua, Wairoa, South Auckland, Moerewa and Christchurch. That all changed in the late 1990’s when some gangs realised that such confrontations attracted the attention of Police - and that wasn’t good for ‘business’. Senior gang members in the Hells Angels, Highway 61 and the Head Hunters soon realised that it was better to do business together. A decade ago, eight OMCG gangs formed an alliance, which they dubbed The Federation. The formation of the Federation coincided with a police crackdown on the Road Knights after they were implicated in a drive-by shooting involving an attack on the Epitaph Riders. An innocent bystander was injured in that attack. The Federation was renamed the A-team, apparently at the behest of the Epitaph Riders. The A-team consists of the Outcasts, the Epitaph Riders, the Forty-Fives, the Southern Vikings, Satan’s Slaves, Sinn Fein, the Lost Breed and the Lone Legion gangs. Police sources say that such alliances are part of a deliberate plan to lower gang profiles and take their activities underground. Gangs are legitimising their wealth by buying into established mainstream businessess. Some of these businesses allow gangs to engage in money laundering while others, such as hotels, brothels and the trucking industry, give them easy access to potential clients for drug distribution. Associates within the transport industry afford the gangs/organised crime the opportunity to distribute nationwide with ease. Last year, a CVIU (Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit) Customs swoop on truck drivers in Auckland resulted in 33% of vehicles testing positive for the presence of drugs. A Customs drug dog was used in the operation. At a bike rally last year, patched gang members from a variety of gangs mixed freely together – something that would have been unheard of several years ago. $22 million seizure In May last year NSW, Queensland and South Australian Police arrested 20 members or associates of five different motorcycle gangs after uncovering a methamphetamine racket worth $22 million. Police alleged that members of the Rebels and Nomads gangs were working in conjunction with the Gypsy Jokers, Hells Angels and Finks. They said that the gangs had used insiders within the trucking industry to distribute methamphetamine. The relationship between the Finks and the Hells Angels has since deteriorated and they were involved in a violent confrontation on the Gold Coast a couple of weeks ago. Many gangs have almost moved entirely out of cannabis dealing into the much more lucrative ATS (amphetamine type substances) market is evidence of their ability to morph into new markets with ease. Well organised With high profit margins and vast sums of money at their disposal, gangs are using their wealth to become as well organised as the law enforcement agencies, which have traditionally given them the most grief. The Government is currently drafting asset forfeiture legislation, which it hopes will hit at the wealth of criminal enterprises. Police have welcomed the legislation as another tool in their fight against organised crime. The gangs and other organised criminal enterprises are smart – they have a year to find ways to circumvent these measures, and they will – because their very survival depends on it. New Zealand Police have had some notable successes recently in gaining convictions against major gang players responsible for the manufacture and distribution of drugs. Last year’s Operation Soprano and the recent arrest of Black Power gang members in South Auckland on drug charges are evidence that Police can hit at the heart of the gangs drug dealing activities. But some officers, working within the gang environment, say Police could be doing “so much better” if there were more resources dedicated to gang intelligence nationwide. Others have said that the vast amounts of money being generated by dealing in amphetamines is also likely to lead to execution-style killings similar to that of a former Road Knights gang member in Christchurch last year. But they say that such events are generally isolated incidents and largely kept ‘in-house’ by gangs. Truce called Police News understands that last year in a Wellington suburb there was a meeting between various chapters of the Mongrel Mob and the Black Power, the purpose of which was to call a truce between the gangs in order to extend common ‘business’ interests. The Wellington meeting followed on from a meeting held in Hastings last year between more than 60 Black Power and Mongrel Mob gang bosses, which was billed as a “leadership seminar” aimed at burying decades of intense rivalry between the two gangs. Gang leaders said at the time that they were interested in providing their children with a better future than the one they had seen as a result of their gang affiliations but Police say there is little concrete evidence that entrenched criminal mindsets have changed.
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