BIKER NEWS: 'Mafia on wheels' heading for Australia in global bikie push

THEY'RE called "mafia on wheels" and they want a piece of Australia's underworld drug and criminal empire.

BIKER NEWS -- The Vagos - also known as "Green Nation" and "Green Hell" are headed for Australia as part of an international expansion of outlaw bikie gangs.

Vagos and other deadly bikie gangs infiltrator, Charles Falco, said the club was making a "guaranteed" move onto Australian turf.

Gangs are expanding in Europe, Asia, North America and the Pacific to augment their power and

global grasp on drug supply, in particular methamphetamines, amphetamines and drugs traditionally trafficked in South-East Asia.

Australia already has more than 40 outlaw bikie gangs, with the largest gangs - the Rebels, the Outlaws, the Hells Angels and the Mongols (formerly the Finks) - having chapters in most states and territories.

While some gangs have disappeared, like the Sydney-based Notorious club, which police told news.com.au hasn't been seen in 18 months, Australian gangs are part of the expansion overseas.

The Rebels, founded in Australia, are undertaking a massive expansion into Europe, North America, Asia and even into Fiji.

Australia's newly formed 71-member specialist federal anti-gang squad aimed at the growing bikie menace and launched yesterday in Victoria said "at least one gang had an affiliate chapter in Thailand", despite the fact drug dealing in that country risked the death penalty.

Thailand has chapters of both the Rebels and the Mongols.

The Mongols have already expanded into Malaysia and the Rebels are also in Cambodia and Laos, triggering police fears about drug supply routes to Asia's golden triangle region.

The Outlaws, which began in the US, are well established here, and in the UK, Europe and Russia.

Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the new anti-gang squad would access national intelligence files on known gang members from the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Crime Commission and the Australian Taxation Office.

The squad will work with state police to control movement across state borders and enforce laws to prevent gangs smuggling in drugs and weapons and members of overseas outlaw chapters entering the country.

However news.com.au understands members from the Mongols gang mother chapter may have already visited Australia ahead of the recent merger with the Finks gang, which some news reports say realised "the Finks goal to go global, giving them respect and a voice on the international stage".

Gangs have pushed into Europe, in particular into Germany, Spain and Scandinavian countries,

sparking tension with established clubs, the European Union law enforcement agency, Europol, has warned.

Europol said Rebels and Comanchero from Australia, the Rock Machine from Canada, as well as Mongols and Vagos from the US had arrived on the Continent.

Coupled with the growth of the existing major gangs, the Hells Angels, Bandidos, Outlaws and a club called Gremium, this had sparked fears of a turf war.

Europol said the suspected main driver for outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) expansion was "the desire to increase their role in particular criminal markets by opening chapters in strategic locations, for instance along the trafficking routes for drugs, weapons and human beings".

"Merely establishing a chapter on the 'turf' of another OMCG is interpreted as an act of provocation and is likely to result in violent confrontations and retaliation," Europol said.

"In general, the use of intimidation and violence is intrinsic to the OMCG subculture and serves to exert control over group members and others such as victims of extortion.

"The main threat to public safety associated with OMCGs stems from their propensity to use extreme forms of violence.

"This includes the use of automatic rifles like Kalashnikovs, and explosive devices such as grenades, and the indiscriminate nature with which this violence is often used in open conflicts between rival groups."

This article was first published on OCTOBER 31, 2013

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