Bikie boss booted out

AJ Graham finally deported to New Zealand

NOTORIOUS criminal Aaron “AJ” Graham is joining Brownlow Medallist Dustin Martin’s father Shane as one of the many bikie bosses kicked out of Australia.

Graham was deported to his native New Zealand yesterday — despite last month winning a High Court appeal against his second visa cancellation.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton cancelled Graham’s visa for a third time within hours of the September 6 High Court decision that his earlier visa cancellation decision was invalid. The Rebels gang boss is the latest bikie gang member to be kicked out of Australia by Mr Dutton.

He did so under his wideranging powers to cancel the visas of foreign-born criminals on character grounds, which include if they have a substantial criminal record or they are suspected of being a member of a group involved in criminal conduct.

The Mercury has been told law enforcement and other agencies have provided Mr Dutton with ample evidence — including telephone tap material — that bikie gangs are heavily involved in violent and other crimes. Graham, 50, the founding member of the Rebels bikie gang’s Tasmanian chapter, was escorted on to an Air New Zealand flight in Sydney yesterday and flown to Auckland.

He was one of the bikie gang leaders and office holders swept up during the same Federal Government crackdown which saw fellow senior Rebels member Shane Martin, 50, also deported to Auckland.

Graham was president of the Kingston chapter at the time.

“What we know of outlaw motorcycle gang members is that they are the biggest distributors of ice and amphetamines in our country,” Mr Dutton said.

“They import, they manufacture and they distribute it, and they are otherwise involved in serious crime, including providing muscle for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union on building sites around the country.”

The unprecedented blitz on foreign-born criminals has seen more than 2800 of them ordered to leave Australia in the past three years.

Mr Dutton this week told Parliament the number had grown to more than 3000.

Rebels members Graham and Martin are among the 154 senior bikies to have had their Australian visas cancelled since 2014.

Graham’s convictions include him being jailed for 15 months in 2009 over a vicious attack on a teenage insurance fraud investigator.

The blitz on bikies and other foreign-born criminals began after changes were made to migration laws in December 2014.