City’s new bikie threats

Notorious gangs Comancheros and Satudarah establish Coast footholds

TWO brutal bikie gangs with reputations for violence and heavy involvement in the drug trade have established chapters on or near the Gold Coast.

Crime fighters are aware of the Dutch-based Satudarah and Comancheros mobilising in southeast Queensland after the Crime and Corruption Commission late last year launched investigative and intelligence hearings.

The CCC’s newly released annual report said two of the most prominent of the new gangs in the region were the Satudarah and Comancheros.

“Hearings under these new operations have predominantly focused on the establishment of the two new clubs in sout-heast Queensland, recruitment practices, violence and members’ drug trafficking activities,” the report said.

In February, it was reported the Satudarah’s Indonesianbased leader – who controls all the chapters in South-East Asia, Australia and the United States – was detained at Gold Coast Airport for five hours after arriving to meet his “brothers”. Satudarah has a multicultural base with Australian members including indigenous locals and Kiwis of Maori descent.

The gang had its Sydney base shut after a raid by police in January but began reestablishing other chapters.

The ex-head of bikiebusting Taskforce Maxima police squad last year revealed

“concern” about the notorious Comancheros trying to set up a Coast base.

A Bulletin report in June last year flagged Comanchero gangsters reportedly returned to the Glitter Strip for the first time in two decades in June last year.

Senior police confirmed five Comancheros, with headquarters in NSW, were spotted walking through Burleigh Heads in full gang colours.

Two months ago, Liam Scorsese, an associate of the Comancheros gang, was sentenced to three months jail when pleading guilty after a sickening, unprovoked attack on a bus driver in Surfers Paradise in broad daylight.

There are also growing concerns the CCC, despite tracking the gangs, does not have the budget to launch an offensive against the bikies.

The CCC annual report revealed the percentage of targeted criminal gangs “disrupted” by investigations had decreased by 15 per cent.

“Hearings to date have established clear links between outlaw motorcycle gang violence and the drug trade. Incidents explored so far have revolved around drug debts, drug robberies and deals which have soured,” the report said.

A bikie source said the Comancheros never sustained a decline in ranks while Satudarah was mainly Sydney-based.

“They (Satudarah) are very active, violent and full on. They’re involved in drugs, stand-over, they are very powerful in Sydney.”