$500K PRICE ON HIS HEAD
Bikies plotted to kill top cops
A PROMINENT criminal figure discussed a $1 million hit on two senior police officers at the height of the bikie crackdown on the Gold Coast.
The Gold Coast Bulletin can reveal one of the officers with a $500,000 bounty on his head was Superintendent Jim Keogh, who at the time was commanding the Rapid Action and Patrol group.
In a 12-month assault after the former Newman government introduced the tough VLAD laws in late 2013, RAP and Taskforce Maxima arrested more than 3200 criminals on 5000 charges, depleted bikie membership and closed down 10 clubhouses on the Coast.
Crime sources suggest the underworld figure, a former Coast businessman, was behind the planned hit and bikie gang members discussed their fee with “prices of $1 million being mooted”.
The Bulletin asked Supt Keogh about the threat and he confirmed the police hierarchy had taken it seriously as he and his officers spent two years on the front line through to 2015.
“There was a major threat to staff at RAP,” Supt Keogh said.
“You have to view it seriously, violence to these people comes as second nature. But you can’t walk around worrying all the time, and obviously you have to take precautions.” Supt Keogh was transferred from RAP to Brisbane 2015 and on the eve of his retirement yesterday after more than 37 years in the force, he revealed: Police only discovered that bikies controlled the Surfers Paradise nightclub strip after intelligence gathered during a crackdown on intoxicated nightclub patrons in mid-2000.
Detectives did not receive help from nightclub owners who knew drunken patrons helped pay their high rents and bikies could man their security.
Before RAP, police did not have the strength to beat the bikies on the street and outlaw motorcycle gangs were right in saying “We run this town”.
The bikie brawl at Broadbeach in 2013 was always going to happen because gangs got territorial and cocky, wanting control of the city’s “cocaine mecca”.
*The majority of Coast police are dedicated and hardworking, and younger officers need support and direction.
Supt Keogh admits it is “hard to say” which side is winning the ongoing war between police and the bikies.
While the hard work of RAP and Maxima had returned the control of the streets back to the residents of the Coast, the bikies were continuing their covert operations.
“They were never going to surrender the honeypot of crime that was the Gold Coast,’’ Supt Keogh said.
“And that’s something to never lose sight of.”
Supt Keogh yesterday received two medals from Police Commissioner Ian Stewart – the Meritorious Service Medal and the Exemplary Conduct Medal – which recognised the “high visibility and low tolerance” police strategy which led to the success of the bikie crackdown.