Theme park arrest
Coast police involved in Adelaide cold case
A SOUTH Australian woman was arrested at Dreamworld yesterday morning for her alleged involvement in the 2012 cold case murder of father-of two Jason De Ieso in Adelaide.
Two men with links to the Hells Angels bikie gang were also arrested in Adelaide yesterday in relation to the murder .
The woman briefly appeared in Southport Magistrates Court yesterday but the court was closed, locking media out of the court room.
A suppression order was also put in place preventing the woman from being identified.
It is understood the woman was arrested at Dreamworld yesterday morning.
She arrived on the Gold Coast for a holiday on Thursday night and was expected to return on Sunday.
In a major breakthrough, teams of Major Crime and Crime Gangs Task Force detectives – with STAR Group support – raided numerous Adelaide homes in a coordinated operation.
The raids were the culmination of a covert 18month operation – dubbed Alpha – that has been reinvestigating the 2012 shooting murder of Mr De Ieso.
Further arrests are likely as the overt component of the operation continued throughout yesterday and over the weekend.
The operation, led by specialist detectives who have spent the past decade investigating the activities of Hells Angels bikies in SA, has been one of the largest ever conducted by SA police.
Those arrested in yesterday’s raids were among the nine men – all Hells Angels members or associates – who stormed into Mr De Ieso’s Pooraka panel beating business on November 21, 2012.
Five of the men were armed with handguns and fired a volley of shots inside the workshop – one hitting Mr De Ieso in the head and killing him instantly.
In 2017, it was revealed a senior Finks bikie was the target of the group of men – who at the time were just Hells Angels nominees.
Finks member Charlie Bonnici had left the workshop just 10 minutes before the nine men burst into Unique Custom Paint & Panel.
The fatal shooting was the culmination of four days of violent feuding between Hells Angels North Crew wannabes and members of the Finks.
While Mr De Ieso knew several members of the Finks because they used his spray-painting skills, he was not an associate or intending to become a member.
Major Crime detectives identified the nine men who stormed into Mr De Ieso’s workshop early in the investigation, but the inquiry has been plagued by the refusal of any witnesses to give evidence against them.
As part of the inquiry, several men were summonsed to appear before coercive hearings conducted by the Australian Crime and Intelligence Commission.
Those charged yesterday had allegedly been involved in violent incidents in the days prior to the shooting as they feuded with Finks members.
These included a violent brawl at a kickboxing tournament, the firebombing of a house occupied by one of the charged men and the trashing of a tattoo parlour a short time before the shooting.