BRITTON BROUN AND MICHAEL FORBES
stuff.co.nz
The arrival of the Rebels Motorcycle Club will be a big problem for New Zealand if they are able to organise, an Australian gang expert says.
Former New South Wales detective turned true-crime writer Duncan McNab said the Rebels were "whoppers" on the Australian criminal scene, involved in serious violence, and drug and weapons trafficking.
In recent months patched Rebels members have been spotted in Taupo, Palmerston North and Whangarei.
Late last month there was trouble with a dozen Rebels at Auckland Airport, and this week police raided addresses across the North Island in a massive methamphetamine bust, arresting at least two members of the club.
"You have a genuine problem: the difficulty in every other jurisdiction is the cops have thought, 'It's not a problem, it will go away'," Mr McNab said.
"It's not uncommon for the larger gang to arrive in the new market and grow quickly because they assimilate [other] gangs who have a similar interest.
"As businessmen the bikers are pragmatic. If there's a deal to be done, and unless they really, really want to kill each other, they will work together for the duration of the deal."
Most international gangs expanded by finding kindred spirits locally and approaching local organisations to expand with them.
It was also about bringing expertise and sharing skills.
For example, American Hells Angels introduced the ability to make amphetamines safely and effectively into Australia, while in return Australians provided them with raw materials to make the drug that were not available in the United States.
"The Rebels would bring to the New Zealand gangs expertise in a wide range of portfolios and possibly access to suppliers of various [drugs]. The local gangs provide local knowledge of the market and the hands-on networks they have already established."
Though the Rebels had always argued they were motorcycle enthusiasts, and some genuinely were, Mr McNab said anyone who styled themselves as an outlaw motorcycle gang member tended to be more interested in crime.
In 2008, two Rebels associates were arrested for the murder of a rival gang member. A year later a former Rebels president, Richard "Rebel Rick" Roberts, 57, a Maori, was shot dead in Canberra.
Mr McNab was in the New South Wales police during the Milperra massacre at a suburban Sydney tavern on Fathers Day 1984, when a battle between rival Comancheros and Bandidos left six motorcycle club members and a 14-year-old girl bystander dead.
Police thought that would be the end of troubles and left bike gangs alone. But by the late 1990s they had become a mainstay in organised crime.
BIG EFFORT TO STOP GANG MEMBERS GETTING SETTLED IN NZ
Police say they are working any way they can with other government departments to stop the Rebels Motorcycle Club from becoming established here.
However, Australian members of the Rebels Motorcycle Club are distancing themselves from the alleged drug trading of their New Zealand counterparts.
A spokesperson for Rebels MC Australia, who would not be named, told The Dominion Post the club did not support the sale or distribution of illicit drugs.
"What people do in their own homes is not the club's responsibility.
"If a member of a football club got found selling drugs, would you take the whole club down because of a few? No!"
The Australian Government and police consider the Rebels a criminal organisation, but the club itself claims to be a group for motorcycle enthusiasts.
Detective Superintendent Brett Kane, from the police Organised and Financial Crime Agency, said police were working with other departments such as Customs, Inland Revenue and Work and Income to stop Rebels members any way they could.
That could include police pulling over the motorcyclists on the roads, seizing assets under New Zealand proceeds of crime legislation and investigating money laundering or tax avoidance.
Last month an Australian Rebels member was stopped and turned back by Customs officers at Auckland Airport, Mr Kane said.
New Zealand police were working with Australian authorities to monitor Kiwi nationals who were members of the gang in Australia.
"There's been a good sharing of intelligence ... It's about disruption [of the club] in the widest possible sense."
More than 100 police from five districts raided addresses in the North Island on Thursday, seizing luxury cars, motorbikes, guns, drugs and more than $120,000 in cash.
The raids represented the major bust of "Operation Stamp", which covertly monitored a large-scale methamphetamine distribution network run by four gangs, including the Rebels.
Police have not named the other gangs involved, but one is understood to be the Tribesmen, which has recently had members join the Rebels, police say.
- The Dominion Post
