BY: LUKE ELIOT and SEAN COWANnews.yahoo.com
The West Australian ©
Police believe one of Australia's most notorious bikie gangs is preparing to rapidly expand its WA chapter with the rise of a new hierarchy that has filled the void left by the arrests of key members.
Gang crime squad officers last week pored over the Comancheros' clubhouse, housed inside the Fitness N Fight Centre building in Northbridge, after a shooting at a Darch home occupied by a man linked to the gang.
_The Weekend West _ understands Comancheros paraphernalia was found inside the clubhouse and sources believe the fledgling gang was hoping to double its membership in the coming months.
The gang's WA expansion started in 2007, but has been hampered by a string of high-profile arrests, including that of the WA president.
He cannot be named because he is facing a drugs trial.
Police believe the prime motivation for the gang's move west was the lure of the State's profitable drugs trade. Other gang members were trying to fill the void left by the WA president's arrest.
Another Comancheros member and an associate are also facing extortion charges in WA.
In the past few years, Comancheros bikies have been linked to several high-profile drugs operations, including the discovery of 30,000 ecstasy pills and 22kg of methylamphetamine at Jandakot Airport in 2008. The men arrested after that seizure are also awaiting trial.
But the gang's best known involvement in the recent history of Perth's underworld was as the catalyst for the ongoing war between the Coffin Cheaters and the Finks. In 2007, shortly after their arrival in WA, the WA president was bashed by then-Cheater Troy Mercanti and an associate.
The bikie refused to identify his attackers to police, but the Comancheros torched a building at the Coffin Cheaters' Bayswater headquarters less than two weeks later, causing up to $500,000 damage. The Cheaters retaliated by setting fire to a Yokine fish and chip shop owned by the beaten Comancheros bikie's brother.
Det-Supt Charlie Carver said the Comancheros was an established Eastern States gang which had a long history of violence, including its involvement in a brutal brawl at Sydney Airport.
"If there is a duplication over here I would suggest that there could be some flare-ups here," Det-Supt Carver said.
'I would suggest that there could be some flare-ups here.'" Police Det-Supt *Charlie Carver *