Amelia Harris
Josh Robertson and Jeremy Pierce
couriermail.com.au
VIDEO,
http://video.couriermail.com.au/2228936871/Shopping-centre-shooter-arrested
HEAVILY-armed police have arrested a Victorian man over a Queensland bikie shooting which wounded two people, including an innocent woman.
Officers from the Operations Group and detectives from bikie taskforce Echo swooped on Mark James Graham in Melton, west of Melbourne, about 8.20pm yesterday.
The 26-year-old Keilor man was remanded in custody at an out-of-sessions hearing.
He will face the Melbourne Magistrates' Court later this morning.
A Queensland police taskforce into the wave of bikie violence had been unable to identify the heavily-tattooed man who allegedly opened fire on a rival in a packed Gold Coast shopping centre on Saturday.
A 42-year-old man, linked to a bikie gang, was shot in the arm and a 53-year-old woman was caught in the crossfire in the shooting at Robina Town Centre.
Detectives from Queensland are expected to travel to Victoria to apply for Mr Graham's extradition.
OUTLAW bikies in Australia should not have allowed people of Middle Eastern origin into their clubs because they have a different "moral code", bikie spokesman says.
POLICE believe a "hired gun" from Sydney may have fired the latest shots in southeast Queensland's increasingly bloody bikie war.
TWENTY extra detectives will hit the streets of the Gold Coast and Brisbane in the wake of yesterday's double shooting at Robina Town Centre.
TWENTY extra detectives will hit the streets of the Gold Coast and Brisbane in the wake of yesterday's double shooting at Robina Town Centre.
POLICE say an incident in which shots were fired at a parked car at a home north of Brisbane is not bikie-related.
A GUNMAN was still on the loose after a terrifying double shooting at the Gold Coast's busiest shopping centre, as the city's bikie war escalated.
THE old guard of outlaw motorcycle gangs is being pushed aside by a violent drugged-up new generation, some of whom do not even ride bikes.
Police released CCTV images of the man on Sunday and appealed for public help to find him.
Earlier today, The Courier-Mail reported that Hells Angels leaders have emphatically rejected reports they were at war with the Bandidos following the shooting of Jacques Teamo last week.
There were suggestions that Queensland's ongoing "bikie war" was being orchestrated from interstate by Rebels.
Some have accused interstate Rebels of using southern mercenaries masquerading as Hells Angels to provoke a feud with the Bandidos.
A club source said: "It was not the Hells Angels who shot up an innocent bystander or anyone else."
"In fact, (police task force) Hydra's spoken to us and told us they know that it's not us."
Teamo, who was shot in front of his two children in busy Robina shopping centre on the Gold Coast on Saturday, has maintained the bikie code of silence.
The shooting, which Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said was the "worst-case scenario" for bikie violence, was previously thought to have been part of rolling cross-club skirmishes triggered by the bashing of a Hells Angel by a Bandidos rival while he was out to dinner on the Gold Coast.
Senior Gold Coast bikies said the Hells Angel was among a group of about 16 bikies from Sydney, mainly of Middle Eastern descent, led by convicted drug producer Peter Sidirourgos, who had been operating a de facto Brisbane city chapter - despite all of them living on the Gold Coast.
While they rubbished reports that the Bandidos, Finks and Lone Wolf clubs had formally met to organise opposition to the Hells Angels expanding on the Coast, the general consensus was that any moves beyond Brisbane were "not welcome".
The senior bikies rued the shooting, expecting that public outrage about an innocent woman caught in the crossfire would lead to more police resources and a crackdown on core businesses, including drug manufacture and trafficking.
However, senior Queensland-based Hells Angels rejected suggestions that Saturday's shooting had anything to do with the crew run by Sidirourgos, whose Oxenford gym and Norman Park tattoo shop have come under attack.
A senior bikie denied any Hells Angels involvement in attacks on a Bandido-owned caryard and tattoo shop last week.
"Someone portraying themselves as one of us locked horns with some (Bandidos) members," he said.
He said Sydney-based Rebels were "drumming up" conflict in a divide-and-conquer strategy, citing last week's botched drive-by attack on the Gypsy Jokers' clubhouse at Everton Hills as evidence of Rebels agitation.
"Think about it: The Gypsy Jokers got shot up, the Rebels don't want them on the northside," he said. "At the same time they want to create a war against the Bandidos but their crew weren't up for it. So who else do you f---ing get? Us. Us and the Bandidos at war and they sit back and lick their chops."
Police declined to comment on the claims, while Sidirourgos and senior Bandido Mario Vosmaer did not return calls yesterday.
Meanwhile, the police crackdown on bikies moved up a gear yesterday with a senior Gold Coast Bandido arrested after he was allegedly caught driving a stolen yellow BMW.
Police held a high-visibility traffic operation metres from the Bandidos' Mermaid Beach clubhouse, while the city's police helicopter patrolled the skies near homes and haunts of known bikies.
