Josh Robertson, Kate Kyriacou and Brittany Vonow
A business owner told The Courier-Mail that the Bandidos last Sunday installed a metal wall to cover most of their front window on busy Stanley St. The cover yesterday protected the clubhouse from more potential gunfire.
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A CADRE of Balkan Bandidos bikies was quick to adopt a battle stance yesterday, rallying at the scene of a gunshot attack on a Milton tattoo parlour linked to their divisive new Brisbane chapter.
Court documents show the web of fear drawn by members of a notorious outlaw bikie club
POLICE have denied bikie violence is escalating despite the overnight shootings at two Brisbane buildings with bikie links.
A CONTROVERSIAL new law has allowed police to reveal the names of about 50 Gold Coast members of the Finks Motorcycle Club - most convicted criminals.
PREMIER Campbell Newman has blamed the former Labor Government for the flare-up in bikie-related violence after the latest shootings in Brisbane.
YOU want to be a bikie? Well, there's some rules to follow.
The attacks, which mirrored a string of co-ordinated assaults on Bandido and Hells Angels-linked businesses in recent months, reinforced the violent divisions between bikies.
They came just days after police launched their first bid to have a bikie club declared a criminal organisation under controversial anti-association laws.
Shocking new details emerged yesterday about the targeted club, the Finks of Surfers Paradise, with court documents showing weapons allegedly used by the gang including meat cleavers engraved with "Terror Team".
Want to join the Finks? Well, they have rules
The attacks came the same morning two Centro Bandidos appeared in court over their role in a brawl at a Mt Gravatt restaurant which triggered the April reprisals.
The Finks were not believed to be involved in yesterday's violence which prompted Detective Inspector Garry Watts of anti-bikie squad Hydra to warn clubs considering retaliation to "consider very carefully whether it's worthwhile".
"These things have a tendency to be a little bit tit-for-tat sometimes," he said.
"(But) these sorts of acts committed in public places will not be tolerated by the Queensland Police Service."
One underworld source said the Bandidos were "as popular as a pork chop at a synagogue barbecue" after they withdrew last year from the United Motorcycle Council, the bikies "peak body" set up to settle disputes and gather a fighting fund to challenge the Criminal Organisation Act in the High Court.
The damage at the clubhouse included two shots to the building's awnings and two shots to separate windows while a fifth shot pierced the shopfront of a Vietnamese restaurant.
CK and Irene Woo said the damage was heartbreaking.
"We don't know what to do," Mr Woo said.
Describing themselves as "normal citizens", the couple said they had never had trouble.
Neighbours said the Bandidos clubhouse was open only on Fridays.
Tyrone Foster, a local hairdresser who also lives in the area, said he heard shots about 4am.
"It just sounded like someone hitting a sign or something," Mr Foster said.
Coffee drinkers in Milton were also forced to negotiate their way around crime scene tape as police inspected the damage to the exterior and interior of the tattoo shop.
The tattoo parlour, which sits behind La Dolce Vita Caffe and its affiliated restaurant, is hidden from view at the top of a flight of stairs among legal and financial offices.
The shopfront had been shot four times, leaving fist-sized holes in the glass facade. Inksanity staffers in black hooded jumpers gathered on the footpath as police investigated.
A cafe worker said it was not the first time police had been called to the tattoo parlour.
Salvatore Virzi, whose son owns La Dolce Vita Caffe, said he was worried about the impact of the shootings on business.
"'We've been here 23 years. We have good customers here. Good people, professional people," he said.
"Things like this, they are not good for business."