A 23-year-old Comanchero was shot dead outside a wedding in the city's southwest
on Sunday, and three others were wounded in an apparent revenge attack on
Wednesday morning. One of the victims of the most recent shooting is among the
suspects for the fatal shooting earlier in the week.
The rivalry between the gaxxx's chapters is thought to have its roots in a recruitment drive launched after some members were jailed for their part in a 2009 brawl at Sydney airport in which a man was killed.
A NSW chapter of the Rock Machine gaxxx - originally from Canada, where it was involved in a bloody drug feud with Hells Angels - "patched over" to join the Comancheros earlier this year.
Rock Machine, reportedly also active in Victoria and Western Australia, had begun to establish its position in Australia only in the past few years. While limited in numbers in NSW, its members are thought to have links to Serbian organised crime.
Detectives believe there are now tensions between this new chapter and the established Sydney Comancheros. The conviction in February of its national president, Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, for murdering a member of the Hells Angels during the airport brawl has also left its leadership in doubt.
Police investigating the killing of 23-year-old Faalau Pisu, shot twice in the head while leaving the wedding reception at a Serbian function centre, are also looking into reports of a dispute between guests earlier that night.
Two other Comancheros were also wounded in the attack, while a third - reported to be a suspect in the shooting - is in hospital after being shot four times outside a shopping centre in the city's inner west on Wednesday.
Two alleged senior Comancheros were arrested in separate, and unrelated, police operations in Sydney and Melbourne yesterday. The Sydney man is alleged to have assaulted three people at a casino earlier this year. Victorian police allege a Southbank man, who faced court yesterday on drug charges, is a key player in an international network involving a Mexican drug cartel.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/recruiting-war-link-to-spate-of-bikie-shootings/story-e6frg6nf-1226513317704
The rivalry between the gaxxx's chapters is thought to have its roots in a recruitment drive launched after some members were jailed for their part in a 2009 brawl at Sydney airport in which a man was killed.
A NSW chapter of the Rock Machine gaxxx - originally from Canada, where it was involved in a bloody drug feud with Hells Angels - "patched over" to join the Comancheros earlier this year.
Rock Machine, reportedly also active in Victoria and Western Australia, had begun to establish its position in Australia only in the past few years. While limited in numbers in NSW, its members are thought to have links to Serbian organised crime.
Detectives believe there are now tensions between this new chapter and the established Sydney Comancheros. The conviction in February of its national president, Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, for murdering a member of the Hells Angels during the airport brawl has also left its leadership in doubt.
Police investigating the killing of 23-year-old Faalau Pisu, shot twice in the head while leaving the wedding reception at a Serbian function centre, are also looking into reports of a dispute between guests earlier that night.
Two other Comancheros were also wounded in the attack, while a third - reported to be a suspect in the shooting - is in hospital after being shot four times outside a shopping centre in the city's inner west on Wednesday.
Two alleged senior Comancheros were arrested in separate, and unrelated, police operations in Sydney and Melbourne yesterday. The Sydney man is alleged to have assaulted three people at a casino earlier this year. Victorian police allege a Southbank man, who faced court yesterday on drug charges, is a key player in an international network involving a Mexican drug cartel.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/recruiting-war-link-to-spate-of-bikie-shootings/story-e6frg6nf-1226513317704