NATIONAL
Feared Dutch-based Outlaw Motor Cycle Gang Satudarah returns to Australia to set up chapters
Charles Miranda, News Corp Australia Network
December 24, 2017 12:56am
Charles Miranda, News Corp Australia Network
Subscriber only
EXCLUSIVE
A year after they were confidently declared purged from Australia, a feared Dutch-based Outlaw Motor Cycle Gang is actively back in the country and actually trying to expand.
The revelation comes as the level of intelligence reporting of OMCG gangs in Australia more than triples in the past 12 months with warnings OMCGs still pose the greatest community risk in the nation.
Satudarah, which had set up in south east Queensland, South Australia and NSW in 2015, were raided in January last year with a clubhouse in Sydney shut down and drugs and firearm components seized and police confidently declaring they believed that was it.
But new police intelligence obtained by News Corp Australia has found not only was the shutdown “only temporary†but they were already back and actively looking to expand by forming alliances with already established Australian OMCGs.
Law enforcement in the Philippines has also noted the gang, that established in the Netherlands in the 1990s with Indonesian immigrants, is also attempting a foothold in their country now.
Social media campaign to attract members to Satudarah in 2016. Picture: Supplied
“They did effectively shut down a chapter in Sydney however they are certainly looking to expand in Australia, they are still active in Australia,†a senior law enforcement intelligence officer told News Corp Australia on condition of anonymity.
“They haven’t established here in a co-ordinated sense because thankfully they haven’t chosen the right people to do it. But given the lucrative drug market here they are certainly targeting Australia as a place to set up.â€
It is understood the group, which shamelessly over-promotes themselves as a ‘family club’ through social media, are avoiding potential clashes with other biker groups by bartering “facilitation†in Australia, notably with Hells Angels, for market access offshore in Indonesia.
According to Satudarah, their membership in Australia includes Australian Defence Force personnel including members of the Royal Australian Navy.
A chapter of a banned Dutch bikie gang Satudarah has been shut down in Sydney, with four men arrested and charged with consorting. The group of ten, sanctioned by one of the most violent gangs in Europe, had set themselves up in Sydney. Picture: NSW Police Police
Meanwhile, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has reported in the 2016/17 financial year it had produced 414 intelligence alerts for federal and state-based police forces specifically to assist in targeting OMCGs. The previous year 60 alerts had been done.
An ACIC spokeswoman said yesterday on the past 12 months: “Investigations conducted by the ACIC and partners, identified that OMCGs pose a significant threat to the Australian community. To reduce that threat, there is a need to employ focused and innovative strategies across a broad range of capabilities to complement traditional police methods of investigations.â€
Those capabilities include intelligence and strategy sharing with stakeholders under National Task Force Morpheus to target OMCG leaders, bikers’ wealth, their social media recruitment and tracking foreign bikers travelling to and from Australia.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...s-story/015dc96366be329f1299720522506c9a
