November 8, 2013
Twenty-one Rebels Motorcycle Club “participants” have been charged with 35 offences over the past week, police announced today.
Search warrants were executed at Tewantin, Caloundra and Coolum as well as “rolling operations” throughout Queensland.
Speaking at a media conference at Police Headquarters in Brisbane, Detective Superintendent Mick Niland said charges included possession of drug-making precursor chemicals and possession of a rifle and a replica handgun.
He said two Rebels associates had been charged over a break and enter at the Yeerongpilly Brisbane City Council depot where copper wiring and pipes had been stolen.
There were also nine charges of drug possession, including 635g of methylamphetamine at Coomera, and an associate was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm after an incident at an Ipswich hotel.
Other charges included possessing tainted property and one charge of unlawful use of a motor vehicle.
No officer bearers from the Rebels were charged with any offences.
Deputy Police Commissioner Brett Pointing said the Rebels were “by far” the largest motorcycle gang in Australia with more than 1600 members and/or nominees. He described them as a sophisticated criminal network which had begun in Brisbane 44 years ago and had now spread around the world.
“They are three times larger than their nearest rivals, the Hells Angels (in Australia),” he said.
He said they were the only “CMG” (“criminal motorcycle gang”) to have a presence in all Australian States and had 19 chapters overseas including in Europe, the United States and south-east Asia.
Det Supt Nilan described the Rebels MC as a “high risk criminal threat to the Australian community”.
“This is the face of organised crime in Queensland,” he said.
He said the the club had a high degree of criminality involving drug running and extortion.
“They now are the largest group … across Australia, they are in every State and they have the highest volume of participants in Australia.”
He said a “participant” could be an associate, a member of the club or anyone “who does any work that sustains them as a group”.
Queensland Police’s “Taskforce Maxima”, “Taskforce Takeback” and regional police conducted the operations targeting the Rebels as part of the Attero National Task Force.
Det Supt Nilan said that since Taskforce Maxima began four weeks ago in Queensland, 255 CMG participants had been charged with more than 478 offences.
