COMANCHERO bikies have lost their mantle as Victoria’s most powerful organised criminal gang after closing clubhouses and losing members.
The outlaw bikie club has shut its original Victorian clubhouses in South Melbourne and Hallam under pressure from Victoria Police’s bikie Echo taskforce.
Police have laid hundreds of charges against members of the bikie gang.
EDITORIAL: BIKIES GET THE BOOT
The vacuum left by the Comancheros has been filled by Australia’s newest major outlaw club, Mongols MC.
The Mongols are being “taken over’’ by new members described as “Middle Eastern’’ crime figures, many of whom have been “patched’’ within the prison system.
Powerful and violent criminal George Marrogi became a club member before he was paroled within the past fortnight.
Another influential prisoner, Mohammad Akbar Keshtier, known as “Afghan Ali”, is set to join the club at the end of the year when he is released after serving years in a maximum-security prison for two attempted murders.
The Herald Sun understands only one Comancheros chapter, in Williamstown, remains active.
It is run by chapter president Faafatia Faaloia and sergeant-at-arms Norm Meyer.
Faaloia survived being shot in the back on the Mornington Peninsula.
Comanchero bikies in the mess left after Police raided their South Melbourne club house.
Comanchero bikies in the mess left after Police raided their South Melbourne club house. Picture: Nicole Garmston
The Comancheros have lowered their profile since a series of police raids more than a year ago.
The gang has also been divided by member finances; some have been unable to pay their dues.
The club’s past two state commanders, Amad “Jay’’ Malkoun and Mick Murray, have both distanced themselves from other club members amid police investigations into their activities, including into allegedly undisclosed wealth.
Murray, whom a court has banned from associating with Comanchero members, is currently facing charges.
Other members have either left the club or been thrown out:
MALKOUN left Victoria for Dubai to widen his international connections, but remains active in buying properties in Australia.
MALKOUN’S friend, Samson Bazi, fell out with Malkoun over a woman with whom both had associated.
CLUB treasurer Justin Clark was thrown out of the gang and jailed following a major Australian Federal Police bust involving drug mules who were smuggling in cocaine from Mexico.
JOSH Faulkhead, who claimed he was an infamous Army sniper, was arrested on major ice trafficking charges and attacks in Mildura. The Comancheros were selling more than $100,000 a week of ice in the Mallee district.
FORMER Rebel turned Comanchero Anthony Moss was convicted on drug offences.
The Hells Angels, the club the Comancheros had replaced at the top of Victoria’s pecking order, has also experienced a period of change involving the toppling of several of its ranking members.
Its most prominent identity, Peter Hewat, is no longer the sergeant-at-arms of its East County chapter in Campbellfield, following his arrest over allegations relating to his behaviour in the towing industry.
Other Hells Angels members in its “Big House Crew’’ are among more than 100 bikies who have been jailed since the Echo taskforce was set up in 2011.
Detective Inspector Ian Campbell, from the taskforce, said its success had been attributed to a collaborative approach by state and federal agencies including the Australian Federal Police’s National Anti-Gangs Squad, the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Customs and Border Protections Service.