Defections of prominent Hunter bikies from Nomads and Comancheros to the Finks has law enforcement on alert for violence

A VIGOROUS recruitment drive taking advantage of in-house spats within rival gangs is being blamed for increased tensions between Hunter bikies, leaving police to ready themselves to extinguish any spot fires that flare up.
 

Several high-ranking members of the Nomads and Comancheros have “patched over” to join the Finks, the relatively new gang in town, prompting suggestions that they may bring other members.
 

It includes one Nomad who failed in his bid to nab his local chapter’s enforcer’s role of sergeants at arms and a nationally-recognised Comanchero who has even cut off a facial tattoo honouring his former club in a strong show of allegiance to his new colours.
 

Gang defecting, or “patching over” as it is known where members replace one set of colours or “patch” with those of another gang, is seen as a serious crime in bikie circles and has traditionally attracted significant vengeance.
 

And the tensions have boiled over at least once in the past fortnight, with a street brawl erupting at Wallsend after members of the Finks and Nomads eyed each other off after coincidentally stopping at service stations across the road from one another on December 9.
 

At least one of the new recruits is suspected of being involved in the Wallsend brawl, where baseball bats and plastic window cleaners were used as weapons.

The brawl prompted further focus on both gangs, with a series of raids last Wednesday by a police strike force set up in April to investigate bikie activities across the Hunter.

Strike Force Wilwendam was set up to look into the public shooting of Nomads enforcer Matt Eather, who was found on the Port Stephens dirt track in April with bullet wounds to both legs and a fractured thigh bone.

No one has been charged, with police suspecting Mr Eather was attacked from within the gang because of an unpaid debt.
 

We have not tolerated any nonsense as far as gang-related activity, intimidatory activity or even a perception of intimidation is concerned, and that will continue. We will be relentless about this. - Assistant Commissioner Jeff Loy

One of the raids last Wednesday was on Mr Eather’s home at Salamander Bay, where the former rugby league player was handed a firearm’s prohibition order.
 

He was also given a court attendance notice to face charges of possessing ammunition and possessing a prescribed restricted substance after police allegedly seized steroids.

Strike Force Wilwendam has now charged 17 people, including members and associates of the Nomads and the Finks.

Problems within the Nomads’ Newcastle chapter, traditionally the gang which held sway in the city with their clubhouse at Islington, stem back to a coup several years ago.
 

Splinter groups within the chapter were formed and more pressure was placed on the hierarchy with the emergence of the “feeder club” 14 Street Crew – a crude pointer to the Nomads because the letter “n” is the 14^th letter in the alphabet.
 

But some high-profile members and nominees had a massive falling out and others were jailed.

In 2015, some members of the Nomads national committee arrived for a top secret meeting at Wickham to sort out the chapter’s problems, only for police and the bikie squad, Strike Force Raptor, to ruin the party when they turned up.
 

The shooting of Mr Eather again put the Nomads on the police radar and Strike Force Wilwendam worked quietly to investigate them and others.
 

High-ranking Newcastle Nomad Stephen Garland was arrested in the Northern Territory in September for allegedly trafficking three kilograms of ecstasy, worth about $750,000.
 

And then the first of a series of raids were performed last month by heavily-armed police using the state’s Bearcat armoured truck where five people – all allegedly associated with either the Nomads or the Finks – were arrested.
 

One of those arrested stands accused of being a gun trafficker who supplied 300 grams of ice in two months.
 

But as the Nomads stumbled, the Finks quietly moved into town and grew.

With the knowledge that police were cracking down on overt bikie gangs, using 70-year-old legislation to gut and close bikie clubhouses, they quietly recruited.

But a brawl at a Wallsend pub earlier this month, where several Finks members were involved in the carpark stoush with some locals, got the attention of police.

Fairfax Media understands senior officers had drawn a line in the sand after hearing that a gun may have been produced during the brawl but failed to fire.

Within days, there were a series of raids.

No one was arrested, but police gathered evidence and some intelligence, including what looked a lot like a clubhouse in an unassuming shed on a private property at Cameron Park.

Northern Region commander Assistant Commissioner Jeff Loy has been tough with bikies since he took on the position, sparking the shutting down on clubhouses which has continued across the state.

“We have not tolerated any nonsense as far as gang-related activity, intimidatory activity or even a perception of intimidation is concerned, and that will continue,’’ Mr Loy said.
 

“We will be relentless about this.

“We don’t want the community to have a perception that they have something to be fearful about.”