Bikies Are Firebombing Tattoo Parlours in Melbourne

Earlier this month two tattoo parlours in the Melbourne suburbs of Seville and Lilydale were gutted by fire while a house in Beaconsfield, owned by a member of the Rebels, was also the target of a drive-by shooting. As recently as Friday, a third tattoo parlour in Williamstown had a molotov cocktail thrown at its front window. At this stage, Victoria Police believe the attacks were all linked to fighting between the Rebels and an alliance that's formed between the Comancheros and Finks.

While these developments seems pretty serious, Dr Terry Goldsworthy, who is the assistant professor of criminology at Bond University and the country's leading authority on bikie crime, claims media reactions have been excessive."No one's been shot," he says simply. "These just aren't that high powered yet.

As Dr Goldsworthy explained of the new alliance, clubs occasionally join forces to take on a better-resourced, common enemy. And with some 29 chapters and over 2,000 members, The Rebels are considered by the far the largest club in Australia.

After the attempted arson in Williamstown on Friday, Assistant Commissioner Steve Fontana told the Herald Sun that "[there] is a bit of a turf war brewing", and flagged possible 'days of action', in which police would raid clubhouses and homes of all known members or associates. Dr Goldsworthy said he expected such a response in the next week as the police preferred to move quickly with bikie matters.

Victoria Police announced in a public statement that Taskforce Echo and regional detectives were investigating the crimes and that while they were "aware of escalating tensions between the Rebels and Commancheros/Finks OMCGs." They were unable to comment further, although Assistant Commissioner Fontana said that previous hostilities between clubs had been about drug distribution networks.

The raised tensions certainly seem to have police worried. According to the ABC, an email was recently circulated among police members, urging officers to "exercise extreme caution" when patrolling near tattoo parlours and areas frequented by bikies.

According to Dr Goldsworthy this sort of police scrutiny "usually resolves things fairly quickly," as media is bad for illegitimate business. As he says "bikies make for great media so whenever they get involved in something, it's always front page news. They don't want to come to the attention of the police if they can avoid it."

Despite the absence of injury or assaults, the rising tensions appear to have had a cost. The owner of the tattoo parlour destroyed in Seville told the Mountains Views Mail that his employees had lost their jobs due to the fire and he didn't know how he would feed his kids. "There's a lot of crap out there, a lot of people doing it pretty hard, people blaming the wrong people," he said.

Calls to the affected tattoo parlours went unanswered on Wednesday, and several employees of related parlours refused to comment. However the owner of a cafe in Seville, who wanted to remain anonymous, admitted he often saw bikies hanging around the former tattoo parlour. "I know a few of the guys quite well and they couldn't be better blokes," he said. When asked what the arson attacks were about he confided that it was likely a drug issue. "One group is trying to break into another's area. It always seems to be about drug territory," he said.

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