Image by Salvatore Rubino from Pixabay
A senior member of the Hell’s Angels bikie gang has appeared in a Perth court after allegedly being caught with drugs estimated to be worth $10-million.
The 53-year-old was allegedly seen by surveillance officers digging up a bag containing around 10kg of methamphetamine that had been hidden in a bushland area.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrested the man after he dug up a duffle bag containing the drugs from bushland in Edgewater, WA, on Thursday afternoon.
AFP officers were watching the Hell’s Angels member as he entered scrub next to a northern suburbs park and used his hands to dig an area of dirt covered by a tree branch.
Investigators allege they saw the bikie remove a large cloth duffle bag from the ground and swooped as he walked towards a nearby trail.
The bag was filled with several clear sealed bags containing a white crystalline substance, which police believe is methamphetamine.
Further testing is being done to determine the quantity and purity of the seized substance.
After the man’s arrest, the WA Police Force Gang Crime Squad assisted the AFP’s National Anti-Gangs Squad on a further search of the bushland where the duffle bag had been buried, as well as a search of the 53-year-old’s home in Perth’s south-eastern suburbs.
The man has been charged with trafficking a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs. The maximum penalty for the offence is life imprisonment.
AFP Superintendent Renee Colley said police refused bail, alleging the man is a senior Hells Angels member who regularly travels between WA and South Australia.
“This is yet another example of the links between outlaw motorcycle gangs and the illicit drug trade,” Colley said.
” Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (known as OMCGs) are motivated by greed and this amount of meth could have been sold to 100,000 people, netting between $8-million and $10million at current Perth prices.
“We are not going to let criminal gangs profit at the expense of our communities and we will continue to be relentless in our efforts to stop the distribution of illicit drugs,” Colley stated.