Tit-for-tat shootings blamed on bikie row

SIMMERING tensions between elements of the rival Hells Angels and Nomad bikie gangs erupted at the weekend with shots fired outside two houses – including an Ibrahim family home – in western Sydney on Saturday night.

The linked attacks, one outside a house in Merrylands and another outside a house in Ermington, were the latest in a series of tit-for-tat incidents that have seen shots fired into or outside eight different premises since October 27.

Police are playing down mounting fears that the weekend incidents mark the start of an all-out war between the gangs, saying the conflict is between groups of individuals inside the gangs.

The commander of the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, Deb Wallace, said: ”We believe this is not an all-out bikie war, more a case of individuals within those groups that are in dispute and we are still working on the motive for that dispute.”

Police set up Strike Force Felix on October 28, the day after the first of the shootings, which occurred outside an Oporto restaurant in Merrylands where it is believed a group of men linked to the Nomads were meeting.

The Nomads have recently re-formed a chapter in Parramatta after a hiatus of seven years, while the Hells Angels have beefed up their operations with the absorption of the local Bandidos chapter.

In the first incident on Saturday night, shots were fired into the air near an Ibrahim family home on the corner of Price and Holdsworth streets in Merrylands at about 8.45 pm, followed by the attack on the house in Ermington about midnight.

Detective Superintendent Wallace said Strike Force Felix was operating with state crime command’s gangs squad and was mobilising local area police to crack down on the wave of shootings.

”Its an all-out proactive response specifically targeting locations, people and vehicles who are regarded as able to progress the investigation,” she said. ”We are specifically targeting people who we believe might inject themselves into this dispute.”

She said that unless people who knew what the dispute was about came forward to help put a stop to it, there was a high risk of injury to someone caught up in it or those close to them.

”People out there who are directly involved in the dispute know exactly what its about” Detective Superintendent Wallace said. ”If they have no care for their own safety, then dismiss that, but think about the safety of their family, friends and relatives.”

The commander of the gangs squad, Arthur Katsogiannis, said the silence of those caught up in the dispute was impeding police inquiries.

Also on Saturday night, a 19-year old man with links to the Hells Angels was arrested in Auburn in possession of 100 ecstasy tablets.

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