SUNDAY
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DEAD MAN RUNNING

The fight against organised crime within the motorcycle gang fraternity is being seriously compromised by police mistakes and operational failures, according to a former undercover informant from the Bandidos – one of the country’s most notorious bikie gangs. The informant, (who in Queensland must be referred to as “Joe Florida” because of pending charges in that state), says murders have gone unsolved, and illegal drugs and weapons have flooded on to the streets, because Australia’s peak organised crime fighting body – the Crime Commission – was refused permission to run him in an operation in Qld.

In a SUNDAY exclusive, reporter Ross Coulthart presents these explosive claims in an interview with Florida, a convicted criminal, who for a decade was a trusted associate of senior Bandidos motorcycle gang members. In the interview Florida claims that he witnessed, or has knowledge of a litany of crimes including:

•At least two other murders, including one officially deemed a suicide, where a former Bandido was forced to hang himself because a corrupt Qld Police informant had tipped gang-members that he was a police informant.
•A Qld Police officer tipping off Bandido members to forthcoming raids on their properties
•Extensive involvement by bikie gangs in the illegal drugs trade. He alerted Qld Police to the existence of two operating illegal drugs labs hidden in remote bushland. He says the labs also contained substantial quantities of heroin and hydroponic marijuana but Qld Police ignored the tip for six months, by which time the drugs were mostly no longer there; Florida was forced to flee overseas after it was discovered he was acting as an informant, and as a result was beaten by several Bandidos members in an attempt on his life.

He claims that his repeated requests for help from the Crime Commission have been ignored. "I feel total betrayal," he told SUNDAY. "Last time I looked, regardless of what anyone thinks of me, I did the right thing and I’m still a citizen of Australia. Why wasn’t I looked after?"NOTE: In states other than Queensland, SUNDAY will identify “Joe Florida”.