WEBVTT - Sons of Anarchy in central Vic 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.440 If you want to piss off local police, deal drugs 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:05.880 and call your business cartel. 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:09.520 They wheeled the fridge out, shifted that out of the way, 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.560 and there was a secret wall, secret door, whatever you 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.440 want to call it, and there was the entire stash 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:18.920 of cocaine. 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:21.520 It all seems very sons of anarchy, doesn't it. Just 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.400 sort of the small town with their crew of family 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:31.400 miscreants going about the place doing miscreant things. While Andrew's 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:34.480 away on assignment. It's Johnny Burton, producer of the show, 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.560 stepping in again as host. But with me today we 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.040 have two of the finest crime reporters and the entire 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.400 Herald's unused for that being Mark Butler and Reagan Hodge, 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:52.640 and we're here to talk about the story of Josh Eddie. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:58.080 Who he is, what he did, and how he became undone. 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.600 So start off Mark, who is young Josh. 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:06.800 Josh Eddie is a former member of the Mongols. He 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.000 grew up mostly in the town of Cobram, up on 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.600 the Murray. He was known to be trouble, left school early, 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.720 did a lot of different jobs, but probably wouldn't stand 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:23.480 out as the kind of guy who would bring organized 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:29.560 crime to a country center like his. So in twenty nineteen, 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:31.880 and I'm not sure whether he was with one of 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.280 the feeder clubs prior to this, but in twenty nineteen 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:39.320 he joins the Mongols, and obviously that's good for making 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.720 connections in the world of organized crime, and clearly the 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:47.560 Mongols see him as a conduit for selling drugs in 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:52.320 a reasonably large market through the north of the state. 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.320 I think some of these activities extended down to a 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.960 chuker further south and drugs were being moved into state. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:05.240 There was evidence of activity extending to Queensland and a 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:10.120 major bust of a ten kilo shipment heading to Perth 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:16.120 involving these guys. So Eddie sets himself up. Suddenly he's 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.000 got a lot of money. He's running a business called Cartel, 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.720 which was basically a car wash we get your car 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.799 details cleaning up in more ways than one. So he's 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:31.400 cruising around town in a real fancy late model Mercedes. 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:35.320 He's got the chunky jewelry. He's running this business called cartel. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:41.360 Some of the local folk have some most intimidating experiences 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.640 with people wearing cartel hoodies. It starts to get to 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.720 the local police they think we really need to do 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:54.280 something about this. A detective sergeant called Marcus Boyd from 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:56.600 up there, a local detective sergeant who was experienced in 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:02.840 dealing with organized crime entities previously contacts the Echo Task Force, 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.919 the Echo Task Forces, the Anti Organized Chronlin Task Force 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.800 in Melbourne, yep. And they go from there. 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.960 And for those who aren't familiar with Cobram, it's up 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.280 on the Murray River. Population of just under six thousand. 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:19.640 It's really a small country town. 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:21.840 So let's just go through that. So you've got Josh, 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.280 she's got his cartel, which you know, a great name. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.280 It's like Flowers by Irene from the Simpsons or something 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.040 really in terms of a thing. They've got the hoodies. 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.520 They're going around the locals of Cobram and making them 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.160 feel a little bit upset about the world a little bit. 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.560 And is this by intimidation or are they going into 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:40.760 various businesses, you know, making them an off that they 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.160 can't refuse. So there were a few. 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.120 Dust ups around Cobram, and they occurred in some of 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.240 the takeaway joints by some people wearing the cartel merchandise. 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:54.160 So they would advertise their hoodies, T shirts all that 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:56.960 sort of gear with the cartel merch and he'd have 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.200 a handful of people getting around town wearing them after 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.880 a few incidents of little bust ups, nothing major, but 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.920 they were just little confrontations around town. That was one 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.160 element to the police starting to raise their eyebrows at 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.960 this crew who were growing and growing in this small 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:14.640 country town. 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.400 If you want to piss off local police, deal drugs 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:22.760 and call your business cartel, I mean, it's really provocative 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.520 branding which they probably would not be inclined to ignore. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:29.640 And also that point that you made before about driving 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.440 around in a flashy Mercedes, Now I'm really going to 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.560 understand you're a country lad somewhat. I'm also from the country, 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:37.720 and I have to say, in my childhood, I did 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.640 not necessarily see a whole bunch of late model Mercedes 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:42.600 sticking around with the chains and everything, so I might 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:43.600 have stuck out a little bit. 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.880 It did, And there's some photographs still on the Carteil 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.680 website which isn't in an operation anymore, but it shows 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.400 two really fancy Mercedes being washed and featured in this 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.880 promotional video, which is quite well done, to be honest, 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.800 but Cobram, it's it's not really home to many Mercedes, 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.480 and it's not AMG's no, no, it's not and. 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:10.279 Not somebody with an apparently a fairly limited history of 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.039 employment over the previous decade. 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.320 Wondering where the chains have come from. 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:21.679 Probably Eddie's biggest mistake was underestimating these local coppers. Marcus 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.400 Boyd decides we're going to do something about this. He 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.680 contacts Echo. Echo already have something of an interest in 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:33.359 Eddie because Eddie is present when a man called Fardi 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.680 Dab is shot by Australian Federal Police officers out of 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.760 Greenvale in the early hours of September twelve, nine eight. 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.159 So it's a serious matter. He shot at the cops 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.280 and then they shot at him. 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:48.560 He missed and they didn't. 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:50.960 They were in a car with cloned plates, so it 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.919 was evidence of high level activity. 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:54.279 You know. 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.960 He was somebody that they were going to watch have 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:58.640 an interest in. 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:01.719 So Joshua has got Carte is his main business, but 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:05.880 obviously he's got other business interests not necessarily above board, 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:08.520 and he's not alone in that is. He's got some 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:09.440 friends and family. 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:11.200 He's got numerous family members. 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:15.680 His father David is involved, his sister is involved, other 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:22.400 relatives are involved. It was quite a network of people, associates, gophers. 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:27.120 It was probably a large scale trafficking venture, which would 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.000 be commonplace in Melbourne, but isn't so common in these 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:30.840 sort of places. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.599 So that's one of the questions. We've got stories and 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.000 some of your reporting has the dad going off to 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.360 places on long drug runs and all sorts of shenanigans 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.359 going up and down highways. Why are they doing this 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:42.200 all in Cobram. 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.479 Well, they thought it was a good place to set 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.719 up business. You're away from the big smoke or the 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.680 detectives in Melbourne or Sydney. It's a bit of a 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:56.000 channel in between those two cities. They would think being 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.560 out in Cobram, they've only got a handful of coppers 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.520 that can probably fly under the radar, a bit that 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.080 proved to be not true in the end. But there 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.400 was a channel that isn't along the Hume, but it's 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.320 a back highway. I'm not too sure which highway it is, 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.640 but they call it the Smuggler's route and it is 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.800 a off broadway sort of highway. There's no traffic cameras. Obviously, 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:21.320 the coppers set themselves up on the Hume for sort 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.920 of drug runs, but they would use the smugglers route 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.680 the back way to move drugs out of Cobram up 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:28.280 to Sydney. 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:30.960 So these guys would probably think, you know, they're operating 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:35.760 on encrypted apps, They've got very elaborate hiding places for 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.600 their drugs and money. They're fairly well organized. They're probably 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:45.360 thinking that this isn't the kind of enterprise that the 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.200 local police are going to be able to deal with. 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.760 They probably thought they were going to be operating for 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:52.320 a long time under the radar. 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.400 And it all seems very signs of anarchy, doesn't it 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.360 The sort of the small town the crew of family 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.640 miscreants going about the doing miscreant things. 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.480 And having not actually seen that show. But there is 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.720 your no you report on Barkis and you have not 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.960 seen I know another none of us. 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:12.480 But if you want. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:16.000 Reagan to watch Sons of Anarchary email in ass But 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.239 the drug market in the Golden Valley and all along 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:23.080 the Murray River border is it's huge. It extends all 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.240 the way up to Mildura. And yeah, the drug issue 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.600 in regional Victoria, not just along the Murray, is quite significant. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.120 There's money to be made in all of these towns, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.440 I mean, and you could go further north into Finley 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.280 and Hay and all these places. 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:39.160 They're not tiny towns. 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:43.240 Pretty much every country town, regional country center you'll go to, 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:44.880 there'll be people wanting to buy drugs. 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:46.600 There's good money to be made. 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.480 And we kind of mentioned some of these runs that 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.560 they went on. Can you describe one of those how 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:52.200 they panned out? 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.040 So there was an infamous one I think we can 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:59.720 say now from David Eddie, so Josh's dad who left 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.040 cop from forty eight hours later he's back in Cobram. 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.600 But that included a drive to Townsville, a drug drop 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.040 into the Gold Coast, another drop into Sydney and then 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.800 back it sounds south to Cobram, so I think it's 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.440 nearly five thousand kilometers in forty eight hours, so it's 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.360 a very very efficient drug drop. 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:22.320 You think he was sticking to the speed limit on 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.199 that one, Reagan or no doubt, No doubt at all. 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.440 But it was one that sort of blew the police 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.000 away once they realized how far had actually gone in 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.320 such a short amount of time. I'm not too sure 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.400 there were too many rest stops along the way. We'll 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:41.280 never know that, but that would be the beginning of 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:42.760 the end for Cartel. 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.079 So we've got Cartel, and we've got mister Reading, and 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.680 we've got mister Edie's family, and we've got a bunch 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.880 of annoyed townsfolk, and we've got a couple of local 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.480 coppers that are keeping their eye on them. And as 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.840 you mentioned before, Echo is taking an interest what happens next. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.199 They meet and they set up in operation, set out 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.720 a strategy, a plan for how this is going to operate. 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:05.760 So the way it's going to operate is. 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:08.440 For the local police to keep an eye on things. 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.400 Any contact to be had with them is to be 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.920 through them. These people, some of these people, you know, 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.040 contact with the police would not be unexpected to them, 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:24.840 while Echo remain in the shadows and just watch, listen, 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:31.000 watch get what evidence they can, because you're dealing with 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.920 people at the top of this syndicate who if they 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.839 find out Echo are involved, then they'll just shut up shop. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.280 And what they wanted was to stay in business. Well, 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.880 evidence is accumulated. So they looked at them from I 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:45.240 think it was up to a year and got a 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.120 lot of evidence. They intercepted a bloke had just left 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:52.040 Cartel with one hundred and ninety five grams of cocaine. 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:53.920 They did a drug deal. 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.200 With one of the syndicate's gophers, and undercover did a 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.040 two hundred and twenty four gram deal with him. We 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.560 saw a lot of things as they put this thing together. 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:06.880 One bit of tangible evidence that the police could tell 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.160 us about recently was that they were pretty much sitting 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.199 opposite Cartel over the road. There were a couple of 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:17.199 detectives watching yep, and they noticed a car go in 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.360 to the car detailing. 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:20.800 Joint, which would usually take. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.400 A couple of hours to get your car detailed, I'm assuming, 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.880 but this car went in and out within fifteen or 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.000 so minutes, and they thought something dodgy was going on. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:32.199 So that was one bit of intelligence that the detectives 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:33.120 could share with us. 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.520 Not a turbosh, then, I don't think. So you've got 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:40.400 the two local detectives they're kind of overtly keeping an 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:43.040 eye out on Cartel, and then you've got Echo, who 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.960 are very much under the radar doing what they do 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.640 to collect the information they need, and then it all 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:49.520 comes to a head. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:51.880 It all comes to a head in the early hours 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.640 of a really cold winter morning. David Eddie on his 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.880 way back from Townsville, that really long five thousand kilometer drop. 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.280 He's coming back into Cobram on the bridge connecting Cobram 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.160 and Baruga and police pull him over. It was a 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:10.320 routine traffic stop is what they called it. And they 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:15.160 breath O David Eddie and they've got a search warrant 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.640 for his car and they just take him out. They 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.120 rip open the car and where the air bag is 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.640 on the left passenger side, they lifted that out. There's 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:27.480 no air bag, but there was a gun and a 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:31.720 stack of cash in there. Eddie was arrested. The coppers 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:33.920 on the street get on the phone to the other 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:38.360 detectives and it's time to go. So they've executed five 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.079 search warrants at the early hours of the morning all 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.520 around Corpram and they needed to get it done really 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.280 really quickly so that no one could dispose of any 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.880 evidence or run away or hide their gear. So two 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.200 three four in the morning the AFP as well working 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.520 with the Victorian detectives and they just raid five houses 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:02.480 and businesses around Colbram. 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:04.959 Was cartel on the list as well? Or was it 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:05.720 all houses? 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.520 They were mainly houses. David Eddie's house, the family house 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.040 was the main one. And it was a really interesting 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.680 story that the detectives told us a couple of weeks ago, 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.880 which we wrote about in middle of July, that the 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:22.480 Victorian detectives were searching the house and they couldn't really 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.480 find anything, no evidence of a drug sort of stash 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:31.959 or a drug making area. And the federal police just said, 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.760 all right, hang on, look up there in the corner, 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.960 look over there to your left, look there behind the wall, 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.440 and sure enough, the pieces started coming together, and behind 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:46.160 the fridge they found a They wheeled the fridge out, 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.280 shifted that out of the way, and there was a 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.000 secret wall, secret door, whatever you want to call it, 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.000 and there was the entire stash of cocaine. 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:58.640 Right, so that's kind of very Day of the Jack, 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:00.960 or really pressed the button you have seen the Day 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.679 of the Jack, I'll have you made. Unfortunately not if 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.800 you would like. Reagan too watched over. So that's astonishing. 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.360 Behind the fridge was a button and it was like 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:11.839 you'd see in the movies. It slowly opened this wall 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:16.160 and it opened what they'd previously heard been called the 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.960 medicine cabinet. So they'd been listening to the phone calls 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.760 for the past few years and references to the medicine 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.720 the cabinet. Go grab it from the medicine cabinet, put 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.400 it back in the medicine cabinet. And once they've moved 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:31.040 this fridge and opened up the secret wall, there's the 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.440 infamous medicine cabinet that they'd heard so much about. And 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.880 that was the pinnacle of it for those detectives. And 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.040 it was still the early hours of the morning, like 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:41.720 in the middle of the night really, which. 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:43.320 Is quite unusual. 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.400 Usually raids would occur six in the morning, just as 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:49.239 people are waking up unsuspecting. 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.680 But this one they had to move really quickly. Yeah, right, 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:55.240 And presumably as soon as they see the medicine cabinet 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.720 and all of its various unguents and powders, they say, 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.760 thank you very much, son, you're nicked pretty much. And 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:04.280 who did they take away in cuffs? 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.240 So David Eddie was arrested on the bridge connecting Cobraum 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:14.960 and Baruga. They arrested Josh's sister, so David's daughter, Jade 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.720 Josh was also arrested that night. Slash early morning, and 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:23.960 I think a handful of his associates as well. 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.040 And Josh is sent away and has gone up in 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.160 front of a judge and no longer walking the street. 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.560 I think he's what did he get nine nine and 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.480 a bit years, nine and six months, nine and six months, 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.200 So he'll be away for a little while longer. 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.120 At the time of recording. 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:45.520 But the raids and subsequent charges and had a big 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:47.760 flow on effect for the Mongols that he was a 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:49.920 part of, and we'll. 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.200 Talk about where that sets us up in the future. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.240 But these raids, they didn't happen like last week or something. 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.240 There's been a while since the day happened. 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.720 Yes, there has been a bit of time passed since 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.000 the raids. I think they were in twenty nineteen. 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.280 They were twenty twenty one, so we've had to wait 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.520 to fully cover this until Josh Eddie went through the courts, 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:09.920 which was some months ago. 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.880 We were lucky enough that Marcus Boyd from Cobram had 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.040 a chat to us I think in the middle of June, 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:21.400 and Kieran Duret from the Echo Task Force as well 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.040 had a little conversation with us to shed some light 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.240 on the good work those two did so we published 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.920 that story in the Herald Sun in July. 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.080 So Josh is away and some of his associates are 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.880 still away. Where does that leave us, you know, nature 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.240 of bores, a vacuum doesn't sort of mean that these 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.680 one percent motorcycle gangs are not still in central Victoria 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.400 nor the Victoria. Pretty much all of these country towns 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.880 tell us about that. Who are the players in these markets? 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:52.240 Where are they and what are they doing? 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.640 Well, there's a long history of omcg's operating out of 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.480 country areas. The Bandidos just further down the river were 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.520 for many years enmeshed in Atchuka. They were patched over 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.480 some years ago to the Mongols. Their national president was 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.680 from Achuka at that point. That with the Banditos president, 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.760 that is it is an important area for bikey gangs 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:17.960 up on the river. 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.320 And that's just so they can run drugs in and 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:21.240 out of the state. 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:25.920 Well regarded as strategically important. The Finks have a presence 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:27.800 in Country Victoria. 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:29.520 They're up at Wodonga. 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.760 They had a cracker getting into Gippsland set up a 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.639 chapter near Bansdale. Although the police in a similar probably 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.440 in a similar not quite at the same level as 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.399 the Cobram job. Ended up putting a stop to that. 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:46.640 As one of them said, we canceled their East Gippsland visas. 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:49.359 Ballarat, Bendigo have. 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.480 Have always had, have traditionally had BIKEI presence. 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.560 There are a couple of big jobs earlier in twenty 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.600 twenty five involving Mildur and Kolak, a couple of big 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.439 drug busts. I know the Hell's Angels were caught up 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.440 in at least one of them. But yeah, the country 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:11.960 areas are really popular for the oemcgs. As we spoke 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.600 about before, there is still quite a large market for 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.120 drugs in the regional areas. Some of these places aren't 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.360 just tiny country towns. There are some heavily populated areas 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.520 still in Country Victoria, so there is quite a fair market. 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.000 A place like Ballarat is important and I think the 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:33.080 Bandidos have had two national runs there in recent years. 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.560 That probably says something. At one of those runs, the 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.240 sergeant at arms he got shot outside the clubhouse after 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.080 some kind of argument broke out. Bendigo has always had 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.960 the rebels fairly strong, although I think police have done 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.280 a lot of work on them over the years. And 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.480 I think they've had to pull their heads in a 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:52.960 little bit. 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.040 So that's the bigger picture. But in terms of the Mongols, 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.600 with mister Eddie going away, what did that mean for 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:02.159 them specifically. 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.719 Well, we're not sure why this happened, but police believe 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.439 that what happened up at Cobram and happened to the 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.359 Eddy Syndicate basically caused a fracture in the Mongols which 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:20.439 resulted in some senior members being asked to leave the club. 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:26.160 Toby Mitchell, Mark Bellcilly, the late Sam Abel Rahim, Jason Addison, 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.720 very senior people, well known people all left the gang 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.440 in that period. Now I couldn't actually say why that happened. 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.280 It'd be opened to speculation that maybe the failure of 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.840 what went on up there caused this fracture, would have 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.359 caused a lot of trouble for their networks, I would imagine, 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.119 or somebody was operating outside the structures of the gang. 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:53.159 And if you're with the Mongols, the people at the 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:54.439 top of the tree want to get a lick of 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:59.359 the icy pole and they don't appreciate people having a 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.320 side hustle. Now I'm not saying that's the case, but 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:03.600 we don't know what the reason was. 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.600 It's also not a good look when your syndicate is 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.959 busted and you've been all over the news for the 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.120 best part of five years. It's not a good look 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.760 for your outlaw motorcycle gang. So they would have had 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:16.199 every right to be a bit pissed off with the 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.120 Eddie Citicutt who brought them all into the spotlight. 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.720 I think they probably would have become aware that maybe 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:24.440 there were some mistakes made. 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.240 Will probably naming it Cartel was potentially one of the 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.239 first ones you would see, one of the biggest. And 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.120 on that note, WHI shall get you the streaming link 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.440 to Sons of Anarchy and we shall thank you both 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:38.919 for coming on today. Thank you Mark, Thank you Reagan. 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:40.720 Andrew will be back next week. 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:45.480 Not Life and Crimes, Thanks Jobete, thanks for listening. 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.919 Life and Crimes is a Sunday Herald Sun production for 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:54.320 True Crime Australia. Our producer is Johnty Burton. For my columns, 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:58.920 features and more, go to Heroldsun dot com dot Au, 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:04.600 Forward Slag Andrew rule one word For advertising inquiries, go 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:09.399 to news podcasts sold at News dot com dot au. 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:15.200 That is all one word news podcasts sold, and if 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:19.680 you want further information about this episode, links are in 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:20.600 the description.