'Just heard screaming': 21 arrested, drugs seized in bikie gang raids
Twenty-one people linked to the Comancheros outlaw motorcycle gang have been arrested and drugs and cash have been seized during more than two dozen raids across Melbourne on Tuesday morning.
Police say they began raiding 25 residential and commercial properties around Melbourne at 5am.
“Just heard noises and rumbling and lights were on and screaming, we didn’t really wake up… because its quite normal, its like the third time in a couple of weeks,” neighbour Stephen Van Duynhoven told Sunrise.
An upmarket sedan and Land Rover were also seized from a property at Lyndhurst in Melbourne's south-east.
Police executed raids across Melbourne in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Source: 7 News
A number of heavily armed police officers quietly moved down a Melbourne side street as they prepared to raid the bikie-linked homes. Source: 7 News
Assistant commissioner Stephen Fontana says firebombings and shootings are believed to be linked to the Comancheros.
"We believe that they are responsible for up to 21 non-fatal shootings, four arson attacks, serious drug trafficking and firearms-related offences," Assistant Commissioner Fontana said.
"It is anticipated that up to 21 individuals will be interviewed and charged with serious offences including drug trafficking, criminal damage by fire and a number of drive-by shootings causing injury to others."
The second car seized from a Lyndhurst address as part of the OMCG raids this morning.. #7newsmelb pic.twitter.com/UZB1T3ZNge
— Teegan Dolling (@tdolling) March 13, 2017
He said that some people linked to the gang were behind a series of firebomb attacks on strip clubs in the south Melbourne area.
In February last year police suggested a breakaway gang of bikie thugs were behind an explosion that destroyed a Kittens strip club in Caulfield South.
Police said at the time bikies were trying to muscle back in on security contracts they had lost during an internal split 18 months earlier.
Police are expected to reveal further details at a press conference later on Tuesday.
A teenage boy has been killed while riding his skateboard to school in Brookfield. https://t.co/8KybUKumuA #7News pic.twitter.com/hrRKEav0b0
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) March 13, 2017
BIKIE RAIDS: Police seize evidence from the home at Lyndhurst. 1 of 27 raids as part of major investigation into Comancheros OMCG #7newsmelb pic.twitter.com/0QqCwzfyt5
— Teegan Dolling (@tdolling) March 13, 2017