TASMANIA Police is cutting a swathe through one of the country's most infamous outlaw motorcycle clubs, arresting more than a dozen members locally as part of a nationwide crackdown.
The Rebels Motorcycle Club is being targeted across Australia as part of an until-now secret operation endorsed by the Australian Crime Commission.
Revealing the details of the operation this week, the crime commission said the Attero National taskforce aimed to target, disrupt, disable, dismantle and investigate the "criminal activity of the Rebels in Australia".
Tasmania's representative on the committee overseeing the operation, southern drug squad boss John Arnold, said the Rebels in Tasmania had strong links with some of the major players interstate.
"These people market themselves as an outlaw motorcycle club, the '1 per centers', so frankly it's difficult for anyone associated with such a club to distance themselves from the criminal activity that goes on," Det-Insp Arnold said.
"The Rebels are involved in organised crime."
Yesterday national Rebels president Alex Vella held a press conference in Sydney, telling reporters there was no organised criminal element in the club.
Mr Vella reportedly said Attero taskforce arrest figures were exaggerated, and most of the charges laid were for minor traffic violations.
The Rebels is the largest motorcycle club gang in Australia with chapters in every state and territory as well as overseas.
There are eight chapters in Tasmania comprising 50 members.
Since late last year when the operation began, Tasmania Police has arrested and charged 14 members with a variety of crimes and offences from drug trafficking down to assault and public disorder.
Before that, northern police charged more than a dozen Rebels and associates over the state's largest amphetamine trafficking operation mid-last year, temporarily disabling the club's northern operation.
The Attero taskforce comprises police from every state and territory as well as the Australian Federal Police, Australian Customs and Border Protection, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
Chairman of the ACC's Serious and Organised Crime Co-ordination Centre David Hudson said the taskforce was focused on breaking the business model of the Rebels.
"There is a cost and risk of being a member of, or associated with, an OMCG and this risk becomes greater," Mr Hudson said.
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