Black Uhlans Motorcycle Club

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Black Uhlans MC
Founded1970s
Founding locationQueensland, Australia[1]
Territory
Membership~80 members (2006)
Leader(s)
  • Steven Hooker (National President)[7]
  • Derek Lyons (Gladstone Chapter President)[8]
  • David Kurtzman (Gold Coast Chapter President)[9]
ActivitiesDrug trafficking, money laundering, gunrunning, assault, intimidation and murder[10][11]
Rivals

The Black Uhlans Motorcycle Club are an Australian "one-percenter" outlaw motorcycle club.[13] Maintaining several chapters throughout the country, the club has been described by law enforcement as one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in the state of Victoria and are said to be among the wealthiest, if not, wealthiest of Australia's outlaw bikie groups.[14][3]

Orchestrated by one of their 10 co-founders, the highly secretive motorcycle gang held a fifteen-year reign as one of the country's largest suppliers of illicit amphetamine.[15][16] Since then, however, they have reportedly become less organized and have lost a considerable amount of influence over the Australian underworld.[17]

Overview[edit]

The Black Uhlans were initially established as the Banshees during the 1970s by ten former members of the Wollongong-based Fourth Reich Motorcycle Club who had fled to Queensland to avoid facing criminal charges from an apparent rape case they were linked to.[18][19] Among one of its founders was John Higgs, a notorious career criminal who already had an extensive rap sheet of charges which included manslaughter, gunrunning, theft, and drug dealing.[16]

Adopting their name from Germany's historical military regiment, the Black Uhlans MC modeled themselves after the influential Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Nevertheless, they remained independent and unaffiliated from the latter group.[16]

After acquiring a recipe from ex-Hells Angels member Peter Hill to concoct the stimulant drug known as "speed", Black Uhlans co-founder John Higgs constructed a lucrative narcotic network for the club - which proved to be extremely profitable.[20][21] The Black Uhlans MC also deal in other drugs including heroin and cocaine. To further gang revenue, the gang would later become heavily involved in gun trafficking rackets from the Philippines.[22][23][24]

In addition to generating income from organized crime operations, the Black Uhlans Motorcycle Club has also made money from financial investments in lawful business ventures such as (alleged) retirement homes in the city of Melbourne.[25]

Criminal allegations and incidents[edit]

Throughout May 1999, several violent clashes took place in Gladstone, Queensland between Black Uhlans MC and the (initially) rivaling Rebels Motorcycle Club.[26] The two motorcycle gangs, however, eventually reached a truce - as both have since been known to associate with one another on friendly terms.[27]

High-ranking Black Uhlans member Sydney "Syd" Collins was reported missing on September 1, 2002 during a trip from his Gold Coast residence to northern New South Wales to recover an underworld debt. During an 2009 interview with 60 Minutes, infamous Australian criminal figure Mark "Chopper" Read confessed that he had killed Collins out of revenge for an incident that occurred back in 1992 where Collins reported Chopper to the police for shooting him in the stomach.[28] As a result of Sydney reporting Chopper Read to the authorities for the crime, Chopper ended up receiving a prison sentence of eight years at the Risdon Prison Complex that same year. According to Chopper's confession, he murdered Sydney Collins in Casino, NSW and buried his body near a football field within the town.[29][30]

In popular culture[edit]

A brief representation of the Black Uhlans MC (under a fictitious name) was depicted on the two-part miniseries Underbelly Files: Chopper, which stars Todd Lasance as Sydney "Syd" Collins.[31][32][33]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Outlaw motorcycle gangs most active in Queensland and NSW". 25 February 2021.
  2. ^ Hamblin, Andrea (29 January 2018). "Five arrests in border town outlaw bikie raids". Herald Sun. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Billings, Patrick (21 October 2015). "Close watch on violent bikies". The Mercury. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  4. ^ "Geelong Advertiser". Retrieved 24 September 2023. (subscription required)
  5. ^ "'Nothing to hide' Bikie demands police apology after funeral". Courier Mail. 22 May 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  6. ^ Wilson, Rae (27 January 2017). "The Bruce Highway feeds our seedy underbelly". couriermail. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  7. ^ Robertson, Josh (7 October 2011). "Exposed: The Coast's bikie tsars". Courier Mail. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  8. ^ "Three Black Uhlans bailed". Courier Mail. 13 December 2006. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  9. ^ "Bikies' alleged boss asked to hand over $360,000 made in drug sales". ABC News. 24 August 2016.
  10. ^ "Bikies Inc: Australia's outlaw bikie gangs revealed". Herald Sun. 8 August 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  11. ^ Brotherhoods. ReadHowYouWant.com. 29 March 2011. ISBN 9781459616110.
  12. ^ "Australian bikie charged with a vicious attack on lifeguard at a Gold Coast beach".
  13. ^ The One Percenter Encyclopedia: The World of Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs from Abyss Ghosts to Zombies Elite. Motorbooks. 3 April 2018. ISBN 9780760360538.
  14. ^ Murphy, Padraic (30 January 2014). "Black Uhlans among worst of bikies". Herald Sun. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Harley Hounds". October 2006.
  16. ^ a b c Angels of Death: Inside the Bikers' Empire of Crime. Knopf Canada. 30 July 2010. ISBN 9780307370327.
  17. ^ "Police raid bikie homes as turf war flares". Daily Telegraph. 22 May 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  18. ^ Angels: Life in an Australian Motorcycle Gang in the 60s and 70s. Melbourne Books. February 2021. ISBN 9781925556766.
  19. ^ Morton, James; Lobez, Susanna (February 2016). Dangerous to Know Updated Edition: An Australasian Crime Compendium. Melbourne Univ. ISBN 9780522869699.
  20. ^ "Riding low: The world of Bikie Inc". 22 June 2007.
  21. ^ "Going to war with the Hells Angels: How speed became big in Australia". 24 October 2019.
  22. ^ Gangland Crimes That Shocked Australia. Brolga. May 2019. ISBN 9781925367331.
  23. ^ "Now it's Higgs in the can". 30 April 2013.
  24. ^ Moor, Keith (1 May 2012). "The bikie, the mafia and the ecstasy". Herald Sun. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  25. ^ Veno, Art (29 March 2011). Brotherhoods. ReadHowYouWant.com. ISBN 9781459616110.
  26. ^ Biker Gangs and Transnational Organized Crime. Routledge. 17 October 2014. ISBN 9781317524113.
  27. ^ "Bikies from rival gangs join forces to create Tasmania's first Nomads chapter". ABC News. 31 August 2018.
  28. ^ "Cops downplay Chopper's Casino 'victim'". Daily telegraph. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  29. ^ "Police search for bikie Chopper Read claimed to have killed". 4 August 2016.
  30. ^ "The woman behind Australia's most infamous gang leader". 12 February 2018.
  31. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Aaron Jeffrey on the pressure of following Eric Bana as Mark 'Chopper' Read". 7 February 2018.
  32. ^ "Chopper Read ruins the once-great 'Underbelly' series". 11 February 2018.
  33. ^ "Underbelly Files: Chopper | TV Tonight". 9 February 2018.

External links[edit]

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