Queensland Police Are Targeting Insta-Famous Bikies

Over the past year, the Gold Coast Instagram scene has given rise to a new form of celeb: the bikie. Photos of chicano-inspired tattoos, custom gold choppers, lip fillers, ballooned biceps, and implants are now flooding "explore," while video clips of carpark brawls are getting thousands of views. And the police aren’t happy about it.

The Queensland Government has introduced new consorting laws that will put bikies in jail if they tag each other on social media. Following changes to the legislation made last year, new members of criminal gangs, outlaw motorcycle clubs, and underworld figures are all banned from communicating with each other, directly, in person, or indirectly via social media.

Organised Crime Squad Detective Inspector Stephen Blanchfield told The Gold Coast Bulletin that the laws will deter criminals from future offences. “If they want to put it out there [on social media] we’ll use that and we’ll try to use it as best we can to try and disrupt them [and] interject where we can see who they’re associating with,” he said.

The move from Queensland authorities comes after a keyboard warrior feud between Bandidos boss Brett “Kaos” Pechey and ex-Hells Angel, Ben “Notorious” Geppert, that involved the two bikies targeting each other's insta-famous partners in a series of online posts.

The friendship fell apart when “Notorious” accused “Kaos” of talking to the police, after which he referred to him as a dog. “Kaos” has since moved to Western Australia, while “Notorious” is in jail serving time for allegedly threatening to kill a woman and her pet.

Detective Inspector Blanchfield told The Gold Coast Bulletin that they were in the process of considering bans on the possession of mobile phones as a parole condition.

“The purpose of it is that people are warned about being with certain people and like it or loathe it, that’s how the legislation is written and we adapt very well to changes and use it very effectively,” he said.