The Comanchero Motorcycle Club is an Australian outlaw motorcycle club founded in Sydney in 1968 by William George "Jock" Ross. The club has developed into one of Australia's most influential and internationally connected outlaw motorcycle clubs, with chapters throughout Australia and in several countries across Europe, Asia and Oceania. For periods of its history, it has been described by Australian media and law-enforcement agencies as one of the country's most powerful and feared outlaw motorcycle clubs and a significant organised crime threat.
The Commanchero has established a substantial national and international presence and has been linked by Australian and international law-enforcement agencies to transnational drug trafficking, money laundering, firearms offences, extortion, organised violence, and other forms of organised criminal activity. Throughout its history, the club has been involved in several of Australia's most significant outlaw motorcycle club conflicts, including the Milperra massacre in 1984 which was a conflict between The Comanchero and The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, the Sydney Airport bikie brawl in 2009 which involved Members of the Comanchero and Hells Angels and violent conflicts with other rival motorcycle clubs. The organisation has also been a principal target of Australian law-enforcement operations, including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's “Taskforce Morpheus”, a national initiative established to disrupt outlaw motorcycle clubs and transnational organised crime and the Comanchero Motorcycle Club have also been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation who have assisted Australian and European authorities in investigations into the Comanchero.
History William George "Jock" Ross, a Scottish immigrant, formed the club originally in Glasgow, Scotland, then after emigrating to Sydney, New South Wales, in 1968. He chose the name after seeing the 1961 John Wayne film The Comancheros. (There was already a Californian motorcycle club of the same name, first mentioned in a 1965 article by Hunter S. Thompson, and in his book Hell's Angels a year later.) Ross hung a sign on the wall of the Comancheros' clubhouse that read: "If it's white, sniff it/If it's female or it moves, fuck it/If it narks-kill it"".
Ross-who gave himself the grandiose title of "Supreme Commander"-ran his club in extremely authoritarian and militaristic manner. The Comancheros were considered to be the most violent of Australia's many outlaw biker clubs in the 1970s-1980s owing to their frequent brawls. Ross required his men to engage in weekly para-military drills and he formed an elite force which he called the Strike Force of especially tough members. Many Comancheros disliked Ross as one former member told the media: "If I wanted to march around in the fuckin' backyard, I would had joined the fuckin' army".
In 1983 a second Comanchero chapter was formed by Anthony Mark "Snoddy" Spencer, who had broken away from the first chapter after challenging Ross' authority. When visiting the United States with Charles Paul "Charlie" Scibberas, another member of the second chapter, Spencer met with members of the Texan motorcycle club the Bandidos and the two gangs became allies. At the time, P2P, one of the chemicals that can be used for manufacture of methamphetamine, was legal in Australia, but not in the United States. The Bandidos wanted an alliance to have P2P smuggled into the United States to assist with manufacturing methamphetamine, the market for which they dominated in Texas. The Bandidos eventually patched-over the second Comanchero chapter to become the Bandidos' first Australian chapter in November 1983.
The Comancheros and Bandidos were now rivals, and in September 1984 the two clubs engaged in the Milperra massacre, a shoot-out that left seven people dead – four Comancheros, two Bandidos, and a 14-year-old bystander. Ross received a lifetime jail sentence for his involvement in the gunfight, but served only five years and three months before he was released. In 2002, Ross was deposed as the Comanchero "supreme commander" by the Lebanese immigrant Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi who now assumed that title.
The Comancheros and Hells Angels clashed at Terminal 3 of Sydney Airport on 22 March 2009 in a brawl involving 10 people in the two rival bikie gangs. The brawl left Anthony Zervas, the brother of a Hells Angel, dead. The fighting was witnessed by over 50 travellers, CCTV cameras and airport staff, including airport security, who could do little to intervene. The security staff were unarmed and Australian Federal Police arrived late. Six Comancheros were arrested as a result of the altercation and convicted of "riot and affray". In November 2011 Comancheros leader Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi was found guilty of affray and murder, but in May 2014 the murder conviction was overturned on appeal and a retrial ordered. Hawi pleaded guilty to manslaughter and in March 2015 he was sentenced to a minimum of 3.5 years jail.R v Hawi (2015), austlii.edu.au; accessed 6 March 2016. In February 2018 Hawi was shot dead, at age 37, whilst sitting in his car outside a gym in Rockdale, NSW.
In late 2009 Duax Ngakuru was elected as national president. Mark Buddle became the national president in 2011 when Ngakuru fled Australia. Mick Murray was appointed acting national president in 2016 when Buddle in turn fled Australia. The Comanchero was described as being ruled by a triumvirate that consisted of Melbourne chapter president Mick Murray, the national sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed and Sydney chapter president Allan Meehan. On 20 August 2017 a brawl broke out at a strip club in Canberra between the members of the Comanchero Victoria and New South Wales chapters. The brawl led to Buddle to attempt to reassert his authority by sending to run the club in his absence.
The Comanchero experienced a period of turmoil in 2022–2023. Mick Murray, the president of the Melbourne chapter was arrested for first degree murder on 28 April 2022. Tarek Zahed, the national sergeant-at-arms, was badly wounded during a murder attempt on 8 May 2022. Mark Buddle was extradited from Turkey to Australia to face charges of drug smuggling on 2 August 2022. Zahed was charged with first degree murder on 29 August 2022. Duax Ngakuru was arrested in Turkey on 14 January 2023 on charges of drug smuggling. Allan Meehan, the new national president was convicted of violating the Serious Crime Prevention Order issued against him by the New South Wales police on 6 July 2023. Alex Vare became the new boss in 2023. In October 2023, Turkish Minister of Internal Affairs Ali Yerlikaya publicly announced on Twitter that, Turkish police has detained 37 "full patch" members of the gang in Istanbul. The Australian police have stated that many of the drugs sold by the Comanchero come from the port of Vancouver, which is controlled by the East End Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels. Superintendent Jared Taggart of the Australian Federal Police stated that despite the violent clashes between the Australian Hells Angels and the Comancheros, that: "It’s that ever-evolving business model of transnational serious and organized crime and their willingness to co-operate together, even when they say that they’re enemies and that they don’t co-operate. That’s all really smoke and mirrors. It’s all about power, control and harm on our communities."
Australian national leadership
The Comanchero Motorcycle Club's internal leadership arrangements have not always been publicly documented, and some reported dates are approximate. The following table lists individuals publicly identified as the club's Australian national president, acting national president or supreme commander.