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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
National
Blake Foden

Wanted bikie boss to be charged with drug trafficking after airport arrest

Police arrest the bikie boss at Melbourne Airport on Thursday. Picture: Victoria Police

One of the ACT's top bikies will be charged with drug trafficking after anti-gang detectives arrested him at Melbourne Airport.

The Canberra Comanchero commander was taken into custody by detectives from the Victoria Police Echo Taskforce, with help from Australian Federal Police officers, on Thursday evening.

ACT Policing had contacted taskforce investigators a short time earlier, requesting their assistance to arrest the man and support his extradition back to the territory.

He had been wanted in the wake of police searching his Coombs home on April 30, as part of an investigation into drug trafficking and firearm-related offending.

Detectives from ACT Policing arrived in Melbourne on Friday to apply for the 30-year-old's extradition.

"He will face [the] ACT Magistrates Court on Monday, charged with trafficking a controlled drug," Victoria Police said in a statement.

The Canberra chapter of the Comanchero has had a series of leadership changes in recent times, with the current leader at least the third to take charge since an internal dispute fractured the gang in 2018.

The division resulted in Peter Zdravkovic, the ACT commander back then, being booted out of the gang and later attacked by masked gunmen who shot one of his fingers off and set his cars on fire.

Zdravkovic was replaced at the helm by Pitasoni Ulavalu, who was murdered at Civic nightclub Kokomo's in 2020.

After Ulavalu came Allan Meehan, who briefly led the Canberra Comanchero chapter before declaring himself the gang's Sydney commander late last year.

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