DRUGS, GUNS FOUND AS POLICE RAID BIKERS' GANG

NSW police have refused to comment on an investigation into the activities
of some members of the Rebels motorcycle gang, following dramatic raids in
Queensland and Western Australia this week.

The raids were the culmination of a three-month inquiry which began with
the interception of a 1.96-kilogram package of amphetamines in Coonamble,
north-western NSW.

Police began an operation believing the drugs were intended for delivery to
some members of the gang in Western Australia.

In the West Australian raids on Thursday, 11 houses in eight Perth suburbs
were searched, and police forced entry to the Rebels' clubhouse in Malaga,
in Perth's northern outskirts.

Police also raided houses in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast, and found
the first of three crocodiles being kept as pets.

In Perth, police seized 60 grams of amphetamines, a Beretta pistol, a
12-gauge shotgun, 800 rounds of .45-calibre ammunition, explosives and
detonators and numerous rounds of other calibre ammunition.

A West Australian man, 27, and a woman, 38, were charged with possession of
drugs.

In Queensland, four men were charged with a variety of drug offences, and
charges were also laid in relation to the crocodiles.

A NSW police spokesman said inquiries into the gang's activities were
"ongoing".

The Rebels' Sydney base is at Rossmore in the south-western suburbs.

The Rebels, the biggest biker gang in Australia and which has adopted the
Confederacy flag as its emblem, moved into Western Australia only in recent
years but has expanded its activities aggressively and has planned a
national conference in Perth next month.

The raids are a setback for the gang, which was initially based in the West
Australian town of Busselton after its move west in the late 1990s. There,
it quickly recruited 45 members. It did not take long to add a Perth
chapter, then expand to a total of five chapters in two years.

The westward expansion of the major outlaw biker organisations, including
the Bandidos, reflects a national growth of the major biker gangs, which
the police have been monitoring. The Bandidos were the subject of major
police attention in December 1997.

A West Australian police spokeswoman said the Rebels' conference, called a
"run", was still expected to be held in Perth next month. She would not
comment on reports that police would stop and search the Rebels' convoy
when it arrived at the Western Australian border.

According to the reports, the convoy is expected to be several kilometres long.

All police leave has been cancelled in Perth while the members are in town.