One of NSW's most feared police squads has put down permanent roots in two regional cities in a bid to end the state's bloody bikie drug wars.
But one defiant gang member has declared "Newcastle belongs to the Nomads f*** anyone that thinks otherwise".
Strikeforce Raptor, known for its confrontational style of policing, has now established Raptor North in the Hunter Region and Raptor South in the Illawarra.
The spin-offs come after the Sydney-based unit in April announced it would trial regional teams to silence two violent and escalating bikie turf disputes.
In late 2017 two brutal brawls - one in a home and the other outside a pub - saw the Hunter's longstanding Nomads clash with a chapter of the Finks, an ambitious club expanding from its Sydney heartland.
The skirmishes, along with a series of drive-by shootings and a firebombing, made it impossible to ignore what was rapidly becoming a public and bloody struggle for drug territory.
Dozens of raids on bikie homes, clubhouses and a storage facility in the following months allegedly unearthed arsenals of shotguns, rifles, machine guns, explosives, cash and stashes of drugs.
Raptor in February dismantled and sealed the Nomads' Muswellbrook and Newcastle clubhouses and, in April, raids netted 13 leaders, patched members and associates.
The Finks were, at the same time, wrestling for supremacy south of Sydney in the Illawarra - this time against a resurgent chapter of the violent Brothers 4 Life gang - revived from behind prison bars.
A wave of public shootings and attacks culminated in a BFL plot to publicly gun down colourful Finks chapter president Troy Fornaciari.
A police source told AAP the public attacks had stopped under the pressure of constant Raptor prosecution but social media accounts linked to the bikies continue to bristle with threats.
One Nomad, posting online late last week, said Newcastle belonged to his gang. But the bikies will now face one of Raptor's 23-strong team indefinitely.
The teams will include investigators, highway patrol and intelligence staff and will be "proactive", "rapid" and "high-impact" in their response to the gangs, Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said on Monday.
Detective Superintendent Wayne Humphrey appealed in April to the outlaw bikie gangs to stop the conflict.
"Eventually, either you or someone in your family could be shot ... or even someone who's totally unrelated to the gangs," he said at the time.
"It's just got to stop."
Since 2009, officers from Strikeforce Raptor have seized of tens of millions of dollars in cash, drugs and other proceeds of crime.
"We've hit them where it hurts most - profit," Mr Smith said.
Australian Associated Press
