| Black Uhlans MC | |
| Founded: | 1970s |
| Founders: | --> |
| Founding Location: | Queensland, Australia[1] |
| Territory: | |
| Membership: | ~80 members (2006) |
| Leaders: | |
| Activities: | Drug trafficking, money laundering, gunrunning, assault, intimidation and murder[10] [11] |
| Rivals: | |
The Black Uhlans Motorcycle Club are an Australian "one-percenter" outlaw motorcycle club.[13] Maintaining several chapters throughout the country, the club has been described by law enforcement as one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in the state of Victoria and are said to be among the wealthiest, if not, wealthiest of Australia's outlaw bikie groups.[14] [3]
Orchestrated by one of their 10 co-founders, the highly secretive motorcycle gang held a fifteen-year reign as one of the country's largest suppliers of illicit amphetamine.[15] [16] Since then, however, they have reportedly become less organized and have lost a considerable amount of influence over the Australian underworld.[17]
The Black Uhlans were initially established as the Banshees during the 1970s by ten former members of the Wollongong-based Fourth Reich Motorcycle Club who had fled to Queensland to avoid facing criminal charges from an apparent rape case they were linked to.[18] [19] Among one of its founders was John Higgs, a notorious career criminal who already had an extensive rap sheet of charges which included manslaughter, gunrunning, theft, and drug dealing.[16]
Adopting their name from Germany's historical military regiment, the Black Uhlans MC modeled themselves after the influential Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Nevertheless, they remained independent and unaffiliated from the latter group.[16]
After acquiring a recipe from ex-Hells Angels member Peter Hill to concoct the stimulant drug known as "speed", Black Uhlans co-founder John Higgs constructed a lucrative narcotic network for the club - which proved to be extremely profitable.[20] [21] The Black Uhlans MC also deal in other drugs including heroin and cocaine. To further gang revenue, the gang would later become heavily involved in gun trafficking rackets from the Philippines.[22] [23] [24]
In addition to generating income from organized crime operations, the Black Uhlans Motorcycle Club has also made money from financial investments in lawful business ventures such as (alleged) retirement homes in the city of Melbourne.[25]
Throughout May 1999, several violent clashes took place in Gladstone, Queensland between Black Uhlans MC and the (initially) rivaling Rebels Motorcycle Club.[26] The two motorcycle gangs, however, eventually reached a truce - as both have since been known to associate with one another on friendly terms.[27]
High-ranking Black Uhlans member Sydney "Syd" Collins was reported missing on September 1, 2002 during a trip from his Gold Coast residence to northern New South Wales to recover an underworld debt. During an 2009 interview with 60 Minutes, infamous Australian criminal figure Mark "Chopper" Read confessed that he had killed Collins out of revenge for an incident that occurred back in 1992 where Collins reported Chopper to the police for shooting him in the stomach.[28] As a result of Sydney reporting Chopper Read to the authorities for the crime, Chopper ended up receiving a prison sentence of eight years at the Risdon Prison Complex that same year. According to Chopper's confession, he murdered Sydney Collins in Casino, NSW and buried his body near a football field within the town.[29] [30]
A brief representation of the Black Uhlans MC (under a fictitious name) was depicted on the two-part miniseries, which stars Todd Lasance as Sydney "Syd" Collins.[31] [32] [33]