After 50 years as biker boss, police raid spoils his party

Police raids in Australia targeting outlaw bikers this week revealed the unique place of the exiled “boss of bosses” — and a family biker dynasty that formed around a club; and a club that formed around a family.

The Mob Reporter here with news of raids and arrests that came in the pre-dawn darkness of March 22, 2022, in and around Sydney, Australia aimed at senior figures in the Rebels Motorcycle Club, a homegrown Aussie club with an international reach. The club’s national president, Damien Vella, was arrested, along with his cousin, Alex Vella Jr., the namesake son of the former national president who is celebrating a remarkable milestone: 50 years as a Rebel.

Alex Vella Sr. joined the club back in 1972, just three years after the club’s founding. Now that’s old-school. What’s more, he was president for most of that time. Alex Senior was born in Malta, one of 11 children, to a family that emigrated to Australia in the 1960s. His nickname is “the Maltese Falcon,” probably from his boxing days. Despite living in Australia from the age of 14, he never became an Australian citizen. And in 2014 he returned to visit Malta and while he was out of the country, Australia cancelled his visa, leaving him ineligible to return.

Now 68, he remains exiled in the land of his birth. If he couldn’t go to the Rebels, then he would bring the Rebels to him, in Malta — an island country in the Mediterranean Sea, due south of Sicily. He is ensconced atop a Rebels chapter in Malta that boasts what is surely among the most beautiful biker clubhouses in the world.

The Rebels is a multi-generational point of reference for the Vella family — grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, sons, are all involved — for some, they become members of the Rebels as surely as they become members of a family. It is extraordinary within major outlaw biker clubs. Watch to learn all about it.

Australia - MR.