FILE PHOTO – Australian Federal Police officer in Perth, Western Australia. | Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images
McNamara’s property was seized by police investigating connections to motorcycle gangs and other organized crime groups.
Joe McNamara, who used the nickname ‘The Hitman’ in boxing, recently had his assets seized by Australian Federal Police (per The West Australian). When officers raided McNamara’s home in the Landsdale area of Perth, Western Australia, they discovered nearly AU$1 million ($730,000) worth of items.
Those items included luxury cars and three Harley Davidson motorcycles. Also among the items seized were a AU$7,000 Breitling watch and a AU$3,000 Louis Vuitton handbag. AU$76,000 in cash was also seized, along with a gold ingot worth AU$26,289.
The items were forfeited thanks to McNamara’s inability to explain how he was able to afford them. The retired boxer had claimed to have earned only AU$140,000 between 2010 and 2016.
The forfeitures come after a four-year investigation into McNamara, who is known for exhibiting an extremely lavish lifestyle in social media posts.
Daily Mail reports that police believe McNamara’s “wealth may point to some connection with organised crime.” Specifically, that report claimed, police suspect McNamara is associated with multiple outlaw motorcycle groups.
Australian Federal Police Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce acting national manager Stefan Jerga told the media that this case should send a warning to others.
“If you accumulate wealth that you cannot explain and link to lawful sources, law enforcement will target your assets,” he said.
This is not the first reported instance of combat sports and organized crime intertwining in Australia.
In March MMA fighter Gokhan Turkyilmaz was handed a jail sentence for his role in collecting debts for drug dealers across Australia. In 2019 Turkyilmaz survived a shooting in Upper Coomera, Queensland, which local news said happened after a brawl between members of the Rebels Motorcycle Club and The Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
Australian news outlets have reported that Turkyilmaz is suspected of being associated with the Rebels MC.
In 2016 Bradley Dillon was shot and killed in Sydney’s ‘Little Italy’. Media reports tied that killing to the Saint Michael Christian Brothers Fight Club. That organization began as a social club for people interested in both fight sports and Catholicism, but police say it shifted to something resembling an outlaw motorcycle gang.
A reported member of the SMCB Fight Club is Muay Thai boxer Anthony ‘Bang Bang’ Bagnato.
Bagnato was on death row in Thailand from 2015 to 2018. Bagnato was sentenced to death in that country after being charged with the murder of former Hells Angels member Wayne Rodney Schneider, whose body was found in a shallow grave in Pattaya.
Bagnato was released from jail in Thailand in 2018 after a successful appeal.
In September Albert Difloriano, who ABC News called the founder of SMCB Fight Club, was shot and killed in a double shooting in Sydney.