Steve ‘Shorty’ Milenkovski: Jailed Comanchero bikie boss and drug kingpin walks free on bail

A one-time State commander of the Comanchero bikie gang who was a Mr Big of the Australian drug trade is back on the streets after winning parole. Steve “Shorty” Milenkovski was handed a 17-year sentence for his role as the coordinator of a meth trafficking ring prosecutors said was unusually sophisticated. The police operation that brought the-then 34-year-old down in 2012 was so secretive detectives based themselves out of an old funeral parlour rather than work from a station. Milenkovski “captained” the syndicate and dealt directly with Joseph Hakan Ayik — an international drug player currently behind bars in Istanbul. Through Chinese and Indian connections, Ayik was able to source hundreds of kilograms of heroin and methylamphetamine and on-sell the ice to Milenkovski. But when a total of more than 7kg of the drug left Sydney for Perth in December 2009 and February 2010, detectives had the crime gang and packages of ice under surveillance. In granting him parole, the board said Milenkovski was a model prisoner. In 2022 prison bosses rewarded him for his good behaviour by allowing him to attend a late-night soccer party with other jailbirds who petitioned to watch the UEFA Champions League final. The board noted Milenkovski’s “participation in voluntary programmes, namely the Sycamore Tree Project, which demonstrates a motivation and willingness to address offending behaviour” was one of several reasons he was deemed a low risk of re-offending. His “generally positive prison conduct, including participation in education programmes and employment, which demonstrates compliance with directions,” was also a factor. For the next two years, Milenkovski is banned from associating with members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, must stay indoors between 8pm and 5am and submit to random urine analysis to ensure he is clean. In 2012 he told a court he never took drugs because “a healthy mind and body cannot be infused with illicit substances”. Milenkovski’s new life will be more subdued than his reign as a wealthy bikie gang boss. Milenkovski was so busy during the late noughties that he had 19 phones. Police had watched him purchase them at Morley Galleria in November 2009 as he grew his drug empire and directed the Comanchero gang members who answered to him on the west coast. The club was at the top of its powers around the time Milenkovski was being hunted by the police organised crime squad. On top drug busts in December 2009 and February 2010, Comanchero members, nominees and associates had been implicated in at least two drive-by shootings, drug trafficking, extortions and cash seizures of almost $700,000 — including one traffic stop in which police found $500,000. Club-linked assets, including a well-worn fishing boat called Salty Dog and houses in Perth and Geraldton, were frozen during a police operation which was codenamed Baystone and run in conjunction with the Australian Crime Commission.