In 2017, the ACIC designated him as an Australian Priority Organisation Target (APOT) because of intelligence suspecting him of orchestrating massive drug shipments to Australia’s shores.
A person or company can only be categorised as APOT – a list of the “baddest of the bad” – if they are accused of posing a grave organised crime threat to the country.
Pandeli grew up in the town of Whyalla on the South Australian coast and moved to Adelaide in the 2000s, where he joined the Hells Angels.
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He later moved to Sydney and became president of its City Crew chapter.
He left Australia in 2018 and has been moving between the UAE, Asia and Greece, sources say, and owns a luxury villa resort in Dubai as well as several businesses there.
The underworld figure allegedly built his criminal network before he fled, but his reach in the global drug game allegedly grew in the years following.
Photos circulating online show the bikie boss living it up in Dubai, smiling with his wife and children on a yacht.
Pandeli was arrested in Dubai, put on an Emirates flight by UAE authorities and landed in Sydney just before 6pm Thursday.
He has not been charged with any offences in Australia.
Hells Angels boss and alleged drugs kingpin Angelo Pandeli deported from Dubai
