Media report highlights motorcycle gang links to Melbourne gym owners

A chain of gyms in suburban Melbourne linked to alleged motorcycle gang leader Mick Murray is being run by close friends, including a man facing charges over an alleged extortion attempt.

As reported by the Herald Sun over recent days, three men with links to either the motorcycle gang know as Comancheros, or to Murray, are officeholders in the corporate entities behind the Nitro Gym and Iron Kingdom Gyms in Melbourne.

Murray, aged 44, of Lysterfield, has been on remand since being charged with the 2019 murder of Mitat Rasimi in April this yeat.

His arrest came alongside an early morning raid at the Nitro Gym’s Hallam franchise, which he previously owned.

The gym, which has a long history of raids by Victoria Police, has been the target of drive-by shootings and has been used as a meeting point on Comanchero runs.

Filings with the Australian Security and Investment Commission (ASIC) show the company that runs the Hallam and Bayside gyms is now directed by Nawid Rashidi.

Rashidi was arrested in November 2021 following an investigation into an alleged extortion by Victoria’s anti-bike squad, Taskforce Echo.

He is fighting a string of charges stemming from the investigation, and is next due to Frankston Magistrates’ Court in July.

He declined to comment to the Herald Sun whether he was a Comanchero member, or why his gym was used as a meeting point for gang runs.

In Melbourne's northern suburbs, Peter Sampson, an associate of Murray, was the Director of Nitro Gym’s short-lived Heidelberg West franchise, which alone had an annual revenue of as much as $500,000.

Sampson faced Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court last year, where he and the company were fined a combined $20,000, without conviction and ordered to pay $13,000 in costs, for repeatedly breaking local authority planning laws.

Sampson’s links to Murray were exposed in 2019, when Murray had his bail varied in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, and then tried to fly to Thailand and Dubai with Sampson, only for Thai authorities to turn Murray around as soon as he landed.

Sampson, a former supplement salesman, also had a significant interest in two Iron Kingdom gyms at Preston and Reservoir.