Maltese citizen Alex Vella returned to Australia on Wednesday morning despite the Federal Government threatening to not allow him back in, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Chief of one of Australia's biggest bike gangs, named Rebels, 54-year-old Alex Vella arrived at Sydney International Airport after flying to Japan last month to watch his middleweight boxer son, Adam Vella, fight in Tokyo.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, while Mr Vella was overseas NSW Police were preparing a case for the Immigration Department to refuse the multi-millionaire a new visa to return to Australia. The visa had expired in January and Vella was supposed to apply for   anew one in Japan.

Greeted by the media at the airport, Mr Vella said he had done nothing to deserve the treatment he had received from Australia, the country in which he has lived for four decades.

He said the matter of his immigration status had not been completely solved and it had been an issue since the 1970s, but he hoped his lawyers would reach a solution, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Mr Vella has been of interest to Australian state and federal law enforcement agencies in the past. In 1995 he was convicted of possessing a trafficable quantity of cannabis in his home. Later, his property was raided by police representing state and national crime authorities, who seized and froze his assets. The assets were returned to him after he paid a $650,000 settlement to the NSW Crime Commission.

The police argument against Mr Vella's visa was reportedly based on his drug conviction and position of authority within the Rebels, meaning he did not pass the immigration test of good character.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Mr Vella saying that every time he travels in and out of the country they hassle him all the time.

"But when we go for a ride, the police come to me and ask me for help, and I make the peace and I take care of everything ... They call you when they need you and kick you away when they don't,” he said.

See also;

Via expiry bans man from returning to Australia