Moment that nearly broke G-Fam prison gang leader, David Obeda

In the last 10 years, David Obeda has gone from co-founding a notorious jail gang from Melbourne’s maximum security Port Phillip Prison, to documenting the stories of reformed prisoners – of which he considers himself to be one of them.

Entering the system at the age of 19, Obeda served three consecutive sentences for crimes which began as burglaries and theft and escalated into assault and violent crime.

“Things I’m not proud of, obviously,” he told news.com.au.

When he first entered Port Phillip Prison as a teenager, he remembers thinking he would spend the rest of his life as a “career criminal”.

Now, he wants his podcast, The Felon Show, to serve as inspiration and motivation for people hoping to leave the prison system.

According to 2020 figures from the Sentencing Advisory Council, the reoffending rates are high. In Victoria, where Obeda moved to from New Zealand at the age of 14, 43.6 per cent of prisoners released between 2018 to 2019 returned to prison within two years.

Australia-wide, that rate was 45.2 per cent.

“During that time in my life, I really thought the rest of my life would involve prison and a life of crime,” he said.

“When I went to prison, I had friends in there that I knew from coming up through the streets and then it just escalated inside the prison system where we ended up forming our own gang.

“I thought I’d end up becoming a bikie or joining some sort of motorcycle club.”

Eventually Obeda parlayed his jail contacts and co-founded the G-Fam prison gang.

Since its inception, the group has built a reputation for initiating violent crimes, fights and riots.

Members were largely from Islander and Maori backgrounds and Obeda said it was common for prisoners to congregate in racial groups within the prison system. This created a “sense of belonging,” he said.

“You’ve got people that go in there from all over the state, so I guess you sort of flock towards people that you have something in common with, which often is nationality,” Obeda said. “A lot of the boys spent most of their lives in and out of institutions.

“A lot of bikies who have been on my show also talk about the brotherhood and belonging. I think that’s a part of human nature – the want to belong – and unfortunately when you’re in prison, you’re obviously around some violent people.”

In the public sphere, G-Fam peaked in notoriety when members of the gang were associated with an ambush which nearly killed notorious Melbourne gangland figure Tony Mokbel in February 2019. The attack saw him stabbed and suffer a fractured skull, brain haemorrhage and extensive blood loss.

By this time, Obeda had been deported to New Zealand and was no longer affiliated with the gang. Speaking on The Warfare podcast in 2020, Obeda denounced the attack and said he “considered him a mate” and felt no ill will toward Mokbel.

“When I first went to Melaleuca (prison unit), I was a next-door neighbour of him,” said Obeda.

Speaking about his time leading the gang, Obeda said he suffered mentally and was punished by the authorities for inciting a prison riot spending year in a small single cell.

“I did pay a price, in a way with depression and I spent long periods of time in solitary confinement,” he said.

“When I was in there, you sort of have to put on that facade and that tough exterior, that they’re not going to break me. Inside I was a broken man.

“Some people who I was in with back then, they can’t reintegrate and you can’t really hold conversations with them anymore. It’s sad.

“You see a lot of people lose their minds.”

For Obeda, he said the last year of his sentence, and his fifth year in jail, was the most difficult. He remembers consistently fighting suicidal thoughts and severe depression that were exacerbated by personal issues.

He describes this time as the “lowest point” of his incarceration.

“My people knew something was up because I was just sort of hanging by myself a lot,” said Obeda. “There were personal issues from the outside and I couldn’t really talk to anyone about it, especially in there.

“Everyone’s got their own thing and some of them are serving really long sentences and they don’t want to hear that sort of stuff. They’ve got their own things (going on).

“I’ve been in my cell ... ready to go and sitting there on my bed just working up the courage to end things. But again, I’m still here, still alive.”

At the tail end of 2018, Obeda was deported back to New Zealand.

“When I came back here I did realise – through my depression – that I didn’t want to go back to prison,” said Obeda.

“I just knew that if I went back to prison, I’d end up killing myself in there. I barely made it out earlier.”

While he insists he’s not a “religious man,” he considers finding spirituality and reconnecting with God as key to his recovery. In the last two years, Obeda has rehabilitated himself from alcoholism and drug use, and even stopped eating meat.

Today, Obeda remains in Auckland where he hosts The Felon Show – a podcast series where he interviews reformed criminals.

Launching the series in July 2021, the name was, in part, inspired by The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

He began interviewing his friends and some of the people he met through prison.

Some of his guests include former Bandidos sergeant-in-arms Brent Simpson and Danny Shannon who staged an escape from Sydney’s Silverwater Prison to Perth in 2000 and now works in drug rehabilitation.

Through his work, he aims to provide hope and support people in the prison system.

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“G-Fam was a large part of who I was. It was a big part of my life. I still do talk to and know a lot of the boys but I’ve moved on,” said Obeda.

“I’ve got a lot of people in prison, still right now, who are cheering for me.

“I’m doing it for them as well. I want to move forwards and show people that we can change and that it is possible.”