Pubdate: Thu, 17 Feb 2005
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2005, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Steve Lambert, Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers)

WINNIPEG POLICE FEAR MOTORCYCLE GANGS MAY LOCK HORNS

WINNIPEG -- Police in Manitoba's capital are worried that a turf war may 
develop between biker gangs now that the Bandidos appear to be setting up 
shop alongside the local Hells Angels.

"I guess what would concern me is that we may see a rivalry similar to what 
was seen in Quebec," Sergeant Cam Baldwin of the Winnipeg Police Service 
said yesterday.

Until 2001, the Bandidos were known as the Rock Machine in Quebec. About 
170 people, including several bystanders, were killed from 1995 to 2001 
during a turf war between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels for control 
of Quebec's lucrative drug trade.

In the fall, four members of the Bandidos were handed prison sentences in 
Laval, Que., on 22 charges, from gangsterism and attempted murder to drug 
trafficking and arson.

"I guess [it] will be up to the Hells Angels chapter here in Manitoba to 
dictate whether they'll welcome the Bandidos or whether they'll try to 
eliminate them from cutting into their economics in the province," Sgt. 
Baldwin said.

He and other officers showed reporters a leather vest that was seized 
during the investigation of an alleged assault.

The vest bears the Bandidos name and a caricature of a man wearing a 
Mexican hat and brandishing a knife and gun. It is the first hard evidence 
the Bandidos are setting up a chapter in Winnipeg, Sgt. Baldwin said.

The Bandidos, which started in Texas, have chapters worldwide, including 
one in Toronto. They and the Hells Angels have declared a global truce, 
Sgt. Baldwin said.

But according to an expert on biker gangs, Manitobans need not worry about 
the Bandidos.

"Eighteen months ago, every serious criminal who was a Bandido became a 
Hells Angel," said Yves Lavigne, a onetime reporter who published four 
books on organized crime, including Hells Angels at War in 1999.

"What's left now is a handful of wannabes . . . who wear the Bandidos 
colours but are not really heavy criminals. They're low-level drug dealers."

The more troubling aspect, Mr. Lavigne said, is that the Bandidos' arrival 
signifies that Manitoba is viewed as fertile ground for criminal 
organizations, many of which are not as visible as biker gangs.

"The Bandidos have targeted Winnipeg because the word is now out in the 
criminal underworld that Winnipeg is a soft touch, that the police and 
Crown prosecutors are incompetent, as is the government, the Attorney-General."

That stems from the growth of the Hells Angels' presence in the city since 
the late 1990s and from a failed trial of five Hells Angels associates last 
year, he added.

The huge trial, involving 36 charges, fell apart after a key witness had 
second thoughts about testifying and was deemed unreliable by the Crown.

"It has sent a terrible, terrible welcoming signal to the criminal element 
in this country," Mr. Lavigne said.

But Manitoba's NDP government rejected that criticism. Since they were 
elected in 1999, the New Democrats have worked hard to curb gang activity, 
Attorney-General Gord Mackintosh said.
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