OFF THE WIRE
Police in Manitoba's capital are worried a biker gang turf war may develop 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," Sgt. Cam Baldwin said Wednesday.
The Bandidos were known as the Rock Machine in Quebec until 2001. About 170 people, including several innocent bystanders, were killed between 1995 and 2001 during a bloody turf war with the Hells Angels for control of Quebec's lucrative drug trade.
Four members of the Bandidos biker gang were given prison sentences last fall in Laval, Que., on 22 charges ranging 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."
Baldwin and other officers showed reporters a leather vest that was seized as part of an investigation into an alleged assault. The vest bears the Bandidos name and a caricature of a man, in a Mexican hat, brandishing a knife and gun.
It's the first hard evidence the Bandidos are setting up a chapter in Winnipeg, said Baldwin.
The Bandidos started in Texas and now have chapters worldwide, including one in Toronto. They and the Hells Angels have declared a global truce, Baldwin said, but it remains to be seen whether peace will hold.
One expert on motorcycle gangs, however, said 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 former reporter who....
