October 19, 2007
Bandidos bikers bugger off
Hells Angels is the only stable motorcycle gang in Alberta

By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA

A recent move by the notorious Bandidos biker gang to shut down its Canadian operations only reinforces the dominance of the Hells Angels in Canada and Alberta, crime experts say.

"Canada is red and white. It's not just the Maple Leaf," said investigative journalist Julian Sher, referring to the colours on the Hells Angels' official emblem.

Sher's declaration comes after the Bandidos - which suffered the massacre of eight gang members in Ontario in 2006 - said on their website that the club has ceased to exist. The announcement, while lacking proper grammar, reads: "There isn't no more Bandidos MC (Motorcycle Club) membership in Canada."

The news comes as a relief to Kyle Cardinal, whose brother Joseph Robert Campbell, a.k.a. Joey Morin, was gunned down along with his companion Robert Simpson outside an Edmonton strip club in 2004. Both men had links to the Bandidos. "If they're going, good," said Cardinal. "I hope they all fold up - Bandidos, Hells Angels. We don't need them."

The demise of the Bandidos strengthens the Hells Angels as the "only stable, enduring outlaw motorcycle gang in Alberta," said Rick Bohachyk, the director of the Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta, an agency that works with other law-enforcement bodies to combat organized crime.

While the local Bandidos had patched over to the Hells Angels a few years ago, Bohachyk said there had been occasional rumours that the group was trying to rejuvenate in Alberta.

Experts say the latest move by the Bandidos likely won't have an immediate effect on public safety in Edmonton since the group had been largely inactive here. In the long run, however, the gang's closure may be positive "in the sense that a big move by the Bandidos to move into the Hells Angels' territory would spell trouble," said Sher, who co-authored a book on Canada's most notorious biker group.

Sher added that the Bandidos, while often overshadowed by their more famous counterparts, were a more vicious gang than the Hells Angels. The Angels have some concern for their public image, but "the Bandidos don't care," he said.

The Bandidos' closure follows months of speculation on their future after the April 2006 massacre of the eight gang members, an event police called an "internal cleansing" for the group.

Eight people are now being tried in the case, including Bandido member Wayne Kellestine.