The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, also known as the Bandido Nation, is a
"one-percenter" motorcycle club and organized crime syndicate with a
worldwide membership. The club was formed in 1966 by Don Chambers in Texas.
Its motto is "We are the people our parents warned us about." It is
estimated to have 2,400 members in 210 chapters, located in 22 countries. The
club considers itself to be an outlaw motorcycle club. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada have named
the Bandidos an "outlaw motorcycle gang".
History The Bandidos were founded by 36-year-old
dockworker Donald Chambers in March 1966 in Houston, Texas. He named the club in
honor of the Mexican bandits who lived by their own rules and he recruited
members from biker bars locally in Houston as well as in Corpus Christi,
Galveston, and San Antonio. Like other outlaw motorcycle clubs, they call
themselves "One Percenters", a phrase coined by the former president of the
American Motorcyclist Association who once stated that 99 percent of
motorcyclists were law-abiding citizens and 1 percent "outlaws." By the early
1970s, the club had over one hundred members including many Vietnam veterans.
The majority of the club consists of white males but Hispanics are also
admitted. Their motto is "We are the people our parents warned us about."
Organization The Bandidos has over 90 chapters in the
United States, 90 chapters in Europe, and another 17 in Australia, 2 in New
Zealand and In Southeast Asia. = In North America=
In the United States, the club is concentrated in Texas, but extends into
Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado,
Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Oklahoma,
Nebraska, and several other states. In Canada, the Rock Machine Motorcycle
club in Montréal merged with the Bandidos in 2000; there was a chapter in
Toronto, Ontario until a dramatic internal conflict led to their deaths.
= In Oceania= The first Australian chapter was formed
in 1983, in Sydney, by former members of the Comancheros. They have chapters in
Adelaide, Ballarat, Brisbane, Byron Bay, Cairns, Geelong, Gold Coast, Hunter
Region, Ipswich, Melbourne, Mid North Coast, Mid State, Mission Beach, Noosa,
North Victoria, Northside, Sunshine Coast, Sydney, and Toowoomba - along
with nomad members. They have a small but growing presence
in New Zealand after a rocky start in 2012. They claim to have more than a
dozen patched members and prospects in the Christchurch.
= In Europe= The first European chapter opened in
Marseille in France in 1989, followed by chapters in Scandinavia, in Denmark in
1993 and Sweden in 1994. In recent years the club has also expanded heavily into
Germany, Spain, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg
and the Channel Islands. As of March 15, 2014, the club has opened a new
"Probationary Chapter" in Sittard, in the Netherlands. Additionally, it is
looking into setting up shop in Russia and Eastern Europe and also in
Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The Bandidos are organized by local
chapters, with state and regional officers, as well as a national chapter
made up of four regional vice presidents and a national president.
= Support clubs= Like the Hells Angels, The Bandidos also
have a number of "support" clubs, who are used as proxies for both legal and
illegal activities. These groups usually wear reverse colors. They also commonly
wear a unique patch consisting of a round patch in Bandidos colors on the
front upper left of the colors, as worn by the member. Most of these clubs are
regional. Criminal involvement
= United States= In November 2006, Glenn Merritt of the
Bellingham, Washington chapter was sentenced to four years in prison for
drug possession and trafficking in stolen property. A total of 32 members
were indicted in the associated investigation, on charges including
conspiracy, witness tampering, and various drug and gun violations.
Eighteen of those pled guilty. In October, 2006, George Wegers, then
Bandidos' international president, pled guilty and received a two-year sentence
for conspiracy to engage in racketeering.
On 16 August 2004, a passer-by on Interstate 10 flagged down a police car
after finding Robert Quiroga, International Boxing Federation Super
flyweight champion from 1990 to 1993, lying next to his car. Quiroga had been
stabbed multiple times. Richard Merla, a member of the Bandidos, was arrested in
2006 for the killing and in 2007 pled no contest to murdering Quiroga; he was
sentenced to 40 years in prison. "I don't regret it. I don't have no
remorse. I don't feel sorry for him and his family. I don't and I mean that,"
Merla admits. In regards to the murder of Robert Quiroga, the Bandidos
Motorcycle Club denounced any involvement in the crime, stating that
Merla's actions were his own, and not those of the Club. Merla was expelled
from the Bandidos due to his actions. In March 2006 police in Austin, Texas
announced that the Bandidos were the prime suspects in the March 18, 2006
slaying of a 44-year-old local motorcyclist named Anthony Benesh.
Benesh, who had been trying to start an Austin chapter of the Hells Angels, was
shot in the head by an unseen sniper, as he was leaving a North Austin restaurant
with his girlfriend and two children. Police said that Benesh was flanked by
other people and the shooter used only one bullet, fired at a distance from a
high-powered rifle. The murder occurred on the same weekend as the annual
Bandidos MC "Birthday Party" in Southeast Texas, marking the 40th
anniversary of the club's 1966 founding. According to police, in the days before
his murder, Benesh had been receiving telephone calls from Bandidos telling
him to stop wearing a vest that displayed Hells Angels patches.
On May 17, 2015, the Bandidos were involved in a gun battle at a restaurant
parking lot in Waco, Texas that killed nine people and wounded 18. Among the
dead were members of the Bandidos and the Cossacks.
= Scandinavia= A turf and drug war between the Hells
Angels and the Bandidos, known as the "Great Nordic Biker War" raged from 1993
until 1997. It resulted in 11 murders, 74 attempted murders, and 96 wounded
members of the involved biker clubs. In Denmark a law was passed in response to
the biker war that banned biker clubs from owning or renting property for
their club activities. The law was later repealed on constitutional grounds.
On 14 January 2009, the Bandidos Sweden President, Mehdi Seyyed, was sentenced
to nine years in prison for two counts of attempted murder. He bombed two cars
in Gothenburg, in September 2006, with hand grenades, in acts of revenge as the
victims had previously testified against him. Four other Bandidos members
received shorter sentences for their involvement in the attacks.
= Australia= Soon after their formation, the Sydney
chapter was involved in a shoot-out with the rival Comanchero Motorcycle Club,
with six gang members and a 14-year old bystander being killed.
There have been a number of other shootings involving Bandidos Motorcycle
Club members: In 2002 a member was shot and wounded by Sean Waygood and Michael
Christiansen of the Anthony "Rooster" Perish criminal gang network in
Haymarket, New South Wales; In 2008, Bandido member Ross Brand was shot dead,
and an acquaintance injured by rival Rebels motorcycle gang affiliate John
Russell Bedson; and in 2012, Bandido member Jacques Teamo, along with an
innocent female by-stander received multiple gunshot wounds from a rival
gang member at the Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast.
Numerous police raids have targeted Bandidos members, and implicated them in
illegal drugs supply and other crimes. = Canada=
Hells Angels Quebec president Maurice Boucher organized "puppet clubs" to
persuade local Montreal, Quebec club Rock Machine-controlled bars, and their
resident drug dealers, to surrender their illegal drug business. Rock
Machine resistance led to bloodshed. On July 14, 1994, two members of the Hells
Angels' top puppet club entered a downtown motorcycle shop and shot down a
Rock Machine associate. That was the beginning of the Quebec Biker war.
That August, a Jeep wired with a remote-controlled bomb exploded killing
a Rock Machine associate and an 11-year-old boy, Daniel Desrochers, who
was playing in a nearby schoolyard. A month later, the first full Hells Angels
member was shot to death entering his car at a shopping mall. Nine bombs went
off around the province during his funeral.
The war ended in 2006 with mass killings by the Hells Angels, plus public outcry
over the deaths of innocent bystanders resulted in police pressure including
the incarceration of over 100 bikers. This turf war prompted the over-matched
Rock Machine to align itself with the Bandidos patching over as Bandidos
Quebec chapter. Not all members were happy about the patch-over. Some
defected to other clubs while others remained with the club but hoped to
restore their sovereignty. On April 8, 2006, four vehicles
containing the bodies of eight murdered men were discovered in a farmer's field
outside of the hamlet of Shedden, Ontario, Canada. Six of the men killed
in what became known as the Shedden Massacre were full members of the
Bandidos Toronto branch, including the president of the organization in Canada;
they were Luis Manny Raposo, John Muscedere, Jamie Flanz, George Jessome,
George Kriarakis, Frank Salerno, Paul Sinopoli and Michael Trotta. The
suspects in the case, Michael Sandham, Marcelo Aravena, Frank Mather, Brett
Gardiner, Dwight Mushey and Wayne Kellestine, were also full members or
probationary members, in what police described as an internal cleansing of
the Bandidos organization NSCC. The victims were brought to the farm of
Kellestine, where they were held captive before being systematically led out of
his barn and murdered "execution style." On October 30, 2009 after eighteen hours
of deliberation a jury in London, Ontario found the six suspects guilty on
44 counts of first degree murder and four counts of manslaughter.
These murders closed the chapter on the Bandidos Canada "No Surrender Crew" and
ended any hopes of Bandido dominance in the country. Many of the remaining
Canadian Bandidos re-formed the Rock Machine Biker Gang in Canada early in
2008. The new club spread outside of its traditional home of Quebec and opened
chapters in Australia and the United States.
= Germany= On June 11, 2008, two Bandidos members
were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a Hells
Angels member in Ibbenbüren, Germany. Reports say they drove to his
Harley-Davidson shop and shot him there on May 23, 2007. After the first day of
a related lawsuit on December 17, 2007, riots between the two gangs and the
police had been reported. On October 8, 2009, a Bandidos member was shot to
death by a Hells Angels prospect in Duisburg.
In February 2010, about 8 ethnic Turkish Bandido members and supporters in Berlin
in an unprecedented move defected and joined the Hells Angels, forming a
sub-chapter known as "Hells Angels Nomads Türkiye". This triggered a gang
war in Berlin that lasted from February to April 2010.
On 26 April 2012 the authorities of North Rhine-Westphalia banned and
disbanded the Aachen chapter of the Bandidos M.C., and three support clubs.
In the following action carried out by the North Rhine-Westphalia Police 38
properties were searched, in which firearms and stabbing weapons were
found. The display of Bandidos Symbols and the wearing of Bandidos Regalia was
also forbidden in North Rhine-Westphalia. The
Northrhine-Westphalia government found its actions necessary because the
Bandidos wanted to build up their criminal supremacy through racketeering
and violence. = The Netherlands=
Since the Bandidos motorcycle club started in the Netherlands in 2014, it
has been under continuous attention by the Dutch law enforcement. Particularly
the chapter in the province of Limburg was under police investigation several
times. Shortly after the start, there were two assaults with explosives on the
house of a local president, Harrie Ramakers and there were some
confrontations with another motorcycle gang, the Hells Angels. President
Ramakers is furthermore suspect in several murder investigations.
In May 2015, a large police raid at several homes of club members lead to
the discovery of five rocket launchers, many automatic weapons, explosives and
illegal fireworks. The raid was part of an ongoing police investigation
involving large-scale drug trafficking; twenty people were arrested and accused
of synthesising and dealing of hard drugs, extortion and money laundering.
See also Motorcycling
References Books and newspaper articles
Winterhalder, Edward; De Clercq, Wil, The Assimilation: Rock Machine Become
Bandidos - Bikers United Against the Hells Angels, ECW Press, ISBN
1-55022-824-2 Winterhalder, Edward, Out in Bad
Standings: Inside the Bandidos Motorcycle Club - the Making of a
Worldwide Dynasty, Blockhead City Press, ISBN 0-9771747-0-0
Edwards, Peter, The Bandido Massacre; A True Story of Bikers, Brotherhood and
Betrayal, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Coulthart, Ross and McNab, Duncan, Dead
Man Running: An Insider's Story on One of the World's Most Feared Outlaw
Motorcycle Gangs, the Bandidos Allen & Unwin, 2008,
External links Bandidos MC Worldwide Website
Bandidos Motorcycle Club at DMOZ