Author: ‘Biker gangs are America’s crime export to the world’

WASHINGTON — One hundred seventy people are facing organized crime charges after a massive biker gang blowout left nine people dead at a Waco, Texas, Twin Peaks restaurant Sunday afternoon.

All those killed were members of either the Bandidos or Cossacks biker gangs. 

Julian Sher, senior producer with Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and author of “Angels of Death” and other books on biker gangs, says the Bandidos is one of the most dangerous biker gangs in existence. And while the largest biker gang in the world is Hells Angels, the Bandidos is a close second, Sher says.

“They actually style themselves as being for those that think the Hells Angels are too corporate, too good. Their slogan is ‘We’re the people our parents warned us about.’ So they are much more openly violent. They have a history. The largest massacre in the province of Ontario of eight people was a Banditos chapter that was wiped out by their own.”

When the Bandidos went to war with the Hells Angels in Montreal, about 160 people died in a few years, says Sher.

“It’s organized crime. That’s certainly what police say and that’s what I think the evidence shows journalistically.”

According to Sher, members of the Bandidos are often ordinary guys that the gang actively recruits and intensely screens. Getting in isn’t easy. Not every member is criminally active — some want the adventure — but it would be difficult not to know about the criminal activity, says Sher.

Many times the gangs will position themselves as enthusiasts and point to a few bad apples. But the crime is evident. Sher points to another brawl at a casino in Laughlin, Nevada, known as the River Run Riot, that left three people dead and several bystanders injured in 2002.

“Bikers are often seen as kind of the easy rider, the lovable rascals. The Harley has replaced the horse,” says Sher.

“So the bikers play on that myth of just being a rebel without a cause. And I think it’s hard for ordinary people … to see behind some of their charity runs and their web pages and the stuff they’re selling on the Internet, to see the crime and the drugs and the prostitution that’s behind these gangs.”

Also, Sher says that while membership numbers have remained mostly the same for biker gangs in the U.S., they’ve been expanding throughout the world.

“Biker gangs are America’s crime export to the world.”

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