ArtBiker World Blog

Outlaw motorcycle [clubs] might claim to be good ol’ boys who like to ride bikes, but law enforcement officers say that by definition, outlaw [club] members are involved in crime. Kevin Thom, director of the Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Investigation, said that he considers outlaw [clubs] to be organized crime.

To keep track of [club] activity, DCI completes a report at the end of the Sturgis motorcycle rally tallying all contacts officers have with [club] members and gathering intelligence information. Officers note who is enrolled in which [club] and what roles individuals have within the [clubs].

The information is then put into a report a few inches thick and shared with 35 states and five foreign countries that have an interest in the information, Thom said.

The information gathered this year will be used by DCI to prepare officers for the next year’s rally, Thom said. DCI puts together a Law Enforcement Safety Bulletin, a handbook of outlaw [clubs]‘ identifiers and terminology, a timeline of violent motorcycle [club] involvement in South Dakota from 1981 to the present, and acts of violence nationally in the current year.

The crimes traditionally committed by outlaw [clubs] during the rally are drug possession and distribution, motorcycle theft and assault, according to Pat West, director of the Rapid City DCI office. In general, [club] members don’t commit random attacks against others. “If you mind your own business, everything will be fine,” West said. “If you pick a fight, you’ll get one.”

Anyone picking a fight with one [club] member might get more of a fight than he can handle, West said, because other [club] members will join in. “Every one of them is loyal to those colors and that group,” West said.

Law officers have been concerned in the past that [club] violence would erupt at the rally because of disputes between [clubs] in other parts of the country. In April 2002, a shootout between the Hells Angels and the Mongols in Laughlin, Nev., left three dead and 12 hospitalized. In February the same year, a fight between Hells Angels and Pagans in Plainview, N.Y., killed one and injured 10, according to the Associated Press.

Authorities here were alert for signs of problems at the 2002 rally, but none occurred, Thom said.

“Rivalries between [clubs] ebb and flow,” West said.

Motorcycle thefts are big business for outlaw [clubs], and professional thieves work motorcycle rallies, Thom said. Law enforcement officers work to prevent thefts and recover stolen bikes, and representatives of the National Insurance Crime Bureau come here to try to identify stolen motorcycles and parts.

Locally, the Bandidos is the only outlaw [club] with official chapters, two in the Black Hills and one East River. Hells Angels owns 120 acres north of Sturgis, and the Sons of Silence have a 10-acre campground seven miles north of Sturgis, Thom said.

A Rapid City Bandido, Christopher Horlock, 44, turned himself in June 21 in Houston after being indicted with 25 other people in Seattle, the AP reported.

Horlock, a national regional secretary for the Bandidos, was wanted on charges of conspiracy to tamper with a witness.

Horlock’s indictment and arrest was part of an offensive launched by federal agents and police against the Bandidos after a two-year investigation, according to the AP. Authorities served arrest and search warrants in Washington, Montana and South Dakota.

Source: know[clubs].com

After numerous requests from the press and from other clubs, it is obvious that not everybody understands the situation yet. In order to clarify it, this will be our last statement concerning this issue.

The Bandidos MC is more than surprised about the commotion and the headlines in the press concerning the retirement of the Berlin Centro Members. Only one out of five of our Berlin Chapters is closed and only 6 Bandidos MC Members left our club, NOT 70 as stated in the press before.

The President of Berlin Centro Chapter “Kadir”, his Sgt at Arms “Harty” and the Members “Chucky”, “Bülow”, “Ibo”, and “Grille” along with 9 club prospects and 2 none club associates betrayed our Nation and immediately switched as full patch members of another motorcycle club.

We won’t approve any hateful guestbook entries on our web pages.

Fears about an escalation of a “Biker War”, are unwarranted and not true!!!

Bandidos MC Europe

BFFB

http://www.bandidosmc.dk/

- Germany – There has never been a shortage of brutality between the biker gangs Bandidos and Hell’s Angels. But after 70 members of a Berlin club defected to their erstwhile rivals, police in the German capital are bracing for violence.

A number of Bandidos in Berlin have turned their back on their club and defected to the local Hell’s Angels chapter. Police are worried about a fresh outbreak of violence.

It’s only been a few months since a group of Bandidos allegedly ambushed and assaulted a group of Hell’s Angels, their arch-enemies in the biker gang world, in Finowfurt, a small town northeast of Berlin. Investigators and prosecutors say that at least half a dozen Berlin-based Banditos chased down a group of Hell’s Angels from the city, resulting in a savage fight.

When all was said and done, a gravely wounded Hell’s Angels hanger-on named Enrico K. was lying on the street — with an axe in his leg. When the police questioned him about what had happened, he attributed his gruesome wound to “a traffic accident.”

In the biker system of values, there have always been two constants. One is the sacred “code of silence.” The other is the hatred for enemy biker clubs. As such, a recent development in the Berlin biker scene — first reported by SPIEGEL TV and SPIEGEL ONLINE on Wednesday — is as unprecedented as it is explosive.

A total of 76 members and supporters of “Centro,” as the Berlin chapter of the Bandidos is known, are reportedly trying to defect to the Hell’s Angels camp. Investigators say the would-be defectors have already appeared in public wearing brand-new red-and-white Hell’s Angels garb, and that they have seen André S., the head of the local Hell’s Angels club, speaking with members of the rival club. The 45-year-old S. was recently stabbed — likely by Bandidos.

Biker Defection

Officials believe that Frank H., the head of the Hell’s Angels club in Hanover, hammered out the details of the defection last week with “Centro” leader Kadir P. Likewise, Peter M., one of the highest-ranking Bandidos in Europe, confirmed to SPIEGEL ONLINE that the crossover took place on Tuesday evening. However, when questioned about the matter, Hell’s Angels member Rudolf “Django” T. declined to confirm that the defectors had been accepted into his organization yet, saying only: “We’ll let you know in the next few days.”

While the defecting members of “Centro” — both notorious and feared in the biker scene for their violence — have cut ties with their old group, it appears that their membership in Hell’s Angels has not yet been finalized. But the bikers have stripped their club house in Berlin’s northern Reinickendorf district of all Bandido insignia.

Brutal Confrontations

Recent months have seen an uptick in violence between the rival motorcycle gangs — particularly in Berlin, the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein and eastern Germany. And the attacks have been escalating, from knife assaults to shootings to explosives. The reason: the Bandidos have managed to recruit hundreds of young men, many of them from immigrant families in Germany’s east, and put the Hell’s Angels on the defensive.

Kadir P’s “Centro” chapter has proven particularly brutal in this ongoing feud, and difficult to control. Its members have repeatedly made savage attacks on rivals in the Hell’s Angels camp, which has close ties to the far-right fan club of a local football club. Indeed, one newspaper article recently reported that the Hell’s Angels in Berlin refuse to allow foreigners into their ranks.

Now, however, the brutality would appear to have been forgiven and forgotten — the avowed enemies may soon become brothers in arms.

In the meantime, police units have taken up positions in front of the Bandidos’ clubhouse in Berlin. Investigators also say that biker-related properties have been kept under observations in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg since Tuesday evening. “We want to see whether a war breaks out,” one investigator told SPIEGEL TV.

Nobody knows, after all, how the Bandidos will react to this mass defection. Revenge and retaliation? Do the “traitors” now have to fear for their lives? In short, what does the defection mean?

“That they’re gone,” says Peter M., the number-two man in Europe’s Bandidos organization, before hanging up the phone.

BY: Jörg Diehl

Source: spiegel.de

It happened in a way with the Mongols in California.  The state tried to take away their power by taking away their colors.  But, patent and copyright law finally put an end to that.

It happened to a woman in California who had bought up all the “Hells Angels” related terms in the dot com marketplace and then tried to auction the names off.  Again, patent and copyright law prevails.

Now, the Hells Angels in Australia have just won a battle over their “death head” logo, which was used by a company named Mambo to adorn part of their clothing line.  As well as a confidential settlement, Michael Gazal, managing director of Gazal Corp Ltd (Mambo’s owner), wrote an official letter of apology to the club. The apology reads like this: “”Gazal would like to publicly acknowledge the Hells Angels’ intellectual property rights in its trademarks and artistic works, and the considerable reputation it has in those trademarks and artistic works, a reputation which stems from a long history of use both in Australia and internationally.”

The offending garments were a child’s hooded sweatshirt and a sugar-pink mini-skirt.

Lots going on during Sturgis week and here is the third installment of the news that you may have missed and might be interested to know.  Please note that not everything in this digest actually happened IN Sturgis… some of the news is from other happenings around the country, but if you were in Sturgis this year, you may have missed it.

Through the first Saturday, the official start date of the rally, 261 citations had been issued in connection with the Sturgis event, compared to 239 citations issued at the same stage last year.

This year’s citations included 45 DUI arrests, up from 40 by the same time last year, but only one felony drug arrest, down from ten.

Eleven injury accidents had been recorded, compared with 10 at this point last year.

Mongols MC member, Christopher Ablett, 36, plead not guilty July 29 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco to charges of murder in aid of racketeering and two gun-possession charges in the September slaying of Mark “Papa” Guardado, the head of the Hells Angels’ “Frisco” chapter.   Ablett turned himself in to police in Oklahoma in October. He is being held without bail at a downtown Oakland jail and returns to court Aug. 12.

Indian Motorcycle Company displayed the new 2010 Chief Bomber and Dark Horse to the public for the first time. The show truck was on display at 4th and Lazelle Street in downtown Sturgis as well as the Buffalo Chip and featured Indian Motorcycle accessories as well.  Check out the new bikes at www.indianmotorcycle.com

$61,600 was the official amount that was raised by the Sturgis Lengends Ride.  Again, proceeds go to charity (Black Hills Children’s Home and the Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame and Museum).  This is approximately a $21,000 increase over last year!  Fantastic job gang.

Rally attendance was down, as has been the case the past few years.  Reports that vendor permits remained about the same have been made, which makes us think that at least the vendors have not yet given up… Still, plenty of people attend and I know a lot of folks who are more than happy to see attendance down as it makes the riding easier and less crowded.

Main Street had a Sons of Anarchy mock clubhouse all set up for folks to walk through.  The new season is starting soon and I am sure a lot of people are sitting on the edge of their seats to see what happens this go around.

Drunken-driving arrests were up, and so were injury accidents this year at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

The annual rally officially concluded Friday, but many bikers come early or linger after rally week throughout the Black Hills.

Through Saturday, there were 316 DUI arrests at this year’s rally compared with 253 last year, according to the state Highway Patrol.

There were 72 injury accidents this year compared with 60 last year, the patrol said.

But there were fewer arrests this year than last for offenses other than DUI. This year’s total was 199 misdemeanor drug and felony arrests. Last year’s total was 232.