BANDIDOS BIKERS EYE B.C. INVASION

VANCOUVER -- The Bandidos motorcycle gang, arch rivals of the Hells Angels,
are planning to set up a chapter in B.C. -- a move organized-crime experts
fear could spark an all-out biker war.

"It will be soon. And it will be troublesome," said Insp. Bob Paulson, the
leading motorcycle-gang expert with the RCMP in B.C.

The Hells Angels have had a presence in B.C. for years and have repeatedly
been identified by police as the province's number 1 organized crime threat.

The Bandidos, a Texas-based motorcycle gang with chapters in North America,
Australia and Europe, have an established chapter across the border in
Bellingham, Wash.

But Paulson said the Bandidos have begun to realize there are big drug
profits to be made north of the border.

"They (the Bandidos) want to get into B.C. because it's lucrative turf," he
said.

Police say that while the Bandidos have no formal presence in B.C., two
members of the Bellingham chapter already live in the province, including
one in Abbotsford.

Bellingham Police Sgt. Flo Simon said there were drug-smuggling
investigations in the 1990s linked to the Bandidos chapter in that city.
However, she said there has been very little violence by the gang in
Bellingham.

Paulson said police are concerned that the presence of the Bandidos could
spark a turf war with the Hells Angels similar to what occurred in the
1990s in Quebec, where a biker war erupted between the Angels and the rival
Rock Machine.

That rivalry has resulted in more than 160 deaths in Quebec since 1994.
Some were innocent victims, including two jail guards and 11-year-old
Daniel Desrochers, who was hit by shrapnel from a car bomb nine years ago.

During the Quebec biker war, the Bandidos formed an alliance with the Rock
Machine. And in 1999, the Rock Machine was officially folded into the Bandidos.

Supt. Dick Grattan, head of the RCMP's criminal intelligence unit in B.C.,
said outlaw motorcycle gangs are already considered the top organized crime
threat in B.C. -- and the presence of another group will just make things
worse.

"If and when the Bandidos show up in the province, there will be some
clashes between the two motorcycle gangs," he said.

Paulson said there are also fears that the Hells Angels may expand their
presence in B.C. -- opening additional chapters -- to try to consolidate
their hold before the Bandidos arrive.

"I think you're going to see an aggressive expansion of Hells Angels
throughout the province in anticipation of the Bandidos coming to B.C.," he
said.

The Hells Angels and Bandidos are historic rivals, implicated in biker
violence across the globe.

In Ontario, a rivalry between the two gangs was blamed for seven murders
between August 2001 and May 2002.

And in Scandinavia, a biker war between the two in the mid-1990s resulted
in the deaths of more than a dozen people.

The Bandidos expansion into Canada so far includes two chapters in each of
Ontario and Quebec, and a probationary chapter recently set up in Edmonton.

The Bandidos' Web site promises more chapters "coming soon" to Canada.