BANDIDOS' TIME IS UP: POLICE

Four More Members Accused of Murder

Arrests Have Almost Wiped Out Bike Gang

The notorious Bandidos biker gang has been permanently put out of
business in Ontario with the laying of murder charges against four of
its few remaining members, police say.

The final blow to the Ontario chapter of the motorcycle gang came
earlier this week when Durham and York Region police ended a six-month
investigation into the beating death of Shawn Douse, 35, of Keswick,
arresting three people and issuing a Canada-wide warrant for a fourth
Bandidos gang member who police say is hiding in British Columbia.

Police said yesterday that Douse was killed over drugs. In what has
been described as a retaliation slaying, Bandidos members "set upon"
him in a house in Keswick last December -- beating him to death and
then trying to destroy evidence by burning his body, police said.

Douse's remains were found Dec. 8 in a Pickering field. Realizing the
slaying was related to drugs and gangs, police set up a task force
that included members of the Ontario Provincial Police biker unit.

Through that investigation, they would stumble into one of the biggest
mass murders in the province's history -- a killing spree in April
that left eight Bandidos members or associates shot dead near Shedden,
Ont., near St. Thomas.

Investigators had followed one of the suspects in the Douse homicide
- -- Bandidos prospect Jamie Flanz -- to the southwestern Ontario town
on April 8 as part of their intelligence-gathering operation.

When Flanz and other bikers arrived at a farmhouse for what appeared
to be a party, the investigators left the scene.

The next day, Flanz and seven other Bandidos bikers, including the
Canadian president, were found shot to death in their cars near
another farm.

Police called it an "internal cleansing." Several Bandidos members are
now under arrest for the eight slayings.

At a news conference yesterday, police said there was no direct link
between the Shedden slaughter and Douse's death, although they did
reveal that Douse was killed in Flanz's Hattie Court home in Keswick.

The three men charged yesterday with second-degree murder -- Cameron
Acorn, 25, of Keswick, Pierre Aragon, 24, of Oakville, and Randolph
Brown, 35, of Jackson's Point -- were identified as being members or
associates of the Bandidos.

A fourth suspect, Robert "Bobby" Quinn, 26, is on the run in British
Columbia, police said. A Bandidos prospect, he is wanted for
second-degree murder in the Douse slaying.

With many of the Bandidos either dead or in jail, police said they are
confident the outlaw motorcycle club is finished in this province.

"It is our belief that with the arrests (in the Douse homicide) and
the subsequent arrests for the slayings in Shedden, that the Bandidos
no longer exist in Ontario," said OPP Det. Insp. Don Bell, the head of
the province's biker enforcement unit.

Det. Sgt. Rolf Kluem of the Durham homicide squad said the accused in
the killing and Douse were involved in drug trafficking, mainly in
cocaine.

"There was animosity there and he was set upon by these individuals,"
Kluem said at the news conference in Whitby.

When asked if police had travelled to Shedden as part of their
investigation, Kluem said they were "gathering intelligence
continually during the time of the Shedden incident."

Police sources have told the Toronto Star that Durham investigators
were there the night of the slayings and played a key role in helping
the OPP make quick arrests in the days following the discovery of the
bodies.

"We were able to share information with the OPP to move that
investigation forward," Kluem said.

While police say the Bandidos are finished in Ontario, there are
several members still active and currently not in jail.