EX-COP A KILLER?

OPP Credit Shedden-Area Residents For Noting, Reporting Clues That
Lead To Three More Arrests In Murder Case

Three Winnipeg Bandidos have been charged with murdering eight fellow
bikers near London, confirming a link first reported in The Free
Press between Ontario's worst massacre and Manitoba.

The three men -- a former police officer, a boxer and a black-belt
martial artist -- were flown to London last night under tight police
security and whisked into a St. Thomas court to face first-degree
murder charges.

The trio politely answered a few questions in court, with one even
helping a justice of the peace to pronounce his name, before they
were led away -- in blue prison garb and shackles -- to the
Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre.

Scooped up in early-morning raids in Winnipeg, they were behind bars
by nightfall thousands of kilometres away.

"We followed the evidence trail and it led us to Winnipeg, Manitoba,"
OPP Det. Insp. Paul Beesley said hours earlier at a news conference
in Winnipeg.

The three men appear to be some of those seen with fellow accused,
local biker Wayne Kellestine, in an Iona Station restaurant before
the slayings in April, when the bodies of eight men were found
stuffed into five vehicles in a rural area southwest of London.

"They (the three) certainly matched the descriptions . . . of the
people given," Beesley said.

In early morning raids yesterday, Winnipeg police and the OPP also
seized a red SUV that matches the description of one seen in
Dutton-Dunwich in the weeks before the killings.

The SUV is being sent back to Ontario for forensic testing.

OPP in Ontario credited Dutton-Dunwich residents for assisting the
police investigation, including spotting an SUV that seemed out of place.

"It was good, old-fashioned police work and citizens being observant
about what was going on," said Elgin County OPP Const. Michelle Scott.

Three Winnipeg men -- Dwight Mushey, 36, Marcello Aravena, 30, and
Michael Sandham, 36, a former police officer -- each face eight
first-degree murder charges in the killing of the eight men whose
bodies were found April 8.

Police described Mushey and Sandham as full-patch members of the
Texas-based Bandidos gang and Aravena as a "prospect," meaning he's
not yet a full-fledged member.

Only a day after eight bodies were found on Stafford Line near
Shedden, a local resident told The Free Press he saw Kellestine meet
five burly men from Winnipeg.

Sources later said Kellestine's right-hand man from London had moved
to Winnipeg months ago.

Another source revealed two of the first five people accused in the
killings had reported the involvement of Winnipeg bikers in the slayings.

Besides Kellestine, two other Ontarians were charged in April with
first-degree murder and two residents with being an accessory to
murder after the fact.

The three Winnipeg accused are well-known.

Police expressed concern that Sandham is a former constable with
Manitoba's East St. Paul police service, near Winnipeg.

"As a police officer, naturally, he would have been exposed to
training materials relative to motorcycle gangs and organized crime,"
Winnipeg deputy Chief Menno Zacharias said yesterday. "And as a
working officer, he would have access to a variety of related information."

Aravena was described as a nice guy and "journeyman boxer" with a
losing record.

"He was just fighting for a paycheque," said Duke Roufus, a manager
with Gladiators Fighting Series out of Milwaukee, Wis.

Aravena fought as a kickboxer for Gladiators until 2002 and more
recently was a boxer, with a record of seven wins, including four
knockouts, 32 losses and one draw.

Mushey got his black belt in 1994 from Kang's Taekwondo Academy in
Winnipeg. He told club officials he was a real estate investor.

"He was a very loving family man. He dresses well and is
soft-spoken," said Lois Yeung, of Kang's Taekwondo Academy.

His resume said he took courses at military academies in the U.S., she said.

Mushey drifted away from the club and in 2004 was charged with
conspiracy to produce the drug methampethamine, commonly known by the
street name speed.

Police said all three accused are longtime Winnipeggers. Yeung said
Mushey had lived for a time in the 1990s in southern Ontario.

Police released no details about the role played by the three
Winnipeg men, except to allege they were present at the killings.

"They are charged with first-degree murder, eight counts," Beesley
said. "To be charged with the first-degree murder, the law speaks for
itself. You don't actually have to be a shooter. They may or may not
have been the shooters."

Police said their investigation in Winnipeg isn't over.

But they noted their arrests already have affected the Bandidos,
touted as the world's second-biggest biker gang.

"Their presence in Manitoba and Ontario . . . this has dealt them a
severe blow," said OPP Supt. Ross Bingley.

Police caught a break early in the investigation in April when a man
walking by Winnipeg's main police station noticed documents blowing
along the street.

He gathered up the papers, which contained details of the
investigation, and took them to the CBC.

Zacharias thanked the CBC for not broadcasting details of the reports
and said steps are being taken to ensure sensitive information will
never again be blowing in the wind.

Police at yesterday's news conference repeated their belief the
killing of the eight men was an "internal cleansing" within the Bandidos.

But a former leader of the U.S. Bandidos, who helped to establish the
gang in Canada, still isn't buying that theory.

If anything, said Ed Winterhalder, the growing mystery only
strengthens his theory that illegal drugs fuelled the slayings.

"Somewhere, somehow, woven into the threads of this deal is going to
be methamphetamine. That's just a wild guess," said Winterhalder, who
wrote a book about his biker life, Out in Bad Standing.

Two of the accused -- Eric Niessen and Dwight Mushey -- have
previously been swept up in separate meth busts.

"(The massacre) makes no sense to anyone," Winterhalder said, "and
when that happens, whether it's the biker world or not . . . 99 per
cent of the time, methamphetamine is the explanation."

Winterhalder brushed off theories the killings resulted from a
dispute between Ontario and Manitoba Bandidos over participation in a
national rally in Winnipeg.

Other theories suggest some of the Bandidos were demanding the others
quit the gang.

WHO's Charged

Marcello Aravena

- - A boxer, 30, the tough-talking, six-foot-two Winnipegger once
blamed a bitter loss on a judge, saying he'd "kicked the living crap
out of him -- badly."

- - Was not yet a full-fledged Bandidos motorcycle gang member, police said.

- - Had worked as a nightclub security guard.

Michael Sandham

- - Another Winnipeger, 36, he'd worked for two years until 2002 as a
police officer with East St. Paul police service, near Winnipeg. -
Reputedly a full-patch member of the Bandidos and head of the gang's
Manitoba wing. - Was a certified instructor in the use of taser stun
guns. - Completed his officer training at the Winnipeg Police
Academy. - Had been associated with the Outlaws biker gang, biker
sources claim.

Dwight Mushey

- - Age 36, also from Winnipeg, was charged in a 2004 bust with
conspiracy to produce methamphetamine, the illegal drug known on the
street as speed.

- - Holds a black belt in taekwondo.

- - Is a full-fledged member of the Bandidos gang, police said.