SECOND BIKER GANG NOW OPERATING IN CITY

A second outlaw motorcycle gang has surfaced in Winnipeg to challenge the
dominance of the Hells Angels in the city's drug underworld, police said
yesterday.

Displaying a seized Bandidos motorcycle club vest -- featuring a fat,
machete- and pistol-wielding cartoon cowboy -- police said the gang gained
a foothold in the city last October when six city men got approval to form
a probationary chapter.

Sgt. Cam Baldwin of the Winnipeg Police Service's gang unit said the
arrival of the Bandidos wasn't unexpected.

But he downplayed suggestions the Bandidos' presence could spark a gang war
with the Hells Angels, who have controlled a large part of the drug trade
in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario for the last five years.

"I guess that will be up to the Hells Angels chapter here in Manitoba to
dictate whether they are going to welcome the Bandidos or whether they will
try to eliminate them from cutting in on the 'economics' here in the
province," Baldwin said.

Police have warned for the last three years the Bandidos would come to
Winnipeg, but the seizure of the vest from a 34-year-old suspected Bandidos
gang member Feb. 10 is the first proof that they have arrived.

Journalist Julian Sher said the Bandidos' arrival in Winnipeg is
significant in that it had to be sponsored by the only other Bandidos club
in Canada -- in Toronto -- and by the gang's headquarters in the United States.

"You just don't set up a Wal-Mart because you feel like it," said Sher,
author of The Road to Hell, which focused on the Hells Angels' expansion in
Canada. "It just can't come from nowhere."

Sher said the Bandidos likely set their sights on Winnipeg because the
Hells Angels appear to be flourishing in the drug trade here without much
interference from police.

At the same time, the Hells Angels' heavy hand -- they are known to enforce
payment of a street tax by independent drug dealers who do not sell the
gang's drugs -- has upset a number of local criminals, who welcome the
Bandidos' arrival. The Hells Angels are also extremely particular in whom
they promote into their gang.

Baldwin said the two gangs have a worldwide truce, so whether there will be
conflict between them is anyone's guess. The Bandidos vest displayed by
city police yesterday was seized after an alleged Feb. 8 assault and
abduction in the city's West End.

In that incident, police said a 20-year-old man was forced off the road,
dragged from his car by several men and taken to a building where he was
tortured. The victim needed treatment in hospital after he was freed by his
captors several hours later.