BANDIDOS WERE EXPANDING WHEN POLICE CRACKED DOWN

Local News - Two weeks before the Kingston-based president of the Bandidos
Canada biker gang was arrested on Wednesday, he met with international
brothers in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico and spoke of
ambitious plans to expand across Canada and to one day operate a legitimate
club.

Alain Brunette, 38, said the future would be different with every member
required to hold down an honest job.

He longed for peace with his rivals, the Hells Angels, and a time when he
could take care of business without looking over his shoulder. He has
survived not one, but two attempts on his life and wears a bullet-proof vest.

Next month, he had planned to take his message for a new "peaceful" future
to European leaders of the Bandidos, the world's second-most powerful biker
gang.

He echoed the same sentiments last December when he talked with The
Whig-Standard inside the Travelodge Hotel-LaSalle Kingston on Princess
Street where the bikers gathered to become members of what they call the
Bandidos Nation.

Brunette said people shouldn't be suspicious about bikers congregating in
Kingston.

"First we're human beings, then we're bikers," he said, identifying himself
only as Alain. "It's a brotherhood. That's all S" He said people had no
reason to be afraid of bikers and that it was police and the media that
gave them a bad rap.

"This is a party to celebrate that we're Bandidos now," he said. "We're
proud of it and it's really nice to be a member of the Bandidos Nation.
We're having a Christmas party."

But according to police, Brunette's dreams of expansion may be over.

On Wednesday at 6 a.m. police kicked in the door of his Canatara Court
apartment in Kingston and arrested him without incident on an outstanding
warrant from Quebec. He was transported to Montreal to face charges there.

Police said they also seized a weapon during the raid. It's unknown what
charges he faces or the type of weapon that was seized.

The early-morning raid was one of a series of sweeps across Ontario and
Quebec that targeted about 60 members and associates of the gang. A total
of 27 people were arrested and one Quebec biker was shot in the chest and
face by police officers.

Arrest warrants were issued for all 25 full-patch members of the group in
Quebec, and 36 other individuals tied to the gang. The suspects were
charged with gangsterism, drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit murder.

Police claim Wednesday's raids completely dismantled the Quebec operations
of the Bandidos.

Police and a number of local law-enforcement agencies participated in
Wednesday's raids, aimed at ending a bloody turf war with the Hells that
has claimed 170 lives in eight years.

Several bystanders, including an 11-year-old boy, have been killed in the
crossfire.

Montreal Police Cmdr. Andre Durocher said about 30 searches were carried
out as police looked for computers, weapons and drugs.

But according to Quebec Police yesterday, several members of the Bandidos
biker gang, including a key group leader, escaped Wednesday's massive
police raid that crippled the organization.

Among the six Bandidos at large is Montreal chapter executive Normand
Whissell, who has been on the run since he survived an attempt on his life
Jan. 11 near Montreal.

"Mr. Whissell has been missing for quite a while," said Montreal police
Insp. Serge Frenette.

"He has been running away, mostly from the Hells Angels. But now we're also
looking for him."

Police said they don't know where Whissell is. He has been pursued by
unknown assassins who killed an innocent man this spring who they
apparently mistook for the biker leader.

Yves Albert, a 34 year-old father of two, was gunned down March 14 at a gas
station in suburban St-Eustache.

Albert's car was the same colour and make as Whissell's, and bore a licence
plate number similar to that of the biker, who lived nearby.

Bandidos members are also suspected in a rash of fires that damaged or
destroyed several bars and adjoining apartment units in Montreal's
southwest district last year.

Police say the gang was attempting to intimidate bar owners in an effort to
muscle into drug territory vacated by the gutted Hells gang.