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 Bandido club, an outlaw motorcycle gang, set to roll into Moab for 'annual conference' |
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| Bandido club, an outlaw motorcycle gang, set to roll into Moab for 'annual conference' |
   
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Law enforcement agencies in southern Utah are ramping up security plans in preparation for a motorcycle rally expected to draw hundreds of members from one of the nation's fastest-growing outlaw biker gangs.
The Moab Police Department and Grand County Sheriff's Office expect 500 to 800 members of the international Bandidos Motorcycle Club to descend on Moab for the group's "annual conference" beginning Thursday and running though Aug. 25, said Moab Police Chief Michael Navarre.
Although the group refers to itself as a club, the Bandido Nation is documented by the U.S. Department of Justice as one of the most visible outlaw motorcycle gangs in the country, along with other "one-percenter" groups like the Hells Angels, Outlaw Motorcycle Club and the Pagans.
The group's reputation for violence was enough for Moab officials to request emergency funding from the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice to pay for increased law enforcement during the gang's meeting.
The state commission this week approved $55,000 to help pay overtime, lodging and per-diem expenses for law enforcement agencies from around Utah to assist the 14-person Moab Police Department in monitoring the group's activities.
Navarre and Moab Mayor David Sakrison declined to say how many extra officers will be in Moab while the bikers are in town.
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"We're being pretty tight-lipped about the entire operation because we don't really know what to expect," Sakrison said. Moab city officials learned the club planned to convene in their town about four months ago and quickly began discussing how to police the event.
The Bandidos are estimated to have 2,500 members in 13 countries, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Pockets of Bandidos can increasingly be found in Utah, particularly in Tooele County, said Bruce Champagne, president of the Utah Gang Investigators Association.
"They would have you believe they're clubs, but they're not. They're involved in criminal enterprise," said Champagne, noting the gang can be "incredibly violent."
"They've been actively recruiting, and their presence has grown in Utah over the last few years," he said.
Last August, the Bandidos organized a rally on U.S. Forest Service land near Flagstaff, Ariz. The Coconino County Sheriff's Office assembled 140 officers from 26 law enforcement agencies to patrol the area as a precaution, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the sheriffs's office.
Utah police have contacted Arizona authorities to discuss how Flagstaff managed the 2007 gathering, in which no major incidents were reported, Blair said.
Law enforcement must find a delicate balance between keeping an eye on the gathering and not intruding on the group's right to meet, said Al Valdez, a professor at the University of California, Irvine and a former gang investigator.
Valdez added that the issue is not whether the Bandidos - some of whom do not participate in criminal activity - will behave among themselves at the conference, it's whether a rival gang may storm into town to cause problems.
"A larger police presence deters rivals from showing up," said Valdez, who spoke at the Utah Gang Conference in April and has authored several text books on gangs.
"It's not going to be a gestapo like-presence. They'll be in the shadows," he said of police.
The Bandidos conference will likely give the club an opportunity to discuss activities, pending criminal cases, potential new members, disciplinary issues and plan next year's ride to Sturgis, S.D. for that city's annual motorcycle rally, said Valdez.
"They call it 'going to church.' It's been in my experience, that sometimes at 'church' they plan criminal business," Valdez said of the annual conference.
Champagne noted that the Bandidos sometimes mask criminal activities by participating in local charitable events,
In 2004, the northern Utah chapter of the club hosted a benefit ride and dinners with proceeds donated to a local shelter for abused women and children.
But the good deeds are often overshadowed by violent headlines. Turf wars with the rival Hells Angels have resulted in multiple murder cases against various Bandido members, gang experts say.
In July 2007, four Bandidos members from Texas were stabbed in Eureka Springs, Ark., by members of a rival Hells Angels chapter. And an April 2006 incident in Ontario, Canada, drew international attention after eight Bandidos were murdered in a rural field near the town of Shedden.
mrogers@sltrib.com
Large and growing fast
The U.S. Department of Justice has pegged the Bandidos Motorcycle Club as one of the four largest - and fastest-growing - outlaw motorcycle gangs in the country. Several hundred Bandidos members are expected to gather in Moab starting Thursday for an "annual conference."
What is a 'one-percenter'?
Club members are referred to as "one-percenters," a term coined after a 1947 motorcycle rally in Hollister, Calif., where a small group of outlaw bikers wreaked havoc. The behavior drew intense media coverage and prompted the American Motorcyclist Association to insist that 99 percent of those at the rally were well-behaved, with just one percent being unruly. The 1953 outlaw biker film "Wild One" starring Marlon Brando was reportedly inspired by the Hollister events, and the "one-percenter" label was embraced by motorcycle gangs. The Bandidos, established in 1966 in Houston by a marine who served in Vietnam, is linked to a range of organized crimes including welfare fraud, gun running, arson, prostitution, bank fraud, contract murder and drug sales, according to Al Valdez, a California gang expert. The club's emblem is a pistol-toting bandit that has been compared to the "Frito Bandito", a cartoon character popularized during a 1960s advertising campaign for Fritos corn chips.
http://www.sltrib.com/justice/ci_10222573
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18.08.2008 21:11 |
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