Motorcycle Gangs: The Rise Of Organized Crime

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs) is a contemporary issue that engulfs Australian society. What makes prosecution of such gangs so complex is the strong foothold that gangs have in organised crime and the façade that is worn in order to evade the eyes of the law. Various responses have been implemented in order to cease all violence and more importantly disenfranchise organised crime and prosecute those within the illegal syndicates. Legal responses put into act are: task forces and intelligence and lastly, targeting the organisation and membership. The non-legal responses on the other hand are, the media and the formation of political parties.

According the Australian Crime Commission1. (ACC), Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs are among the most detectable components of Australia’s criminal landscapes and because unlike other criminal organisations who try and keep themselves anonymous, OMCGs on the other hang maintain websites, openly represent themselves through gang patches, tattoos, leather and publicly fight amongst themselves.

gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs.16 Idaho has a gang task force, known as the Treasure

Anthony Zervas was killed in terminal 3 at Sydney Airport on the 22 March 2009 in a brawl between the Hells Angels and Comancheros. The offending member was a part of the Comanchero and the deceased is a brother of Peter Zervas, a Hells Angels member. At the time of the riot, 12 Comancheros and 8 Hells Angels were present. A great number of these bikie gang members

Many problems that arise with biker gangs are various with them being anywhere from murder, theft, vandalism, drugs and minor traffic violations. The Hells Angels are one of the largest and most feared biker clubs. They are hard and will do anything to get their way. They tend to go after their enemies families to get to their enemy. They will threaten whoever is in their way

Justin Cole Forster, the leader of many Bandidos biker gangs, pled guilty due to many factors. In 2013, Forster took part in a deadly violence towards a rival gang and since then he has been watched closely. It has also been thought that he has taken part in a numerous of crimes such as attempted murder, robbery, extortion, racketeering and drug trafficking. There was also a gunfight incident which occurred May 2015 during a biker meeting in Waco which led nine people dead and 170 arrests. As a result of these crimes being committed by the Bandidos biker gang, prosecutes say, Forster faces up to life in federal prison and “ remains in custody in san Antonio pending sentencing next year” (the Toronto star). Furthermore, three more gang members

The spread of gangs and their culture is a big issue in America today. Based off of what I read in the article “America’s Biker Gangs,” by The Week Staff, one of the conclusions I’ve come to on why gangs continue to exist is because of psychological damage from war. “For the thousands of military veterans who were struggling to readjust to life back in the U.S., starting a biker club represented an innocent way to recapture the camaraderie they’d experienced in the war.” Learning that biker gangs were originated by a group of war veterans was very odd to read about at first. I would have expected biker gangs to be formed by people who are more troubled in terms of their personality and aggression. After thinking constantly on how could military

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs roots began post World War II. These gangs have been classified as an organized crime affiliate due to the ongoing illegal activities they engage in for profit. I chose this topic because I have always been interested in these groups coincidentally, people I know through the military surprisingly have ties to biker gangs, despite the fact it is not authorized. Furthermore, a number of members are veterans, which makes sense due to a lot of these “clubs” establishing during war times and use a similar hierarchy. One article I had read was about the first Outlaw Motorcycle Club, founded in Chicago in 1935. That article was from the webpage entitled “Outlaws MC (est. 1935) More than Eighty Years of Biking and Brotherhood”

I’ve always known about motorcycle gangs and its cool to read that they can be classified as an organized crime group. The motorcycle gang that I have heard from and seen in some videos is the Bandidos. They are a serious threat nationally and they take part in a lot of other illegal businesses such as drug trafficking, prostitution and human trafficking. Sometimes I feel there might be some motorcycle gangs here in Virginia too and I feel like they are involved in illegal activities such as selling and distributing drugs. I can kind of see why you can classify them as an organized crime when you look at all the illegal things that they are involved with. Motorcycle gangs should start being taking seriously like other gangs because they can

Biker gangs and delinquent subcultures are one of the most fascinating areas for sociologists and criminologists to study. Gangs create an atmosphere for people who disagree with the normal culture and can side with fellow delinquents and form a subculture. Many normal motorcycle groups or biker groups have evolved into the society’s general and normal view of what a gang is: an outlaw, vicious, criminal, deviant group of people. The groups that society labeled as ‘biker gangs’ or ‘motorcycle gangs’ are notoriously known for their dangerous and violent behaviors. Therefore, research with any well-known gangs such as the Hells Angels, the Pagans, the Outlaws, and the Bandidos becomes difficult because a code of loyalty within the gang and a

In 1972 Donald Chambers, Founder of the Bandidos, and two other members were arrested in El Paso for killing two drug dealers. The story goes that two of the members were sold baking powder instead of meth, from two men, Ray and Mel Tarver. After this the two men were kidnapped and driven into the Texas desert and involuntarily made to dig their own graves before being shot, killed, and buried. This shows how serious things can get when it comes to drugs to the motorcycle gangs. Another story to shows the treachery of these gangs comes from Waco Texas. At a Twin Peaks restaurant a shoot out broke out between the Bandidos and a rival club, the Cossacks. The shootout left 9 people dead and 18 hospitalized. At least 170 people got charged and arrested and over 100 weapons were confiscated. This happened May 17 of 2015; this just goes to show that these are still present day problems that the police have to deal

Organized crime involves a group of people made up of several ethnicities and international unions, who coordinate as well as work in unison, apart, or in line with legal enterprises alongside political realms. Many analysts have concurred that organized crime is both an impediment to academic projects and a realistic social issue that obligates urgent solution. Strategies implemented to limit organized crime often tend to be inclined towards one form of the two approaches. One of the approaches is tailored on dealing with individual members of the criminal gangs, whereas the second stresses on the structural aspects along with market networks that assist in accomplishing organized crime.

An organized crime group is defined as three or more persons with the intention of committing one or more serious crimes for financial gain (Pietschmann & Walker, 2011). This group has to exist for a certain period of time and be structured, which means not randomly formed for a direct offense (Pietschmann & Walker, 2011). If the crime is committed in more than one State, and has substantial effects, then it is considered an organized crime (Petschmann & Walker, 2011). Some of the main transnational organized crime includes trafficking of illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin (Pietschmann & Walker, 2011). Drug trafficking forms the largest income for transnationally operating crime groups worldwide (Petschmann & Walker, 2011). The cocaine and heroin market play a key role in the transnational drug trafficking trade of today (Petschmann & Walker, 2011).

Imagine riding across an open highway with all of your brothers. Your Harleys are roaring through the canyons and valleys. Deep down you fear nothing, because no one in their right mind would bother you. This is what it is like to ride as a member of the Hells Angels. The Hells Angels are a motorcycle club known to be associated with drug trafficking. Before they became a motorcycle club, the group originated as a ten-man crew operating a B-17 Flying Fortress dubbed “Hell’s Angel”. The ten-man crew flew thirty four missions over Europe during World War Two. After the war concluded, the crew formed their own motorcycle club. According to Peter Tamony, author of “The Hells Angels: Their naming” in the Western Folklore, he states that “The original group denominated Hells Angels rode out of Fontana, San Bernardino county, in 1950” (201). This motorcycle club eventually expanded into an international criminal organization. They are a group of criminals and motorcycle enthusiasts that formed in California after World War Two. The Hells Angels have adopted negative symbols and violent styles of leadership to shape their identity, obtain an infamous image in mainstream culture, maintain a strict racial standard, along with a shift towards illegal activities, and ultimately become their own subculture which puts a negative stereotype on other law abiding motorcycle clubs.

The structures of the organizations crime groups are somewhat different but the same. Organized crime groups like the Mafia who are involved in the drug trade is structured in the of a Boss, Underboss, Consigliere, caporegime, soldiers and associates. The biker crime groups are structured in the order of a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, sergeant at arms, road captain, patch members, life members, and prospects. The Cartel is structed in the order of a Headquarters, Regionals Directors, and Cells. There are more criminal groups involved in the drug trade, but the groups stated are above are the most familiar groups that send out with their involvement in the drug trade.