Gangs (28 page)

By this time both gangs were increasingly aware that the feuding could not be allowed to continue. The massive amount of self-imposed security, as well as the high cost of arms and explosives, had put a major financial strain on both groups. Soon, feelers were being put out in an effort to restore peace.

Officially, the last violent confrontation occurred on 7 June, 1997, when a Bandidos ‘trainee’ was shot dead by a Hells Angel in northern Zeeland. The toll stood at twelve dead and around seventy seriously injured. Shortly afterwards, live television coverage captured the emotive image of high-ranking Hells Angel Bent ‘Blondie’ Svane Jensen shaking hands with Bandidos leader Jim Tinndahn. The pair announced that, following a summer of negotiations, a truce was now in place. ‘We have agreed to co-operate to stop what has been happening,’ said Tinndahn.

The truth was that the two former enemies had drawn up an agreement in which every town and city had been systematically split up, right down to specific pubs, discotheques, and striptease clubs, in an effort to control their lucrative criminal activities. The ‘contract’ states that Hells Angels have ‘sovereignty’ over Denmark’s three biggest cities – Copenhagen, Århus, and Odense – while Bandidos have control of the rest of Denmark. Major holiday locations in Jutland, which have a flourishing drugs trade every summer, have been divided on a town by town basis, while Randers, Aalborg and Horsens have been declared ‘open’, giving both gangs the right to operate.

‘This deal not only gives the two groups a monopoly on crime in their respective territories, but also relative peace and quiet, and freedom from outside competition,’ says Troels Jørgensen, head of the National Investigation Centre, which keeps bikers under surveillance.

But Kim Jenson, a spokesperson for the Angels, denied the contract covered any criminal activity. ‘This agreement simply exists to prevent constant confrontation between our two gangs.’

Meanwhile, back in England, the Midland Outlaws (who had repeatedly and publicly declared their support for the Scandinavian Bandidos) and the Angels both focused on increasing their numbers and recruiting new members, seemingly gearing up for the inevitable clash.

In June 1997, just three months before the truce in Scandinavia had been announced, the Hells Angels heard that a small but notoriously violent London-based club called the Outcasts were attempting to absorb an equally small Hertfordshire club called the Lost Tribe. Concerned that such a move would make the Outcasts too great a force to be reckoned with, the Angels jumped in and made the Tribe honorary members. They made approaches to several Outcasts and invited them to become Angels. ‘It was more like a threat than an invitation,’ one Outcast said later. ‘The Angels had received orders direct from the United States which said that unless they maintained their position as the premier biker gang in the country they would lose their charter. They made it very clear that if we didn’t join them, they would destroy us.’ A couple of Outcasts took up the offer but the vast majority remained determined to stand up to the might of the Angels.

But the Outcasts didn’t see it that way. In November 1997 two members of the club were arrested in east London in possession of loaded shotguns, seemingly on their way to confront the Angels. There followed a series of minor clashes between the two gangs and it was clear that it was only a matter of time before things came to a head.

January 1998 saw the annual Rockers Reunion in Battersea. About 1700 people attended the concert, which has traditionally been regarded as an Outcasts event and had been trouble-free for fifteen years. But this time up to twenty Hells Angels were involved in a brutal attack on two Outcasts.

According to eyewitnesses, the Angels attacked ‘like sharks’, going in small groups, kicking and stabbing before retreating and another group taking over. Groups of four or five Angels, armed with knives, axes, baseball bats and clubs, swooped on their victims in wave after wave of attacks. Unarmed bikers equipped with headset microphones helped pick out the Outcasts from the crowd.

The first victim was thirty-three-year-old David Armstrong, a father of one, known as Flipper because he had lost his right leg while serving with the Royal Irish Regiment. He was dragged from his bike and hacked to death with axes and knives. He was stabbed four times in his abdomen and left leg. His lungs were pierced and he suffered severe internal bleeding. Armstrong’s friend, Malcolm St Clair, raced to his aid but soon became the next target. Italian photographer Ramak Fazel, who was passing by, watched in horror as a bearded biker laid into St Clair with an axe. ‘He was bringing his axe up over his head. The victim was lying with his head between his knees.’ Fazel then saw another man pull out a ten-inch knife and continue the attack. ‘The knife was thrust in on both sides. Then they calmly walked away. It was cold-blooded.’

Fazel then saw two of the attackers climb into a Volvo and made a note of the registration number on a napkin. The car was traced to Ronald Wait, vice-president of the Essex Angels – known as the Hatchet Crew. He was arrested after Mr Fazel picked him out at an identity parade.

Wait initially said he was drinking at a bikers’ clubhouse in Reading, Berkshire, at the time of the killings. The alibi was supported by several members of the club, but dismissed. Wait, who has had triple heart bypass surgery and suffers from angina and diabetes, then said he was too ill to have taken part in any attack. Despite this, he was taken to court to face trial.

During a brief spell in the witness box Wait, who gave his occupation as security guard, refused to talk about the incident, explaining the Angel code of silence thus: ‘The rules state that you are not allowed to make a statement to police, or speak to them if it involves another club member. You have to seek permission to speak to the police.’ Wait was initially charged with murder, but the prosecution decided not to proceed with the charge and he was eventually found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and jailed for fifteen years.

The weeks that followed the deaths of Armstrong and St Clair saw more clashes between the two gangs. In March a fertiliser and petrol bomb was found at the clubhouse of the Angels’ Lea Valley chapter, in Luton, Bedfordshire. A Kent motorcycle shop owned by members of the Hells Angels was the target of an attempted arson attack. Then two Outcasts were shot close to the clubhouse of the Outcast Family chapter in east London. Both victims survived but refused to co-operate with the police.

In June 1998 Outcast Richard ‘Stitch’ Anderton was arrested after officers from the National Crime Squad found a massive haul of guns and ammunition in his home. They believed the weapons were intended to be used as part of an assault on several properties owned by members of the Hells Angels. Detectives stopped Anderten in his car and found a loaded Smith & Wesson .45 revolver tucked into the waistband of his trousers. A search of Anderton’s flat uncovered weapons, including an Uzi submachine-gun, an AK47 rifle and a rocket launcher.

After his arrest Anderton claimed he had been told that the Angels had drawn up a ‘death list’, containing the names of several Outcasts who were to be ‘killed on sight’. Anderton had previously been a ‘prospect’ member of the Angels. He left for unknown reasons and was believed to have been placed on the death list because he was considered a traitor. (The two men murdered at the Rockers Reunion were also former Angels associates.) Fearing for his life, Anderton moved from Essex to Dorset and armed himself with the handgun. He claimed the other weapons and the drugs were merely being stored at his property.

The Outcasts subsequently disbanded and joined forces with the Midland Outlaws who, in early 2000, were awarded a charter by the US Outlaws and officially welcomed into their fold. The multi-feathered headdress has gone, replaced by the skull and crossed pistons.

Since the start of the new millennium the biker world has been relatively quiet. But there are stormclouds on the horizon. And the biggest battle of all might be waiting in the wings. While the Nordic Biker War was raging and even when it was over, the big question was when the hostilities would reach the UK. ‘You guys in Britain are sitting on a delayed-action timebomb,’ warned Sergeant Jean-Pierre Levesque of Canada’s Criminal Intelligence, one of the world’s experts on biker gangs. ‘I think what is happening in Scandinavia will have to happen in the rest of Europe. I’m surprised that Britain hasn’t been hit yet.’

At the time the main reason given was that the Bandidos had no representation in the UK. Even with the Midland Outlaws (subsequently the Outlaws) pledging support, the situation was never going to be as tense as it would be if there were bikers riding around with Bandidos colours on their backs on British soil. Even with their numbers dwindling, the combined might of the Angels would still outnumber any single prospect club, making it impossible for the Bandidos to get a foothold anywhere in the UK.

However, in early 2003 the Bandidos opened chapters on two of the most southerly parts of Great Britain, the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey. The Bandidos arrived in Guernsey after absorbing an existing gang, the Islanders, who were made prospects soon after their clubhouse was raided by police and a significant number of drugs and weapons were found. Guernsey also supports a small branch of the Bandidos’ ‘sister’ club, the Outlaws.

Nearby Jersey also has branches of both the Bandidos and the Outlaws. The current membership of both gangs throughout the Channel Islands is unknown but, with no Hells Angels on either island, many within the biking world believe this is just the beginning.

‘The Bandidos are one of the most formidable and violent biker gangs in existence,’ says the outlaw biker specialist at the National Criminal Intelligence Service. ‘They have strong links to the drugs trade and have shown themselves more than willing to defend their turf with violence. They have been responsible for dozens of murders, many of them committed in broad daylight with no regard for public safety. They have access to military-grade weapons, including rocket launchers and assault rifles. In September 2003 they punished their former leader in Copenhagen for leaving by planting a massive bomb under his car. The blast was so huge it could be heard miles away. The Bandidos have been expanding ever since the sixties and show no sign of slowing down. It is unlikely they will stop at one or two British chapters. The significance of seeing the first Bandidos chapter on UK soil cannot be understated.’

Detectives in Britain and across Europe are watching events on the Channel Islands with great interest.

 

Jason points a stubby finger across the street as a heavily laden tram passes by. ‘Just through there, you see it? That’s where it is,’ he says softly. ‘I’m telling you, that’s the Piccadilly Circus of drugs dens. It’s where just about every major gang in the South-east gets their gear from.’

Jason should know. He spent a frantic eight months working for a major cannabis-trafficking gang based in Essex before deciding to retire. During that time he helped to import more than a tonne of high-quality cannabis and never once got caught.

Jason and I are in Amsterdam, standing just off the Damrak on the edge of the red-light district looking at a small coffee shop on a corner a few streets away. Jason, who has no desire to see the owners again, waits elsewhere while I go for a closer look. Inside, the smoky interior is tastefully laid out with dark-wood booths and mirrors. A menu at the counter shows that Thai grass is available at four euros fifty per gram, skunk at five euros and the subtly named AK47 at seven fifty while Nepalese hash weighs in at ten euros. The crowd is made up mostly of tourists, some American, most British, whose eyes have glazed over as they enjoy the delights of being able to smoke a joint without fear of arrest.

Cannabis was first decriminalised and coffee shops introduced in Holland in 1976. The experiment was introduced to reflect what the Dutch see as a fact of life: most young people experiment with illegal substances. If you let them buy and use ‘soft’ drugs in a regulated setting, you can keep them away from street dealers pushing highly addictive ‘hard’ drugs like heroin. The approach appears to be working so far as drug use among the Dutch is concerned – only 26 per cent of the Dutch will use cannabis in their lifetime compared to 66 per cent of Britons – but Amsterdam has become a centre of organised crime.

In the early days, coffee shops sold mostly imported cannabis resin but now the market is increasingly being dominated by Dutch-grown grass. Although Holland’s climate is not particularly conducive to growing marijuana, the use of artificial lighting for indoor growing has become highly advanced. There are now hundreds of named varieties of seeds available and large-scale cultivation supplies the coffee shops with a good range of exotic herbs.

As part of a scheme to reduce criminal infiltration of the cannabis market, Dutch law allows anyone to grow up to a dozen plants in their home for their personal consumption. Commercial growing, however, remains illegal, so the vast indoor greenhouses that supply most of the coffee shops keep their locations as secret as possible.

Today, coffee shops can sell up to five grams of cannabis per transaction, as long as they obey five rules: no minors, no alcohol sales, no hard-drug sales, no advertising and no ‘public nuisance’. They are also limited to holding no more than 500 grams of stock at any one time, but this rule is almost always broken, particularly at the bigger shops.

Because cannabis is decriminalised rather than legalised, it creates a bizarre
Catch-22
situation: coffee-shop owners can sell small amounts of cannabis to customers but it is illegal for them to purchase the bulk supplies they need to keep stock. It’s known as the front-door/back-door problem: if the Dutch government tolerates people going in at the front door of the coffee shop, what about the back door, the supply? Unofficially police authorities allow ‘ethical dealers’ – individual small-scale suppliers supposedly untainted by international trafficking rings – to handle transactions. But the truth is that more than 90 per cent of Amsterdam’s coffee shops are controlled by organised crime.