BIKERLAND

Wednesday 24 August 2011

shootout between rival motorcycle gangs Hell's Angels and the Vagos

Posted On 09:47 by Marbella Times 0 comments

The attorney for one of the men accused in a shootout between rival motorcycle gangs Hell's Angels and the Vagos has filed a motion to dismiss the case.

Richard Glaxiola, the lawyer representing Michael Trevor Koepke, filed what can only be described as a massive bound document, perhaps three inches thick, with Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Celé Hancock, asking that she dismiss the case against his client.

Hancock questioned the attorneys for the other five defendants and they all said they would be joining in on the motion.

Koepke faces an 18-count indictment, including multiple charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct. The charges stem from an Aug. 21, 2010, shootout in an unincorporated area northwest of Chino Valley.

Koepke also will be allowed to travel to Las Vegas over a specific three-day period so he can participate in a semi-professional fight.

Various other procedural motions on behalf of the other defendants were filed or mentioned as potential filings.

Hancock, seeing the number of motions coming, did not set a hearing date, but said she would wait until everyone had filed.


No concern about Kelowna gang shooting

Posted On 09:46 by Marbella Times 0 comments

Revelstoke RCMP aren’t worried about any blowback from last weekend’s gang shooting in Kelowna that killed Jonathan Bacon, the leader of the Red Scorpion gang.

“We have no concern that it’s going to come to Revelstoke,” RCMP Cpl. Rod Wiebe told the Times Review last week.

Wiebe did confirm there is gang activity in Revelstoke. He said one member of the Independent Soldiers gang lives in Revelstoke.

“They have a huge influence in Revelstoke and are probably our main problem with gangs,” he said.

Also present in town are the Hells Angels, who own a property in town that they use as a stop off point in between Calgary and the Okanagan, Wiebe said.

“They don’t spend a lot of time here,” he said. “They overnight and then they’re on their way again. When they’re in town they’re well behaved.”

While violence is not a serious concern, the various gangs do have an influence on the drug trade in town.

Meanwhile, B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety said the province’s two-year-old “gangs and guns” strategy is working, and the province will continue to do its share to maintain it.

Bond issued a statement Tuesday, Aug. 16, after community leaders questioned whether federal funds for Kelowna’s 16-member anti-gang squad would continue beyond this fall. A similar unit was also set up in Prince George after a string of gang-related shootings in B.C., with a three-year commitment shared by the federal and provincial governments.

“Over 200 organized crime and gang members and associates have been arrested and charged with more than 400 serious offences since we brought in the gangs and guns strategy in February 2009,” Bond said.

“Since 2008-2009 our government invested B.C.’s full $53.3 million share of the Police Officer Recruitment Fund for additional policing positions dedicated to combating gun, gang and organized crime. I can assure you, the province is committed to the continuing funding of these dedicated resources.”

Kelowna was rocked last Sunday by a brazen daytime shooting in the driveway of a lakefront hotel. Abbotsford gang leader Jonathan Bacon was killed and a member of the Hells Angels was seriously injured when their Porsche SUV was raked with automatic weapon fire from another vehicle.

Two women in the Porsche were also hit by gunfire, and a fifth occupant, believed to be another drug gang associate, escaped on foot.

Armed gang violence was being reported beyond Metro Vancouver by 2009. At that time, former premier Gordon Campbell announced the Kelowna and Prince George gang and weapon squads, along with $185 million to add 304 more cells to the overcrowded B.C. prison system.

That announcement included 180 spaces at a new Lower Mainland Pre-Trial Centre, which was opposed by Burnaby politicians and moved to an expansion of the existing Surrey Pretrial Centre. It also included 20 more spaces at Prince George Correctional Centre and 104 additional spaces at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge.

Later in 2009, B.C. moved to restrict the sale of body armour to law enforcement members and licensed security guards and private investigators.

Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon said in October 2009 that body armour was being used in armed robberies there. Body armour and automatic weapons were becoming popular status symbols for gang members as a way of intimidating rivals, police said.

RCMP Cpl. Wiebe re-iterated there were no concerns in the local detachment that the recent violence would spill over into Revelstoke but that people should “realize that we don’t live in a bubble and we do have gang members living amongst us.”

 


Teenager gave stolen guns to Hells Angels

Posted On 09:43 by Marbella Times 0 comments

One of the specialist weapons involved in the theft. Pictures: NT POLICE

One of the specialist weapons involved in the theft. Pictures: NT POLICE

A TEENAGER who stole more than $15,000 worth of rare guns and gave them to suspected Hells Angels gang members won an appeal against his two and a half year jail term.

The 19-year-old man appealed the sentence in the NT Supreme Court, claiming his alleged "connection" with the Hells Angels was not supported by evidence.

In February, he pleaded guilty in Darwin Magistrates Court to stealing the collectables and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years' jail, suspended after serving six months.

His lawyer Louise Bennett told Justice Dean Mildren last month that there was no evidence to support the claim he knew his co-offenders were connected to the motorcycle gang.

She said there was also no evidence to show he knew the guns would end up in the hands of the Hells Angels.

Crown prosecutor Sandy Lau said the sentencing magistrate thought the crime was "very serious". During sentencing, Magistrate Daynor Trigg said someone who would steal firearms for the Hells Angels was not participating in "schoolboy" crime.

"Outlaw motorcycle gangs, such as the Hells Angels, are seriously and actively involved in serious criminal activity," he said.

But Justice Mildren found that Magistrate Trigg took a serious view because he knew the co-offenders had connections to the gang.

He said two of the nine guns, valued at $15,980, were found in the possession of someone "connected with the Hells Angels".

"It was never suggested that (the offender) knew this at the time of the offending," he said. "I would uphold the appeal on that ground."

Justice Mildren said the sentence imposed by Magistrate Trigg would be "set aside" and the teenager would be re-sentenced.

He suggested home detention as a possible alternative.

 

 


Saturday 20 August 2011

By now you have seen the headlines and images of destruction: the rioting, looting, violent assaults, and arson.

Posted On 14:57 by Marbella Times 0 comments


London and other UK cities look like war zones and their citizens are afraid to venture out, because the danger is very real.

It’s a view of the temporary breakdown of society. It is gut check time; a time when the concept of being able to defend oneself gives way to the stark reality that few viable options to do so exist.

Gun laws in the UK are among the most restrictive in the world. In March of 1996, a deranged man walked into a school in Dunblane, Scotland and killed 16 children and one teacher. In the aftermath of this tragedy, British politicians sought to reduce violent crime by enacting a ban on all handguns. Handgun owners were given a February 1998 deadline to turn in their firearms–and they did. The UK was supposed to become a much safer place–but dramatic increases in crime following the gun ban proved it didn’t.

A July 3, 2009, Daily Mail article reported that “Britain’s violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European Union, it has been revealed. Official crime figures show the U.K. also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa.”

And the current bedlam has proved it further. Restrictive laws concerning long-guns, combined with the outright ban on handguns, leave the country’s citizens largely defenseless (it was reported this week that sales of one type of aluminum baseball bats on Amazon UK rose 6,541 percent). In many places, it was reported that police were unable to stop the mayhem. As a result, panicked, defenseless law-abiding citizens were forced to flee their homes, while others watched as their businesses were destroyed. Compare this to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when armed citizens were able to protect their lives, families, and property from looters and violent mobs.

An August 11 Herald Sun article reported one resident as saying, “its absolute bedlam on the street. People have been openly looting for an hour, two hours, and the police have been ineffectual. They’ve done nothing.” Another victim, who was trapped in her hair salon in Clapham Junction while a mob smashed its way in and trashed it, said, “They were mocking us, [saying] ‘look, look, they look scared’. Where is the police? I want protection. This is what they’re here for . . . I’m not secure at my workplace. I’m not secure at my home place. Will they be there to protect us tonight? They weren’t here to protect us last night.”

The Telegraph.com.au reported on Tuesday that mobs were forcing hapless victims to strip off their clothes while being robbed, and described a shocking video that shows a bleeding, already-pummeled teenager being robbed in broad daylight by lawless thugs who pretend to help him to his feet, and then steal the contents of his backpack while he can barely remain standing, much less defend himself.

This is what a disarmed country looks like. This is how little is left when free men and women surrender their right to own a firearm.

One has to wonder how differently this all would be playing out if the law-abiding were allowed to arm themselves. How different would the reports be if violent, opportunistic, amoral thugs were confronted with armed resistance from their intended victims?

It has been said that, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” In this case, good men and women have been stripped of their ability to do something, and evil has certainly triumphed.

Ironically, the UK is an outspoken proponent of the United Nations’ efforts to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty. Presumably the UK’s goal in supporting an ATT is to spread the “safety and sanctity” they imagine their country as having to the rest of the world. Perhaps the recent calamities will cause the British to rethink their position; we certainly hope so. It’s time for the British government to drop its draconian gun-control laws and restore the right of self-defense to its law-abiding citizens.

It’s time to face the facts. When law-abiding citizens are disarmed, is their society a safer one? Do gun bans reduce violent crime? Will the police always be there to protect you? England’s current plight is just the latest example to show us, yet again, that the answer to these questions is an emphatic “No.”


Wednesday 10 August 2011

Ex-biker gang boss from Glouco gets 3 years

Posted On 23:43 by Marbella Times 0 comments

former biker gang boss from Gloucester County has been sentenced to at least three years in prison for shooting and stabbing another man in what authorities say was a dispute over leadership of their Philadelphia chapter of the Pagans Motorcycle Club.

Steven "Gorilla" Mondevergine, of Turnersville, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated assault and firearms offenses in the January 2008 attack on Timothy "Casual" Flood. Prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge in exchange for Mondevergine's plea.

Authorities say Flood was trying to force Mondevergine, a onetime Philadelphia police officer, from the gang, prompting Mondevergine to attack him inside a Northeast Philadelphia home used as a gang clubhouse. Flood initially told police he'd been attacked in a bar parking lot.

Mondevergine was fired from the Philadelphia Police Department after he was accused of protecting gamblers in 1982. The charges were later dropped.

The burly Mondevergine was arrested at his mother's Washington Township home in December.

Mondevergine was immediately sentenced to three to 10 years in prison following his guilty plea on Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mondevergine himself was nearly killed in 1999 when he was shot six times in a mob-style hit outside his mother's then-South Philadelphia home.

Authorities said then that Mondevergine was said to have had ties with reputed mob boss Joey Merlino, a childhood friend.

 


Rock Machine allies arrested after run-in

Posted On 11:43 by Marbella Times 0 comments

Police have arrested two associates of the Rock Machine gang after a crash that sent three officers to hospital.
The three officers were hurt in a collision Tuesday at about 12:30 a.m. after officers tried to stop a Dodge Avenger near Antrim Road and Rockspur Street, part of a police investigation of an ongoing biker-gang battle that's simmered throughout the summer.
Police said the Avenger made "quick evasive manoeuvres" that caused the crash.
After the Avenger allegedly hit two marked police cruisers and an unmarked truck, police took two men and a woman into custody and seized a loaded handgun.
Two men the police arrested have ties to the Rock Machine biker gang, said a source, though police would not specify how Tuesday's vehicle chase was tied to gangs.
Officers from the organized crime unit, the tactical support team and canine unit were involved in the traffic stop.
"Getting into the specifics of that investigation is not something I am prepared to do, nor does it provide the public with any information that we haven't already provided them," said Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Natalie Aitken, who said the investigation has been underway since mid-July.
Aitken said police have taken "very proactive, very aggressive measures" in an ongoing gang conflict.
"There's been a number of violent incidents that have occurred in our city and that is something that's not going to be tolerated," she said.
Aitken said the Avenger caused the crash. "I don't think our officers ever have the luxury of dealing with any routine traffic stop anymore," she said.
By midday Tuesday, two of the three officers had been treated and released from hospital.
One remained at hospital, however, with a serious upper-body injury.
Police said the three police vehicles involved in the crash had serious damage.
Joseph Jordan Carl Choken, 19, Guy Wesley Vernon Stevenson, 21 and Amanda Kay Freeman, 23, face charges, including possession of restricted firearms. Choken had an outstanding warrant for arrest, and Stevenson is charged with three probation breaches and possessing a weapon contrary to a probation order.
The three were in custody Tuesday, said police. Freeman and Choken do not have prior criminal convictions.
However, Stevenson was found guilty in 2009 of uttering threats and possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition, as well as a robbery and assault with a weapon.

 


The Milperra Bikie Massacre, a gunfight between two rival Australian biker gangs that took place in suburban Sydney in 1984, is being turned into a TV series

Posted On 11:42 by Marbella Times 0 comments

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Australia's Network Ten has commissioned Underbelly indie Screentime Productions to make The Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms, a six-part drama telling the story behind the events that lead to seven people being killed.

Screentime exec director Des Monaghan, head of drama Greg Haddrick (My Husband My Killer) and Rick Maier (Offspring) are the show's exec producers. Haddrick is also writing alongside series producer Roger Simpson (Satisfaction) and Jo Martino (Winners & Losers).

Louisa Kors (The Librarians) and Peter Andrikidis (BlackJack, The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant) are the show's coproducers, with the latter also directing. Screen Australia also invested in the series.


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