Accused implicates Bandidos’ ‘El Presidente’

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This article was published 11/09/2009 (6049 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON, Ont. — The orders to kill Bandido bikers came from “El Presidente,” the trial of six men accused in the slayings of eight Toronto bikers heard Thursday.

Ex-police officer Michael Sandham, on trial for eight counts of first-degree murder, testified that Jeff Pike, the world president or “El Presidente” of the Bandido motorcycle club, told him first-hand in a Houston, Texas, biker bar he had ordered the killing of some Canadian Bandido biker brass.

That bombshell came during his second day of Sandham’s testimony as he continued to minimize his involvement in the shootings of the Toronto Bandidos and proclaim shock and fear over the deaths.

While American involvement has been pointed out during the trial, Sandham’s testimony was the first time Pike has been directly linked in testimony to the shooting of the eight bikers on April 8, 2006, at Wayne Kellestine’s southwestern Ontario farm.

The face-to-face meeting with Pike was almost two months after the killings and when Sandham, 39, portrayed during the trial as the president of the Winnipeg Bandidos, travelled to Houston to meet the head bikers.

Sandham testified he first heard Pike’s order during a meeting at the Canada-U.S. border, at Peace Arch Park at White Rock, B.C. with American Bandidos in the weeks before the shootings, from Mongo, the Bandidos World sergeant-at-arms.

Mongo told Sandham and Kellestine “‘we don’t want to tell you what to do, but this is what you’re going to do. We want to you to kill Boxer (Bandidos Canada president John Muscedere) and Bam Bam (Toronto chapter president Frank Salerno),'” Sandham testified.

There had been tensions between the American and Canadian chapters. In December 2005, the Americans declared the Canadian operations over.

Sandham said he was at the meeting on the invitation of Dave (Concrete Dave) Weiche, a Toronto Bandido.

Sandham said in his mind he was “bridging that gap and putting us back on the right track” with the Americans. But when he got to Vancouver, Weiche, who had been busted to prospect status by the Toronto chapter for communicating with Washington state Bandidos, suggested “a coup d’etat” to get rid of the Canadian biker executives.

“I didn’t know what that meant. It was making me uncomfortable,” Sandham said.

Sandham said he called Kellestine because he was a senior officer in the club and a meeting was arranged with the Americans at the park.

By the end of it, Sandham said, Kellestine had agreed to the kill orders and was also named national president.

Mongo said he would take the message back to El Presidente.

Weiche later declared himself vice-president, Sandham said.

Kellestine told Sandham later he wasn’t going to let the Americans “dictate” to him and intended only to pull Muscedere’s patch, without violence.

A few weeks later, Sandham said Weiche told him and the Winnipeg bikers to go to Muscedere’s house in Toronto, follow the original order to kill him — and not to tell Kellestine.

Sandham said he decided they would go to Kellestine’s farm, tell him the Americans were upset and help him pull Muscedere’s patch, or membership.

Sandham said he reluctantly took part in disposing of the bodies after the men were killed.

Sandham told the jury he had joined the Bandidos with an eye to becoming a police agent. The trial continues.

— The Canadian Press