Police charge 3 Winnipeg men in slayings of 8 bikers in Ontario

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/06/2006 (7417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG (CP) – Three suspected Winnipeg members of the notorious Bandidos biker gang – including a former police officer – were charged Friday in the massacre of eight fellow gang members and associates in Ontario.

Dwight Mushey, 36, Marcello Aravena, 30, and Michael Sandham, 36, each face eight charges of first-degree murder following early-morning police searches at three homes in the Manitoba capital.

Police described Mushey and Sandham as full-patch members of the Texas-based Bandidos and Aravena as a “prospect,” meaning he is not yet a full-fledged member.

Sandham is also a former constable with the East St. Paul Police Service, north of Winnipeg – a fact Winnipeg police Deputy Chief Menno Zacharias conceded is a concern.

“As a police officer, naturally, he would have been exposed to training materials relative to motorcycle gangs and organized crime,” Zacharias said. “And as a working officer, he would have access to a variety of related information.”

“It’s a concern, but I don’t know what actual part that may have played in any of this.”

The bodies of eight Bandidos members and associates were discovered April 8 in a rural area in Shedden, Ont.

Wayne Kellestine, whom police describe as a full-fledged member of the gang, and two other Ontario men already face first-degree murder charges in the slayings. Another two people are charged with being accessories after the fact. Charges were dropped against two others.

Police said the killings were “an internal cleansing” for the Bandidos, but did not elaborate.

Julian Sher, an author of gang-related books including Angels of Death, said the bikers who were killed may have been considering joining the Hells Angels, as entire Bandidos chapters in other areas have already done.

The killings and arrests have left the Bandidos in disarray, Sher said.

“The winners in this are the Hells Angels,” he said.

“The only remaining foothold (in Canada) for the Bandidos was in Winnipeg, and now with the arrests . . . that just strengthens the Hells Angels who dominate the country coast to coast.”

The men arrested in Winnipeg were flown to St. Thomas, Ont., for court appearances Friday evening.

Police showed reporters four Bandidos vests seized during Friday morning’s crackdown, and said they also seized a sport utility vehicle that may have been involved in the killings.

Police were thankful, and perhaps lucky, that word of the searches and arrests did not leak out beforehand.

In April, a man walking by Winnipeg’s main police station noticed documents blowing along the street. He gathered up the papers, which contained details of the investigation, and brought them to a TV station.

Zacharias thanked the TV station for not broadcasting the details of what its reporters had seen, and said steps are being taken to ensure sensitive information will never again be blowing in the wind.

“We are fairly confident that we now understand what happened there, and we will be dealing with that internally,” he said.