Grisly Canada Slays Tied To Bike Gang

Canadian police say eight men found dead inside vehicles on a farm over the weekend were affiliated with a biker gang and that five people have been arrested on murder charges.

Police called it "an internal cleansing" of the Bandidos motorcycle gang and said that the eight victims suffered gunshot wounds. The bodies were found Saturday on a farm in Shedden, Ontario, about 90 miles northeast of Detroit.

Police on Monday searched a farmhouse owned by a gang member near the site in one of Canada's biggest mass-murders in a decade.

Police were seen at the modest, white two-story farmhouse with an attached garage and a number of vehicles parked outside. Officers were walking three abreast as they scanned the ground for evidence. They refused to discuss what was happening beyond acknowledging the roadblock they had set up around the farmhouse, about six miles from where the bodies were found in four vehicles deserted in a farmer's field Saturday morning..

The gangland-style murders are the worst in the province of Ontario's history and the most grisly in Canada since 1996, when spurned husband Mark Chahal went on a shooting rampage in Vernon, British Columbia, killing nine people, including his estranged wife and himself.

Edward Winterhalder, a former member of the Bandidos motorcycle gang who lives in Oklahoma, said he had talked to current members in the area who recognized the vehicles from the media coverage.

"I can tell you that it's Bandidos that got killed," said Winterhalder, who left the gang in 2003 and wrote "Out in Bad Standings," a book on his time in the gang. The owner of the farmhouse where police were searching was affiliated with the Bandidos, Winterhalder said.

Toronto-based organized crime expert Antonio Nicaso told The Associated Press that he learned from a reliable source that three members of the Toronto Bandidos have been missing since Friday. He said there were 12 members in the group.

Nicaso said the Bandidos were not that big or influential in Canada, but they are the major competitor of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in the United States.

"If it is confirmed that the eight bodies were all members of the Bandidos you could say that someone decided to erase the Bandidos from the biker map," Nicaso said.

He said all messages of condolences had been taken off the Bandidos Web site, leading him to speculate that the murders may have been an inside job by club members.

The eight victims knew each other and were all from the Toronto area, said police, who characterized the deaths as homicides but declined to release further details.

"We're in the middle of an active investigation right now," said Ontario police Constable Dennis Harwood.

The rural area where the bodies were found has had problems with motorcycle gangs in the past, but is generally considered low-crime compared to other parts of Canada, in particular Quebec, where biker violence is more common.

"This is how they deal with disputes. They don't go to court. They don't print snotty lawyers' letters. This is what happens," law enforcement consultant Chris Mathers told the AP. "It is shocking for it to happen all at one time. The fact that they were all killed at one time is significant. I don't think there is any doubt about that. It certainly sends a message."

Mathers, a former undercover Royal Canadian Police officer who now runs a consulting firm in Toronto, said the Bandidos and the Hells Angels have absorbed other biker groups in Canada over the year, He doubted there would be retaliation.

"It's probably hard to retaliate when most of your membership has been decimated," Mathers said.

Police found the bodies after a call from the property owner, who is not considered a suspect.

An aerial view late Saturday showed the vehicles parked within 218 yards of each other, with the bodies still inside.

A minivan was discovered in a field about 22 yards off a dirt road. About 109 yards away, a tow truck was found parked on the shoulder with a small silver-colored car hooked to the back. The fourth car, its hatch open, was parked in a clearing about 109 yards along the dirt road.

Mary and Russell Steele, who own the property on which the cars were parked, told Global News that the vehicles were not there when they took the road home the night before.

They said they called police Saturday morning after looking inside one of the vehicles and not being able to see anything because of a blanket covering the back window.

"We didn't see anybody in them, so we just phoned the cops with the license plate numbers," Russell Steele said.

"The police opened the back and I could see forms," his wife said. "I couldn't tell, but immediately in my mind I thought, `These are bodies."'

The area has been home to several motorcycle clubs, including the Loners, the Bandidos and the Hells Angels. It has witnessed several violent incidents, including the discoveries of two bodies dumped in county fields in separate incidents in 1994 and 1998.

Both were beaten to death. Neither crime has been solved.