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Friday, June 7, 2019

Dutch Bans No Surrender MC

Utrecht, Netherlands (June 7, 2019) BTN — On Friday the court in Assen banned No Surrender MC in the Netherlands, ruling that the motorcycle club poses a danger to public order. No Surrender is the fourth motorcycle club to be banned in the Netherlands, after the Hells Angels MC, Satudarah MC and the Bandidos MC.

Related | Dutch Bans Hells Angels MC


"A large number of members of No Surrender are or have been structurally involved in numerous serious crimes", the court said in its verdict, NOS reports. The ruling also mentions intimidation, public violence, extortion, unauthorized possession of weapons, drug trafficking, and arms trafficking.


The judge considered it proven that the club management has an "important steering role in committing and facilitating criminal offenses". The ban applies to all No Surrender chapters and brotherhoods, because they are not independent due to the strongly hierarchical structure of the motorcycle club.

No Surrender has allegedly been  linked to various crimes in the Netherlands, including death threats made against the mayor of Haarlem. The club's founder Klaas Otto was sentenced to six years in prison last year for extortion, assaulting and threatening two car dealers, and laundering 1.3 million euros.


The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was banned last week. The Public Prosecutor argued that there is a culture of violence within the club that endangers society and the rule of law. The court agreed. Satudarah MC was banned last year. The court ruled that Satudarah was guilty of activities that violate public order "in a way that disrupts or may disrupt society".

The Bandidos MC was banned in 2017, with the judge ruling that the club poses a risk to public order.

SOURCE: Nl Times

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Self proclaimed MC experts warn public

Toronto, ON, Canada (June 6, 2019) BTN — As the weather turns warmer, a new joint effort by police across Canada is focusing on educating people about the risk motorcycle clubs pose to communities.

The RCMP, in a joint effort with the Canadian Integrated Response to Organized Crime, is co-ordinating a social media effort with the hope of raising the public's awareness of the dangers motorcycle clubs pose.

"In the Bombard investigation, we had murder, drug trafficking, there's other types of violence," said Supt. Deanna Hill, the federal criminal operations officer for RCMP N.L.

Supt. Deanna Hill, left, and Glenda Power are part of a Canada-wide campaign to educate the public about motorcycle clubs. (Paula Gale/CBC)

Hill said it's taken her years of working exclusively on motorcycle clubs units to learn how to identify a member easily, but the general public may not know how to read the signs.

That's the point of their campaign, she said.

"The Hells Angels continually adapt. They adapt their strategies, they adapt how they infiltrate communities, and it's all about making money through crime," she told CBC's St. John's Morning Show.

"For us to be effective we need to continually adapt as police agencies both in our technologies and our strategies, and this particular effort, we hope, will set the tone and raise awareness for the public, just the level of intimidation and violence."

While there isn't a Hells Angels chapter in Newfoundland and Labrador, Hill said there is a support club called the Vikings Motorcycle Club as well as the Bauchus Motorcycle Club and the Outlaws.

The RCMP effort to raise awareness about motorcycle clubs warns people not to be fooled by charity work. (RCMP)

The campaign is also a way for police to counter public relations strategies launched by these kinds of clubs, who get involved in charities and donations.

"The motivation is to put out there that they are harmless, and they are simply not harmless. They commit crime that impacts our community," Hill said. "They're engaged in money laundering, they're engaged in every kind of effort that will result in a profit, and in order to get that profit they'll engaged in violence and intimidation. So it impacts innocent people. It impacts all of us on a broad scale, although you might not see it on a daily basis."

They want you to report interaction with motorcycle club members 


Hill acknowledges the average person might not be able to tell a bike gang member from a regular motorcycle owner.

"There are a lot of absolutely harmless riding clubs, motorcycle clubs out there, that are just the general public doing absolutely nothing wrong," she said. "Generally a three-piece patch with a 1% diamond on there, on any of their paraphernalia, is indicative of some kind of outlaw motorcycle gang."

Glenda Power, RCMP N.L.'s director of strategic communications, said the campaign is not about trying to make people afraid.

"We're not trying to scare the public here. We're trying to inform," Power said. "Often, gang violence is directed at other gangs, not against public citizens — although we have seen that recently here in this province. But you need to be informed to make good choices."

Power said anyone who thinks they may have had an interaction with a motorcycle club member, but isn't sure, should contact police. "Our advice for the public is, call your local police if you feel you might be dealing with someone who's part of an outlaw motorcycle gang. Report that interaction," she said.

"But if you are aware that someone is in an outlaw gang, we certainly recommend that you do not engage."

SOURCE: CBC

Mongols MC member testifies in own defense

Los Angeles, California, USA (June 6, 2019) BTN — A man charged with killing a Pomona SWAT officer testified Wednesday that he fired a “warning shot” because he feared members of a motorcycle club to which he belonged were trying to break into his family’s home in San Gabriel and he did not know that police were at the front door.

Testifying in his own defense, David Martinez said, “I would never fire at police or law enforcement ever. I have family that’s (in) law enforcement.”


The 41-year-old termite inspector — who is charged with the killing of Pomona police Officer Shaun Diamond — told the downtown Los Angeles jury that he reached for a shotgun by his bed because he heard loud banging sounds and thought someone was trying to break into the house he shared with his parents, common-law wife, two young children and his adult sister, who has Down syndrome, during the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 2014.

The defendant said he fired after seeing what he perceived to be the barrel of a gun pointed toward his father.

“I fired a warning shot … what I perceived to be a warning shot,” he said, telling jurors that he didn’t see anyone on the front porch.

Diamond was helping to open a metal screen over the front door of the home as part of a multi-agency operation serving a warrant targeting the Mongols motorcycle club when an interior door was opened and a single shotgun blast rang out, striking him in the neck. The 45-year-old officer — who had 16 years of law enforcement experience with the Los Angeles, Montebello and Pomona police departments — died the next day.


Martinez said he did not see anyone outside the home who appeared to be injured after firing the gunshot — although his father had been injured in the gunfire — and that he did not learn until later that an officer had been struck. He said it’s hard for him to accept that he may have shot his own father and thought then that his dad had been wounded by police.

Police never identified themselves 

When defense attorney Brady Sullivan asked if he heard anyone identify themselves before he fired the shot, Martinez said, “I never heard anybody identify themselves as police.” He said he was startled to hear screaming and that he turned around, dropped the shotgun, laid down and said he was sorry.

“I kept saying I was sorry. I didn’t know it was the police,” Martinez said. “I thought it was the Mongols.”

The defendant said he had reached for the shotgun by his bed after hearing “a lot of banging,” and headed from the bedroom to the living room, where his parents had been sleeping.

He testified that he unsuccessfully tried to urge his father to wait to open the wooden front door because he wanted to answer the door himself.

“I remember telling my dad twice, `Wait, wait,’ but I don’t think he heard me,” Martinez said. “He was opening the door … I aimed the shotgun towards the door because I thought someone was trying to break in.”

Under cross-examination by Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake, the defendant said, “I took aim and I pulled the trigger.”

“You shot to kill that day?” the prosecutor asked.

“I shot to protect my family,” Martinez responded.

“You shot to kill the target that day?” the prosecutor said.

“There was no target, sir,” the defendant said, maintaining that he was trying to defend his family when he fired the shot, and never saw any police officers until they were coming into the house after the shot was fired.

Martinez said he had pondered dropping out of the Mongols after having a change of heart about his involvement in the motorcycle club, but had heard stories about other members who tried to quit and was concerned for the safety of himself and his family.

He said he grew more concerned about his safety following two freeway shootings that targeted Mongols members, and “got a sense of not feeling safe in my home.” A night earlier, he had argued with a fellow Mongols member, he said.

In his opening statement last month, Blake told jurors that Martinez was warned loudly and repeatedly that police were at the door before the shot rang out.

“(Their) uniforms are covered with patches and insignia that identify them as police,” and “they made announcements repeatedly” calling out “Pomona Police Department … open the door,” the prosecutor said.

“Throughout this awful incident … the Pomona SWAT team remained calm and professional,” still proceeding to search the house and detain family members, he said. “They did not return fire. They did not shoot up the house … they did not use force on a single person.”

The prosecutor contended that Martinez’s claim that he thought that Mongols were at his door was “false,” telling the jury that those comments were “calculated.”

Defense attorney Brady Sullivan referred to the events surrounding the shooting as a “perfect storm,” telling the jury, “Sometimes in life, a series of unexpected, unanticipated events combine, they come together and result in a tragedy.”

“When David Martinez came out of his bedroom and heard unknown people breaking into his house … he acted to defend his family,” the public defender said. “He had no idea it was the police and, in fact, expected that it was going to be his rivals.”

Martinez made a “regrettable decision to join the Mongols,” Sullivan said, calling his client a motorcycle enthusiast who “liked the brotherhood.”

“He was afraid to quit (because) the scary truth is that you don’t just walk away from the Mongols,” the defense attorney said. “They come and take your vest, they come and take your motorcycle and they exact a little physical punishment.”

Martinez could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged. Prosecutors opted earlier not to seek the death penalty against him.

SOURCE: My News LA

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Over 30 arrested at Hells Angles MC event

Surrey, South East England (June 1, 2019) BTN — More than 30 people have been arrested as thousands of Hells Angels take part in a three-day event to mark the club’s 50th anniversary in the UK. Surrey and Sussex police said 34 people had been detained on suspicion of drugs offences and possession of offensive weapons in connection to the Hells Angels Euro Run.

The event, which included a private celebration at a hotel in east Surrey, commemorates the anniversary of the first branch of the California-based motorcycle club being set up in the UK. It will culminate in a mass “ride out” from Pease Pottage, near Crawley, to Brighton on Saturday, with more than 3,000 bikers expected to take part.


Earlier this week, officers were granted powers to stop and search people within a designated area across Surrey and Sussex in an attempt to tackle antisocial behaviour.

Related | Police on alert as Hells Angels come to town

Twelve people – five Germans, three Hungarians, one Swiss, one French, one Czech and one Greek man – have been charged. Seven appeared in court on Friday and were given suspended prison sentences, while the remaining five were due to appear in court on Saturday.

Three others remained in custody and the rest were either cautioned or released without charge.

The assistant chief constable of Surrey police, Nev Kemp, who is leading policing operations across both counties this week, said: “We have been very clear with those attending the Hells Angels event, many from overseas, that we will not tolerate criminal and antisocial behaviour.

“Our activity over the last few days has been about keeping people safe, which is why I put the section 60 order [for stop and search powers] in place.

“The fact that we have had seven people go through the courts and be sentenced so far, as well as the numerous arrests, has justified our actions and use of section 60 this week.

“This weekend, especially Saturday, sees one of the busiest for both forces in the last 12 months and we continue to work hard to keep our residents and those visiting safe.

“Officers will be out in high numbers so expect to see us on patrol responding and responding quickly to any incidents.”

SOURCE: The Sun