The Bandidos Motorcycle Club is classified as a motorcycle gang by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in numerous countries. While the club has denied being a criminal organization, Bandidos members have been convicted of partaking in criminal enterprises including theft, extortion, prostitution, drug trafficking and murder in various host nations.Bandidos refute gang label Dane Schiller, San Antonio Express-News (July 12, 2015)Bandidos blast Tasmanian 'anti-gang' law bid, deny involvement in ice drug trade Edith Bevin and James Dunlevie, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (12 May 2018)
The club is considered an outlaw motorcycle gang by the Australian Federal Police.Bandidos threat: Police warn outlaw motorcycle gang trying to set up in Tasmania Angela Ross, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (27 May 2016) Numerous police investigations have targeted Bandidos members, and implicated them in illegal drugs supply and other crimes."Hunter drug raids: Hunter Bandidos boss Ronald Leggett among 10 arrested", Feb. 12, 2015, DAN PROUDMAN and GABRIEL WINGATE-PEARSE, Newcastle Herald"Taskforce Maxima smash drug syndicate with alleged links to Bandidos Criminal Motorcycle Gang", Mar 6 2015, Queensland Police"Police charge 28 Bandidos members following raids", 20th Nov 2012, Fraser Coast Chronicle Australia's first Bandidos chapter was formed in Sydney in August 1983.Outlaw Bandidos establish WA chapter - patching over Rock Machine bikies Phil Hickey, The Sunday Times (22 October 2013) The club has around 400 members and 45 chapters in the country, and has recruited members of various ethnic backgrounds.Australian Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs & their Territories Rhys McKay, Who (27 March 2019) The Australian Bandidos are allied with the Diablos,Bikie nation - the outlaw gangs in your backyard Candace Sutton, News.com.au (3 August 2013) MobshittersAustralian Bikie Gangs: Complete List of Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs Amy Farrugia, New Idea (30 March 2019) and Rock Machine,Canadian outlaw motorcycle gang Rock Machine expanding into Australia Duncan McNab, Seven News (24 September 2019) while their rivals include the Comancheros, Finks,Fears of new bikie war after Finks boss attack Aleks Devic, Ryan Tennison and Anthony Dowsley, The Daily Telegraph (1 June 2018) Gypsy Jokers,Violence, revenge rule bikies' world The Sydney Morning Herald (18 December 2001) Hells Angels, Mongols, Notorious,Murder, bashings and bullets as rival gangs clash Dylan Welch, Linton Besser and Les Kennedy, The Sydney Morning Herald (23 March 2009) Rebels and Red Devils.Vic bikie fought with gunman, shot twice SBS World News (18 November 2013)
New South Wales Conflict with the Comancheros
The Bandidos' first international chapter was founded in Sydney by eleven disillusioned former members of the Comancheros. In 1983, Comancheros founder and president William "Jock" Ross was allegedly caught in a compromising position with another club member's wife, a serious breach of club rules. Facing expulsion from the club, Ross refused to face any disciplinary action and instead announced that the Comancheros would be split into two chapters; those who supported bringing charges against Ross remained at the Birchgrove clubhouse while Ross and the remaining Comancheros set up a new clubhouse in Harris Park. Fighting between the two chapters prompted the Birchgrove chapter to break away and form a new club. Chapter president Anthony "Snodgrass" Spencer, who had previously encountered the Bandidos' Albuquerque, New Mexico chapter during a visit to the United States, contacted their national president Ronnie Hodge and eventually received approval to form the first Australian Bandidos chapter and become its national president. Violence between the Bandidos and Comancheros continued until August 1984 when the two rival clubs formally declared war. Police believe the war began over turf, or drugs, or a combination of both.Milperra - the spark that started the bikie violence Paul Kent, The Daily Telegraph (11 April 2009)
On 2 September 1984, thirty-four Bandidos members and nineteen members of the Comancheros engaged in a shoot-out at a hotel in Milperra. The gun battle, which has come to be known as the Milperra massacre, left seven dead; Bandidos members Mario "Chopper" Cianter and Gregory "Shadow" Campbell, Comancheros members Robert "Foggy" Lane, Phillip "Leroy" Jeschke, Ivan "Sparra" Romcek and Tony "Dog" McCoy, as well as Leanne Walters, a fourteen-year-old innocent bystander who was shot in the face with a stray bullet. Twenty-eight people were also wounded."1984: Seven killed in Sydney biker shootings", BBC The resulting court case following the massacre was at the time one of the largest in Australian history. Five Comancheros bikies were given life sentences for murder while sixteen Bandidos received sentences of seven years for manslaughter. Bandidos national president Anthony "Snodgrass" Spencer hanged himself in prison on 28 April 1985 before he could stand trial.The gang wars explained - 40 years of bikie hatred Paul Kent, The Daily Telegraph (28 March 2009)
Hostilities between the Bandidos and the Comancheros resumed in April 2007 after more than sixty members of the Parramatta and Granville chapters of the Nomads, previously affiliated with the Comancheros, defected to the Bandidos.War feared as bikie chapter defects The Daily Telegraph (21 April 2007) The defection resulted in a new eruption of violence between the clubs, involving fire-bombings and drive-by shootings.The Fat Mexican: The Bloody Rise of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club Alex Caine (2009) New South Wales Police set up Operation Ranmore to stop the violence escalating, which resulted in three-hundred-and-forty people arrested on 883 charges as of January 2008.Crime Inc's riders Brisbane Times (12 January 2008)
Conflict with the Rebels Bandidos members Michael "Kaos" Kulakowski, Saša "Sash" Milenković and Rick Raymond de Stoop were shot dead in the basement of a nightclub in Chippendale, Sydney in the early hours of 10 November 1997 by Konstantinos "Kon" Georgiou and Bruce Malcolm Harrison. Another Bandido, Robin David, survived with minor wounds. Georgiou was a serving member of the Rebels at the time, while Harrison was a former member.Sex, drugs, crime: Underworld life of bikie ‘Kaos’ Duncan McNab, The Queensland Times (22 November 2018)Heavy price of loyalty Malcolm Brown, The Sydney Morning Herald (22 April 2006) Kulakowski was the Bandidos' national president, and Milenković was the national sergeant-at-arms. De Stoop had briefly joined the Rebels and left owing money before defecting to the Bandidos. The conflict between the groups had arisen over the control of the club's security.Gangland Sydney James Morton and Susanna Lobez (2011) Harrison was apprehended in a nearby street, while Georgiou was arrested in February 1998 aboard a cargo ship due to set sail for Japan from Botany Bay.Life in Supermax and the Hellfire massacre: Kon Georgiou tells all Candace Sutton, News.com.au (8 August 2021) The pair were found guilty of the murders in August 1999, but successfully appealed against the verdict.Bikie slayers 'in crime's worst league' Ellen Connelly, The Sydney Morning Herald (19 February 2000) After a second trial was aborted, Georgiou and Harrison were again convicted at a third trial in April 2003 and were later sentenced to a minimum of twenty-eight years in prison.Men convicted of murdering 3 members of Bandido bikie gang Australian Broadcasting Corporation (9 April 2003)
Four Bandidos members – Joshua Clark, Bradley John Duff, Malcolm Sinclair Greig and Todd Obierzynski – were arrested after being found in possession of two semi-automatic rifles when they were stopped by police in a routine traffic check in Sydney's west while travelling home after carrying out two drive-by shootings on 10 December 2008. Police believed the shootings, carried out in Lurnea and Sadleir, to be linked to a dispute between the Bandidos and Rebels.Drive-by shootings: four charged Geesche Jacobsen, The Sydney Morning Herald (23 January 2009)
Conflict with the Gypsy Jokers On 30 January 2000, Bandidos member Paul Andrew Bobos was wounded after being shot in the chest with a Smith & Wesson revolver as he travelled to work on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Mourquong. Three men associated with the Adelaide chapter of the Gypsy Jokers – Robert Cameron, William James Fuller and David Shannon – were charged with Bobos' shooting. Prosecutors alleged Fuller was a nominee for Gypsy Joker membership, and had shot Bobos as part of his initiation.Why Adelaide's bikie gangs continue to attract new membership Sean Fewster, The Advertiser 25 August 2013 In November 2000, Shannon was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to firearms offences. Bobos died in an unrelated incident on 24 September 2000.The myths and mayhem of bikie gangs in South Australia Nigel Hunt, The Advertiser 5 April 2009
A feud between the Bandidos and the Gypsy Jokers in the Hunter Valley began with several bashings before the home of a Bandidos member in Abermain was strafed in a drive-by shooting and a tattoo parlour owned by the club's Kurri Kurri chapter president Rodney Leslie "Pardo" Partington was firebombed in February 2001. On 24 March 2001, Partington was killed when a homemade bomb exploded in his hands outside the Gypsy Jokers' Weston clubhouse.Bikies call truce Sydney Morning Herald 3 April 2001
Hitjob against Sean Waygood and his retaliation Bandidos members Felix "Big F" Lyle and his son Dallas Fitzgerald were targeted in a shooting at a pub in Haymarket carried out by Sean Lawrence Waygood, of the Anthony Perish criminal gang network, and his associate Michael Peter Christiansen on 8 October 2002 after the club was contracted to kill Waygood following an assault at a nightclub where he worked security. Neither of the Bandidos members were hit, although Raniera Puketapu, who had been mistaken for Fitzgerald, was shot three times and wounded.How a murderous empire was brought down The Sydney Morning Herald (18 December 2011)Michael Duffy: Bad: The Inside Story of Australia's Biggest Murder Investigation: Crow's Nest: Allen and Unwin: 2012 Waygood pleaded guilty to shooting Puketapu as well as his involvement in a kidnapping and a separate attempted murder, and was sentenced to at least fifteen years in prison in May 2010.Crime world henchman jailed for murder News.com.au (28 May 2010)
Infighting