comic books. we have been stereotypes. we are nothing like that. he adds he and others are grandpas and he said guns and gangs, that s not their thing. we are not a gang. we do not do gang things. we are not affiliated with gangs. we don t like street gangs. the reason that is is the ninth palate court in california and they had street gangs and they put the motorcycle gangs in that and we are not gangs and we don t appreciate being called a gang and we don t like it and have never been a gang. the u.s. justice department disagrees with him, and they say they are drug runners, and the texas department of public safety rates the banditos as
have rival groups as has been shown, the hell s angels which are rivals with the banditos and they ll basically vie for territory. so if the banditos, for example, are associated with texas, they are not going to tolerate other groups on their territory and it s largely to take over the drug trade. they re not going to allow other groups to come in and push them out. so that s how they become a criminal organization. you talk about prospecting. are they still drawing from pools of former military personnel? where are they getting these guys from? that s probably one of the most surprising things about these organized gangs is a lot of them are former and active military members. they re attracting that group that want to still have the sort of wild west image, or being on a motorcycle and going out and becoming like the renegade or the outlaw the rebel. so they are attracting the ex-military and the active
gangs as you say. it s all over turf. who s the big guy on the block? banditos have been in texas for years. obviously they take it as a threat. they don t like it. that s typical for a motorcycle club. as an hell s angel, i was involved with the outlaws motorcycle club in minnesota. the outlaws were from chicago and all different other areas. but during that war, my truck was blown up with c 4 and different retaliation was going back and forth between the two clubs. this is nothing new. c-4 is kind of explosive used by terrorists overseas. chris, as a law enforcement guy, this is serious stuff. we don t see it rise to the level of the horrible outbreak
you have the italian mafia, russian gangs triads and the banditos rival the hell s angels. those two gangs not only have about 1,000 members in the united states each and the banditos have something like 90 chapters in the u.s., but they straddle the globe. banditos are in something like 14 countries and they have battled, they have rooiled the hell s angels in huge bloody wars. here in canada the rivalry between the banditos and hell s angels in one city alone led to 160 dead. in europe they went to war. julian what do they fight over? well, they are fighting over territory. they are fighting over territory, and the territory means they are fighting over to be the top crime dog to control the drugs and whatever other criminality is going on there. what police and gang members are saying is that the waco incident
biker groups big arrested. many of the others part of the bandito motorcycle club. we are not a gang. we do not do gang things. we are not affiliated with gangs. jimmy graves is high up the texas chain, but he s also the state chairman for the texas confederation of clubs, a multi-group biker association. he says this wasn t a recruiting meeting, but a friendly organizational one. they want to be out laws. the cossacks want to be the out laws. we ve been straight. we didn t do nothing here. we re fighting for our rights. they re saying lies on tv and telling everybody that the banditos are after police officers. about 170 arrested from the brawl. graves fares he ll also be