Mafia gathered to discuss

dealing with biker gangs

Canadian Press

February 26, 2001 Mafia leaders from across Canada held a meeting in January to discuss concerns they could lose ground to the expanding biker gangs, sources told the National Post. The unusual meeting in Toronto was an apparent attempt to forge an alliance among Mafia clans from Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and possibly New York state against the biker gangs, organized crime and police sources told the paper. "The Hells Angels are now in Ontario forming a unity with the Hells Angels in Montreal. Is that a threat to them? I'd say so,'' said a Toronto police officer who investigates organized crime.

Many Ontario biker gangs recently unified under the Hells Angels banner while their rivals, the Rock Machine, joined the Texas-based Bandidos.

Antonio Nicaso, an organized-crime specialist and author, said the Mafia are watching the expanding biker network and decided to monitor them to see if they become a threat. Bikers and the Mafia have peacefully co-existed in Canada for years but traditionally the gangs have respected the mobsters seniority. Often the Mafia was responsible for importing the drugs and the bikers would distribute them on the street.

February 26, 2001