SUMMARY

The Rock Machine is a motorcycle club based in Montreal, Canada. The club was formed in the mid-1980s by two brothers, Salvatore and Giovanni Cazzetta. Both leaders were arrested in the early 1990s and spent most of the decade behind bars, something that meant that the leadership during that time was not as clear as before. The structure of the organisation is claimed to have been fairly similar to that of a Hells Angels chapter, and they also wore vests with their logo on the back, showing where they belonged.

As a result of a conflict in the 1990s with Hells Angels the group contacted the Swedish chapter of Bandidos, a rival gang to Hells Angels, who had experience from motorcycle gang-related violence in Sweden. An alliance between Rock Machine and Bandidos was formed in 1997. In the 1990s Rock Machine were supported by other criminal gangs such as the Dark Circle, a group of drug dealers who had started investing their profit in real estate, and the Pelletier clan.

Rock Machine has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.