SUMMARY
The conflict between Hells Angels and Rock Machine motorcycle gangs in Montreal originated, at least to some degree, in the arrests of Rock Machine leaders, and brothers, Salvatore and Giovanni Cazzetta in the early 1990s. Their arrest meant that an area, previously controlled by the Machines, was now up for grabs for prospecting drug dealers. Hells Angels showed a clear interest in grasping control of the area, but they were not the only ones. Rock Machine, with support of an organization of drug dealers called the Dark Circle, took up the struggle to control the area. Both Rock Machine and the Dark Circle had previously good contacts with Hells Angels but this had now changed.
In 1994 a series of bombings, which were to become a characteristic tool of violence in the conflict, claimed the first victims of the conflict. In 1995 the number of attacks increased further. August alone saw at least eight bomb attacks, several with deadly outcomes, primarily aimed at members, or associates, of either gang. However, the use of bombs also claimed victims that had no connection to the groups’ conflict, not least apparently the death of an 11-year old boy who was playing with a friend close to the place where a bomb was set off.
Most of the attacks took place in the Montreal metropolitan area or its surroundings. However, one incident in 1995, the gunning down of a Rock Machine member, moved the conflict, momentarily, to Mexico. The perpetrator was a person with close connections to the Hells Angels.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), assisted by other policing organizations in the Quebec region, was continuously tried to arrest perpetrators and bring the gang violence to a halt. On 28 March 2001 some 2000 members of the police core acted together to clamp down on Hells Angels’ criminal activities. The Rock Machine, who had now started to cooperate with another international motorcycle club, Bandidos, were hit hard later in the early 2000s in Canadian police’s attempt to rid the country of these organized criminal gangs.
The non-state conflict between Hells Angels and Rock Machine is first included in UCDP data in 1995 when a conflict for control of drug dealing territories in Canada resulted in 25 battle-related deaths.
