London, Ontario – Canadian police arrested five people on murder charges Monday in one of Canada’s worst mass killings and said that eight men found dead inside vehicles on a farm over the weekend were affiliated with a biker gang.
Police called the killings “an internal cleansing” of the Bandidos motorcycle gang, and Detective Ross Bingley of the Ontario Provincial Police said investigators don’t believe a biker gang war was imminent.
“This is an isolated incident with ties to the Bandidos,” Bingley said at a news conference.
Police said they arrested five people at a modest, two-story farmhouse about 6 miles from where the bodies were found in four vehicles Saturday morning on a farm in Shedden, Ontario, about 90 miles northeast of Detroit.
The victims died of gunshot wounds, police said. Autopsies were performed Monday.
Police said Bandidos member Wayne Kellestine, 56, would be charged with eight counts of first-degree murder.
Also arrested and charged with eight counts of murder were Eric Niessen, 45; Kerry Morris, 56; Frank Mather, 32; and Brett Gardiner, 21. The four were not members of the Bandidos.
All five suspects were either from Moncton, Ontario, or the Dutton-Dunwich area, a small farming community in southwestern Ontario. Police said Gardiner had no fixed address.
Seven of the victims were full or associate members of the gang: George Jesso, 52; George Kriarakis, 28; John Muscedere, 48; Luis Manny Raposo, 41; Francesco Salerajno, 43; Paul Sinopoli, 30; and Michael Trotta, 31. Victim Jamie Flanz, 37, was named as a “prospective” member. All were from Ontario.
The gangland-style killings are the biggest mass murder in Canada since spurned husband Mark Chahal went on a shooting rampage in 1996 in Vernon, British Columbia, killing nine people, including his estranged wife and himself.
Police Detective Don Bell said U.S. intelligence indicates the killings were internal to Canada and not related to any rift with American members of the Bandidos. He said the Canadian arm is made up of former Quebec gang members, such as the Popeyes and Rock Machine.
Law enforcement consultant Chris Mathers said the Bandidos and the Hells Angels have absorbed other biker groups in Canada over the years, and he doubted there would be retaliation.
“It’s probably hard to retaliate when most of your membership has been decimated.”
