By AARON RECUENCO
Police have intensified their intelligence works to locate and monitor the activities of at least 22 foreign big bike-riding gangsters who are allegedly setting up a network of illegal activities, which include gunrunning and illicit drug trade, in the Philippines.
What the foreign big bikers want to establish in the country is similar to those abroad, particularly in the United States and other Western countries, wherein groups of motorcycle-riding outlaws are acting like organized syndicates that control all the money-making illegal activities in areas which they would declare as their turf.
Chief Supt. Arnel Escobal, director of the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), it was their Australian counterparts who tipped them about the entry of 22 foreigners from Australia who may be planning to replicate the outlaw motorcycle gangs abroad.
“Their modus is to put up motorcycle clubs. Once established, these motorcycle clubs would engage in illegal business that includes gunrunning, extortion and protection rackets and even illegal drugs,” Escoba said.
“It was reported to us that they have already established here, there are allegedly two in Cebu,” he added.
Escobal specifically mentioned Hell’s Angels which is reportedly one of the two motorcycle clubs established in Cebu based on the tipoff.
The Hell’s Angels, according to United States Department of Justice website, is one of the outlaw motorcycle gangs allegedly involved in criminal activities that include the use of violence and intimidation.
Most of the motorcycle gangs are wearing leather jackets with big patches of the names of their groups on the back.
Escobal said they were not given the specific details about the presence of the foreign big bikers in the country but said they monitored 22 times of travels of the gang members in the country.
The official said they suspect that the foreign big bikers are possibly interacting with local motorcycle-riding groups in the country to form an alliance that would later carry the name of the notorious foreign motorcycle riding groups.
Asked why the groups are setting up their own organizations in the Philippines, Escobal said it could be drug-related.
“According to them, there was a recent demand actually for cocaine. There is a demand because of the big confiscations of cocaine in other countries,” Escobal said.
“They may be looking for source because if there is high confiscation rate of authorities on cocaine, that means there is a big demand for cocaine,” he added.
He said the foreigners may be trying to establish contact with the local motorcycle groups in the country to expand their network of illegal operations.
Aside from the United States, the foreign motorcycle-riding groups have already established in Canada, Australia and other parts of the world.
Escobal said Australia might have tipped off the PNP about the travel of the outlaw foreign big bikers to the Philippines to prevent the situation to get worse similar in the Netherlands.
“Their presence in some parts of the Netherlands is already a big problem because even in broad daylight, they are engaging in gang war that includes gunfight and they would even threaten club owners if they are being prevented to enter,” Escobal said.
“It appears that they are becoming a headache so other countries are telling us that they are successful in countering these outlaw motorcycle gangs and we could copy their best practices,” he added.
