An informant's life inside US biker gangs

By Paul Blake, BBC News, Washington: 

 

The recent gun battle in Texas has put a spotlight on violent biker gangs in US. Charles Falco is a former government informant who has infiltrated some of America's most notorious biker gangs and now lives in secret. He shared what it is like inside some of these deadly gangs and what spurred Sunday's violence.

Why do they fight?

Unlike gangs in Europe or Canada who largely hold territory so that they can control the illegal drug markets in that area, US gangs see holding territory as an end in-and-of-itself.
"They're very territorial," Mr Falco said. "It's all over claiming territory or states".
The Bandidos, one of the gangs involved in the shootout on Sunday, control Texas as part of their group's territory, he said.
Members of other gangs can usually pass through or even live in Texas with little trouble, so long as they do not sport a Texas "bottom rocker" - a patch on the lower part of a biker's vest that shows which state the gang member is claiming.
The Cossacks, who were also involved in the shooting, started as a family biker club, he said. Overtime, however, their ranks grew and they began wearing the Texas bottom rocker in act of rebellion against the Bandidos.
"It's just to say they're the biggest gang on the block," Mr Falco said. "They want to keep expanding, and growing, and claiming that area as their own, and kicking out the other biker gang that might control that area."...Continue reading...