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Columbus Police Say Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs Monitored
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Columbus police say they monitor 10 to 15 motorcycle gangs based on criminal activity, a small number of the overall clubs in the city.
Mark Lovett is a detective with the Columbus police Criminal Intelligence Unit and an expert on motorcycle gangs and clubs. He tells The Columbus Dispatch that assaults, shootings, weapons violations, narcotics violations, traffic violations, and fleeing and eluding are among the things police investigate in criminal bike gangs.
Lovett says the Toros Motorcycle Club, where five people were shot on June 23, is not considered dangerous. No one was killed in that shooting and no arrests have been made. It apparently involved retribution by a nonmember who’d been thrown out.
Lovett says that maybe 5 percent of local clubs are considered outlaw motorcycle gangs.