Five arrested over Canada biker gang killings

Police have arrested five people on murder charges for one of Canada's worst mass killings.

Police have arrested five people on murder charges for one of Canada's worst mass killings.

They said the deaths of eight men found on an isolated farm were part of "an internal cleansing" of a motorcycle gang.

The arrests were made at a two-storey farmhouse about six miles from where the eight men were found shot dead in four vehicles scattered in a wooded field in Shedden, Ontario.

Investigators did not believe a biker gang war was imminent.

READ MORE

"This is an isolated incident with ties to the Bandidos," said Det Ross Bingley of the Ontario Provincial Police.

Police said Bandidos member Wayne Kellestine (56) would be charged with eight counts of first-degree murder. Four other men, who are not members of the Bandidos, will also face eight counts of murder.

All five suspects were either from Monkton, Ontario, or the Dutton-Dunwich area, a small farming community in south-western Ontario between London and the US border.

The victims were all either full or associate members of the gang from Ontario.

The rural area where the bodies were found has had problems with motorcycle gangs in the past,but is generally considered low-crime compared to other parts of Canada, in particular Quebec, where biker violence is more common.