The Cannonball Motorcycle Club (CMC) is an outlaw motorcycle club in Finland and Estonia. Founded in Helsinki in 1991, the club has eleven chapters and a membership of over two-hundred. Cannonball MC is designated as an organized crime group by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).Katso kartasta, mitkä rikollisorganisaatiot kokoontuvat kotikulmillasi – KRP: jengitilanne voimakkaassa muutoksessa United Brotherhoodin väliaikaisen toimintakiellon vuoksi Katri Kirsi, Yle (26 September 2020)The club's name is derived from the Cannonball Run challenge.
History
The Cannonball Motorcycle Club was formed by Jari Uotila in Helsinki in May 1991. The club's name is derived from the Cannonball Run challenge."Ei tämä ole mikään salajärjestö" Heli Paananen, Keskisuomalainen (31 December 2014) During the initial five years of its existence, Cannonball MC operated as a support club of the Hells Angels. The affiliation ended in 1996 and Cannonball instead proceeded as an independent motorcycle club.Rikollisjengien määrä räjähtänyt Suomessa 2000-luvulla MTV3 (2 October 2019) The club went on to establish ten chapters throughout Finland – in Helsinki, Lohja, Turku, Jyväskylä, Heinola, Hämeenlinna, Seinäjoki, Ulvila, Joensuu and Kausala – and one in Tallinn, Estonia. Additionally, Cannonball's sub-division, Squad 32, has six branches. A Cannonball chapter in Lahti ceased operations in 1999 when its members resigned due to dissatisfaction with the activities of the parent club. The former members of this chapter then founded the Rogues Gallery gang in the city in January 2000.Lahtelaispoliisi muistaa UB:n pelätyn edeltäjäjengin – "Siinä oli turhaa pullistelua ja voimannäyttöä" Petri Koivisto, Etelä-Suomen Sanomat (15 September 2019)
Jari Uotila, Cannonball's founder and president, died from medical complications at the age of fifty-two on 23 April 2012.
It was reported in July 2017 that Cannonball MC had disbanded following an internal dispute.Moottoripyöräjengi Cannonball on hajonnut - KRP seuraa tilannetta Iltalehti (18 July 2017) News broke in September 2017, however, that the dispute had been resolved and that the club would continue to operate in the same localities and with the same membership as before.Moottoripyöräjengi Cannonball kokosi rivinsä uudelleen – kesän hajoaminen jäi väliaikaiseksi Minna Passi, Helsingin Sanomat (8 September 2017)
Insignia The logo of the Cannonball Motorcycle Club consists of a flaming cannonball accompanied by a Finnish war flag. Cannonball MC's colours are black and yellow.Kultainen vasikka: Järjestäytynyt rikollisuus Suomessa Janne Huuskonen and Mikko Gustafsson (2019) The club's motto is "Cannonball forever, forever Cannonball." ("CFFC").
Membership and organization Cannonball MC has a national and local hierarchy, with the internal organization of each chapter consisting of a president, vice-president, treasurer, road captain and sergeant-at-arms. These positions form each chapter's officer corps, to which other members are subordinate.Järjestäytynyttä rikollisuutta koskeva lainsäädäntö Suomessa Ilkka Komulainen (2014) Applicants for membership must be male, have the sponsorship of an existing club member and own, or at least have a firm intention to acquire, a motorcycle. A chapter president dictates the progress and membership status of the candidates based on the recommendations of the chapter's officers.Cannonball kokosi rivinsä uudelleen - Kanta-Hämeessä selvitetty mittavaa huumerikosvyyhtiä Iltalehti (13 February 2019) Potential members begin their association with the club as a member of Squad 32, then after they own a motorcycle, as a "hangaround" member, and must be a "prospective" (trial member) before becoming a full member. Cannonball's bylaws dictate that, among other things, members must attend mandatory meetings and motorcycle rides. Members pay a monthly fee of €100.Pelätty presidentti Iltalehti (2 November 2011) Upon leaving the club, members must return their colors and pay a severance fee of €15,000 or a motorcycle.Cannonballin eroraha: 15 000 euroa tai moottoripyörä MTV3 (4 October 2011) The club has a membership of approximately two-hundred-and-thirty.
Support and Supporters The club has a strong and extensive support and supporters community. Supports typically wear clothing featuring the clubs insignia and symbols, such as Support 32 or Support CMC. Supporters typically consisting of the family and close friends of the club members, generally wear the Supporter Cannonball Motorcycle Club' logo. Criminal allegations and incidents Cannonball MC is designated an organized crime group by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). The club has been linked to drug trafficking, financial crime and aggravated assault.Famous Cannonball motorcycle club dissolves – NBI: Ex-members may form new gang Yle (19 July 2017)
As a Hells Angels support club, Cannonball was aligned with the HA prospect chapter Overkill MC against the Undertakers MC, a prospect club of the Bandidos, during the Nordic Biker War in the 1990s. The Cannonball vice-president was shot and wounded by an Undertakers member at a restaurant in Helsinki on 1 April 1995. Two Undertakers bikers, including club president Marko Hirsma, were assaulted by members of Cannonball and Overkill on 27 September 1995 outside a courthouse in Pasila, Helsinki when they arrived to attend the court case of two other Undertakers who were on trial for attacking Overkill's clubhouse with a rocket-propelled grenade.Jengiläisten riidat toivat Bandidosin Suomeen 1990-luvulla Jarkko Sipilä, MTV3 (12 May 2015) In 1996, Overkill and the Undertakers patched over to the Hells Angels and Bandidos, respectively, while Cannonball became independent. The biker war formally concluded with a ceasefire on 25 September 1997. Since the end of the conflict, the clubs have operated in parallel rather than competing with each other.Bandidoksen Suomen johtajan ampunut mies pääsee vankilasta vapaaksi Asta Tenhunen, Savon Sanomat (9 March 2017)
Ari Petteri Ronkainen, a member of Cannonball's Helsinki chapter, was sentenced to years in prison on 17 July 1997 for smuggling twenty kilograms of hashish into Finland from Spain.Outlaw Bikers in Finland 1997-2005 GangstersInc.com (10 November 2010)
On 19 October 1998, of three members and an associate of Cannonball's Lahti chapter, two were sentenced to two years and four months' imprisonment, and two to two years and two months' for extortion.
Three members of the Helsinki Cannonball chapter were convicted of extortion and given prison sentences of four years, two years, and years on 30 April 1999.Kolme Cannonball-kerholaista vankeuteen Yle (30 April 1999)
On 23 July 1999, three members of Cannonball's Kouvola chapter were arrested on suspicion of planting a bomb in a restaurant in the city.Poliisi vanginnut Kouvolan pommista epäiltyjä moottoripyöräjengiläisiä Yle (23 July 1999) Two of the bikers were convicted of attempted arson on 3 December 1999; one was sentenced to three years and eight months' imprisonment, and the other to two years and six months'.
Seven people, including a Cannonball chapter president, were charged on 24 August 2006 in relation to a drug distribution ring that was uncovered by the Oulu and Lahti police in April that year. Ten kilograms of amphetamine as well as cash and firearms was also seized.Motoristijengin pomolle huumesyyte Yle (24 August 2006)
Police in Helsinki and elsewhere in southern Finland arrested ten Cannonball members on suspicion of robbery and extortion on 14 February 2008. According to the NBI, the Cannonball members used intimidation and violence to take possession of cash, a car, motorcycles and motorcycle parts from ordinary motorcycle enthusiasts from Forssa and Loimaa.Cannonballin jäsenet kiristäneet moottoripyöräharrastajia Yle (14 February 2008) On 9 July 2008, a total of seventeen men were given sentences ranging from six years in prison to a three-month suspended sentence.Moottoripyöräjengiläisille pitkiä tuomioita ryöstöistä ja kiristyksistä Yle (9 July 2008)
A conflict between current and former club members resulted in a shooting in Helsinki on 23 May 2011. Initially, two Cannonball members were convicted of attempted manslaughter, while the club's president Jari Uotila was acquitted at the Helsinki District Court. The District Court's decision was appealed to the Court of Appeal by the prosecutor, however. Uotila died from medical complications on 23 April 2012 amidst the appeals hearing. In October 2012, the Appeals Court upgraded the sentences of the two others to two years' and two years and ten months' imprisonment.Moottoripyöräkerhon ammuskelujutun tuomiot kovenivat hovissa Hanna Hanhinen, Yle (31 October 2012)
Cannonball members were among over a dozen people arrested for drugs and firearms offences during a series of raids carried out by local police and the NBI in the Greater Helsinki area and in Tallinn on 27 November 2012. Finnish and Estonian police cooperated during the investigation, which also resulted in the seizure of amphetamine.Poliisilla suuroperaatio pääkaupunkiseudulla ja Tallinnassa Yle (27 November 2012)
Fifteen people – including eight members of Cannonball and the Bandidos – were given prison sentences ranging from five to thirteen years for drug offences on 28 June 2013 in a case relating to the importation of large quantities of amphetamines, hashish and MDMA into Finland from central Europe between 2011 and 2013.Cannonball-huumeoikeudenkäynnissä jaettiin kovia tuomioita Yle (28 June 2013) The smuggling operation, involving mainly Estonian nationals, was uncovered by the Finnish and Estonian National Bureaus of Investigation in April 2013.Laaja salakuljetusoikeudenkäynti alkoi - mukana moottoripyöräkerhoja Yle (8 May 2013)
Two full members of Cannonball MC'S Joensuu chapter were sentenced to imprisonment in February 2015 for threatening a man who had previously testified against them. The duo had assaulted the man and threatened to shoot him in December 2014.Cannonballin joensuulaisjäsenille vankeutta uhkailusta Yle (27 February 2015)
On 27 February 2015, the Helsinki District Court sentenced four members of Cannonball MC to imprisonment of between sixty days and eight months for participating in an organized crime group. A total of twenty-two persons had been charged with participating in organised crime groups, aggravated tax fraud, aggravated alcohol offences, aggravated firearms offences, firearms offences, explosives offences, concealment offences and narcotics offences; organised crime charges were dropped against eighteen defendants, and all charges were dismissed against nine others.Cannonballin jäseniä tuomittiin jengipykälän nojalla Teemu Hallamaa, Yle (27 February 2015)
Police carried out a search of the clubhouse of the Cannonball chapter in Seinäjoki on 18 March 2015, resulting in fifteen people being apprehended and the seizure of firearms and narcotics. According to the police, the search was based on a suspected firearms offence.Cannonballin tiloista löytyi aseita ja huumausaineita Seinäjoella Yle (18 March 2015)
Five people were taken into custody after police carried out simultaneous raids on Cannonball's clubhouse and four residences in Helsinki on 2 June 2015. Authorities seized drugs and two unlicensed firearms among other items of interest. The amount of drugs found, holding an estimated street value of more than €28,000, exceeded by tenfold the criteria for aggravated drug offenses. Additionally, two of those detained were suspected by police of an illegal takeover of a construction company in 2014.