Canadian ports- Hells Angels

[smiles 0]

The Road to Hell--

authors Julian Sher and William Marsden chronicled how the Hells Angels took control of the nation's ports and the Canadian crime scene: how politicians dithered while overburdened prosecutors burned out and lost major cases; how police brass squabbled while a handful of dedicated cops worked years to amass their evidence; how a few citizens stood up the bikers and paid for that bravery with their lives. Murder plots, drug deals, money laundering and assassinations are brought to life through never-before-revealed police files, wiretaps and surveillance tapes. In gripping prose, the authors tell all about Boucher’s war on the justice system; how he finally lost in Quebec, thanks in part to Danny Kane, a reluctant biker turned informer; but how across Canada the Hells Angels have succeeded in building a national crime empire.

By the spring of 2002, Boucher was safely in prison but the Hells Angels had grown to 37 chapters with close to 600 members across the country. They had taken over the drug trade and continued their rapid expansion into Ontario with a recent, high-profile enlistment -- or patchover -- of 168 members from other gangs. In Winnipeg, gang warfare turned ugly as the Hells muscled out the competition and firebombed a policeman’s home. In Vancouver, they secured a stranglehold on smuggling in the all-important West Coast port.

The book is now being used in courtrooms and by police as a guide to the inner workings of the gang in Canada.

The Angels have a structure that lets them expand. On the one hand they have all the advantages of the network -- a brand-name-type structure and the sharing of information. But they also have a very insular, cellular structure, so that if a problem arises, as it did in Halifax [where the chapter has been effectively wiped-out] and Quebec [where its leaders are behind bars], it doesn't affect the rest of the country. Certain individuals decide "we must control this part of the trade because it's very lucrative." How does Chrysler become the number-one car company? How does Nike become the number-one shoe company? You do it through ruthless expansion into new markets and ruthless elimination of competitors.

Originally, a lot the bikers would just do enforcement for the mafia, like beat up people, and they would also be the gophers for distributors of cocaine and illegal drugs. But as they graduated, they took on a much more important role in the drug trade in actually bringing in the drugs through Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax, cooperating with the mafia or doing it independently. So much so, that by the mid-'90s, they were making millions of dollars a week in the drug trade in Montreal.

They were also successful in taking over part of the sex trade in British Columbia. Hells Angels members run some of the stripper agencies and clubs. And then they branched out. For example, in Montreal, hash is very big, so they are involved in the hash that moves through the port in Montreal, while in B.C., it's the grow-ops. A person could patronize numerous businesses in downtown Vancouver and be unaware he or she was funding the Hells Angels. Their economic skills garner the organization up to $36 million per week – an amount that police surveillance and seizures can hardly put a dent in.

In Quebec, it meant literally the elimination through bombings and murders of more than 150 competitors. If you're dead, you can't sell drugs in the Hells Angels territory. In Ontario, it was done through a massive takeover. They just swallowed up over 200 members of rival gangs.
In B.C., it was done through car bombings and drive-by shootings to get rid of some Russian competition. But overall, in B.C., they haven't had to resort to violence because there's enough of territory for everyone to operate in. Also, they were able to carve out an agreement with the Indo-Canadian and Asian gangs.

How much control do the Hells Angels have over our ports in Vancouver, Montreal, and Halifax? Any criminal realizes that the best way to bring drugs into the country is through the ports, because you can bring in huge amounts compared to the small amounts you can bring in a car or with a passenger in an airplane.

By Canada's own admission only three per cent of the shipments are actually checked. The Hells Angels realized this and have members working in the Vancouver ports and close associates working in Montreal and Halifax.

In fact, the auditor-general's most recent report estimates that something like 4,000 people with ties to Canada's biker gangs and other gangs work at the country's major ports and airports.

The media have to start paying more attention to organized crime so the public becomes more sensitized to it. The public has to be willing to cough up more tax dollars so that organized crime investigations can take place. It's important that police readjust their priorities so that more complicated issues, like organized crime, get addressed.

The rich and powerful Hells Angels motorcycle club in B.C. -- whose members largely eluded criminal charges and flew below society's radar screen for two decades -- are now expanding across the province, bolstering their multi-million-dollar business network and cementing their territorial stake on organized crime.

The expansion is partly because they are protecting their turf from the Bandidos. A rival U.S. outlaw motorcycle gang with deep roots in neighbouring Washington state, the Bandidos have moved into Alberta and are threatening to set up shop in B.C.

Eight years ago, there were 70 so-called full-patch members and five chapters in B.C. Today, there are 95 members spread across seven chapters: Vancouver, East End, Haney, White Rock, Mission, the Nomads and Nanaimo. There are also plans for a new Kelowna chapter and there's talk of another chapter in Surrey, where a so-called shadow support club was established months ago. The Renegades, an outlaw motorcycle group in Prince George that has about a dozen members, is a Hells Angels puppet club.

The Hells Angels have chapters in Canada, the U.S., Europe, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and South America.

Canada has more Hells Angels members per capita than any other country, including the U.S., where there are chapters in about 20 states.

At the same time as B.C.'s Hells Angels became some of the wealthiest bikers in the country, they've used a public relations campaign to establish an image as a harmless club of motorcycle enthusiasts. Sure, a few members have criminal records, the club maintains, but any large organization has people who have run-ins with the law. That doesn't make them a criminal organization, the Hells Angels say.

So far, Hells Angels in B.C. have avoided the kind of violent and bloody public turf war that erupted on Montreal streets with the rival Rock Machine biker gang, which sparked the political will and funding to target the bikers and prosecute them on charges of murder, extortion, drug trafficking and making money from prostitution.

Here in B.C., the Hells Angels have operated largely unopposed by rival biker gangs, allowing them to consolidate operations. Although the Angels have a reputation for violence and retaliation, for the most part B.C. has not seen the deaths of innocent victims caught in the crossfire, unlike Montreal, where the death of a young boy outraged the public, who pressured politicians to take action. The huge profits reaped from the drug trade have been used by Hells Angels to establish legitimate businesses ranging from trucking firms and retail cellular-phone outlets to travel agencies, coffee bars and hip clothing stores.
Members of the public generally do not know they are frequenting businesses owned by Hells Angels members, since police chose for years not to publicize that information. Many Hells Angels use nominees -- trusted associates who register companies in their names -- to hide business assets.

The Hells Angels have also been allowed to grow and prosper in B.C. since members of Vancouver's Satan's Angels motorcycle gang originally became Hells Angels in a "patch over" in 1983. For years, there were very few successful prosecutions against full-patch members.

One of the most shocking examples of how police dropped the ball was the Western Wind debacle, detailed in The Road to Hell, explains how the RCMP in B.C. had a chance to nail drug-dealers for $330 million worth of cocaine when a Vancouver Island fisherman offered to help the Mounties intercept a drug shipment between Colombians and the Hells Angels aboard the vessel Western Wind, which was headed for Victoria. The fisherman wanted to be paid $1 million and be placed in witness protection, but the RCMP declined the offer; U.S. authorities intercepted the boat loaded with more than two tonnes of cocaine, but no one was ever charged.

Plagued by rivalries, incompetence, and a general underestimation of the threat posed by the bikers, the police in B.C. - especially the RCMP - did little to take on the Hells Angels until their power made them virtually impregnable.

Headlines blared in the Vancouver Sun that a biker war was coming to British Columbia. It was an interesting story that connected the dots between a couple of members of the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang living in the Lower Mainland and the adverse reaction the Hells Angels would take. The story was clearly steered by the RCMP and was designed to gather some attention on the issue.

Why, one might wonder, is it suddenly important for the RCMP to beat the drums of a biker war? Especially considering the two Bandits have been living here for at least a couple of years that I know of and possibly longer, depending on who you ask. B.C. Hells Angels chapters, whose members and associates live in North Vancouver and West Vancouver,
are the richest in the world of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Clubs
______________________________________________

In a nutshell, it's the whip-up-the-hysteria- and-demand-more-money-and-resources theory of attacking organized crime. Organized crime is a huge problem and the biker gangs are a significant part of that problem. The case for necessary funding and resources should be easy to make on the merits. Attempts to whip up hysteria are little more than grandstanding and ineffectual.

SMiles

[AggieDave 6]

And politicians will use this to create a panic for anyone who rides wearing colors. There are a lot of biker "gangs" out there that are made up of good honest people, they belong to an organization for the social aspect and to have friends when they break down on a ride.

For instance HOG and Southern Cruiser, both are good organizations with good people. Of course there will be some bad apples, but that's with anything.



Canadia's Hell's Angels...sounds for some reason that's funny to me.

"We're gonna ride our scooters and fuck up some folks, eh?"

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[akarunway 1]

Yeah right. Like when my last wife left me for an OUTLAW or whatever scumbags they have up north and extolled their virtues such as toys for tots and shit. And when I lived up north w/ my first wife and we went in to a bar for a drink and they tried to rape her. Fought them bastards off only to go to war w/ them and had to move cause they started drive by my shooting my house. Fuck all them SOB's. The small percentage that are good doesn't outway the MFing SOB's. Bad taste in my mouth. Sorry

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[tunaplanet 0]

Yeah, anyone that thinks the Hells Angels are anything other than a bunch of drug dealing, murderous, scumbag rapists are completely out of touch with reality.

Anyone catch the story about the undercover agents that infiltrated the dirtbag's gang? One of them was so accepted that he actually was selected to pull personal bodyguard duty for Sonny Barger...a true American maggot.

The result was many arrests for crimes ranging from murder, drug trafficing, weapons, rape, etc...

Click Here

Forty-two

[tunaplanet 0]

Quote

Canadia's Hell's Angels...sounds for some reason that's funny to me.

Why? If you kept up with the club you would know they have chapters all over the world.

Forty-two

[mccurley 0]

sounds for some reason that's funny to me.***

Is a bullet or knife to he back some how humorus when you cross the border?

Watch my video Fat Women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWkEky8GoI

[Remster 24]

AFAIK, the quebec chapter's Hells are among the last (if not the last chapter in the world) to wear their Filthy Few badge on their colors...

Remster

[AggieDave 6]

It was a Canada joke, jesus people, pull the stick out of your ass and laugh every once in a while.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[AggieDave 6]

Quote

Yeah right. Like when my last wife left me for an OUTLAW or whatever scumbags they have up north and extolled their virtues such as toys for tots and shit. And when I lived up north w/ my first wife and we went in to a bar for a drink and they tried to rape her. Fought them bastards off only to go to war w/ them and had to move cause they started drive by my shooting my house. Fuck all them SOB's. The small percentage that are good doesn't outway the MFing SOB's. Bad taste in my mouth. Sorry
what can not be remedied must be endured

That fucking blows.

Doesn't mean everyone with a bike is bad, though. I"m sorry that happened to you.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[crotalus01 0]

dont know any Angels, but i do know quite a few Iron Horsemen and Outlaws. one on one they are not really bad guys, but get them in a group when they have been doping or boozing and watch out...any little thing can set them off, and if they perceive an insult to one member you have to deal with the entire group. there is NO forgiveness in the 1%er culture.
and BTW, they DO do a lot for charities like toys for tots, childrens hospitals, make-a-wish etc. i guess in their minds it somehow makes up for the other shit they do. also its good PR for the club - something they very rarely get.

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

[AggieDave 6]

Quote

there is NO forgiveness in the 1%er culture.

There ya go, its an old slogan but it still holds true, more so today then before. There are a lot of folks who own bikes. There are a lot of folks in different riding groups that are not outlaw gangs and don't have the outlaw gang mentality.

That's my point.

Its like folks grouping all skydivers into a group of drug crazied suicidal maniacs.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[eb66to77 0]

I have almost been smacked around a few times by a swarm of these garbage eaters. My best friend almost got killed twice when he got in a very small arguement with his wife, I guess these guys are very chivalrous. BUT they are not the only group like this, you still have all the other gangs of monkeys who flock in numbers. Just let them be unless you want serious trouble.
I have a Softail but in no way do I ever ride or look like I am bad ass. I don't plaster all kinds of leather on or cover it with gang specific colors and patches of poker runs in hopes of looking like a bad MO FO. I kind of like the look I get from turds who try to do there best Jessie James impression with a bird chest and zits while I am out in beach shorts and Tevas. I am with Aggie Dave that just be careful but some of us still like to ride for the pure enjoyment so feel free to shrug off the poser.
Akarunaway that truly does suck but as a rider I would have helped you kill at least one of em, LOL, unless you guys were plain asking for it.

[AggieDave 6]

I wear a bandana under my helmet so when I take my helmet off I don't have hair going everywhere and I have a leather jacket I wear when it gets cold.

That's about as close as I get to being "one of those people." I love to ride though.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[eb66to77 0]

Yeah leather is awsome in case of accidents. I wear it too on longer trips. But you know what I am talking about.

edited to add: There are some motorcycle clubs that are not bad organizations and I have ridden with some of them. You will be able to see which ones are the bad ones right off the bat though. As ya know just distance yourself if you feel threatened. Or go up to one of them and ask them "Aren't you Richard Simmons" Just like I saw on a TV show one time.

[PhillyKev 0]

Quote

dont know any Angels, but i do know quite a few Iron Horsemen and Outlaws. one on one they are not really bad guys, but get them in a group when they have been doping or boozing and watch out...any little thing can set them off, and if they perceive an insult to one member you have to deal with the entire group. there is NO forgiveness in the 1%er culture.
and BTW, they DO do a lot for charities like toys for tots, childrens hospitals, make-a-wish etc. i guess in their minds it somehow makes up for the other shit they do. also its good PR for the club - something they very rarely get.

Yep, I know a few Pagans. A couple of them hang out at the corner bar by my place. They're never wearing their colors in there and they're pretty mellow guys. One even offered to let me ride his bike when I was shopping for one commenting that he needed a new paint job anyway if I fucked it up (I declined the offer, didn't need the hassle). We're always buying each other drinks and playing pool or pinball. But..... every once in a while, a couple of their buddies that I don't know come in with them, or I run into them somewhere else and they're wearing their colors. Those days I pretend I don't know them and they do likewise.

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

Quote

sounds for some reason that's funny to me.***

Is a bullet or knife to he back some how humorus when you cross the border?

No, it's just that people are always trying to convince us Americans that the world loves the sweet, innocent, non-violent Canadian species. In fact, none other than Michael Moore tried to tell us that not only do the Canadians have just as much gun ownership as we Americans do, they have lower crime because they're so much more civilized than we are...

And then we go and hear about how a violent group like the Hell's Angels have "taken over" in Canada! It's funny to me too!

-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[mccurley 0]

As a Canadian living overseas, I don't see any evidence of the rest of the world trying to convince you guys of any such thing.
I would be sceptical of any of Micheal Moore's facts re gun ownership or crime rates. Or anything else for that mater!

Watch my video Fat Women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWkEky8GoI

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

Quote

As a Canadian living overseas, I don't see any evidence of the rest of the world trying to convince you guys of any such thing.
I would be sceptical of any of Micheal Moore's facts re gun ownership or crime rates. Or anything else for that mater!

Glad to hear it.

But on the first subject, I have read numerous articles lately (can't remember where, unfortunately) that were comparing Canadians to Americans, with the Americans looking quite unfavorable, and lots of explanations why Canadians were so lovable.

-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[mccurley 0]

Hey we are lovable, Dosn't mean you guys can't be too.
I got on the thread originaly because of the tone of the comment being demeaning to your northern nieghbours.
Canada is a great place, just as the U.S. is. Many of us would take exception to the general tone of comments from our southern nieghbours at times.
As for the removal of sticks from our asses (not your comment) and laughing, we do. Doesn't mean we should sit quitely on the side lines and ignore things we find insulting.
I would expect every American on this site to do the same if I said something offensive about you guys.

As for aarticles comparing the two countries, everyone is entitled to thier opinion, doesn't make it valid. Anyone with half a brain who's done any travelling would recognize each countries good and bad points, and we each have plenty of both.

Watch my video Fat Women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWkEky8GoI

[AggieDave 6]

I am absolutely amazed that you're offended and still sore about my one line comment/joke. I guess you're just sensitive about your home country, that's fine. I guess from now on I'll leave my jokes about Canada out on threads that you're in. I'll stick to my usual programming of jokes about folks in Austin, TX, Oklahoma, yankees, California liberals, Utah, Wyoming, Virginia, Florida (can't forget the flacid penis of the U.S.), Lousiana, Mississippi, rednecks (can't forget my class of people), white trash...well, I've got to leave for class, when I get back I'll finish my list of folks I like to make little jokes about...





(Aggiedave wonders if McCurley will see his point...).

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[nacmacfeegle 0]

"I've got to leave for class, when I get back I'll finish my list of folks I like to make little jokes about... "

Don't forget Scotland...everyone else does.

--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

Quote

"I've got to leave for class, when I get back I'll finish my list of folks I like to make little jokes about... "

Don't forget Scotland...everyone else does.

Monty Python did all the joking about Scotland that the world will require for quite some time into the future...

Who could forget the skit about the Blancmange from the Andromeda Galaxy turning Brits into Scotsmen just so it could win Wimbledon?!

-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[Breezejunky 0]

Um......I thought it was funny.

[winsor 187]

I used to jump with Hells Angels from the Trois Rivieres Chapter at Farnham, PQ. One guy had his colors on the bottom of his canopy - VERY professionally done.

I have known Angels (and a variety of other outlaw bikers) over the years, but have had no urge to wear colors (though the offer has been made). For one thing, I'll be damned if I'll be anybody's prospect. For another, the pack mentality is a little too similar to the herd mentality for my taste.

I have had a Hog for decades; my Hardtail Wide-Glide Shovelhead cannot be confused with a yuppie bike. If I'm in Darth Vader leathers or wearing denim and sneakers is my choice - I really couldn't care less what wannabes think. None of my biker trash pals have ever given me shit for my choice of riding apparel; if anything they have found it amusing.

Just because you don't like outlaw bikers, you shouldn't underestimate them. There are a few ringers amongst them.


Blue skies,

Winsor

[smiles 0]

Hey Winsor,

this post was info in the book I am reading called "The Road to Hell"......
I live in B.C. and recently the RCMP announced of Biker Wars (between the Angels and Banditos) here.

My comment was: In a nutshell, it's the whip-up-the-hysteria- and-demand-more-money-and-resources theory of attacking organized crime. Organized crime is a huge problem and the biker gangs are a significant part of that problem. The case for necessary funding and resources should be easy to make on the merits. Attempts to whip up hysteria is little more than grandstanding and ineffectual.

The many bikers I have known, I have never underestimated. Also have a close friend who I skydive with who is a Hells Angel. I loved my "biker chick" days, hogs...the rides, the chrome, the "sound"- (even though the closest I've been to death was on the back of one)...I love watching the biker buildoffs- I am very much aware that owning a hog doesn't make you an outlaw biker.

There are a few reasons I detest outlaw bikers...

Many years ago I was seriously involved with a biker for 5 years... and this I suppose is where my attitude developed towards outlaw bikers.
Re: it wasn't just the the pack mentality (herd mentality) that I had no respect for- it was the attitude towards women. Gang bangs on kitchen table (1 women- 30 bikers), women having pickles shoved up their vagina to spew out around the bonfire ..mentality.

In those days The Satans Angels were wearing colors here in B.C. and my boyfriend was a wannabe. My cousin was charged along with many including Dave Black (president of Satan's Angels) --the bikers picked up a young teenager wearing glasses and made him their "butler" at their party house one night. First his job through blunt force was- answering phone calls and serving beer but by the end of the night they had him standing naked in a bucket of cold water wearing a red plastic firemans hat---jerking off infront of them for entertainment. That wasn't good enough- they decided to light the firemans hat on fire so the hot plastic dripped down burning the kids skin, and of course one biker grabbed a broom-handle and shoved it up the kids ass, holding him in the corner of the room. The kid with help of police protection and lawyers (after 4 month hospital stay in critical condition) charged the Satan's Angels (who later became Hells Angels chapter) - 2 years less a day was the charge. A book was written and published depicting the trail called "The Devils Butler." Can be found in any library if anyone is interested. During their time in prison they took mechanic courses and got their tickets. When Dave Black got back on the streets he opened a local shop for Harley Davidson.

My boyfriend would frequent the shop for parts for his hog (also Wide-Glide Shovelhead) and got involved with the bikers- re: running drug deals for them= the parts he wanted. He got ripped off huge on one deal and ended up kidnapping some people at a biker party and holding them in a garage for 1 week until they gave info on the missing drugs. They turned around after they were released and charged him with kidnapping. All the newspapers and news were broadcasting: Satan's Angel arrested for kidnapping.....of course some fantastic lawyer (paid for by bikers) got him off (those who laid the kidnapping charges dropped them for some reason?)and then he was in debt to pay back big time -that favor.

The Robert Pickton- Pig Farm case in B.C. is now the largest serial killer investigation in Canadian history. Pickton is being charged early 2005 for the first degree murder of 35 women (drug addicts/prostitutes) missing from Vancouvers East End. On Picktons farm property was a Hells Angels party house- and Pickton provided the women for these parties....supplying them with drugs. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/pickton/


SMiles