5 FORCES PLOTTING WAR ON GANGS

Hells Angels Gaining Ground In City

Five of the largest police forces in Ontario and Quebec are planning allied
counterstrikes against biker gangs and other organized crime groups, senior
officers say.

Buoyed by successes against Quebec bikers and alarmed at the rapid growth
of the Hells Angels in Ontario, six senior cops from the two provinces met
last week to plan strategy.

It was agreed that Mounties in both provinces, Surete du Quebec, Montreal
Police, Toronto Police and the OPP will merge some of their long-term
projects against crime cartels.

"What we find is that we have the same criminals, the same problems in both
provinces," OPP Deputy Commissioner Vaughn Collins said in an interview
yesterday.

Toronto Supt. Rocky Cleveland said organized crime controls a wide variety
of rackets: Fraud, weapons and drug dealing, robberies, extortions and
alien smuggling.

'Canadian Problem'

"It's not a Toronto problem, it's not a Montreal problem," he said. "It's a
Canadian problem but, in our two provinces, we can do something ... We have
the power. We have authority."

"We already set goals and target organized crime. Now, we're doing it
collectively," Collins added.

He said the Hells are "the most significant organization" in Ontario with
about 200 members and 2,000 associates.

Last December, the Hells and rival Bandidos entered Ontario, with the
Bandidos also setting up puppet gangs Killerbeez and Palmers. The Outlaws
are reported to be recruiting heavily in the Toronto area. With Quebec's
success in prosecuting bikers, "we've seen some Hells Angels (who) picked
up their belongings and moved to Ontario where it seems, at the moment, to
be a little bit safer," Collins said.

Despite police resources being tied up to prosecute them, the six forces
are also targeting others who stand to gain when biker operations are shut
down.

Organized Crime

"Other organized crime groups are watching what's going on and are
discussing how to take advantage of the motorcycle gang wars and the police
dedication to motorcycle gangs," Collins said. "We're talking about
traditional organized crime, Asian organized crime, Eastern European crime."

In the past two years, Quebec police have jailed hundreds of bikers
involved in drug dealing and a brutal gang war that has left more than 300
killed and wounded.

"When you take out some players, the market is still there," said Montreal
Asst. Director Marc St-Laurent. "The people who take drugs, they still want
drugs. There are other groups who want to take their place."

Surete Assistant Director Jean Bourdeau said seized documents from the
Quebec Hells Angels showed 40 million lines of cocaine were shipped to
Ontario last year.

"They had flooded the market with 2,000 kilos of cocaine," he said. "Plus
2,000 kilos of hashish. That's just bikers."

The reality, Bourdeau said, is that no one force can take on
multi-national, and nationwide crime groups alone.