SWEEPING RAIDS TARGET LOCAL BIKERS

One of Canada's most powerful bikers escaped arrest yesterday when
police raided his Hamilton home in connection with 13 gangland murders
in Quebec. Walter Stadnik, 49, was vacationing in Mexico or the
Caribbean when a heavily armed tactical team kicked in the front door of
his Cloverhill Road home on the east Mountain as part of the biggest
police crackdown on outlaw bikers in Canadian history.

According to warrants, Stadnik is wanted, along with high-profile Hells
Angel Maurice (Mom) Boucher, on 13 counts of first-degree murder in the
deaths of bikers killed during the gang war that has raged in Quebec
since 1994.

Stadnik is also wanted on three counts of attempted murder -- including
a plot to blow up rival biker gang Rock Machine's clubhouse -- and one
count of conspiracy to commit murder.

Police in Quebec swooped into scores of Quebec communities with warrants
for the arrests of more than 150 people. They hope the arrests will
disrupt the Hells Angels' illegal activities.

More than 2,000 police carried out the raids, called Operation
Springtime 2001, the culmination of a three-year undercover operation.

The focus was on Quebec bikers. Only three people outside the province
were targeted: Hamilton's Stadnik; Donald (Pup) Stockford, who was
arrested in his Ancaster home and flown to Quebec on a RCMP jet to face
a charge of conspiracy to commit murder; and a Vancouver resident
described by police as a Hells Angels accountant.

Other charges laid against Hells Angels suspects include gangsterism,
racketeering, proceeds of crime and drug trafficking.

Among the charges were warrants issued against 42 bikers for conspiring
to murder rival bikers and street dealers who refused to buy drugs from
the Angels elite Nomads chapter and a puppet club of the Montreal Hells
Angels called the Rockers.

The arrest warrants, which were issued in French, state that the bikers
conspired between Jan. 15, 1995, and March 27, 2000, to murder the
members of diverse groups including the Alliance (a Montreal street
gang), the Dark Circle, the Rock Machine, the Bandidos and street
dealers who refused to buy drugs from the Nomads and the Rockers.

The alleged murders occurred during the turf war between the Hells
Angels and the Rock Machine.

The turf war claimed more than 160 lives, including that of an
11-year-old Montreal boy accidentally killed in an explosion.

Other men were named in the first-degree murder arrest warrants along
with Boucher and Stadnik.

One longtime neighbour said Stadnik and his wife are "quiet, very quiet,
except when they start their motorcycles."

He recalled often seeing Stadnik power-walking with his wife around the
quiet neighbourhood.

A lifelong resident of Steel City, Stadnik joined the Sorel, Que.,
chapter of the Hells Angels in 1982 and was the club's national
president for several years before he helped found the Nomads chapter in
1995.

Stockford, 38, whom neighbours describe as a quiet family man, is also a
member of the Nomads along with Boucher.

Neighbours said they didn't realize the man they knew as a movie stunt
man was associated with a biker gang.

"I didn't even think he owned a motorcycle," one man said.

Stockford and his family moved into the upper middle-class Ancaster
neighbourhood last September. They paid $245,000 for their home, which
backs onto a ravine.

Nomads are considered the elite of the biker crop. They are the most
mobile Hells Angels -- they do not have a clubhouse and they travel the
country recruiting members and setting up enterprises and new chapters.

Stadnik has been described by police and biker experts as one of the
smartest and most respected Hells Angels in Canada. He is always at the
front of the pack when club members take their Harleys on a run. He was
instrumental in setting up a Hells Angels probationary chapter in
Winnipeg and was involved in patching more than 170 new Hells Angels in
Ontario earlier this year. He is sponsoring a new chapter in the Niagara
region, where he is often seen with Stockford.

"We can expect to have some significant fallout from this," said
Detective Staff Sergeant Don Bell, of the OPP's provincial special
squad. "They're not going to fold their tent from this ... but it will
have a significant impact."

Stockford and the others arrested are due to be arraigned in a Montreal
courtroom today. Police plan to hold a press conference this afternoon.

The operation involved the Montreal Wolverine squad and other task
forces set up in Quebec in the past five years to combat organized crime
involving outlaw motorcycle gangs.

RCMP Corporal Leo Monbourquette described Operation Springtime 2001 as
the biggest crackdown against outlaw bikers in Canadian history. He said
the object of the project was to "destabilize the Hells Angels and
outlaw motorcycle gangs and their activities."

As many as 80 of the estimated 106 full-patch members of the Hells
Angels in Quebec were picked up in the raids, said Menard. The entire
Nomad chapter was rounded up, along with all the members of the Rockers
and Evil Ones, well-known Angels affiliates. Menard also said police
seized about $500,000 in "pocket cash" during the raids and $7.5 million
in other assets.

Montreal police Commander Andre Durocher said almost all the raids took
place in Quebec.

Yves Lavigne, an author and biker expert, said if police get convictions
on yesterday's charges it would be the biggest blow ever against the
Hells Angels worldwide.

Lavigne believes a high-level informant must be involved because Stadnik
is too careful.

"Guys like Stadnik don't use telecommunications. He is a very cautious
man. The cops don't get this without a rat. This is too intense."

Serge Menard, Quebec's public security minister, said police deserve
credit and public understanding for often fighting biker gangs in
silence.

"Secrecy was needed to guarantee success," Menard said.

"I hope everyone understands today that just because they're not always
talking about what they're doing doesn't mean they're not acting."