ROUGH RIDE FOR JUSTICE

HIGH-TECH WARRIORS

CALGARY -- How do you fight a criminal organization which has superior
high-tech equipment, doesn't have to play by any rules and hires the best
lawyers in the land?

"I think the Hells Angels will always be here. I mean, who are we kidding?"
said Det. Brad Robson of the criminal intelligence section of the Calgary
Police Service.

"The best we can hope to do is continue to do our job, work hard and
continue to knock these guys off - chip away, chip away."

But chipping away at the Alberta Hells Angels can be as frustrating as
chopping a redwood tree with a hatchet.

From Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary, south to the Montana border, the Hells
Angels have their fingers in the lucrative drug trade and other criminal
actions.

Taking lessons from older, more established clubs, the local Angels have
learned to distance themselves from criminal activity by using streetwise
lackeys.

"You're not just dealing with a Calgary club, you're dealing with a
worldwide organization and the Alberta Hells Angels are being well-schooled
from Angels on the West Coast and the States," said Robson.

"They have friends and associates doing all the work," he said.

"We knock them off almost weekly and it does affect them in the pocket book
but doesn't affect their criminal record or their image."

That doesn't mean the veteran cop is giving up on busting the main players.

"A lot of it comes back to funding and long-term investigations and
long-term commitment to get these guys," he said.

The fight against organized motorcycle gangs doesn't get any easier when the
public is largely apathetic to the Angels and easily duped by the Big Red
Machine's PR campaign.

Calgary Police Chief Jack Beaton remembers when the city closed their
clubhouse in Bowness, a suburb northwest of Calgary.

"There were some people there who said, 'I want them to stay there. These
are good neighbours,' " Beaton recalled.

That attitude baffles Robson.

"If Joe Citizen's son is hooked on drugs, where do you think the profit is
going?" he said. "It's going right to organized groups, including the
Angels.

"They want the public to think they're just a good ol' boys' club who get
together once a week to drink beer and ride their motorcycles," Beaton said.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth, he said.

"Outlaw motorcycle gangs are an international organization in the area of
drugs, prostitution and weapons," he said. "They cause death and destruction
and they harm communities."

The Hells Angels' Alberta woes began in 1997 when 150 rode to Red Deer to
welcome their newest chapter - members of the Grim Reapers, who turned in
their colours for those of the Big Red Machine in a patchover ceremony.

But they were stopped by 130 cops who delayed them for hours and wrote
tickets, mainly for minor traffic and equipment violations.

The Angels successfully challenged a dozen of the tickets in court.

"It is clear the CheckStops were not motivated by concerns about faulty
headlights, expired licenses and the like," Judge Allan Fradsham said in his
Aug. 19 decision to dismiss the charges.

The judge said the police exercise violated the Angels' constitutional
rights under three sections of the Charter - arbitrary detention, search and
seizure and security of the person.

While the Angels celebrated their courtroom victory, cops had a chance to
think about the court decision. The gang spent about $300,000 in legal fees
to get 12 tickets tossed.

"So, am I disappointed?" Beaton asked, answering his own question with a
shrug.

The chief said the stops aren't harassment and will continue under the "new
guidelines" established by the judge.

"I'm very happy to accept those new parameters for future CheckStops," he
said, but would not say what those parameters are because he does not want
the Angels to know.

The Calgary Angels were caught again when their president was arrested Aug.
4, 1999, and charged in a plot against a city alderman and two other people.

Police said they received information about a plan to plant an explosive
meant to harm alderman Dale Hodges, another city hall staff member and a
Bowness resident.

Citing non-compliance with building codes, Hodges was instrumental in
getting rid of a two-storey Hells Angels clubhouse in Bowness.

Kenneth Michael Szczerba, 43, was charged with three counts of "counselling
the offence of mischief endangering life" and one count of "counselling the
offence of assault causing bodily harm."

He was charged later with drug offences. Both cases are still before the
courts.

The lack of public outrage often means police forces don't get the funding
they desperately need to battle the gangs.

"There is a lot of intelligence-gathering and we don't have the equipment we
need to do the investigations in some cases," Beaton said.

"We have to get the equipment because technology moves ahead so fast."

Local cops have nothing that compares with the security and surveillance
equipment possessed by the Angels.

"It's improving though - we're getting closer, " Robson chuckled.

If police want to compete with the Angels, they better get a move on to
challenge the rapid expansion of the world's biggest outlaw motorcycle
group.

"Last month there were 21 chapters in the country, now there are 29," Robson
said.

"Why are they moving into areas they've never been in before? It's for
control of the drug trade."

The Alberta government was concerned enough about the problem that, in 1998,
it established a Criminal Intelligence Service bureau, a joint forces
operation made up of police from across the province.

But since its inception the multimillion-dollar bureau has yet to point to
any tangible successes.

"But (CISA) is coming together and I'm very pleased with some of the things
I see," Beaton said.

"I'm satisfied in the end it will live up to the initiatives."