POLICE INFORMANTS CRACK HELLS ANGELS' CONFIDENCE

Biker Gang Reeling From A Series Of Successful Police Operations In
Canada

OTTAWA -- Sonny Barger is the so-called American legend who founded
the Hells Angels' feared Oakland chapter in 1957, the surly badass and
the clever entrepreneur who built a small band of thugs into a global
empire of drug trafficking, prostitution, illegal weapons and violence.

He boasted for years the Angels were invulnerable to informants and
undercover agents.

But while the world's most notorious biker gang celebrates its 60th
anniversary this month, it is reeling from a series of successful
police operations -- particularly in Canada.

Armed with recent federal anti-gang legislation and evidence gathered
by undercover agents and the rare cooperation of full-patch Hells
Angels, Canadian police and prosecutors are striking at the heart of
the gang's confidence.

"Up to now, when you had that patch on your back, internationally,
every criminal knew you were a righteous bad guy . . . They just knew
the Angels do not have informants," says Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, head of
the RCMP's outlaw motorcycle gang unit in B.C. "Now, just because
you're an Angel doesn't mean you're not an informant."

On March 27, a B.C. Supreme Court judge will decide whether three
members of the East End Hells Angels chapter facing cocaine
trafficking charges were acting as a "joint venture" on behalf of the
chapter.

A conviction under the anti-gang legislation could mean longer jail
terms and serious disruptions to the gang's operations, both
legitimate and illicit. That's got the fearless Hells Angels nervous,
Shinkaruk says.

A "criminal organization" declaration could resonate through Canada
and other countries.

While the relatively untested legislation is now difficult to prove in
court, a conviction could carry weight in future cases. And some
European countries have laws automatically criminalizing an
organization that has already been blacklisted by three other
countries, Shinkaruk adds.

The Hells Angels have always maintained they are mostly law-abiding
and should not be punished collectively for the misdeeds of a few bad
apples.

But any pretence that Hells Angels is a harmless brotherhood is
shattered by a "simple check with the court cases across the country,"
says Michel Auger, the former Le Journal de Montreal crime reporter
who survived being shot in the back six times on Sept. 13, 2000, the
day after he ran a story on the latest round of murders in Quebec's
notorious biker wars between the Hells Angels and rival outfits.

Also, biker police in Canada got more determined.

They realized the only way to take down outlaw bikers was through
infiltration -- an expensive, lengthy and dangerous enterprise.

In March 2001, police in Quebec arrested 138 bikers, including the
entire Quebec Hells Angels Nomads chapter in Operation Springtime,
which involved planting two police agents in the Angels-controlled
Rockers gang.

In Ontario, Project Tandem resulted in the arrest of 15 Hells Angels
on drug, weapon and murder charges in September 2006. And last April,
16 full-patch members were arrested after police rammed through the
wall of the Toronto chapter's clubhouse and seized $500,000 in cash,
80 weapons, more than nine kilograms of cocaine, and almost 500 litres
of concentrated GHB, the date-rape drug.

In both investigations, police had the help of full-patch
members.

And the current Hells Angels trial in B.C. is a result of Project
E-Pandora in which the RCMP paid a Hells Angels enforcer $1 million to
help collect evidence against the East End chapter.

Drawing on Bill C-24, which was passed in 2001 and defines a criminal
organization as three or more people benefiting from serious offences,
prosecutors in that trial aimed to prove the Hells Angels chapter as a
whole gained from the alleged offences.

A conviction will not permanently blemish the Hells Angels patch in
B.C. It has to be proven in court with each new trial.

But it would carry stiffer penalties for the accused, would allow
police to more easily seize Hells Angels assets or prevent them from
operating legitimate businesses, and would give law enforcement more
discretion in putting Hells Angels under surveillance.