POLICE FINALLY INFILTRATE HELLS ANGELS

B.C. Trial; 'They Just Knew The Angels Do Not Have Informants'

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," said Inspector Gary Shinkaruk, head of
the RCMP's outlaw motorcycle gang unit in British Columbia.

"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 Hells Angels nervous, Insp. Shinkaruk said. 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, Insp. Shinkaruk added.

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 pretense that Hells Angels is a harmless brotherhood is
shattered by a "simple check with the court cases across the country,"
said 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, 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 in Project Develop
after police rammed through the wall of the Toronto chapter's
clubhouse and seized $500,000 in cash; 80 weapons, including rifles
and shotguns; 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 British Columbia 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.