BIKER TURF WAR FEARED

York Police Urge Region To Bring In Bylaw Barring Fortification Of Clubhouses

The threat of a looming biker gang power struggle has police across
Ontario on high alert as the summer heats up, York Region's top cop says.

And with two Hells Angels chapters in his region, he's counting on a
bylaw banning fortresses that is being drafted for all nine York
municipalities to consider.

Rumours persist of an invasion by rival bikers though there have been
no signs yet, Chief Armand La Barge said.

"The Hells Angels enjoys the luxury of being the most powerful outlaw
gang in the province," he told the Sun. But, in addition to the
threat by rival gangs, "some members .. are disenchanted."

Police are hearing rumours the Loners and Rock Machine want to take
on the Hells, La Barge said, evoking memories of the 1990s turf war
that killed 156 people in Quebec.

Ottawa later ordered tougher penalties for anyone convicted as a
member of a criminal group. Dozens of bikers got longer prison terms.

The Bandidos were a big threat for the Hells, but its Toronto chapter
was gutted when eight members were murdered in 2006 near London,
north of Chatham-Kent.

Six men, including the ex-head of the Loners, who survived a 1999
assassination attempt after he rebuffed Hells recruitment, go on
trial next Feb. 23 for murder.

Unless anti-fortification bylaws are in place, La Barge said warring
bikers can install sheet metal, barbed wire, gun ports, electrical
boobytraps and cement barriers to block gatecrashers, drive-by
shootings, bombs and police raids.

York's regional council backed his warnings in 2004, but only Vaughan
and Newmarket passed bylaws.

Anticipating that the Hells know rivals want a slice of their
drug-dealing, extortion, weapons trafficking, cargo heists,
prostitution and strip clubs, police recently alerted the regional
council and the police board about the Hells' Woodbridge chapter
moving to a house near Schomberg, in King Township.

King council rejected such a bylaw years ago, fearing "retaliation"
against unarmed staff, township clerk Chris Somerville said.

But given regional and po -lice board support, "our council likely
will have to consider a similar bylaw pretty soon ... likely in the
fall," he said.

"I think we're closer now ... hopefully by 2009," La Barge said.

He pledged police support for bylaw officers.

York Region solicitor Joy Hulton said a committee of municipalities
and police will consider a draft being prepared by Richmond Hill city
staff, "hopefully this fall."

"It certainly does aid in enforcement and prosecution if there is a
uniform bylaw."

The first such bylaw in On -tario, which Chatham-Kent passed in 2003,
outlawed "excessive fortification of land or excessive protective
elements being applied to land."

The province's top court refused to hear an appeal by two bikers.

Such bylaws will also target drug labs and indoor marijuana grow-ops,
which La Barge said pose health, fire and electrocution risk to
residents, police and firefighters.

Scarborough motorcycle shop owner Donny Peterson, a longtime Hells
spokesman, declined comment yesterday.

Dismissing "rumours" of trouble as "nonsense," a Rock Machine member
said "there is no hostility with the Hells Angels, no conflict
whatsoever." He said police are "making these claims to further their agenda."