HELLS ANGELS FELT NOOSE TIGHTENING

Flagship Chapter; Toronto Operation Latest In Series Of Police
Offensives

Before this week's high-profile arrests, pressure was mounting on the
flagship chapter of the Hells Angels in Ontario -- the one with the
largest clubhouse brimming with some of the most prominent and vocal
bikers.

Some members had become increasingly suspicious. There had been
finger-pointing and confrontations.

The idea of a so-called rat, a turncoat member of the Hells Angels
co-operating with police against the brotherhood of bikers, had moved
from the theoretical.

If the Hells Angels own well developed intelligence network did not
specifically detect the impeding police activity, encroachment was
obvious to any smart tactician--and many of its members are very
smart, despite the enduring image of the biker who is heavy on muscle
and light on brains.

All around them they had seen fellow bikers arrested by Ontario's
Biker Enforcement Unit (BEU).

Hells Angels north of Toronto were arrested in 2003 during Project
Shirley; in 2005, members in Kingston were arrested during Project
Dante and in Peterborough during Project Four. Things then got more
serious.

Project Husky dismantled the Thunder Bay chapter in January, 2006,
using the BEU's first inside informant, although not a member of the
gang.

Eight months later, Project Tandem tore into the Oshawa and Niagara
Falls chapters using a full-patch member of the gang as a police agent.

"Over the past few years the Biker Enforcement Unit has successfully
dismantled the Hells Angels' criminal enterprises through joint force
projects in north, east, west and central portions of Ontario," said
Inspector Dan Redmond, commander of the BEU.

It was only natural to next target the flagship.

An opportunity came 18 months ago when a full-patch member of the
Toronto Downtown chapter agreed to help the BEU.

"Our officers developed this person from some point of impact, when
they first got together," Insp. Redmond said. "The officers talked to
this person and developed a rapport with him and developed a
relationship with him, obviously, and then developed him until where
we are today."

It led to a natural code name: Project Develop.

"It's a funny relationship," he said of members of the BEU working
with a member of the Hells Angels.

For police, it requires balancing what to give and when to take. For
informants (or "police agents" as officers prefer to call them) it
means a dangerous double life followed by a disappearing act.

"They have to leave a lifestyle they have been in, to be relocated
into the Witness Protection Program and understand that they have to
leave everything behind -- friends and family," Insp. Redmond said.

The informant -- who police refuse to identify -- worked secretly with
officers to gather evidence of drug trafficking and
gangsterism.

Police made controlled purchases of cocaine at the kilo level, bulk
purchases of the kind made by substantial traffickers.

Police accumulated nine kilograms of cocaine and 496 litres of GHB
(often called a date rape drug) during the operation, together worth
almost $2-million, according to police.

Money was changing hands in wads, concealed in yellow Tim Horton Tim
Bits boxes.

Shortly before the arrests, the biker-agent was pulled from the field
and hidden by police.

Officers moved in early on Wednesday to increase the chances of
finding suspects at home, said Deputy Chief Tony Warr of the Toronto
police.

Officers had a set of keys to the clubhouse supplied by the informant,
according to the Hells Angels, but police also punched a hole in the
wall of the clubhouse.

"We had information that it was fortified, and it was, and that there
may be obstructions. By entering through just one way we wouldn't be
able to get through the whole premises," Deputy Chief Warr said.

Sixteen of the 31 arrested are full-patch members of the Hells Angels,
meaning they are officially inducted members of the gang. Warrants
have been issued for two more.

Officers also seized a wide array of weapons -- including 67 rifles
and five handguns.

Project Develop is now in the hands of lawyers and the accused bikers
will not likely see their former colleague again until he walks into a
courtroom to testify against them.