AGING ANGELS AND QUITTERS CREATE VACANCIES IN RANKS

B.C.'s most feared biker gang is suffering from the reality faced by
many baby boomers -- key members are getting old.

Norman Krogstad, 59, a veteran high-ranking Vancouver Hells Angel,
was granted full parole last Friday after pleading guilty to drug
trafficking in late 2005.

As part of his release, he had to agree to a special condition -- not
to associate with "anyone whom you know or have reason to suspect is
actively involved in criminal activity and/or the illicit trade in drugs."

Police say that means he will not be allowed to hang out at the
chapter's Coquitlam clubhouse, where he used to be a regular.

Rickey Ciarniello, an owner of the infamous clubhouse, is now 61 and
complaining to B.C. Supreme Court that people are being mean to him
because of his public profile as Hells Angels spokesman. He is
commenting less and less to reporters about the infamous club to
which he has devoted his adult life.

Cedric Baxter Smith, who pleaded guilty along with Krogstad to
selling almost 10 kilograms of cocaine to an undercover officer, is
58. He was also released March 10 after serving just a third of his
four-year sentence.

He is banned from associating with anyone in an outlaw motorcycle
gang, according to parole documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Police say aging bikers may mean some attrition in the Hells Angels,
a trend noted in an RCMP report last year.

"There are rules to being a Hells Angel. You still have to ride your
bike. You still have to go on long runs. As they get older, a lot of
these guys have ridden a lot of hard miles," says Insp. Gary
Shinkaruk, head of the RCMP's outlaw motorcycle gang unit.

"A lot of these guys are hurting. They don't want to do a Canada run
where they have to ride a bike to Ontario and back non-stop for two
weeks. That's really hard on you. Some of them are choosing to move
on. They have had their time."

Shinkaruk said a member of the Hells Angels can retire from the club
after 20 years in good standing.

"There is a steady turnover of guys. In the last few years, we have
seen a lot of senior Angels retire and expect to see that continue as
these guys get to be 60-plus," Shinkaruk said.

Two weeks ago, as the Hells Angels chapter presidents from Western
Canada gathered in Nanaimo for a meeting, there was also a 60th
birthday party for a senior club member.

"Like in a lot of organizations, they are looking at the new breed
coming up and saying: 'Hey, these guys aren't cut from the same cloth
that we are,' and they move on," Shinkaruk said.

But police say younger wannabes are there to fill the void, sometimes
moving up faster than they should in the ranks because of the attrition.

"The numbers remain pretty constant overall," he said.

Other full-patch club members in B.C. are bailing, but not because of
age. A confidential police report on organized crime obtained by The
Sun says some bikers have quit the Hells Angels because of all the
bad press the club has received.

"As a result of negative media attention garnered by police
enforcement and serious criminal offences being captured on
surveillance cameras, some Hells Angels members have resigned from the club."

The RCMP report blanks out the names of two people who police say quit in 2006.

"In both cases it was the negative media attention which precipitated
these members' departure from the club, not the direct result of
police enforcement action."

But The Sun has learned that the two high-profile members who have
turned in their patches are East End member Lloyd (Louie) George
Robinson, the half-brother of chapter president John Peter Bryce. And
Rick Mandi, a Hells Angels prospect sentenced to six years in jail in
2001, recently told the National Parole Board that he would live on
Vancouver Island with his mother if released and have nothing to do
with bikers.

To confirm his sincerity on the point, his lawyer visited Ciarniello
to let him know Mandi was done.

And Surrey's David Patrick O'Hara, convicted of trafficking and
possession of a firearm, also told the parole board that he was done
with the Hells Angels. The 45-year-old outlined to the board how he
got involved, spending six years to earn full-patch status. He was a
member of both the Vancouver and Mission chapters.

"You stated that you were a public relations person who took
motorcycles to the track, raced them and promoted the club's image in
public," a parole board report says. "You did not have to do anything
illegal. Sometimes you stayed around the club and answered phones.
However, you admitted having contact with drug dealers."

O'Hara told board members, who granted him full parole last August,
that he was expelled from the Hells Angels for "certain political reasons."

He provided a letter from the RCMP to support his claim.

"You stated that though you had severed your relations with the club,
you were still afraid of certain members who had played a part in
your expulsion and admitted to carrying two loaded guns for the
protection of yourself and your family," the report states. "In
response to a question about where you bought these guns, you
acknowledged that you bought them and the ammunition illegally from
an individual in a bar. You also stated that you don't own guns any more."

As with Krogstad and Smith, O'Hara's full parole was granted with a
special condition: "to avoid certain persons by having no direct or
indirect contact with those individuals involved in criminal and/or
drug activity."