BIKER CLUBS DENY LINK TO HELLS ANGELS

Angels Spokesman Says Police Statements Are 'Propaganda'

Two new motorcycle clubs called the Outcasts and the Jesters have
nothing to do with the Hells Angels, except that they checked in with
the established biker club as a courtesy, Angels spokesman Rick
Ciarniello said Friday.

The Vancouver Sun reported Friday that the Hells Angels are expanding
in B.C. by setting up two new puppet clubs called the Outcasts and
the Jesters to counter law-enforcement efforts that have led to
several high-profile arrests and convictions in recent months.

RCMP Chief Supt. Bob Paulson, a biker expert based in Ottawa, said
the Outcasts is a new puppet club of the Vancouver chapter of the
Hells Angels, while the Jesters is a proposed support club of the
Angels' White Rock chapter.

Details of the Jesters proposal were uncovered when White Rock
sergeant-at-arms Villy Roy Lynnerup was arrested with a gun at
Vancouver International Airport late last month, Paulson said.

But Ciarniello called Paulson's information "propaganda" to get more
funding for the RCMP's campaign against the Hells Angels, which he
continues to insist is not a criminal organization.

Ciarniello said he first heard about the Jesters by reading The Sun's
story and then called White Rock members who told him that a few
people attended a meeting to say they want to establish the Jesters.

"Apparently they came to the White Rock people to talk to them. That
is all that was being brought to the attention of the rest of us is
that they came to talk to them," Ciarniello said. "They were just
letting us know they wanted to start a club. We don't affiliate
ourselves with people like that. We don't even know them."

Ciarniello said Lynnerup's private notes that were in his seized
luggage made reference to the would-be Jesters visiting the White Rock chapter.

"He was letting us know this group of people was coming to see him,
to see the White Rock chapter," Ciarniello said."I don't even know if
they are going to exist."

As for the Outcasts, Ciarniello said the group has been recently
formed as Paulson said, but he also denied an HA link.

"They don't want any trouble with us so I guess in a left-handed sort
of way we gave them approval, but it had nothing to do with us,"
Ciarniello said. "We don't socialize with them or if we do it is
rarely. . . . I have seen them at some of our events or at some of
the events that I have attended. So I have seen them, but I don't
know any of them."

He said the Outcasts is "a different kind of club than we are."

Ciarniello said police are misusing information about the new clubs
to taint the Hells Angels.

"It troubles me that law enforcement wants to use them for some
sinister reason," he said.

Ciarniello said he did not know where either club is based and could
not provide any contact names.

Paulson said the puppet clubs are in wide use in other provinces so
that Hells Angels members can distance themselves from criminal
activity by making the support groups do the day-to-day work.

Because of a number of arrests and convictions of full patch Hells
Angels in B.C. in the last year, the club is looking for a new way to
do business, he said. But Ciarniello said any people linked to the
club who have been convicted committed the crimes as individuals and
without the knowledge of their comrades.

"If those Hells Angels that are charged turn out to be convicted, so
be it," he said.

"The fact is, if they are guilty, they did it for themselves, not for
the club."

Attorney-General Wally Oppal said Friday that he was disturbed to
hear of the expansion of the Hells Angels in B.C.

"It is disturbing, but I am not at all surprised at what we are
hearing," Oppal said.

He said he fully expects B.C. will get its share of more cash from
Ottawa to fight outlaw motorcycle clubs and other criminal gangs.

"We expect with the federal crime initiative that we will be getting
federal funding to deal with organized crime," Oppal said.