HELLS ANGELS RESURFACE

New alliances take over drug turf. Notorious leader a 'rising star' on
the scene.

In mid-January, Emmanuel Zephir, a notorious gang leader, walked out
of prison a free man. He had done his time for killing a rival and he
was quickly welcomed into the new way the Hells Angels take care of
business in Montreal.

When Zephir, 33, was sentenced back in 2000, the city's underworld was
different: It was dominated by the Hells Angels' Nomads chapter and
their violent puppet gang, the Rockers. The Nomads were at the top of
their game, controlling much of the street-level drug trafficking in
Montreal while distributing cocaine and hashish in bulk across Quebec
and parts of Canada.

People who dared to get in their way were murdered.

The first sign of change came in the early morning of March 28, 2001.
As a light dusting of snow fell on the province, a joint police task
force carried out a massive operation during which more than 120
people were arrested. The police were looking to end seven years of
gang bloodshed that resulted in more than 160 murders.

What followed was the successful prosecution of almost all of the
members of the Nomads chapter and most of the Rockers who carried out
their orders.

At least eight members of the Nomads are serving sentences of 20 years
or more while their leader, Maurice (Mom) Boucher, is serving a life
sentence for ordering the deaths of two prison guards.

In the five years since Operation Springtime 2001, an average of just
six killings a year related to biker gang activity have been reported
in Quebec. The police say the Hells Angels are trying to keep a low
profile after realizing that their war, where innocent victims were
killed, only intensified police attention on their criminal activities.

But after mothballing their leather jackets for a few years, members
of the Hells Angels are starting to surface again around Montreal at
events like motorcycle shows, proudly sporting their patches with the
menacing winged death's head logo. The Nomads chapter might have lost
the battle by getting caught, but the Hells Angels as a whole
apparently won the war.

Their main rivals in 2001, the Bandidos, no longer have chapters in
Quebec, and the Hells Angels have actually increased their membership
since then. According to police intelligence reports that were
recently made public, the gang's Trois Rivieres chapter simply took
over the Nomads' drug trafficking turf with the help of a gang called
the Syndicate.

And as if having the backing of the Hells Angels wasn't enough, the
Syndicate also now counts Emmanuel Zephir among its leaders, according
to three police sources.

"He's already considered one of its rising stars," one
said.

Zephir emerged during the 1990s as a leader of the Kase Breeze, a
elite group within the Crack Down Posse, a street gang based in
Montreal's north end. He crafted a reputation for using extreme
violence that raised the eyebrows of even seasoned police
investigators.

The reputation followed him to Ontario, where he was incarcerated for
the full length of the sentence - five years and four months - he
received for killing rival gang member Marc-Antoine Pierre on June 20,
1999.

Zephir was originally charged with second-degree murder for killing
Pierre during a party organized by Montreal's Haitian community at a
reception hall in St. Leonard. Zephir was dancing with one of his
brothers and some friends when a fight broke out and he was stabbed by
Pierre. Pierre tried to flee but Zephir caught up to him in a
stairway, leaped down onto him from behind and stabbed him repeatedly
with his own knife. Because he was attacked first, Zephir managed to
plead guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

Surviving the attack apparently added to his notoriety.

"Your status within (street) gangs is well established and you are
known to gang members and police officials as being extremely violent,
with a reputation of being omnipotent," the National Parole Board
wrote in one of three reports summarizing its reasons for keeping
Zephir behind bars for his entire sentence. Less than five per cent of
Canada's inmates - only those determined to pose a serious threat to
public safety - are incarcerated beyond their statutory release date,
the two-thirds mark of their sentence.

Police reports prepared for Zephir's parole hearings predicted dire
consequences among the city's street gangs if he was released. The
National Parole Board described it as "the central issue" for
continuing his incarceration.

"The Board was satisfied that, if released, you are likely to commit
an offence causing death or serious harm to another person before the
expiration of your sentence," the parole board noted in a report filed
only a few months ago.

Release dates are not considered public information, but Zephir's
sentence for manslaughter ended on Jan. 17.

While doing time in the Joyceville Institution, a medium-security
penitentiary near Kingston, Zephir was suspected of dealing drugs and
then using violence and death threats to collect from inmates who
couldn't pay their debts. Correctional Service of Canada learned other
inmates were depositing money into an outside bank account set up by
an associate of Zephir.

Even his efforts toward rehabilitation spooked corrections officials.
He completed an anger management program but a psychologist who
prepared an assessment for the parole board determined there was a
risk the program could do more harm than good. The board noted in a
2005 report: "While on the one hand, the (anger management) program
could be seen as risk-reducing, if you decide to distance yourself
from your previous lifestyle and associates, on the other hand the
skills gained in the program could be seen to increase your risk, as
they could be seen as a tool to further manipulate gang members,
potential victims and so on."

Another conviction that contributed to Zephir's reputation was an
assault on four police officers on Jan. 8, 1992.

And then there was the incident of Sept. 3, 1996, in which he invited
a man to come riding in a car with him to discuss "rumours." Zephir
believed the man to be a snitch, supplying information to the police
about crack dealers in the St. Michel district. During the ride,
Zephir sat with the man in the back seat, threatening him in Creole
while demanding to know if he was an informant. Realizing he was in
danger, the man began pleading for his life and told Zephir he had a
young son to care for. Unmoved, Zephir tossed the man out of the car
as it sped along 12th Ave. in Rosemont at about 80 kilometres per hour.

The victim hit the pavement, his spine cracked and he was left a
paraplegic for life.

Several members of the Syndicate are former members of the same street
gangs Zephir held sway over before he was sentenced for the Pierre
slaying. The Syndicate was created in 1999 by Gregory Wooley, 34, a
member of the Rockers and one of the people charged and convicted in
Operation Springtime 2001. He is currently serving a 41/2-year
sentence for his role in the biker war.

Under Wooley, the Syndicate functioned as a third-tier unit within the
Nomads' vast organization. But unlike the Rockers it was never
structured like a biker gang, where members were groomed to eventually
join the Hells Angels. Members of the Syndicate do not wear patches.

For one thing, according to police sources, the Syndicate's current
membership is all black. Their members are probably not aspiring to
graduate to the bigger gang because of the Hells Angels' worldwide
rule that "no member may be of African descent."

But the Hells Angels also learned their lesson about puppet clubs
after Operation Springtime 2001. Key evidence used in the criminal
cases had come through police infiltration of the Rockers. Two members
were working undercover for the police before Operation Springtime
2001 was carried out, and another member turned informant months after
the arrests were made. They all provided evidence that helped convict
members of the Nomads chapter.

Among the testimony was was clear evidence that the Nomads counselled
the Rockers on how to achieve a monopoly on drug trafficking in areas
of Montreal like Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the Gay Village, the downtown
core and Verdun. If rival drug dealers didn't understand their initial
warnings, murder was always an option in eliminating the
competition.

On Oct. 31, 2002, the five other Hells Angels chapters in Quebec
abolished their puppet clubs.

"Certainly they were counselled to abolish the affiliated clubs and
then they reorganized," said Guy Ouellette, a retired Surete du Quebec
investigator who still testifies as an expert in biker court cases.

"They do learn from their mistakes."

While the arrests and convictions wiped the the Nomads chapter off the
map of Quebec, five other Hells Angels chapters remained. And now,
five years after the police operation, they control the same territory
the Nomads chapter fought for so violently - and they have managed to
increase their membership.

When Operation Springtime 2001 was carried out, the gang had 106
full-fledged or "full-patch" members in Quebec. According to police
estimates, the number has increased to 124. Ouellette said the figure
includes incarcerated members of the Nomads. After the 2001 arrest
their chapter was "frozen" by the Hells Angels.

"They were placed in a virtual chapter called 'East Coast,' "
Ouellette said, referring to one of the gang's three administrative
regions in Canada. The gang uses the three regions as a type of limbo
for members without chapters.

Some new members were plucked from the puppet clubs the other Hells
Angels chapters dismantled.

The Trois Rivieres chapter selected four new members from two gangs
they had under their wing. One was Daniel Gagne, 25, a former member
of the Rowdy Crew who has followed in the footsteps of his father Yves
(Flag) Gagne, 54, a longtime member of the Hells Angels.

Other new members have come from former rival gangs. For example,
Salvatore Cazzetta, 51, a founding member of the Rock Machine who was
incarcerated during the entire biker war between his gang and the
Hells Angels, switched to the Hells Angels after being released from a
penitentiary in 2004.

Influential members of the Bandidos, the international biker gang that
"patched over" the Rock Machine in 2000, have also defected.

"It's all about business. The Hells Angels are multinational. Someone
who was in the Rock Machine for years is likely impressed with the
contacts the Hells Angels have worldwide," Ouellette said of the defections.

Because of the Hells Angels' status as the biggest outlaw motorcycle
gang in Quebec, it apparently required little effort to take over the
drug-trafficking turf left open by the arrests in Operation Springtime
2001. According to intelligence reports recently made public in a
provincial tribunal, the void was filled by the Trois Rivieres
chapter, along with the Syndicate.

Det-Sgt. Gilles Greffe, an intelligence specialist for the Montreal
police, detailed the relationship between the Trois Rivieres chapter
and the Syndicate while testifying before the Regie des alcools, des
courses et des jeux in January. The hearing concerned the Joy Lounge,
a bar on Mountain St. The Montreal police were seeking to shut it down
after Simon Kumarapeli, 38, was killed there on Jan. 11.

The bar was alleged to have served as a meeting place for the city's
organized crime figures. Kumarapeli's death was the last straw.
According to the police, he was believed to have been involved in drug
trafficking and his death might be tied to an organized crime group
outside of the Hells Angels.

Greffe said members of the Hells Angels and the Syndicate were seen
meeting in the Joy Lounge on several occasions. He added that the
Hells Angels appeared to be running the bar and were often spotted
meeting with influential members of other organized crime groups.

That the Trois Rivieres chapter would take over for the Nomads came as
little surprise to the police.

In the lead-up to Operation Springtime 2001 investigators infiltrated
the Nomads' accounting system. As they monitored computerized ledgers
during 2000, the police were able to detail how the Trois Rivieres
chapter paid the Nomads more than $6 million for 160 kilos of cocaine.

After 11 days of hearings, the Regie closed the Joy Lounge Bar on Feb.
2 and seized its liquor licence. Among its long list of reasons for
the decision, the liquor board noted the frequent presence of crime
figures.

Notably, on May 21, 2003, the Montreal police spotted reputed mob boss
Vito Rizzuto leaving the Joy Lounge along with four men, including one
who was sought on a warrant.

According to a police intelligence report, Rizzuto seemed impressed
with the way the Montreal police handled the arrest. Rizzuto
complimented the officer in charge on how he handled his officers and
added that he managed his men the same way.