HELLS ANGELS RAID AN ELECTION STUNT: BIKER

Two-Year Operation Nets Charges Against 27 People

TORONTO -- Sweeping dawn raids in which police blew open the door of
a vacant Hells Angels clubhouse in Thunder Bay, Ont., and arrested
six alleged members of the motorcycle gang were an election-driven
publicity stunt, a biker spokesman said Thursday.

Police, however, insisted they had done "significant" damage to a key
Hells Angels chapter and disrupted the flow of illegal drugs across
northern Ontario -- a view the group disputed.

"There's a federal election going on -- the main issue seems to be
crime -- and this is smoke and mirrors so they can say they are being
tough on crime," said biker spokesman Donny Peterson. "It hasn't
impacted the Hells Angels."

Police charged 27 people, including five full members and one
probationary "hang-around" member, with offences including drug
trafficking and operating as a criminal organization.

Police also said they seized cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy and other
drugs, as well as firearms, stolen property, a recreational vehicle and cash.

The 15 raids in Ontario, Quebec and Calgary on Wednesday were the
result of a two-year undercover operation dubbed Project Husky that
focused on the Thunder Bay area, said Det. Insp. Don Bell, head of
Ontario's joint forces biker-enforcement unit.

"We've put a significant dent into this operation," Bell told a news
conference in the northwestern Ontario city. "We feel we may have
dismantled this chapter."

Bell conceded police have so far had little success in permanently
shutting down any chapters in Ontario.

Peterson said the arrests would have little impact on the gang, or
even on the Thunder Bay chapter, one of 16 in Ontario.

At the news conference, police played video of the explosive entry
into the vacant clubhouse.

Peterson accused police of playing to the media by blowing off the door.

"They've probably raided that clubhouse 30 times, so why do they have
to use explosives?" Peterson said.

But Bell said officers wanted to get inside safely and to ensure the
evidence sought would be available.

Montreal journalist Paul Cherry, author of the just-published book
Biker Trials, called the raids a "start" in stopping the Hells
Angels' spread in Ontario.

A truck the Hells Angels used to promote their image in Ontario by
depicting it in their latest calendar was actually a police vehicle
used by an undercover agent.

He was working for the Ontario Provincial Police while he infiltrated
the Hells Angels chapter in Thunder Bay during the two-year investigation.