BAD BIKERS RIDING FOR A FALL

Protestations Of Innocence Aren't Credible Considering Their Cache Of
Drugs And Weapons

The way Rick Ciarniello tells it, he and the other members of the
Hells Angels in B.C. just like to ride bikes and hang out. He
appealed to listeners on an open-line radio show in Vancouver Tuesday
not to condemn his happy gang because of what police claim.

The RCMP have charged 18 people, including six senior members of the
Hells Angels, with drug trafficking, extortion, possession of
explosives and other crimes after raiding a clubhouse in Vancouver's
East End and a bikers' house in Kelowna.

The raids came at the end of a 23-month investigation -- the biggest
ever conducted in this province into the biker gang.

Police have contended for years that the Hells Angels is a criminal
organization, involved in drug trafficking, prostitution, assaults,
extortion and murders. It's wealthy and powerful, with tentacles
reaching into every major community in B.C., they say.

Not so, says Ciarniello, who has taken it upon himself to speak for
members who hide their modesty behind their tattoos: The organization
is just a motorcycle club, and if some members have run-ins with the
law, it's nothing to do with the club.

"Suddenly I'm a member of a criminal organization, ergo I'm a
criminal," he complained Tuesday.

Besides, he noted, what the cops displayed as evidence was taken over
months of investigation, not in one raid. That's supposed to make us
shrug it off?

The haul included more than 20 kilograms of crystal meth, more than
20 kilograms of cocaine, more than 70 kilograms of marijuana, over
$200,000 cash, 250 kilograms of methylamine, five handguns and some
automatic weapons with silencers, 11 sticks of dynamite with
detonation cords and blasting caps, four grenades....

Sure, all standard motorcycle parts. All that's missing are the three
turtle doves.

Last year, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ross Lander cut through the
Angels' "aw shucks" routine: "It's a notorious fact that the Hells
Angels are involved in organized crime and that such crime crosses
provincial and national borders," he declared.

The bikers expressed outrage, but seemingly had little to fear.

More than 30 criminal prosecutions launched against B.C. Angels in
the past decade have ended either in acquittals or a stay of prosecution.

Convictions have failed in more than 60 per cent of cases against club members.

But Parliament has amended the Criminal Code, making anyone
committing an indictable offence in association with a criminal
organization liable to an extra 14 years in prison, on top of the
sentence for the crime.

An Ontario court has declared that the Hells Angels is a criminal
organization, and now, with the arrest of so many senior members of
the gang .. er, club in B.C. the bikers may no longer be untouchables.

For prosecutors have been giving police legal advice to make it more
likely that their cases stick.

"We're a nice bunch of guys and we enjoy riding motorcycles,"
Ciarniello said Tuesday.

Well, it's time some of those Harleys were parked for a good, long stretch.