POLICE TARGET B.C.'S TOP CRIME BOSSES

Hells Angels the Province's Biggest Threat, Say Mounties

Today the Times Colonist starts a six-part series investigating
organized crime in B.C. We follow the trail of criminal gangs, drug
running, money laundering and why the police and courts are frustrated
in their attempts to put the criminals behind bars.

The RCMP has compiled a secret "hit list" of B.C.'s 20 most dangerous
crime bosses, a list it hopes will help it put more gangsters behind
bars and strike a blow against organized crime in the province, a
joint Times Colonist-Vancouver Sun investigation has revealed.

And while the RCMP refuses to identify individuals -- for fear of
tipping off potential investigation targets -- it will reveal which
group it considers the province's biggest criminal threat: the Hells
Angels.

"OMG [outlaw motorcycle gangs] is the top," said Supt. Dick Grattan,
head of the RCMP's criminal intelligence section in B.C.

Grattan said biker gang members make up the largest proportion of
people on the force's Top 20 list, an annual ranking known as the
Strategic Threat Assessment.

Asian organized-crime figures make up the second largest group,
followed by Eastern European gangsters.

"The Top 20 would be the ones who have the most influence over
organized crime in the province," Grattan said.

Rick Ciarniello, spokesman for the Hells Angels in B.C., denied his
club is a criminal organization.

Why are there no charges to back up the police accusations? he
asked.

"Speaking for myself, I wish they would charge me with something
criminal so I could defend myself," he said.

To prevent leaks, the RCMP's threat assessment has been closely
guarded by the force. Even senior investigators have only been allowed
to review the list and do not have their own copies.

The list, which was compiled for the first time a few years ago,
represents a shift in the RCMP's approach to investigating organized
crime.

Until recently, said Grattan, the force was "commodity focused" --
measuring success by the volume of drugs it seized.

The problem with that approach is that it often only ensnared the
smaller players, leaving many of the kingpins untouched. The goal now
is to successfully prosecute the most influential crime figures in
hopes of destabilizing their organizations.

While the RCMP doesn't have the resources to launch investigations
against all 20 figures on its list, Grattan said investigations are
underway -- or being planned -- for at least half.

When the Mounties decided to build a list, their first challenge was
who to include.

A preliminary roster of all the known organized crime figures in B.C.
turned up 185 names, broken down into 85 separate groups -- some just
small street-gangs of a few people each.

Each crime figure was then ranked on 19 separate factors, including
use of violence, infiltration into legitimate businesses and ability
to corrupt officials.

That combination of factors landed many of B.C.'s Hells Angels members
on the Top 20.

A heavily edited copy of the 2003 Strategic Threat Assessment,
provided by the RCMP, indicates how high a priority has been placed on
the Angels.

"Within British Columbia, the influence attached to the Hells Angels
organization and their symbols cannot be overstated," the report says.

"Since their inception in 1948, the Hells Angels organization has
evolved into a structure that is designed to facilitate and protect
the criminal enterprises of its membership."

Insp. Andy Richards, a biker gang expert with the Combined Forces
Special Enforcement Unit, said Angels membership is attractive to
criminals because the gang has a reputation in the criminal world for
violence and power -- making it easier to collect drug debts and bully
the competition.

"Violence and intimidation is the gas that runs the engine of the
Hells Angels," he said.

However, while the Angels are powerful, police say they are not
hierarchical in the same way as traditional organized crime like the
Mafia where everybody reports to a single boss.

Richards said each member of the Angels essentially runs their own
operation, with their own associates and underlings.

"Once you're a full member, you're at the top, if you want to be, of
your own little criminal enterprise," he said.

Richards said the Angels in B.C. have grown incredibly rich in recent
years, in large part due to heavy involvement in the marijuana trade
in the 1990s.

"The Angels in B.C. were one of the very first groups to industrialize
the marijuana business -- setting up and investing in multiple large
grows and producing large shipments for export," he said. "The B.C.
bud industry has made the Hells Angels, some of them, extremely wealthy."

But, as pot busts have increased, Richards said, some Angels have
stepped back from growing marijuana and have taken on a greater role
as brokers and middlemen on shipments to the United States.

One of the main reasons why the Angels are such a high priority for
police is that their power and money has allowed them to infiltrate
the legitimate economy.

From supermarkets to clothing stores, the Angels have a stake in all
kinds of businesses. Indeed, many people in B.C. regularly shop at
Angels' businesses without even knowing it.

Hells Angels say they need to earn a living and pay their mortgages --
the same as other British Columbians.

"Why are the police at war with legitimate business people?" said
Ciarniello, a full patch member of the Vancouver chapter .

"If police conducted a similar campaign against an ethnic group it
would be a violation of the Charter of Rights," Ciarniello said.

However, police believe money is laundered through the businesses and
legitimate outfits often cannot compete because dirty money pays the
overheads at the Angels' establishments.

A growing fear is that the Hells Angels are infiltrating the cash-stop
and cheque-cashing franchises although none are yet listed as owners
of record.

In Vancouver and Kamloops, Hells Angels have bought cellphone stores
and there is talk of them setting up their own phone companies. In
Kelowna, it's real estate and clothing stores and in Nanaimo, Hells
Angels own a logging company, car dealership and mobile home park.

But nowhere is the infiltration of the Angels more apparent than at
the ports.

Police often try to downplay Angels influence on the waterfront, an
obvious smuggling gateway.

However, a secret 2001 report by the Organized Crime Agency of B.C.
identified five full members of the Hells Angels who work at the
Vancouver and Delta ports, along with more than 30 known associates.

Onkar Athwal, of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, said he's
not aware of specific Angels members working at the ports, but said it
wouldn't surprise him.

"I am aware that there probably are some," he said. But he disputed
the suggestion that the Angels control activity at the ports.

Longshoremen are not currently subject to criminal record or other
background checks. Transport Canada is considering new regulations,
similar to those required of airport workers, which could be in place
early in 2005.

After the Hells Angels, the second-highest organized crime priority
for the RCMP is Asian -- both Chinese and Vietnamese-- gangs.

Chinese gangs, known as the Big Circle Boys, are involved in a wide
variety of activities, including drug importing and human smuggling --
but are also heavily involved in credit card fraud and loan sharking.

Vietnamese gangs, on the other hand, are primarily involved in
marijuana growing -- although they have recently begun to expand into
methamphetamine labs.

Eastern European crime groups are a more recent phenomenon in B.C.,
but have grown steadily in the past 15 years, according to police.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the RCMP's Top 20 list,
however, is the group that didn't make the cut: Indo-Canadian gangs.

In the past decade, more than 60 Indo-Canadian men in the Lower
Mainland have been slain in a wave of gang violence.

In Saanich last year, the shooting death of Bobby Johal outside the
family home was suspected of being linked to Lower Mainland gang rivalries.

And last month's late-night ambush shooting of Manjinder Singh Nutt
outside his basement suite is also being investigated for connections
with the Vancouver area.

While Indo-Canadian gang members are extremely violent, they are
considered by police to be far less sophisticated than other groups,
such as outlaw motorcycle gangs or Asian organized crime.

Staff Sgt. Wayne Rideout, whose Integrated Homicide Team investigated
many of the Indo-Canadian gang deaths -- said most of the gangsters
are relatively small players in the drug trade, often only a few steps
above street dealers.

Police estimate 30 to 40 Indo-Canadian gangs are in the Lower
Mainland, each made up of about three or four key members and maybe a
dozen associates.

"They tend to be low end," said Rideout. "Most of the people we
investigate have leased cars. They drive fancy vehicles, but they
don't have any assets."

Many still live at home with their families, he said.

"They're all momma's boys," he said. "Their moms wash their clothes.
Their moms cook their meals. And they go out and commit murders and
then come home."

The violence among Indo-Canadian gangs is also more sporadic than in
other crime groups, such as Asian gangs or bikers who may carry out
calculated hits or acts of extortion for economic reasons.

Many Indo-Canadian killings are over issues of pride or bravado, he
said -- sometimes over something as simple as an insult.

"It's done more for passion than economics," he said.

Yet, despite their lack of sophistication, Indo-Canadian gangs are
still a concern for police because their violence has greater
potential to hurt innocent bystanders.

"The bikers tend to take someone out in the bush," Rideout
said.

"But the East Indians want to let people know that they're capable of
doing it, so they want to do it in the most brazen way possible."

That means shootings in clubs and restaurants -- or spraying homes
with gunfire -- all of which increase the potential that the innocent
could get caught in the crossfire.

Rideout said police get reports of about three to four drive-by
shootings a week in the Lower Mainland that are connected to
Indo-Canadian gang violence.

"It's miraculous that no one [innocent] has been shot in their bed,"
said Rideout.

"It's going to happen. They're so unpredictable and
bravado-driven."

Police admit that, in the past few decades, they have not had as much
success as they would like in combatting organized crime.

The Mounties' own 2003 report says there has been a "historical
failure" in gathering and distributing intelligence on organized crime
groups to front-line investigators.

While police have gathered significant information on organized crime
figures, the report states, "little ... has been recorded in a
consistent manner or in a format and place accessible to intelligence
personnel."

Richards said the track record of police in B.C. is not
great.

"I've talked about the collective failure of law enforcement to
recognize the bikers as an organized crime threat," he said, noting
the Angels arrived in B.C. in 1983.

"They ran pretty much unfettered for a long time and became very well
established."

But police hope that things are beginning to change.

Police and prosecutors have racked up a handful of successful
prosecutions against biker gang members and Asian organized crime
figures in recent years -- such as the conviction of Hells Angels
members Ronaldo Lising and Francisco Pires for cocaine trafficking in
2001.

"I've seen some slow and steady progress in the last few years,"
Richards said.

"We're beginning to see additional resources and manpower directed
towards the fight against the bikers. I think we're beginning to get
it right in B.C. I think it's becoming enough of a priority for enough
people."