POLICE LAUNCH NEW WAR ON OUTLAW BIKER GANGS

Fighting 'Plague' Of Groups Like Hells Angels Will Take Public's Help

Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham yesterday called for help from the
public and the media in the battle against outlaw motorcycle gangs -- but a
leading biker-gang expert says it will take much more than that to win the
fight.

"Ridding this country of the plague of gangs like the Hells Angels and the
Bandidos will continue to be one of the priorities of law-enforcement
agencies in Canada," Graham said yesterday during a press conference
announcing his appointment as head of a national motorcycle-gang task force.

"Together with our colleagues in the RCMP and other municipal forces, the
Vancouver police are involved in a number of joint-forces projects right
now. We are focusing more and more on the biker situation."

Graham's new position as chair of the National Strategy to Combat Outlaw
Motorcycle Gangs carries no funding, and he provided no specific
information on how police in B.C. will stem the expansion of the Hells Angels.

He asked the media to be "brave" and expose criminal activity, and
requested that the public not support the gang.

"The Hells Angels make obscene profits from their T-shirt sales," Graham
said. "Don't buy equipment that has Hells Angels logos on it, and don't
wear it with pride. If [I knew] a business that's run by the Hells Angels,
I wouldn't frequent it."

Bikers are alleged to own businesses that include logging and trucking
companies, yacht charterers, auto-glass shops, coffee bars and
film-industry transporters.

Graham also urged citizens with knowledge of illegal biker-gang activity to
call the national outlaw motorcycle gang hotline at 877-660-4321.

Biker-gang expert Julian Sher, author of The Road to Hell: How the Biker
Gangs Are Conquering Canada, said Graham's advice makes sense, but it's not
enough.

"Unlike other crime groups, the Hells Angels do engage in a
[public-relations] war. The mafia doesn't sell "Support Your Local Mafia"
T-shirts. Other gangs don't have fun rides and stores and make rock
videos," Sher said. "While police have to be fighting the PR war, the main
thing they have to be doing is fighting the intelligence and the
enforcement war. You need soldiers. You need money. You can't do a war on
the cheap.

"It takes millions of dollars and many many months, if not years, to
penetrate, to infiltrate, to get the intelligence and to bring these guys
down."

A hundred of Canada's 450 Hells Angels live in B.C., Sher said. "They
happen to be among the wealthiest and the most experienced.

"They've just been untouched for so many years. It's one of the few
provinces where the Hells Angels never have to contend with other biker
gangs, and for the longest time didn't have to contend with much police
opposition. They've grown wealthy, they've grown powerful, they're expanding."

Vancouver police Const. Sarah Bloor said it was "difficult to say" if new
anti-gang resources would be allocated.

Sher said RCMP members told him last week they're creating a special team
of motorcycle-gang specialists from agencies including the Vancouver
police, and that it will conduct "the biggest police onslaught we've seen
against the Hells Angels."