POLICE CHIEF TARGETS HELLS ANGELS

'A Lot Of These People Are Like Rats,' Says Jamie Graham, Pledging
National War On Outlaw Bikers

Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham will come out swinging today against
the Hells Angels during a press conference as part of a new national
strategy against outlaw motorcycle gangs.

The Vancouver Sun has learned the chief plans to itemize cases where Hells
Angels have recently been convicted of offences ranging from drug
trafficking and making threats to possessing loaded semi-automatic handguns.

He is also expected to talk about businesses owned by Hells Angels members,
which include logging and trucking companies, yacht charters, film industry
transportation, auto glass shops and coffee bars.

"Our goal is to get the public to understand that these guys have been
running under the radar screen for years," Graham explained in an exclusive
interview. "Anything to shine some light on these guys is good. These guys
have been operating in the shadows."

Graham dismissed past statements by local Hells Angels members who say the
motorcycle club has a few members who are criminals, the same as any other
large organization. "If you're a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang, then
you're involved in criminal activity," Graham said.

He vowed to expose outlaw motorcycle gangs as the vermin of society and
said he wants the media to help "shine the light on these people" to help
educate the public.

"A lot of these people are like rats," said Graham, who will become the new
chair today, during a Vancouver meeting of the Canadian Association of
Chiefs of Police, of a committee that coordinates intelligence and
enforcement operations against outlaw biker gangs.

The Hells Angels have been romanticized, but they are an organized crime
group that often resorts to violence to intimidate people, the police chief
said.

Police find the public is reluctant to report Hells Angels criminal
activity, but Graham said: "People have to be prepared to help us out."

The Hells Angels were identified Friday as a top target in the 2004 Annual
Report on Organized Crime in Canada, released in Vancouver by the Criminal
Intelligence Service Canada.

The report said the gang remains the most powerful and largest outlaw
motorcycle gang in Canada, with 34 chapters and about 500 members.

Graham said the Hells Angels are expanding in B.C. and the organization has
grown 45 per cent in the last five years by adding 100 chapters worldwide.

"We've got a problem here. Some of the highest levels of society have been
infiltrated."

He said Vancouver hasn't experienced the same level of violence as Quebec's
biker war, which resulted in a highly successful crackdown on the Angels
and rival Rock Machine gang.

Graham admitted gathering evidence for convictions against Hells Angels
members is complex, costly and time-consuming.

"Prosecutions are tough," he said. "There's not normally a lot of forensic
evidence." But he added: "We're working smarter than we ever have before."

The Vancouver police department, he said, is doing its best with limited
resources, a limited budget and the recent retirement of some of the
force's most experienced senior officers.

"I'd like to see more money and more officers," Graham said, "but we're
getting better. We do share intelligence . . . We feed as much intelligence
back to the patrol officers that we can."

Asked about the criticism in a recent book, The Road to Hell: How the Biker
Gangs are Conquering Canada, that B.C. police fail to share intelligence,
Graham said a new computer program developed in B.C. will help solve the
intelligence-sharing problem between police forces. The program, Law
Enforcement Information Portal, will be unveiled next Tuesday during a
conference of Canadian police chiefs at the Vancouver Convention and
Exhibition Centre.