INSIDE THE ANGELS

Organized-crime Fighters Found A Treasure Trove Of Information About The
Biker Gang When They Raided A Vancouver Island Clubhouse

The Nanaimo chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang is an alleged
criminal organization under investigation for cocaine trafficking,
extortion, assault causing bodily harm, conspiring to keep a common bawdy
house and procuring, according to court documents released Friday.

The documents stem from an Organized Crime Agency of B.C. investigation,
which began in January 2001, code-named Project Halo.

It led to a police raid last December on the clubhouse of the Nanaimo
chapter of the Hells Angels.

The Victoria Times Colonist and Vancouver Sun successfully applied in court
to have the search warrant material unsealed and a ban on publication lifted.

The documents reveal that organized crime investigators seized 10 kilograms
of cocaine in Nanaimo on April 2 last year in a truck with Ontario licence
plates, and another kilo on July 1 last year.

Police allege the April drug seizure was linked to a Keswick, Ont., member
of the Hells Angels, whose name was blacked out in court documents.

In 2002, police also seized 255 marijuana plants and 10 kilograms of dried
pot from a Salmon Arm residence where a Hells Angels member was living, the
documents allege.

While conducting the Salmon Arm search, a vehicle entered the property and
the driver, who gave a false name but held an Ontario driver's licence, was
found with two bags of pot and $83,800 cash in his car, police allege in
the documents.

Surveillance on the Nanaimo clubhouse -- a fortified three-storey wooden
structure surrounded by a metal fence and video surveillance cameras --
also revealed that after weekly Thursday night meetings, known as "church,"
papers were burned in a barrel outside.

An expert report by an RCMP officer, identified as Jacques Lemieux, states
that if questions arise about criminal activities during a Hells Angels
meeting, they are presented on a blackboard or written on papers that are
later burned.

"The Hells Angels are the largest and most sophisticated outlaw biker gang
in the world," said Lemieux's 32-page report, which was filed in court as a
supporting document to obtain a search warrant of the Hells Angels
clubhouse in Nanaimo.

The biker gang has 2,000 members and prospects (aspiring members) in 189
chapters in 22 countries around the world, said the report, which details
the Hells Angels expansion into Canada since 1977.

There now are 32 chapters in Canada and one prospect chapter, states the
report.

After the media applied to have the search warrant material unsealed, B.C.
Supreme Court Justice Ernie Quantz ruled last April 8 that the media should
have access to the material.

Angel Acres Recreation, which owns the Nanaimo clubhouse, argued in court
that Quantz's order should be quashed because publication "would compromise
the privacy interests of innocent parties and the fair trial rights of
those that may subsequently be charged."

On Friday, Justice Malcolm Macaulay upheld the previous court decision,
allowing the media to publish the search warrant material, which is heavily
edited in parts to remove the names of Nanaimo Hells Angels members and
associates.

Police expected to find in the Nanaimo clubhouse documentation on law
enforcement personnel "such as files... photographs, lists, police
frequency codes and scanners."

The search warrant, issued last Dec. 11, reveals that Project Halo focused
on the members of the Nanaimo Hells Angels and their associates, who
allegedly participated in "activities for the benefit of, at the direction
of, or in association with a criminal organization."

Hells Angels in B.C. have denied for years that they are part of a criminal
organization.

"The Hells Angels are involved in a large number of criminal activities,
the most important of which is drug trafficking, which is their main source
of revenue," says the report by Lemieux, an RCMP expert on the outlaw
motorcycle gang.

He said many of the bikers are involved in importing and manufacturing
drugs, as well as operating marijuana grow operations.

The Hells Angels are also involved in "murder, theft, possession of stolen
merchandise, extortion, gun-running and money-laundering," Lemieux said in
the report, which notes that 82 per cent of Hells Angels members in Canada
have criminal records.

"Each chapter is independent and responsible for its own actions regarding
criminal activities," the report says.

"Members of the Hells Angels work in cells....A cell usually consists of a
member of a chapter who is responsible not only for a certain criminal
activity, but for a predetermined territory in which the criminal activity
is carried out."

Lemieux's report concludes that the Hells Angels "is an organization that
is engaged in activity that is part of a pattern of criminal activity
planned and organized by a number of persons acting in concert."

Canada's relatively new anti-gangster law makes it illegal to be a member
of a criminal organization, which is defined in the Criminal Code as a
group involving three or more persons who would likely receive a benefit
from a criminal offence.

Quebec Hells Angels were recently convicted of being members of a criminal
organization but there have been no convictions in B.C., although a test
case involving a Hells Angels associate is currently before the courts.