JUSTICE SYSTEM NEEDS TO DECLARE ALL-OUT WAR ON HELLS ANGELS GANG

We've been hearing for years that the Hells Angels are no choirboys, and
that some of them sometimes have other things on their minds than riding
large, noisy motorcycles -- like drug-trafficking, intimidation and
extortion.

The notorious biker gang is reported by police to be the one of the richest
and most successful organized-crime groups in Canada. And one of the most
frightening. Yet, it seems to operate with virtual impunity in B.C.

In fact, Vancouver police said yesterday that, with almost 100 "full-patch"
members and numerous associates, the Hells Angels are expanding their highly
lucrative operations.

But as far as I'm aware, only five B.C. Hells Angels members have been
convicted of serious crimes in recent years. And only two, Francisco "Chico"
Pires and Ronaldo "Ronnie" Lissing, have got what you might call hard time.
They were sentenced in 2001 to 41/2 years in federal prison on cocaine
trafficking charges. The case is under appeal, and they still aren't in
jail.

Vancouver lawyer Jim McNeney, who has represented Hells Angels members, puts
it this way: "For the last 25 years, the police have been targeting outlaw
biker gangs and, to my knowledge, they've had two or three convictions." In
other words, the Hells Angels are not the bad boys they're cracked up to be.
. . . Or the B.C. justice system has failed miserably to curb their illegal
activities, as I'm inclined to believe. In fact, I think our courts tend to
be as soft on criminal bikers as they are on the rest of our drug-fuelled
criminal population. Which is so soft, it's almost cuddly. As Vancouver
police Sgt. Larry Butler, the officer in charge of the outlaw motorcycle
gang unit, says: "We don't really get any substantial sentences here."

So, let's toughen the spines of our judges and prosecutors or turn over the
prosecution of these gangsters to special courts. Let's also give the police
more money for the complex task of cracking down on organized crime. "If you
want to do something about the Hells Angels, appropriately fund OCA
[Organized Crime Agency of B.C.] and you'll do something about it," suggests
ex-RCMP officer Leo Knight, now of Paladin Security. Further, let's use the
cash confiscated from the hard-core criminals to do it.

As for the alleged links between the Teamsters Union and the Hells Angels, I
have to agree with McNeney and investigative author Yves Lavigne that so far
it's a bit of a tempest in a teapot.

Yesterday's revelation that Teamsters Local 31 president Stan Hennessy posed
with Hells Angels members and others on a fishing trip six years ago doesn't
prove anything -- yet.

Our justice system needs more than a fishing expedition to nail the Hells
Angels. It needs to engage in all-out war.