HELLS ANGELS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Intelligence Squads On Hand To Monitor Clubhouse Inauguration

A fledgling chapter of the Hells Angels is officially open for
business in Niagara, police say.

Regional and provincial intelligence squads were called to monitor the
biker gang's new clubhouse in Welland on Saturday afternoon.

NRP Sergeant John Kennedy said the notorious motorcycle gang was out
in force for a party to mark the inauguration of its clubhouse, a
former auto repair shop along Darby Road in rural Welland.

Revellers showed off bikes, chatted and partied in the clubhouse under
the watchful eyes of anti-biker police officers. The massive show of
gang colours came as no surprise to local security forces.

"We've been monitoring them very closely," Kennedy said Sunday. "This
basically means to us that they've officially opened up business here
in Niagara."

Kennedy said about 100 bikers representing different chapters across
Ontario attended the event, held by a group of Niagara bikers in a
250-square-metre concrete building protected by security cameras and a
two-metre chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.

Although a nearby RIDE program led to several charges being laid, none
was related to the Hells Angels' get-together, which wrapped up
without incident.

Police said the chapter's sponsor was Walter "Nurget" Stadnick, a
Quebec Nomad member who was among 120 bikers charged in a major raid
which focused on Quebec bikers. Stadnick, 48, was wanted for 13 counts
of murder when he was arrested in Jamaica last month.

This weekend's gathering is another step towards the local bikers
earning full status in the gang's umbrella organization. The Niagara
prospect chapter, which would be one of 14 full-patch chapters in
Ontario, was reportedly formed in late December at a meeting in Sorel,
Que.

Investigators have underlined in the past the distinction between
full-fledged and prospective clubs doesn't alter the group's raison
d'etre in the criminal underworld, namely profiting from drug
trafficking, prostitution and extortion.

Kennedy said the regional force can only wait and employ a policy of
zero-tolerance to any sign of criminal behaviour.

"In Canada, if you want to set up an organization of this nature, you
can do it. It's not illegal," he said. "The bikers believe it's a
social club. We'd rather they not get together at all."

The next step for the Niagara prospective chapter is to continue its
ongoing test of loyalty to the Hells Angels, who are potentially
breaking the Outlaws' biker-gang monopoly on the region.

Rumours began circulating in March that the prospective chapter of the
biker gang was looking for a spot to use as its headquarters in Niagara.

At the time, Staff Sergeant Don Bell, an OPP member of the provincial
special squad, noted that establishing a clubhouse wouldn't
necessarily increase the gang's criminal activities so much as provide
a place for the local chapter to entertain its motorbike brethren.