CANADIAN POLICE CRACK DOWN ON HELLS ANGELS BIKERS AGAIN

CALGARY, Alberta - Police swooped down in raids across southern Alberta
Friday to arrest 40 Hells Angels and associates on hundreds of drug,
weapons and conspiracy charges just two days after a similar massive
crackdown on the outlaw biker gang in Quebec.

In what was dubbed "Operation Shadow," 200 city police officers and
Mounties staged predawn raids at the Hells Angels' Calgary clubhouse and
other residences in the region, seizing handguns, rifles, an Uzi submachine
gun and about C$1 million ($635,000 U.S.) of illegal drugs, officials said.

The C$2.5-million operation, which followed an 11-month investigation, was
not conducted in concert with Quebec authorities who collared more than 120
Hells Angels on Wednesday, police said.

"This was one of the major operations, we think, in Canada," Calgary police
chief Jack Beaton said at a news conference. "What we saw in Quebec the
other day, that was certainly a fine operation. But for Alberta this is
certainly what we consider to be one of the biggest ones."

Forty people, including eight members of the Hells Angels Calgary chapter,
face 200 drug trafficking, weapons and conspiracy charges. Beaton said
there was no violence when police executed their arrest warrants in Calgary
and such surrounding towns as Chestermere, Turner Valley and Okotoks.

Just two days earlier, 2,000 Quebec police officers fanned out across that
province to make arrests in 75 cities and towns following a two-year
investigation. They seized weapons, drugs, vehicles and millions of dollars
in cash.

The raids came amid rising public anger against the Hells Angels, who are
embroiled in a bloody turf war in the mainly French-speaking province for
control of the illegal drug trade with the Bandidos biker gang, also known
as the Rock Machine.

The Hells Angels have been active in southern Alberta since 1997, when they
took over such local bike gangs as the Grim Reapers and the Rebels in
so-called "patchover" ceremonies.

"In the police service's opinion, they are taking over many of our crime
problems in the areas of drugs and prostitution," Beaton said. "We feel
they're a fairly established organization."

Mega trials

In Quebec City on Friday, provincial Justice Minister Paul Begin said the
122 Hells Angels-related bikers would face two "mega trials" early this
fall to avoid a security nightmare.

Begin said the Quebec government would build a C$10 million courthouse at a
suburban Montreal jail by September to accommodate the huge number of
bikers police hauled in.

"For security reasons, we came to the conclusion it would not be wise to
conduct the trial in downtown Montreal," he told reporters.

Prosecutors had enough proof to convict all the bikers, since 15 CD-ROMs
and 2 million pages of evidence had been gathered over the past two years,
he said.

In Calgary, police chief Beaton said justice officials had not laid any
charges under Canada's tough new anti-gang laws that give police sweeping
powers to arrest people involved in organized crime. However, authorities
did not rule out such charges in the coming days and weeks.

While Beaton and Royal Canadian Mounted Police chief superintendent Rick
Bowlby congratulated their officers on Friday's operation, they conceded it
would only make a dent in the illegal drug trade.

"Drugs are a major problem, not only in Alberta and Calgary but in Canada
in general. Will it stem the flow of drugs into Alberta? I don't think so,"
Beaton said.

(With additional reporting by Patrick White in Quebec City)