HELLS ANGELS REELING FROM RAIDS: OTHER ARRESTS

But Police Say Disarray Won't Last Long

Hells Angels leader Maurice Boucher no longer has two murder charges to
worry about. He has 15.

The largest operation against biker gangs in Canadian history tightened the
noose around Boucher Wednesday by fingering him for 13 additional killings
and nabbing every member of his elite squad, the Nomads.

Police conceded the operation won't cripple the Hells for long.

"It's going to destabilize them, at least for a while," said Capt. Michel
Martin of the Surete du Quebec.

"With all the seizures of their assets, homes and cars, they're going to
busy with their lawyers and in the courts. And we hope that they'll be in
jail for a very long time."

Police allege Boucher systematically ordered the deaths of top-level
enemies in other drug gangs over the past six years, not stopping even when
he was behind bars.

And his orders led to the slaying of an innocent man who responded when the
assassin yelled out his first name -- Serge. The hitman was looking for
another Serge.

Suspected with Boucher in eight of the killings is his 25-year-old son,
Francis, already in Saint-Jerome prison for a year on a weapons charge.

In addition to the charges against both Bouchers, police also seized two
homes in the family's compound on the South Shore.

The father, known as "Mom," is already behind bars because he faces a
second trial on charges of ordering the deaths of two prison guards in 1997.

While 138 of his gang members were being rounded up, Quebec's most
notorious biker sat in his special isolation cell at Tanguay's prison for
women.

Boucher, 47, will only appear in court later this week to face the new
charges. But others began to be arraigned by video-conference from a wing
at Bordeaux prison set aside just for them.

The arrest warrants also name Gerald Matticks, a name well-known to
provincial police.

His acquittal in the mid-1990s because Surete officers planted evidence
during a raid led to the Poitras commission into police wrongdoing.
Matticks was sought for drug-dealing and gangsterism.

More than 2,000 police officers from the RCMP, Surete, Montreal Urban
Community police and more than 27 municipal forces took part in more than
280 searches and seizures that started at the crack of dawn. It was
organized by special regional task forces against outlaw biker gangs.

The raids grabbed seven homes and 50 vehicles, including 15 motorcycles.
And police put their hands on $7.5 million in cash.

Police believe the illegal drug supply will dry up with so many dealers
behind bars.

Police said traditional investigative techniques -- surveillance, wiretaps
and paid informants -- were used to compile evidence before the raids.

Warrants targeted 42 key players, including Boucher, with numerous plots to
assassinate enemies since 1995, just after the bloody war began for control
of Quebec's illegal drug trade.

The intended victims were members of the Rock Machine and its hit squad,
the Dark Circle. Also targeted for death were those in the Alliance, a
group of drug dealers that sided with the Rock Machine against the Hells.

Boucher and the other 41 major players also face gangsterism charges that
make it illegal to belong to a criminal organization.