GANG SQUAD VOWS TO FIGHT BIKER ADVANCE

Initiation Means Ontario Has Most Hells Angels In Canada

Ontario's anti-gang task force promised yesterday to launch an aggressive
campaign against the seven Hells Angels chapters newly established in the
province.

The word's most notorious motorcycle gang -- one the of largest criminal
organization on the continent -- has made an unprecedented incursion into
Ontario by swearing in 150 new members at a meeting this weekend in Sorel,
Que., about 75 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

Ontario now has the largest contingent of Hells Angels gang members in the
country.

The new members come form Ontario's already established outlaw motorcycle
gangs: the ParaDice Riders, Satan's Choice, Lobos and Last Chance. Their
recruitment appears to be part of the Angels' strategic response to the
arrival in Canada of the powerful Bandidos motorcycle gang.

"It would appear the Hells are planning to take a more aggressive role in
managing the province's drug trade, and we're promising them an even more
aggressive fight to ensure their efforts are futile," Det.-Insp. Ross
Bingley, manager of the Ontario Provincial Police's Provincial Special
Squad, said yesterday.

The squad, composed of officers from from every major police force in
Ontario, including Ottawa-Carleton, was established in June 1998 to control
motorcycle gang activity.

In less than two years of operation, it has charged 56 gang members with
478 Criminal Code and drug offences.

According to information confirmed yesterday by the squad, new Hells Angels
chapters have now been established in Kitchener, Oshawa, Toronto, Toronto
West, Toronto East and Woodbridge.

A seventh chapter, known as the Nomads, will range across the province
principally to recruit new members.

Det. Staff Sgt. Don Bell said yesterday that it appears the Hells Angels
have not been able to establish a chapter in Ottawa-Carleton.

"We know there's the presence of the Hells Angels in the Ottawa area, but
as to a formal chapter, we haven't seen that to date," said Staff Sgt.
Bell, the squad's spokesman.

In the past two years, the Angels have established a near-monopoly over
Ottawa's club-related drug trade while avoiding confrontation with the
local Outlaws motorcycle gang.

Although the Angels control much of the drug traffic in Ontario, they've
never felt the need to establish a formal presence here because no other
biker club dared to challenge their turf.

That changed, however, when the Texas-based Bandidos entered into an
alliance with the Quebec-based Rock Machine earlier this month.

Members of the Rock Machine, with two chapters in Quebec and three new
clubs in Ontario, are now probationary members of the Bandidos, one of the
few biker gangs capable of challenging the Hells Angels.

In Quebec, the Rock Machine's six-year turf war with the Angels claimed
more than 150 lives in a succession of tit-for-tat bombings and
assassinations. A truce in the war was called in October.

Now, with the move by the Bandidos into Ontario and Quebec, a new dynamic
has taken shape that holds the potential to reignite biker violence.

Police expect increased competition between the two gangs for control of
the illicit drug market in both provinces -- competition that could turn ugly.

"Traditionally, outlaw motorcycle gangs in Ontario have co-existed in
relative harmony," said Staff Sgt. Bell. "But with the presence of the
Hells Angels and the Bandidos, the propensity for violence is certainly
there. ... Bandidos and Hells Angels have traditionally not gotten along."

The two motorcycle gangs now have a shaky truce in place across North
America, Europe and Australia.

And some police officials believe the presence of two powerful motorcycle
gangs in Canada diminishes the likelihood of violence, since both sides
know that any aggression will have international consequences.

There are roughly 500 outlaw bikers in Ontario, and it appears they're
voluntarily consolidating into two clubs: the Bandidos and Hells Angels.
"The way this has gone over, the patch-over," Sgt. Bell noted, "it has been
more of a business manoeuvre than a hostile takeover."

The Hells Angels' patch-over, as the initiation ceremony is called, took
place in Sorel, where about 300 outlaw motorcycle gang members from across
the country gathered at a club bunker.

Members of Ontario's and Quebec's anti-biker squads videotaped the
proceedings, which began Friday and lasted late into last night.

Until now, the Hells Angels had no official presence in Ontario. But police
have been warning of an imminent move by the gang into the province for
more than 15 years.

Only official club members are allowed to wear the Hells Angels "Deathhead"
patches, with their familiar winged skulls. Once an official chapter is
created, gang members receive special voting rights and privileges within
the organization, including the right to establish a clubhouse.