A NEW FRONT OPENS IN POLICE WAR ON BIKERS

The long-simmering standoff that is "The Police versus Hells Angles
Motorcycle Club" is defined, it seems, by a continuous and uneasy
siege, each side eyeing the other with loathing and distrust. This
ongoing impasse is punctuated on occasion by events not unlike
eruptions from a restless volcano.

Such an event occurred last week, when police in Durham and across the
province arrested 27 bikers on charges ranging from drug trafficking
to conspiracy to commit murder.

Operation Tandem, 18 months in the making and carried out with the
assistance of an informant from within the Hells Angels, dealt the
bikers a blow; although the HA is a powerful organization with
tentacles extending around the world, full-patch members and
high-placed officers are not that numerous. In Oshawa, the arrest of
five members, including the chapter president, was seen as a
significant strike by police.

But the battle in Oshawa is being fought on a front separate to the
pursuit of criminal charges. A lawyer representing the provincial
Attorney General was in court in Whitby this past week advancing a
motion under the Civil Remedies Act which, if successful, would force
the Angels to surrender their Ortono Avenue clubhouse to the Crown.

The action, in its preliminary stages right now, is far from settled,
with the Crown yet to prove allegations that the building allows the
bikers to plot criminal activity safe from intrusions by the police.
And the bikers, like everyone else in this nation, are entitled to
state their case as well, defending themselves against the action.

Success for the Crown might not disrupt the Angels' network
irreparably, but it would be a symbolic victory.

Whatever the outcome of the Durham case, it is a harbinger of things
to come. The authorities are sending a message that the next tactic in
the effort to combat the Hells Angels will be to strike at businesses,
properties and other assets held by the club, the goal being to
hassle, hinder and financially cripple what's viewed as a criminal
empire.

If nothing else, such actions could well tie the Angels up in
litigation and burden the organization with tremendous costs in
defending against them. It's far from over.