GOODBYE GANGS

At last, perhaps Manitoba Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh can tell
his critics -- including us -- where to go when they give him grief
for allowing an outlaw biker gang to take root in our province.

Thanks to a massive organized crime crackdown dubbed Project Defence,
the Manitoba chapter president of the Hells Angels, two full-patched
members of the gang and 10 other gang associates are behind bars,
facing charges ranging from drug trafficking to extortion to
possession of proceeds of crime.

Early Wednesday morning, 150 police officers from three police forces
- -- including the Brandon Police Service -- swooped in on the Hells
Angels' Winnipeg clubhouse and made the arrests. They also seized
seven kilograms of cocaine, three kilograms of methamphetamine, a
quantity of marijuana, vehicles, a motorcycle, Hells Angels insignia
including club patches and a prohibited weapon.

"This is significant," RCMP spokesman Sgt. Steve Colwell told a news
conference. "It's been going on for 15 months to target high-level
members of these cells."

The Hells Angels set up shop in Manitoba shortly after the NDP
government was elected in 1999. In the last seven years, they have
sunk their roots deeper into the province's underworld and, according
to some sources, control a significant chunk of Brandon's drug trade.

Mackintosh and his government have been frequently under fire for not
doing enough to stop the Hells Angels. Embarrassingly for the
minister, the outlaw gang briefly had a business where it sold gang
paraphernalia just a few blocks away from Mackintosh's constituency office.

But now that the head has been lopped off a snake that has grown fat
in Manitoba, perhaps now the justice minister can look his critics in
the eye and rightfully claim that the province's law enforcement
system has made Manitoba safer.

While Mackintosh and the police can claim victory today, the battle
isn't over. The tricky step now will be to get a conviction against
so many people. And as we've seen too often when Hells Angels members
and associates go to trial, the case against them too often falls
apart. Maybe the ninth time will be the charm for Manitoba's justice minister.