UP TO 100 LOCALS ASSOCIATED WITH HELLS ANGELS

Police estimate that there are 50-100 people in Kelowna associated
with the Hells Angels

"It's guess work, but that would be a good guess," said Vancouver RCMP
Insp. Bob Paulson

Paulson said there are six full-patch members of the Vancouver East
End chapter who live in Kelowna. There are also four or five other
high-ranking Hells Angels who have residences in Kelowna and
elsewhere. Paulson said six full-patch members is the minimum for
establishing a HA chapter, which RCMP say the biker gang had planned
to do in Kelowna by Christmas. Paulson said each full member might
have five to 10 people working under him. These high-ranking members,
says Paulson, operate "individually" rather than as club members

"Generally, a member would individually have people such as growers or
traffickers report to them," said Paulson. "They take great care to
suggest that anyone caught in criminal activity was not doing so on
club business. We maintain that the club is the facilitating structure
the power of the patch." The distinction between the club and
those doing the crime is important because of new legislation that
refers to commission of an offence in association with a criminal
organization. Convictions under that section of the criminal code
carry stiffer penalties

RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon said at a press conference Wednesday that
another criminal organization plans to set up in the city. He said it
was not a motorcycle gang, but wouldn't elaborate

Julian Sher, co-author of The Road to Hell: How the Biker Gangs are
Conquering Canada, said he doesn't know which group McKinnon was referring
to

"But crime, like politics, abhors a vacuum," said Sher. "Others may
try to move in." Sher said no one in Kelowna should think the 18
arrests and charges, including four arrests in Kelowna, means an end
to the organization in the Okanagan

"They can send in new blood from the East End," said Sher. "You can't
bury the Hells Angels in Kelowna just yet

"There should be no illusion that these arrests will stop the flow of
cocaine. It just sends a message to the Hells Angels that they are not
untouchable."