POLICE ARREST HIGH-RANKING HELLS ANGELS IN B.C.

VANCOUVER -- Police in British Columbia have charged the top two ranking
men in the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels with trafficking cocaine,
after a 20-month undercover investigation of the wealthy Canadian branch of
the notorious motorcycle gang.

The arrests are a significant breakthrough for Mounties in B.C., where the
conviction rate against Hells Angels members has been low and confined to
more junior members.

Yesterday, the man police say is the president of the Hells Angels
Vancouver chapter, Norman Krogstad, was led into a court room alongside
Cedric Smith, 55, another senior member.

Mr. Krogstad, 57, is charged with 14 counts of trafficking cocaine. Mr.
Smith faces 11 counts of the same charge. Eight other men, who police say
belong to the Vancouver chapter as well as a puppet gang in the northern
B.C. city of Prince George called the Renegades, also appeared in court
facing drug and firearm charges.

For the first time, police identified each of the accused in terms of their
rank or affiliation with the Hells Angels or Renegades.

Police said the wording was deliberate to show that police don't buy
assertions from some Hells Angels members that the group is an unfairly
maligned group of motorcycle enthusiasts.

In British Columbia, relations between police and the Hells Angels turned
into a bitter public feud last summer when a spokesman for the biker gang,
Ricky Ciarnello, went on the radio accusing police of unfairly targeting
the group with weak prosecution cases. "If somebody sells cocaine in my
club, they do it without the knowledge of the Hells Angels, they do it
without the support of the Hells Angels and they do it for their own
benefit," Mr. Ciarnello said at the time.

Yesterday, an RCMP spokesman said the recent slew of drug and weapons
charges should settle that debate. "This should open the public's eyes
about what the Hells Angels are really about," said Sergeant Dave Goddard,
a spokesman for British Columbia's drug section.

"We look at them more as organized crime and motorcycle gangs. There's a
reason those names are attached to them, because they are involved in the
commission of a number of offences."

While few people believe the Hells Angels are merely a group of motorcycle
enthusiasts, police in B.C. don't have a great track record convicting gang
members.

Last year, a Vancouver newspaper estimated that 60 per cent of Crown cases
against club members had failed over the past decade.

Police said a key breakthrough in the investigation came when police in
Prince George secured a so-called agent who infiltrated clubs there and in
Vancouver.

The informant is expected to testify at the defendants' trials. Neither
police nor Crown spokesmen would identify the informant.

All 10 accused appeared in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday afternoon, four of
them via video link in Prince George. One of the accused in Prince George,
George McBeth, 36, was released on a $5,000 surety. Mr. McBeth, described
as an associate of the Renegades, faces four firearms charges. The other
nine are in custody pending bail hearings.