TORONTO RAID A MAJOR BLOW TO HELLS ANGELS, POLICE SAY

Club's Website Urges Members To 'Take It To The Streets' And Write
Every News Outlet

Belonging to the Hells Angels is all about brotherhood and trust, a
ranking Toronto member once told The Globe and Mail.

"In the motorcycle world, you can't go any higher," Donny Petersen
explained during a lengthy interview at his gleaming, Scarborough
motorcycle shop. "If I go to Europe, I'll get picked up at the airport
by a Hells Angel -- taken out, shown around; you're treated very well."

Maybe so.

Yet as Toronto police shared some details yesterday in the latest
round of biker busts, they noted that once again the Hells Angels had
been undercut by an informant -- the second such betrayal in six
months -- and that trust within the organization may have reached a
new low.

Mr. Petersen's personal fortunes, moreover, have also
shifted.

After Wednesday's police raids, he is one of 31 Hells Angels and
associates facing a total of 169 charges, chiefly involving drugs and
organized crime. In Mr. Petersen's 35 years as a biker, at age 59 he
has no criminal record.

After a brief court appearance yesterday, he was released on $200,000
bail put up by his wife.

The two recent crackdowns are not the only instances of Ontario's
Hells Angels being deceived in police operations.

In January last year, an alleged cocaine-distributing network was
dismantled with the help of a police agent who spent nearly two years
undercover with the Angels's Thunder Bay chapter. And when two members
of the Woodbridge chapter were convicted of extortion in a landmark
court ruling in 2005, their undoing was the fact that their victim was
wearing a concealed microphone.

All but three of the 31 people arrested in Wednesday's sweep live in
Ontario; the others are from British Columbia and New Brunswick.

And the focal point of the raids was the Toronto Hells Angels's
east-side clubhouse, which police seized with a court-authorized form
of restraining order -- the first time they have used such a tactic
since the bikers expanded into Ontario from Quebec six years ago.

"They were exposed by one of their own," said Ontario Provincial
Police Inspector Dan Redmond of the Biker Enforcement Unit, who did
not identify the informant. "It's a significant day . . . we've taken
out the main chapter."

Clubhouses in Niagara Falls, Waterloo, Barrie, London, Hamilton, as
well as Durham, Peel and York regions were also raided. Police seized
guns, drugs that included nine kilograms of cocaine and quantities of
the date-rape drug GHB, cars, motorcycles and more than $500,000 in
cash.

All told, the seizures have put a "significant dent" in the Angels's
criminal activity, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino told a packed news
conference. The message to the Hells Angels, he said, is that "we're
here to shut you down. You can run but you can't hide."

However, another 15 clubhouses remain in Ontario, and well over 200
full-patch members or close associates.

According to the most recent estimate by Criminal Intelligence Service
Canada, Ontario is home to about one-third of the estimated 460
full-patch Hells Angels across the country. (British Columbia is the
other stronghold.)

"It's too soon to call this the beginning of the end," a former senior
member of the BEU said.

"But I would say there has been a definite weakening of the
organization now that the flagship chapter is under restraint.

"Look at the pattern of [law] enforcement initiatives. It's been
north, south, east and now Toronto in the centre. This is an
organization that's starting to show some cracks in the foundation and
the landscape is definitely going to change."

As for persuading informants to turn against their fellow Angels, most
commonly through a carrot-and-stick blend of inducements, "the BEU is
getting better and better at what they do," the former BEU officer
said.

"You have to look for the weak link -- the Achilles heel -- and
they're getting skilled at that."

Last September, 30 members and associates were arrested and a
biker-turned-informant within their Oshawa chapter provided police
with information about an alleged murder plot.

In these latest raids, the court order authorizing the seizure of the
Toronto building and two private residences was issued almost two
months ago in London, Ont., on the basis that under toughened
anti-gang laws, the properties can be forfeited if it is shown they
were bought with funds derived from crime, which in this case would
mean drug money.

Authorities have secured a type of interim restraining order that bars
the owners from selling, renting or altering their properties until
these latest charges are dealt with in court.

The heavily fortified Toronto clubhouse on Eastern Avenue will at some
point need repairs. When they smashed their way in early Wednesday,
police tore a large hole in one of its concrete walls.

Almost all of the 31 people arrested appeared in court in Toronto
yesterday, including four women, to face charges that primarily
involve drug trafficking, intimidation and committing offences on
behalf of, or in association with, a known criminal organization,
namely the Hells Angels.

With their designated spokesman Mr. Petersen constrained, it was left
to another Hells Angel to respond on the club's website to this latest
setback.

"It's time to take it to the streets," a posting urged its supporters.
"We invite you to write every news outlet you can find and voice your
opinions."