HELLS ANGELS RAID YIELDS 30 ARRESTS, GUNS AND DRUGS

Toronto And Woodbridge Chapters The Focus Of The Province-Wide
Sweep

Guns and drugs, including large quantities of the date-rape liquid
GHB, were seized by police yesterday in predawn raids that targeted
dozens of Hells Angels and associates in Ontario, Vancouver and New
Brunswick.

By day's end, upward of 30 arrests had been made, including 18
"full-patch" Hells Angels, police said. The world's largest motorcycle
gang, the Angels have 34 chapters in Canada, comprising roughly 500
members or close associates.

About a dozen homes in Toronto and 20 elsewhere in the province were
raided. But the focus of the sweep, which followed 18 months of
surveillance and wiretaps by the OPP-led Biker Enforcement Unit, was
the Angels' chapters in Toronto and Woodbridge, north of the city.

Deploying a hook mounted on the back of a truck, police tore a hole in
a concrete wall of the gang's heavily fortified clubhouse in Toronto's
east end -- reputedly the Hells Angels' nerve centre in Ontario -- and
later removed its distinctive, patent-protected emblem.

On their always lively website, the Toronto Angels accused police of
acting "in a frenzy" and desecrating a "symbol of freedom." The site
urged its readers to remember that "wild claims at news conferences
are not proof of anything."

The Biker Enforcement Unit encompasses representatives from 18
different police agencies in Ontario, plus members of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police and the Criminal Intelligence Service of
Ontario. Canada Border Services Agency also played a role in
yesterday's arrests, which scooped up one biker in New Brunswick -- a
member of the Angels-affiliated Bacchus motorcycle club in Albert
County -- and several in British Columbia.

In all, at least 20 police tactical teams were involved.

"We're expecting to get somewhere in the area of 40 arrests and we're
supposed to get pounds and pounds and pounds of drugs, weapons and
other paraphernalia," OPP Constable Pam Higham told CTV.

Since expanding west from Quebec six years ago, the Hells Angels have
secured a firm foothold in Ontario, where about half the Canadian
membership now lives. Dozens of members have been charged with
assorted criminal offences.

Few details on yesterday's arrests were released, pending a news
conference to be held this morning. But a police source said many of
the accused have been or will be charged with conspiracy and
trafficking in both weapons and drugs.

"This is all red-and-white," another source said, referring to the
Hells Angels' trademark colours, adding that handguns, rifles and
knives were seized, along with cocaine, home-grown marijuana and
"substantial" amounts of Gammahydroxybutrate, commonly referred to as
GHB.

A colourless, tasteless depressant that causes dizziness and amnesia,
GHB is commonly made in clandestine labs. Slipped into a drink, it
can, like the more familiar date-rape drug Rohypnol, induce a
coma-like sleep lasting several hours.

The last concerted assault on Ontario's Hells Angels was in September,
when hundreds of police arrested about 30 members and associates,
following the penetration of the gang's Oshawa chapter by a
biker-turned-informant.

Among the numerous charges laid against the Oshawa bikers were two
counts of conspiracy to commit murder. These involved alleged efforts
to kill Bandidos recruiter Frank Lenti -- subsequently charged with
murdering a Hells Angel -- who was seeking to revive the organization
after the mass killing a year ago of eight Bandidos and associates,
found shot dead in a farmer's field west of London, Ont.

Long-time Hells Angel Donny Petersen, the organization's often-quoted
spokesman, was not at his Scarborough motorcycle store yesterday. A
man who answered the phone said there was no way to reach Mr.
Petersen, declined comment and hung up.

Replacing the Hells Angels logo on the front of the Eastern Avenue
clubhouse yesterday was a sign stating the building had been seized by
police.

"The seizure of the Hells Angels headquarters . . . should send a very
clear message to those who choose criminal lifestyles," Toronto Police
Service Staff Inspector Joe Tomei told an afternoon news conference.

"It has to go through the court process," he said later.

"But right now, we own the building."

The only precedent for such a seizure took place in Halifax, under
proceeds-of-crime legislation. But in that instance, it did not occur
until after the bikers had been convicted.

As for Woodbridge, this is not the first time outlaw bikers have
placed the prosperous, fast-growing community in the spotlight.

In December, Woodbridge saw the funeral of David Buchanan, a biker
with the Hells West Toronto chapter who was shot to death at a Vaughan
strip club while celebrating his 32nd birthday.