http://groups.msn.com/Moncton101
2006/09/29
Saint John Police do not want bikers just showing up
SAINT JOHN - A Saint John police officer, helping to form a Neighbourhood Watch group in the city centre, says having a member of the Bacchus motorcycle gang act as a liaison with the group might work.
But he wants Bacchus to go through the police and not just show up at the meeting.
Const. Jim Fleming, who heads the south/central community police office, said he worries about community group members being intimidated and the plan falling apart if the meeting with a Bacchus spokesman isn't properly handled. He said neighbourhood groups have been snuffed out in the past when those causing some of the problems, perceived or otherwise, have shown up unannounced.
"I think the first step for them is contact us and we would see where that would go," Fleming said.
But he believes it could work and that the two factions could be brought together. Residents have long complained about Bacchus, the noise of the motorcycles they ride and the parties they host. They've also accused the club of being a magnet for more illicit activities.
"I think we could sell ice to Eskimos," said Fleming about being able to bring both sides together.
The neighbourhood watch group has already held a couple of meetings, but it still hasn't formalized a membership.
Fleming said the group will, for the moment, handpick its members.
The area is home to a number of known crack houses and with police focusing their attention on the Waterloo Street area just on the north side of Union Street, the prostitutes and the drug dealers have begun a slow climb up the hill and into the city centre neighbourhood.
"We've started to see the cars coming through and the people standing on the corner," Fleming said.
And while the phone still rings with complaints, Fleming said it's hard to say whether the trouble gravitated towards the Bacchus clubhouse since the gang set up shop at 56 Pitt St. two years ago or was already there.
"You're really under a chicken or the egg thing."
Increased traffic, noise, prostitution and drugs are the issues for residents. The same issues drove residents of the Waterloo area to form a neighbourhood association and force the issue with police until some of the problem was driven out of their neighbourhood, south of Union Street and up the hill.
Dwight Kerr lives around the corner on King Street East. He said there's been some informal discussions about buying the house - something a Bacchus member suggested in a recent Telegraph-Journal article.
He said things have gotten better and there has been an attempt by Bacchus to be reasonable and curtail the noise from the late-night parties and ear-splitting bikes. But, he said, there's also a tendency to blame every noise and disturbance on the club.
"It's an urban environment that we live in," said Kerr. "They're not as scary as they look if you approach them with respect."
Deputy Mayor Michelle Hooton said she couldn't speak for all council, but she'd be willing to listen to any solutions that either side may want to put on the table, even a proposal that could include a land swap or purchase of the Bacchus clubhouse.
"If it was something that someone actually brought forward to council, I would be willing to sit down and discuss it - sure," said Hooton
While she said the phone has become "calmer" over the last month and fewer area residents are lodging complaints with her, she couldn't say whether it was a matter of the community "mobilizing" its efforts or that Bacchus was making an attempt to ease tensions between themselves and residents. "Perhaps someone else's phone is ringing."
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Police swoop on Ont. biker gangs, arresting 30
Early-morning raids yield drugs, guns, cars and 15 'full-patch' members of Hells Angels
In the most concerted police assault on the Ontario Hells Angels since the biker gang's expansion into the province almost six years ago, 30 members or associates were scooped up in early-morning raids yesterday, along with guns, vehicles and quantities of cocaine, ecstasy pills and speed.
"This thing was agent-driven," a police source said, meaning that undercover officers had been able to infiltrate the Angels, which traditionally has been extremely difficult, and expedite "sting" operations.
The sweep focused on Toronto, Oshawa, Windsor and Niagara Region and involved more than 500 police officers, including 21 heavily armed tactical units. Also detained was a member of the loosely affiliated but much smaller Vagabonds club.
The bulk of the arrests targeted the homes of Hells Angels members, most of whom were asleep, and no resistance was met, the source said. In all, 15 "full-patch" Hells Angels were picked up in the raids, including a number of senior players.
Also hit was a health club in western Toronto, where about 20 people were questioned but were not detained.
As well, several biker clubhouses were searched.
A news conference this morning will outline the multiple criminal charges, which encompass drug trafficking, the possession of restricted weapons (including handguns, long guns and automatic weapons) and counselling to commit murder.
Organized-crime charges have also been laid, and follow a watershed court ruling 14 months ago involving an extortion case in which a Superior Court judge in Barrie, Ont., ruled the Hells Angels club to be an identifiable criminal organization.
Eleven police forces took part in yesterday's raids, which were led by the Ontario Provincial Police's Biker Enforcement Unit and were the culmination of an 18-month undercover operation dubbed Project Tandem.
Most of those arrested were taken to 42 Division police station in Scarborough.
"All I can tell you is I'm extremely pleased," said another senior police source, calling the amount of cocaine seized "substantial."
The Angels' presence in Ontario dates from December of 2000, when such outlaw motorcycle gangs as Satan's Choice, the Para-Dice Riders and the Last Chance joined the Quebec-based biker gang, in a ritual that involved literally "patching over" their colours with an industrial sewing machine.
Since then, their numbers have grown.
There are 16 Hells Angels chapters in Ontario, the most recent addition being in Hamilton, comprising about 250 full-patch members or close associates -- roughly half the Canadian total.
The Vagabonds, however, did not join the Angels. Nor did the Angels' arch-rivals the Bandidos, eight of whom were found shot to death and stuffed in four vehicles in April near Shedden, west of London.
Police believe the slaughter, in which eight people have been charged, stemmed from a Bandido initiative to join the Hells Angels.
The Greater Toronto Area is home to 10 of Ontario's 16 Hells Angels chapters, the largest -- about 34 strong -- based in a fortified clubhouse on Toronto's Eastern Avenue.
Two motorbikes sat at the front of the clubhouse yesterday but there was little sign of activity.
"Go away," said a man when a reporter rang the doorbell seeking comment.
Nor could designated Hells Angels spokesman Donny Petersen be reached at his Scarborough motorcycle shop, Heavy Duty Cycles Ltd. And the gang's raunchy website, which normally responds swiftly to Angels-related developments, made no mention of the arrests, the latest in a series of setbacks for the organization, whose ranks have been dented by several mass arrests in the past two years.
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addendum
TORONTO (CP) - After a massive 18-month investigation, which culminated in the arrests of 15 Hells Angels, and involved more than 500 police officers from several forces aided by an informant, police say they have dealt a serious blow to the notorious biker gang.
"We've hit at the heart of the group," Ontario Provincial Police Det. Supt. Don Bell told a Toronto press conference on Friday.
"We've taken down significant members within the hierarchy of the Hells Angels. We've also infiltrated them with one of their own and now they have to look over their shoulder because who's a member and who's working for the police?"
Police said the informant is a full-patch member of the gang.
Police laid more than 100 charges following Project Tandem's Thursday morning raids across southern Ontario, which led to the arrest of 27 people, including 15 Hells Angels and one Vagabond member, and the seizure of drugs, weapons, motor vehicles, and currency.
Though police estimate there are 200 full-patch Hells Angels in Ontario and a further 2,000 associates in their "criminal network," they say their investigation chipped away a significant part of the gang.
"In utilizing a member involved in this investigation we've hit them hard, and I think their ability to regroup is going to take some time," Bell said.
Acting on information from the informant, police conducted a parallel investigation into the death of James Edward Pearce, 42, of Cobourg, Ont., and charged James Earle Boudreau, 42, of Harwood, Ont., with first-degree murder.
Two murder plots were also uncovered in Peterborough, Ont., and the Maple, Ont., area and police charged three men with conspiracy to commit murder.
Bell said the drugs seized are evidence the Hells Angels are involved in criminal activity, despite protestations by the group that they are purely motorcycle enthusiasts.
"Our enforcement initiatives make it clear that the Hells Angels are involved in drugs, weapons and other violence-related offences," he said.
Police seized 13 kilograms of cocaine, 50,000 tablets of ecstasy, 23 kilograms of marijuana and about two kilograms each of hashish and methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth.
Despite the relatively small amount of crystal meth, Bell said the very fact they found crystal meth is evidence of the drug's impending danger to Ontario communities.
"It will affect our youth, it will affect the social lives of our communities," he said.
"More importantly, the ancillary crimes that are associated with this will increase and will have a devastating effect."
Bell said he has seen similar trends in the United States.
"If methamphetamine is coming, which I suspect it is . . . we are in trouble."
The suspects are currently being held in Toronto jails.
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