Hells Angels MC criminal allegations and incidents

New South Wales

Members of the rival motorcycle gang, the Comancheros, and members of the Hells Angels were believed to be involved in a clash at Sydney Airport on Sunday, March 22, 2009. The clash resulted in one man, Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas, being beaten to death. Police estimated as many as 15 men were involved in the violence. Documents released by NSW Police detail the brawl as a result of a Comanchero gang member and a Hells Angel being on the same flight from Melbourne. Four suspects were arrested as a result of the altercation. As a result of heightening violence, New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees announced the state police anti-gang squad would be boosted to 125 members from 50.^[32]

On the night of March 29, 2009, Hells Angels member Peter Zervas, the brother of the man killed during the Sydney Airport Brawl a week earlier, was shot and injured in retaliation as he left his car outside his home.^[33]

On July 20, 2011, a NSW judge dismissed a bid by the state's police commissioner to have the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club declared a criminal organization, under laws introduced to NSW parliament in 2009 allowing the court to declare criminal organizations as declared organizations.^[34]

Queensland

Bruno and Nuno Da Silva, two Portuguese immigrant twin brothers and former Brisbane Hells Angels members, were arrested following a police surveillance operation and pleaded guilty to trafficking methylamphetamine from June 2012 to October 2013. The brothers operated from an East Brisbane locksmith business and passed a percentage of their drug earnings to the Hells Angels at weekly meetings, although they had left the club at the time of their arrest. In December 2015, Bruno was sentenced to nine years imprisonment, while Nuno was sentenced to seven years.^[35][36]

In 2012, Peter Sidirourgos and Zeljko "Steve" Mitrovic, both senior Hells Angels members in Sydney, were granted Nomad status and spearheaded a push into the Gold Coast, founding a chapter in the suburb of Burleigh Heads.^[37] Police stated in 2015 that the Hells Angels were now the most active club on the Gold Coast after anti-bikie laws weakened the rival Bandidos and Finks (a club later patched over to the Mongols), who had previously been more prominent in the area.^[38]

The Hells Angels were one of 26 motorcycle clubs designated as criminal organizations in the state of Queensland under the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD) Act, which was passed on October 16, 2013 and went into effect immediately.^[39][40]

South Australia

Similar to the case in Queensland, the Hells Angels were also declared a criminal organization in the state of South Australia along with nine other motorcycle clubs under legislation that came into force in August 2015. Under the laws, it is an offence for members of these organizations to gather in groups of three or more in public or wear gang colours and logos.^[41][42] Five alleged Hells Angels members and prospects became the first to be charged under the laws after they were arrested in a series of raids across Adelaide on December 31, 2015.^[43]

Victoria

In 1980, Melbourne chapter founding members Peter Hill and Raymond Hamment flew to California to visit Oakland chapter president Kenny Walton in prison. Walton taught them how to manufacture amphetamines, paving the way for the drug's introduction into Australia, and in return, the Australians supplied the Oakland chapter with 300 litres of the chemical phenylacetone, enough to produce $50 million worth of amphetamines. Hill posted the phenylacetone in three-litre pineapple juice tins to his closest US contact, James Patton "Sleepy Jim" Brandes. The Hells Angels rented a farmhouse in Melbourne's northeast, near Hurstbridge, where they produced amphetamines in 50 pound (22.7 kilogram) batches worth $600,000. The drug lab was raided by the Special Operations Group on March 10, 1982, and Hill and three other Hells Angels were arrested. Eventually, investigators arrested 19 people and seized three kilograms of amphetamines, as well as cash, explosives, handguns and a machine-gun. This sparked an internal feud over the gang's operations that led to around 40 violent incidents. Hill and another member, Roger Biddlestone, cut their ties with the Hells Angels and cooperated with police, prompting the club to put a contract on their lives. Nine Hells Angels were charged with conspiring to murder Hill and Biddlestone, but Biddlestone refused to testify and the charges against his former club mates were dropped; he was subsequently convicted of contempt of court. Hill was convicted on drugs charges in 1987 and jailed alongside a number of others. During the investigation, codenamed Omega Two, the police tracked club members' movements ferociously, prompting Jim Brandes, the Melbourne Hells Angels' American contact, to try to assassinate Bob Armstrong, a detective on the case. Brandes, who had previously been acquitted of the 1978 attempted murder two police officers in the US, flew to Melbourne but was immediately deported.^[44][45]

Anton Kenny, a former president of the Hells Angels' Australian Nomads chapter who was kicked out of the club in 1983 for cooperating with police, was killed after being shot five times with a .32 caliber pistol following an afternoon of drinking at the home of Melbourne drug dealer Dennis Allen on November 7, 1985. His body was disposed of by having its legs cut off with a chainsaw and stuffed inside a 44-gallon drum with concrete and lime, and was discovered in the Yarra River nearly four months later. According to a witness, Kenny was murdered by Allen because he called him a "rat". Allen died of heart failure less than two years later, having never been charged with the murder.^[46]

Terrence Raymond "Terry" Tognolini, the president and enforcer in the Hells Angels Nomads, was involved in an apparent road rage incident with motorist Mustafa Yildirim in Campbellfield, Melbourne on December 22, 1995. Tognolini followed Yildirim to his workplace and the men traded blows until they were separated before Tognolini retrieved a gun from his car and fired several shots at Yildirim, missing him on each occasion. Police raided Tognolini's home and found five cannabis plants in the backyard. He was charged with unlawful assault, assault with a weapon, making threats to kill, possessing cannabis and cultivating a narcotic plant. The case against him collapsed, however, when Yildirim refused to testify after being repeatedly harassed.^[47]

Terrence Tognolini was later implicated in the murder of Vicki Joy Jacobs, a 37-year-old woman who was shot six times as she slept next to her six-year-old son in her apartment in Long Gully, Bendigo on June 12, 1999. The previous year, Jacobs had given evidence that helped convict her ex-husband Gerald David Preston for the August 1996 murders of drug dealer and mechanic Les Knowles and his employee Tim Richards in Adelaide, and her testimony implicated the Hells Angels in hiring Preston for the killings. The prosecution heard that Tognolini had contracted Preston to murder Knowles who was trying to expand into the Hells Angels' drug territory, and also sold him the Luger pistol that was used in the murders. Victoria Police bulldozed their way into the fortified Thomastown headquarters of the Nomads chapter in July 1999 as part of the investigation, seizing a sawn-off shotgun, bulletproof vest, bags of documents and three motorcycles.^[48][49] Tognolini was overseas and Preston imprisoned at the time of Jacobs' murder and no one has been charged with the crime; however, a coronial inquest in 2004 declared that police believe she was killed on the orders of the Hells Angels as a payment for Preston remaining silent over the club's involvement in the Adelaide murders.^[50][51]

Hells Angels members Raymond Joseph "Ray" Hamment, Jr. and Paul Peterson, and club associate Andrew Hinton, each pleaded guilty to charges of conduct endangering life, intentionally causing serious injury, false imprisonment and rioting after abducting Brendan Schievella from outside a bar and holding him captive for five hours in Ivanhoe, Melbourne on June 25, 2005. Schievella was found with a toe amputated but told police he could not recall how it happened and no motive has been established for the incident.^[52][53]

In January 2007, Terrence Tognolini was expelled from the Hells Angels, had his tattoos removed, was savagely beaten and dumped on the street outside the Thomastown clubhouse after his fellow members learned that he was the subject of child sex allegations.^[54] Police arrested him on blackmail and arson charges and for a series of sex offences six months later. He was found guilty of 18 counts of supplying a drug of dependence to a child, one count of an indecent act with a child under 16, and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice and imprisoned for six-and-a-half years in 2009, and was further convicted of nine counts of blackmail, three of arson, two of intentionally causing injury and stalking and had 18 months added to his sentence in 2010. Many of Toglioni's crimes were part of an extortion racket he ran, using his former Hells Angels connections as well as threats and assaults to intimidate his victims.^[55][56]

On June 18, 2007, Hells Angels member Christopher Wayne Hudson opened fire on two men and a woman during an argument in the Central Business District of Melbourne; after assaulting his girlfriend Kara Douglas, two male bystanders, Brendan Keilar and Paul de Waard attempted to assist Douglas. Hudson pulled a gun and shot all three, killing Keilar, on the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane.^[57] Hudson fled from the scene and went into hiding for two days, before turning himself in to police on June 20, 2007 in Wallan, north of Melbourne.^[58] In May 2008, Hudson pleaded guilty to the murder of Brendan Keilar^[59] and was sentenced that September to life imprisonment with a minimum of 35 years before becoming eligible for parole.^[60]

Hells Angels member Glyn David Dickman was found guilty of intentionally causing serious injury and threatening to kill, and acquitted of theft, while club hang-around Ali Chaouk was found guilty of recklessly causing serious injury, threat to kill and false imprisonment in October 2014 after the pair beat 18-year-old German tourist Faisal Aakbari with a baseball bat at the Hells Angels clubhouse in Thomastown in September 2009 when he falsely claimed to be a club member. Aakbari's injuries included bleeding between the skull and lining of the brain, a broken leg and lacerations to his scalp and face.^[61]

Peter John "Skitzo" Hewat, sergeant-at-arms of the Hells Angels' East County chapter in Campbellfield, Melbourne, was arrested in March 2013 after striking a 64-year-old woman during a dispute over his dog, and was again arrested that October as part of a statewide raid targeting the Hells Angels in which thirteen people were arrested and weapons and drugs were seized.^[62][63] Hewat was sentenced to 10 months in jail in January 2014 after he pleaded guilty to assault, weapons offences, handling stolen goods and operating a tow truck without the proper licence.^[64]

The Bandidos reportedly declared war on the Hells Angels after an ambush on several Bandidos members outside the affiliated Diablos' clubhouse in Melton, Melbourne on March 1, 2013 in which over 30 shots were fired and two men, including Bandidos national sergeant-at-arms Toby Mitchell, were wounded.^[65] The Hells Angels Nomads chapter were blamed for the attack and brothers Daniel and Ben Pegoraro, both members of Hells Angels puppet club the Red Devils, were questioned by police.^[66] Within a week of the shooting, a clubhouse in Bendigo linked to the Hells Angels was burned down and the Pegoraro brothers' home in Epping, Melbourne was attacked in a drive-by shooting.^[67] Although prolonged violence was expected, the feud seemingly ended after senior members of the two clubs held peace talks.^[68][69]

Ray Hamment, Jr., the president of the Hells Angels Nomads, pleaded guilty to a charge of recklessly causing serious injury and was jailed three months after attacking a man who approached him in a McDonald's restaurant in Thomastown on June 7, 2013.^[70]

The Hells Angels carried out drive-by shootings (using either AK-47s or M1 carbines) and attempted bombings on two properties, a tattoo parlour in Dandenong and a gym in Hallam, owned by Comancheros state president Michael "Mick" Murray in the early hours of September 30, 2013 after several Hells Angels were assaulted while trying to recover stolen motorcycles from the rival club. Within hours of the attacks, the clubhouse of the Hells Angels' Darkside chapter in Seaford, Melbourne was shot at in an apparent retaliation.^[71] On October 13, 2013, Victoria police raided every Hells Angels property in the state in an attempt to curb bikie-related violence, seizing guns, ammunition, drugs and cash, and arresting 13 people, but failed to retrieve the assault rifles used in the shootings.^[72] Dennis Basic, a prospective member of the Darkside chapter, was arrested for the attempted bombings of the properties and pleaded guilty to thirteen charges which also included firearm and drug possession; having been held in custody since his arrest until the time of his sentencing in December 2015, the judge ruled that the time he had served in jail was sufficient penalty but ordered he serve a 12-month community corrections order.^[73]

The president of the Hells Angels' Darkside chapter, Mohammed "Sam" Khodr, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for selling more than $220,000 worth of amphetamines to undercover police officers in January 2015. He had been targeted during an investigation code-named Operation Statin, part of a major crackdown on motorcycle gangs by Victoria Police, and sold 910 grams of the drug to officers in 11 separate transactions between October 2013 and February 2014. He also sold a Browning semi-automatic pistol with ammunition to the officers for $10,500.^[74]

British Columbia

Investigations

In late 2004 to 2005, the culmination of investigations into the actions of the motorcycle club led to charges against 18 people, including members of the Hells Angels and other associates of the gang.^[90]

Background

In July 2003, a man offered to give police information and became the police agent around whom much of the E-Pandora investigation ensued. Charges arose from project E-Pandora, an extensive police investigation, into the alleged criminal activities of the East End Charter of the Hells Angels (the "EEHA"). The evidence in this case included intercepted private communications including telephone and audio recordings, physical surveillance, and expert evidence. The case would eventually be dubbed the trial of R. v. Giles,^[91] and would see three charged individuals appear before the Supreme Court of British Columbia (SCBC). 72 appearances would span from May 14, 2007 until February 20, 2008 and, by order of Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie, include a publication ban on related trials.^[92]

Ruling

On March 27, 2008, the SCBC Justice MacKenzie ruled against prosecutors who had attempted to convict a Hells Angels member of possession for the benefit of a criminal organization. Although two associates of the Hells Angels, David Roger Revell, 43, and Richard Andrew Rempel, 24, were convicted of possession for the purpose of trafficking, Justice MacKenzie concluded that with the acquittal of the only Hells Angel member being tried, David Francis Giles, on a charge of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, a second charge against him (count two) of possessing it for the benefit of a criminal organization had to fail as well.^[93] In summary, Revell and Rempel were found guilty but Giles was found not guilty on either count. Also, Revell and Rempel were found not guilty on the charge of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

In her acquittal of Giles, Justice MacKenzie said she found the evidence against him was "weak" and intercepted communications were "unreliable" because they were difficult to hear. She further stated that the Crown prosecutors had failed to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt the group was working to the "benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a criminal organization, to wit: the East End charter of the Hells Angels".

Project Halo, a three-year investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Team of the RCMP, into alleged criminal activity with the Nanaimo chapter. The investigation culminated in the search warrant being executed on December 12, 2003. On November 9, 2007 a seizure order was executed, under section 467.12(1) of the Criminal Code, on the clubhouse by dozens of heavily armed RCMP officers.[80]

Manitoba

The Hells Angels' expansion into Manitoba began with a relationship with Los Bravos, a local motorcycle club. In 2000 Los Bravos were "patched over," becoming a full-fledged Hells Angels chapter.^[94] The following investigations over the last two years have been executed with the following charges.

On February 15, 2006 the Manitoba Integrated Organized Crime Task Force, along with over 150 police officers from the RCMP, Winnipeg Police Service and Brandon Police Service, made numerous arrests and conducted searches as part of the investigation of Project Defense.^[95] Thirteen people were indicted on a variety of charges, including drug trafficking, extortion, proceeds of crime, and organized crime related offenses.

Project Defense was initiated in November 2004 and focused on high level members of drug trafficking cells in the province of Manitoba, including members of the Manitoba Hells Angels. During the investigation police made numerous seizures that totaled in excess of seven kilograms of cocaine and three kilograms of methamphetamine from drug traffickers within the Manitoba Hells Angels organization and other drug trafficking cells. Arrest warrants were issued for thirteen individuals and 12 search warrants were authorized for locations in Winnipeg and area.

This long-term covert investigation was initiated by the Manitoba Integrated Organized Crime Task Force, which was established in the spring of 2004 when an Agreement was signed between the Winnipeg Police Service, the RCMP, the Brandon Police Service and the Province of Manitoba. The mandate of the task force was to disrupt and dismantle organized crime in the province of Manitoba.

On December 12, 2007 Project Drill^[96] came to an end, with Winnipeg Police raiding the Hells Angels clubhouse on Scotia Street. Project Drill started the previous evening with arrests in Thompson and continued throughout the night and early morning in Winnipeg and St. Pierre-Jolys. During the course of Project Drill, police seized vehicles, approximately $70,000 cash, firearms, marijuana, Hells Angel related documents/property and other offense related property. As of December 12, 14 people were in custody and four were still being sought.

Police said it was the second time the chapter president was the target in a police sting since the gang set up shop in the city in 2001. Hells Angels prospect member Al LeBras was also arrested at his Barber Street home in Wednesday's raids.

The recently amended Criminal Property Forfeiture Act gives the province the power to seize the proceeds of crime. Police have exercised similar authority against Hells Angels members in other Canadian cities.^[97][98]

On December 2, 2009 Project Divide^[99] culminated with 26 arrests, and 8 arrest warrants still outstanding after the year-long investigation. The investigation and arrests targeted alleged drug-trafficking and related activities of the Zig Zag Crew – a puppet club of the Hells Angels Winnipeg chapter.

Other joint investigations include:

• Project Develop,^[100] a joint 18-month investigation with Ontario, New Brunswick, and British Columbia
• In January 2006, Project Husky,^[101] a two-year investigation involving police forces in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, resulted in the arrest of twenty-seven suspects^[102] including five full-patch Angels from across Eastern and Central Canada
• Project Koker,^[103] 23-month investigation in Edmonton and Calgary
• Project Halo,^[104] a three-year investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Team of the RCMP, into alleged criminal activity with the Nanaimo chapter. The investigation culminated in the search warrant being executed on December 12, 2003. On November 9, 2007 a seizure order was executed, under section 467.12(1) of the Criminal Code, on the clubhouse by dozens of heavily armed RCMP officers.^[105]

Ontario

In September 2006, after an 18-month investigation conducted by numerous law enforcement agencies and dubbed "Project Tandem," 500 officers and 21 tactical teams raided property connected to the Hells Angels chapters in Ontario. At least 27 members were arrested of which 15 were members of the Hells Angels. Property seized was worth more than 1 million dollars and included $470,000 in cash, $300,000 in vehicles and $140,000 in motorcycles. During the raids, drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy were seized; the total street value of drugs seized was more than 3 million dollars.^{[106][107][108]}

In April 2007, after another 18-month investigation, this one dubbed "Project Develop," 32 Club Houses were raided in Ontario, New Brunswick and British Columbia. The Hells Angels Clubhouse on 498 Eastern Avenue in Toronto was raided by the Biker Enforcement Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and members of the Toronto Police Service on April 4, 2007, at least 15 members of the Hells Angels were detained and charged with drug and weapons offenses at the Eastern Avenue Clubhouse raid.^{[109][110][111]} According to police, Project Develop seized some 500 litres of GHB worth an estimated $996,000, nine kilograms of cocaine, two kilograms of hashish and oxycodone and Viagra pills. Police also seized $21,000 in cash. Project Develop also seized 67 rifles, five handguns, three pairs of brass knuckles and a police baton.^[110]

On May 21, 2011, five of the accused arrested as part of Project Develop were convicted by a jury of various drug offenses including trafficking in cocaine and oxycodone, participating in a conspiracy to traffic GHB and possession of GHB for the purpose of trafficking. One of the accused was convicted of possessing a restricted firearm without a license. However, one accused, represented by defence lawyer Lenny Hochberg, was acquitted of two counts of trafficking handguns and possession of brass knuckles and another accused, Larry Pooler the Toronto chapter vice-president who represented himself, was acquitted of two counts of possessing unrestricted firearms without a license, two counts of trafficking oxycodone and one count of participating in a conspiracy to traffic GHB. Furthermore, all accused were acquitted of all charges of acting in association with, or for the benefit of, a criminal organization.^{[112][113][114]}

Quebec

The emergence of biker gangs in Quebec happened contemporaneously with the United States. Quebec's economic crisis of the 1920s saw many of Quebec's urban population heading for the rural communities in order to cultivate lands to provide for themselves and their families. The settlers' children, like many youth of this era, were rebellious and rejected their parents' values. While the American gangs were created by World War II veterans, in Quebec the formation of motorcycle clubs which was seen as an expression of this rebellion. The period from 1936 to 1960 is remembered by Québécois as the Grande Noirceur ("Great Darkness") when Quebec was for the most part ruled by the ultra-conservative Union Nationale party who imposed traditional Catholic values in a way now considered to be oppressive.^[115] With the 1960 provincial election that resulted in the Union Nationale being defeated by the Quebec Liberals, which is considered to be the beginning of the Quiet Revolution that saw Quebec go during the course of a decade from being a very conservative to being a very liberal society.^[115] As part of the reaction against the "medieval" Catholic values of the Grande Noirceur saw the emergence of a hedonist culture in Quebec with la belle province having, for example, a significantly higher rate of drug use and illegitimate births than English Canada. As part of the same backlash against the "suffocating" conformism of the Grande Noirceur, outlaw biker clubs became extremely popular in Quebec in the 1960s as many young French-Canadian men saw the outlaw biker culture as a way of expressing rebelliousness and machismo, and by 1968 Quebec had 350 outlaw biker clubs.^[115]

By the 1960s, Quebec outlaw motorcycle clubs incorporated many of the same characteristics as American biker clubs, although they mainly operated in rural communities instead of in major cities. One result of having so many outlaw biker clubs in the same province was an especially brutal competition for the control of organized crime rackets in Quebec.^[115] The crime journalist James Dubro stated about the distinctive outlaw biker sub-culture of Quebec: "There's always has been more violence in Quebec. In the biker world it's known as the Red Zone. I remember an Outlaws hit man telling me he was scared going to Montreal."^[116] The expansion of these groups flourished during the 1970s, as a few popular gangs, notably the Hells Angels and the Outlaws, grew almost 45% due to Quebec's biker groups affiliating themselves with their American counterparts.

On 17 February 1978, Yves "Apache" Trudeau, the Hells Angels leading assassin, killed an Outlaw outside of a Montreal bar.^[117] In the ensuring biker war between the two gangs, Trudeau confirmed his reputation as a "psychopathic killer" as he killed 18 out of the 23 Outlaws slain during the conflict.^[117] The conflict ended in 1984 with the Hells Angels as the leading biker gang in Quebec and the Outlaws as the leading gang in Ontario.^[118] In 1985, in the Lennoxville massacre, the Angels liquidated their chapter in Laval, which caused much them disorganization with many of their leaders being imprisoned and the national president of Hells Angels Canada, Michel "Sky" Langois, fleeing to Morocco to escape an arrest warrant for first degree murder.^[118] The Quebec branch of the Hells Angels at its prime included various clubhouses across Quebec which housed many of the gang's puppet groups, who would often carry out the gang's criminal activity. Every Quebec region had its own puppet club: the Rockers in Montreal, the Rowdy Ones in Sorel, the Evil Ones in Drummondville, the Satan's Guard in the Saguenay region, and the Jokers in St-Jean, which includes Maurice Boucher's son, Francis, as a full-fledged member.

The Quebec Biker war between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine began in 1994 and continued until late 2002 and claimed more than 162 lives, including innocent bystanders. Maurice (aka Mom) Boucher was the leader of the Quebec chapters and second-in-command of the Canadian Nomad chapter, a chapter with no fixed geographic base. On 13 September 2000, Michel Auger, the crime correspondent of Le Journal de Montréal was shot five times in the back while opening the trunk of his car in the parking lot of Le Journal de Montréal, and was almost killed.^[119] In the aftermath of the attempting assassination of Auger, journalists demonstrated in Montreal demanding that the Canadian government pass an RICO type act that would see the Hells Angels declared a criminal organization.^[119] In October 2000, a bar owner in the town of Terrebonne named Francis Laforest refused to permit the Rowdy Ones, a puppet club of the Hells Angels, to sell drugs in his bar.^[120] As Laforest was walking his dog, he was attacked on the streets in the daylight by three masked men who beat him to death with baseball bats.^[121] Led by Auger, a protest took place in Montreal to honor Laforest with Auger saying of Quebec's murderous outlaw bikers: "They believed that they are on the top of the world. The criminals had built up a system so sophisticated that they are above the law...We are the only country in the world where the gangs have a free ride".^[122] In May 2002, Boucher received a life sentence, with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years, after being convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of two Canadian prison guards, ambushed on their way home.^[123]

On April 15, 2009, operation SharQc was conducted by the Sûreté du Québec.^[124] The first specialized organized crime law enforcement task force in the province was composed of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), the Sûreté du Québec and the Montréal Police. Their goal was to investigate the Nomad chapter of the Hells Angels in the Montreal and Quebec City regions until it was dismantled two years later to make way for a bigger, province-wide Task force.

The Hells Angels threat in Quebec and Canada resulted in the first anti-gang law in Canadian legislation, as the Canadian government wished to build on the success of the American anti-racketeering legislation known as RICO. Furthermore, during the period the Canadian anti-gang legislation was created, many Montrealers were experiencing a high volume of violent acts which threatened civilians.

The tough shell of secrecy that protected the Hells Angels for years finally cracked during an investigation that has resulted in the arrests of almost every member of the gang in Quebec. On April 15, 2009, operation SharQc was conducted by the Sûreté du Québec. According to police, at the time it was the biggest strike at the HAMC in Canada's history and probably in all of HAMC's history. In all, 177 strikes were conducted by the police, 123 members were arrested, charged with for first-degree murder, attempted murder, gangsterism, or drug trafficking. The police seized $5 million in cash, dozens of kilograms of cocaine, marijuana and hashish, and thousands of pills. The operation was expected to lead to the closing of 22 unsolved murders. Operation SharQc involved a full-patch member of the gang turning informant, a very rare occurrence in Quebec.^[124][125] In October 2015, Quebec Superior Court Judge James Brunton ruled that delay between the arrests in 2009 as part of Operation SharQc and 2015 violated the right to a speedy trial guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and dismissed all of the charges against the Hell's Angels arrested as part of Operation SharQc.^[126]

England

In November 1972, three Hells Angels were sentenced to prison for their part in the rape of a 14-year-old girl who was seized from the street and sexually assaulted in front of laughing teenagers in a local café in Winchester. Ian "Moose" Everest was convicted of raping the girl and sentenced to seven years, while Stephen "Boots" Ripley and Anthony "Chas" Mann were each given four years for aiding and abetting Everest.^[220]

A group of up to 30 Hells Angels ambushed 15 members of an unsanctioned Windsor "Hells Angels" chapter who were sleeping in a car park near Brockenhurst in April 1979. Richard Sharman, the leader of the Windsor chapter, survived being shot three times in the head and another man received a shotgun wound to the buttocks.^[221] 24 Hells Angels were jailed or given suspended sentences for the attack in 1980.^[222] The Windsor chapter officially became Hells Angels in 1985.^[223]

Members of the Hells Angels' Lea Valley were involved in a mass brawl with a group from the Luton Town MIGs hooligan firm at the Blockers Arms public house in Luton in May 1990. The MIGs gained the upper hand, forcing the Hells Angels from the pub. With further violence seeming inevitable, undercover police officers were assigned to observe key figures on both sides. However, the MIGs decided to pay the Hells Angels £2,000 in compensation rather than face the continued threat of retaliation.^[223]

The Hells Angels became involved in a dispute between a Dutch drug trafficker and a Liverpool crime family in late 1992. The Liverpudlian gang had made a significant down payment on a large shipment of cannabis from Amsterdam which was seized by British customs officials during a routine check of a Dutch-registered ship docking at Manchester. Under the terms of the agreement, the drugs were no longer the responsibility of the Dutchman once they had left Dutch waters but the Liverpool family refused to pay the £140,000 owed and so the trafficker, a former Hells Angel, contracted the club to collect the debt owed to him. Three Hells Angels, Michael "Long Mick" Rowledge (vice-president of the Hells Angels' Wolverhampton chapter), Andrew Trevis (also from Wolverhampton) and Stephen Pollock (from the Windsor chapter) travelled to Aintree on October 7, 1992 and agreed to meet the Liverpudlians outside a supermarket in the Old Roan area. While the Hells Angels waited in their car, a gunman approached and shot Rowledge four times in the chest, killing him, before escaping in a waiting vehicle.^{[223][224][225]} In 1993, Delroy Davies was acquitted after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court and Thomas Dures was jailed for 13 years for conspiracy to murder.^[226]

Pierre Rodrigue and David Rouleau, two Canadian Hells Angels from the Sherbrooke chapter, were arrested by British police London at the request of the RCMP in February 1995 before being extradited to Canada and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for conspiring to smuggle 558 kilograms of cocaine into the UK in a scheme also involving the Rizzuto crime family and Colombian cartels.^{[227][228][229][230][231]}

The Hells Angels waged a two-year turf war with the Outcasts, who are centred in London and East Anglia, during the late 1990s. The dispute between the two clubs is believed to have begun when the Outcasts tried to absorb a small Hertfordshire club, The Lost Tribe, in June 1997. Concerned that such a move would make the Outcasts their equal in numbers, the Hells Angels made The Lost Tribe honorary members. That November, two members of the Outcasts were arrested in possession of loaded shotguns, allegedly on their way to confront the Hells Angels.^[232] On January 31, 1998, Outcasts members David Armstrong and Malcolm St Clair were killed in a clash with up to twenty Hells Angels at a concert in Battersea, London. Armstrong was dragged from his motorcycle and hacked to death with axes and knives; St Clair raced to his aid but was stabbed eight times. Ronald Wait, president of the Hells Angels' Essex chapter, was convicted of conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm and sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment in relation to the incident.^[233][234] In March 1999, a fertilizer and petrol bomb was found at the clubhouse of the Hells Angels' Lea Valley chapter and there was an attempted arson attack on a motorcycle shop owned by the Angels. Two Outcasts were then shot close to their east London clubhouse. Both survived but refused to co-operate with police.^[235]

The Outlaws, who have around 150 British members across 14 chapters mainly based in the West Midlands, have since become the Hells Angels' main rivals in the UK since opening chapters in the country in 2000. Hells Angels member Gerry Tobin was shot dead as he rode his motorcycle home to London, where he worked as a Harley-Davidson service manager, from the Bulldog Bash in Warwickshire on August 12, 2007. Two bullets were fired from a Rover car which drove up alongside him as he sped down the M40 motorway, one hitting him in the head. Seven members of the Outlaws, the entire South Warwickshire chapter, were convicted over his murder and sentenced to a total of 191 years in prison.^{[236][237][238][239]} It is believed that Tobin was killed due to the fact that the Hells Angels-run Bulldog Bash is held in Outlaws territory, and that the killing may have been sanctioned by Outlaws leadership in the United States.^[240]

A brawl between up to thirty Hells Angels and Outlaws members took place at Birmingham International Airport on January 20, 2008 after the two groups had found themselves together on a flight from Alicante, Spain, with police recovering various weapons including knuckledusters, hammers, a machete and a meat cleaver.^[241] Three Hells Angels and four Outlaws were convicted as a result.^[242][243]

Hells Angels member Dennis Taskin was jailed for six years and nine months after admitting illegally possessing ammunition and five guns as well as cocaine, amphetamines and morphine. Police had found an Uzi, three revolvers and an antique pistol as well as dum-dum bullets and drugs when they raided a flat rented by Taskin in Hove on December 26, 2009.^[244]

Stuart Manners, a member of the Hells Angels' Cadishead chapter, was jailed for twelve years after being convicted of selling a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun and 21 bullets to Liverpool criminal Darren Alcock and his associate Paul Estridge in Stockport in August 2012. Alcock and Estridge were both sentenced to 14 years.^[245][246]

Wales

The first Welsh Hells Angels chapter was formed in 1999.^[247] The Hells Angels' West Wales chapter clubhouse in Haverfordwest was raided by police in September 2007, with the police finding a handgun fitted with a silencer loaded with a full magazine of bullets. Gary Young, a probationary club member, was charged with possessing the weapon; he denied the charge and was found not guilty. He was later granted a conditional discharge for two years after admitting possessing a firearm without a certificate, possessing an offensive weapon and possessing three amounts of cannabis, charges which stemmed from several further police raids on his home during the initial investigation. Young was expelled from the Hells Angels due to the club taking exception to him "naming names" about who was whom within the West Wales chapter.^[248]

Neil Lake needed three metal plates inserted in his face after being attacked by a Hells Angel at a petrol station in Cardiff in October 2007. Lake took down the registration of his attacker's Harley-Davidson motorcycle which led police to Sean Timmins, the vice-president of the Wolverhampton chapter. Timmins denied inflicting grievous bodily harm on Lake and claimed that a fellow club member had been riding around with the same number plates as him; he told a judge he knew the identity of the actual attacker but explained that it would be against club rules for him to name him. Timmins was cleared of the charge in September 2008 after providing an alibi who said that he was working in his hometown on the day of the attack.^[249][250] He would later be one of the three Hells Angels jailed for six years after the brawl with the Outlaws at Birmingham Airport.^[251]

Hells Angels members Stephen Jones and Raymond Scaddan were cleared of violent behavior, while former member Andrew McCann was also found not guilty of violent disorder but convicted of using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behavior at Newport Crown Court on November 1, 2015. Jones and Scaddan maintained that they went to McCann's home in Newport on January 24, 2015 to collect money for a £2,000 gold necklace that had been given to him and that they had acted in self-defence after an alleged attack by McCann and his son. McCann, who left the club in 2014 after a dispute, claimed the two Hells Angels had come to extort £5,000 from him.^[252][253]

California

One major event in Hells Angels' history involved the December 6, 1969, Altamont Free Concert at the Altamont Speedway – partially documented in the 1970 film Gimme Shelter^[254] – featuring Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and The Rolling Stones. The Grateful Dead were also scheduled to perform but cancelled at the last minute owing to the ensuing circumstances at the venue. The Angels had been hired by The Rolling Stones as crowd security for a fee which was said to include $500 worth of beer.^[255] The Angels parked their motorcycles in front of the stage in order to create a buffer between the stage and the hundreds of thousands of concertgoers.

Crowd management proved to be difficult, resulting in both spectator injury and death. Over the course of the day, the Hells Angels became increasingly agitated as the crowd turned more aggressive. At a later murder trial of Hells Angel Alan Passaro, a security guard testified he heard the Hells Angels being summoned over the loudspeakers when the helicopter bearing The Rolling Stones landed. Debate after the event was over whether the Hells Angels were to manage security for the entire concert or just for The Rolling Stones. Sam Cutler, the Stones' agent who had arranged to pay the Hells Angels said their role was as bodyguards to the Rolling Stones. This was denied by the Hells Angels as well as others connected to the event. During the opening act of Santana, the Hells Angels surged into the crowd numerous times to keep persons off stage.^[256]

By the time The Rolling Stones took stage, numerous incidents of violence had occurred both between the Hells Angels and internally within the crowd, not the least of which featured a circus performer weighing over 350 pounds stripping naked and running amok amid the concertgoers. Audience members attempted to detain him. Eventually, the irate man was subdued after Angels intervened with fists and makeshift weapons, while a crowd of 4,000–5,000 looked on from the edge of the stage.

The aggression did not subside there. After an Angel's motorcycle was toppled, club members' tempers continued to escalate, their ire spread wide between the audience and performers alike. At one point, Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane was knocked unconscious following an altercation with an Angel, an event later depicted in Gimme Shelter. The Grateful Dead refused to play following the Balin incident, and left the venue.

A shoving match erupted near the stage during a rendition of the song "Under My Thumb".^{[257][258][259]} As the song began, a man in the audience, Meredith Hunter, was allegedly harassed, then violently pushed back by the Hells Angels. He returned, producing a handgun.^[260][261] Hunter was stabbed to death. A Hells Angel member, Alan Passaro, was later acquitted of murder on grounds of self-defense. After the concert and critical media attention given to the HAMC, Sonny Barger went on a local California radio station to justify the actions of the Hells Angels and to present their side of the story. He claimed that violence only started once the crowd began vandalizing the Hells Angels' motorcycles. Barger would later claim that Meredith fired a shot which struck a Hells Angels member with what he described as "just a flesh wound."^[262]

In 2005, after a two-year exhaustive cold-case renewal of the file, the Alameda County District Attorney's office permanently closed the case. An enhanced and slowed down version of the original film footage was produced for the police, and after examining it Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek said Passaro, who died in 1985, was the only person to stab Hunter and he did so only after Hunter pointed a handgun at the stage where the Stones were performing.

Alan Passaro is the only person who stabbed Meredith Hunter, Dudek said, adding that Passaro's lawyer confirmed his client was the sole assailant. "Passaro acted with a knife to stop Meredith Hunter from shooting."^[263]

In 2008, Mark "Papa" Guardado, the president of the San Francisco chapter, was shot dead after a bar fight in the Mission District of San Francisco.^[264] Christopher Bryan Ablett, a member of the rival Mongols MC club, was later arrested for Guardado's murder.^[265]

In 2011, president of the San Jose chapter Jeffrey Pettigrew,^[266] was shot four times in the back on September 23, 2011 at a casino in Sparks, Nevada. Two California members of the Vagos motorcycle club at the crime scene were also shot but survived. Pettigrew was in Sparks for 'Street Vibrations', a long-running motorcycle festival in the Reno area. Sparks declared a state of emergency after another motorcyclist wearing Vagos colors was shot shortly afterwards in the stomach from a passing vehicle.^[267] Cesar Villagrana, who had been with Pettigrew, was charged with discharging a firearm and other offenses. Ernesto Manuel Gonzales was later arrested in San Francisco in connection with the death of Pettigrew.^[268][269] Another Hell's Angel, Steve Tausan, an "enforcer" for the Santa Cruz chapter, was shot at Pettigrew's funeral. According to police, after the shooting, the suspect, Steve Ruiz, disappeared and one or more people tampered with the crime scene, washing away bloodstains and removing evidence of the shooting.^[270]

Nevada

The River Run Riot occurred on April 27, 2002, at the Harrah's Casino & Hotel in Laughlin, Nevada. Members of the Hells Angels and the Mongols motorcycle clubs fought each other on the casino floor. As a result, Mongol Anthony Barrera, 43, was stabbed to death, and two Hells Angels, Jeramie Bell, 27, and Robert Tumelty, 50, were shot to death. On February 23, 2007 Hells Angels members James Hannigan and Rodney Cox were sentenced to two years in prison. Cox and Hannigan were captured on videotape confronting Mongols members inside the casino. A Hells Angel member can be clearly seen on the casino security videotape performing a front kick on a Mongol biker member, causing the ensuing melee.

However, prior to this altercation, several incidents of harassment and provocation were noted in the Clark County, Nevada Grand Jury hearings as having been perpetrated upon The Hells Angels. Members of the Mongols accosted a vendor's table selling Hells Angels trademarked items, had surrounded a Hells Angel and demanded he remove club clothing. In addition, nine witnesses claimed the fight began when a Mongol kicked a member of the Hells Angels. Regardless of which minor physical incident can be said to have "caused the melee", it is clear that The Hells Angels had come to confront the Mongols concerning their actions.

Attorneys for the Hells Angels claimed that the Hells Angels were defending themselves from an attack initiated by the Mongols.

Charges were dismissed against 36 other Hells Angels originally named in the indictment.^[271]

New York

In September 1994, near Buffalo at the Lancaster Speedway drag races, there was a clash between the Hells Angels and a rival biker gang resulting in two deaths, and multiple injuries.

On January 28, 2007 a woman named Roberta Shalaby was found badly beaten on the sidewalk outside the Hells Angels' clubhouse at 77 East Third Street in the East Village, Manhattan. The resulting investigation by the NYPD has been criticized by the group for its intensity. The police were refused access to the Hells Angels clubhouse and responded by closing off the area, setting up sniper positions, and sending in an armored personnel carrier.^[272] After obtaining a warrant, the police searched the clubhouse and arrested one Hells Angel who was later released. The group claims to have no connection with the beating of Shalaby. Five security cameras cover the entrance to the New York chapter's East 3rd Street club house, but the NY HAMC maintains nobody knows how Shalaby was beaten nearly to death at their front door. A club lawyer said they intended to sue the city of New York for false arrest and possible civil rights violations.^[273]

Ohio

Hells Angels were involved in a large-scale, pre-arranged brawl with The Breed at a motorcycle show in Cleveland, Ohio on March 6, 1971. Over a hundred bikers from both sides were involved, and four members of The Breed and a Hells Angel were stabbed to death. Dozens of vans and cars full of police officers were called in to break up the fight. 57 bikers were arrested, but most fled.^[274]

On February 27, 1988 David Hartlaub was murdered in his van at a bank parking lot near the Musicland record store that he managed, as he was dropping off the nightly deposit. The deposit bag contained about $4000 in cash and was not taken. Three members of Hells Angels motorcycle gang; Steven Wayne Yee, Mark Verdi, and John Ray Bonds were carrying out a hit. Cleveland Hells Angels were planning to retaliate against a Sandusky Outlaw gang member for the Joliet, IL shooting of an Hells Angels member the previous year, at which Bonds had been present. The Outlaw member drove a van almost identical to Hartlaub's. The trio mistook Hartalub's van for their enemy's and shot and killed him by mistake. Both the gun and the van's carpet were spattered with blood, allowing police to use DNA evidence, and discovered that John Ray Bonds was the shooter who had hid inside Hartlaub's van and was waiting to kill him. He shot him with a MAC-11 9-mm semi-automatic pistol fitted with a homemade silencer. Bond's DNA profile analyzed by the FBI matched the bloodstains found in Yee's car and based on this they were able to use it as key evidence. This was one of the first cases of DNA being used for criminal conviction. The trial and legal wrangling lasted nearly two years and ended in long prison terms for all three Hells Angels members, who may remain in prison on sentences up to life.^[275]

South Carolina

Sixteen members and associates of the Hells Angels' South Carolina Nomads chapter, which operated from clubhouses in Lexington and Rock Hill, were convicted of crimes related to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act following a two-year cooperative investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and four local police departments. The investigation revealed that the group engaged in drug dealing, money laundering, firearms trafficking, violent crimes, attempted armed robbery, arson, and other offenses. In excess of one hundred guns (including fully automatic machine guns, silencers, assault rifles with high-capacity magazines, pistols, and sawed-off shotguns) were trafficked by the group and recovered during the execution of search warrants, and members of the organization also supplied methamphetamine, cocaine, bath salts and prescription pain pills. The Hells Angels' leadership coordinated the criminal activity and received kickbacks from proceeds generated by members and associates of the chapter.^[276][277] During the investigation, the chapter's leadership transitioned from long-time Hells Angels member "Diamond" Dan Bifield to recent inductee Mark "Lightning" Baker after Bifield was voted out as president. Law enforcement began the operation when Bifield made a drug deal with an informant in 2011 and arrested twenty people — sixteen men and four women — in a series of raids in June 2012. The last of the sixteen convicted were sentenced in June 2013; the group was sentenced to more than 100 years imprisonment collectively.^[278][279]

Washington

In 2001 Hells Angels Rodney Lee Rollness, a former Hells Angel, and Joshua Binder murdered Michael "Santa" Walsh, who had allegedly falsely claimed to be a member of the Hells Angels.^[280] Paul Foster, hoping to join the Hells Angels, aided in the murder by luring Walsh to a party at his house and helping cover up the crime.^[281] West Coast leader Richard "Smilin' Rick" Fabel, along with Rollness and Binder, were also convicted of various racketeering offenses.^[282]