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Thursday September 28, 2006

The Hell's Angels, the apparent main target of a series of police raids on Thursday, are probably the most famous name in biker gangs. They have at least 34 known chapters in Canada, and 228 worldwide. It's estimated the chopper riders have over 3,000 members across the globe.
The government claims the Angels are regularly involved in criminal activities, and use the international ties between chapters to engage in major drug trafficking, mostly marijuana and cocaine.

Despite arrests, raids and efforts by law enforcement officials, their tight knit organization, size and the threat of violence to anyone who tries to leave or oppose them makes them the most dangerous such entity in the world.

The group has embraced modern technology, like computers and the Internet, to further its aims. Many of its clubhouses are protected by highly sophisticated security systems to warn them before authorities approach.

The most famous incident involving the group in Canada may have come in August 1995, when a booby trapped car exploded on a Montreal street, killing the driver and fatally injuring an innocent 11-year-old boy who was simply walking by at the time.

The incident, part of an escalating war between the Angels and the Rock Machine, outraged the public and forced a crackdown on biker gangs that's still going on.

The Angels have managed to keep growing by absorbing other smaller groups into the fold, including the Paradise Riders, the Loners and the Vagabonds.

They've also been effective in staging public relations events, like gathering toys for kids at Christmas. And who can forget that infamous election handshake between an Angel and then Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman?

The government claims intimidation and violence remains the group's modus operandi of choice.

Among the activities the feds say the gangs regularly take part in:

-Drug trafficking
-Money laundering
-Murder
-Fraud
-Theft
-Prostitution
-Trafficking of illegal weapons and contraband.

And next time you rudely hang up on one of those unwanted phone callers consider who you're talking to - authorities say they're also involved in telemarketing.

The group denies they're a criminal organization, arguing they're simply people who love the freedom their motorcycles provide and are targeted because they don't subscribe to society's rigid morals.

But one organized crime expert believes they're only dangerous because of their ruthlessness and their numbers.

"Bikers are unstable people, whether they're the criminal bikers, the traffickers, of which a fair number of them obviously are, or they're just people who joined for whatever rebel outlaw reason," outlines Lee Lamothe. "They're not people who are necessarily the brightest people around."

 
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IF there "not the brightest people around" then how come it took the Opp and other police organizations so much longer to do a bust on them????

The other biker organizations got hit early summer.

F^ckin idiot reporter dosen't know .

If they had stayed out of the Meth business they would have never got hit.

 
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ill bet who ever wrote that article is dead now...but what u say is tru they busted the Banditos soo early in the summer hells angels were still cruising around

 
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Honestly go after gang violence in the cities. The angels rarely cause casualties. Not like crips and bloods who take down innocent lives in the process.

 
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i know for sure there involeved in some drug acitivity