INDEPTH: BIKER GANGS
Biker gangs in Canada
CBC News Online | April 10, 2006



According to the American Motorcyclist Association, 99 per cent of the people who ride motorcycles and the clubs they belong to are law-abiding citizens and organizations. The other one per cent, the organization said in the 1960s, are hard-riding, hard-partying, non-mainstream people.

Many bikers embraced that description.

But according to the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, law-enforcement officials changed the meaning of "one percenter" in the 1980s so that the term referred to members of criminal gangs. The Outlaws says it is a law-abiding organization whose members share a commitment to biking and brotherhood.

North American clubs also tend to require their members to own American-made bikes, often Harley Davidsons.

The largest and most-feared chapter of the Hells Angels was formed in Montreal.

According to Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, the Hells Angels is the foremost organized crime group in the country, topping traditional Mafia and ethnic gangs.

The Hells Angels began in 1948 in California and has grown to a network of 1,800 members in 22 countries.

It's estimated that Canada has about 500 full-fledged members in 32 active chapters across the country. The largest and most-feared chapter of the Hells Angels was formed in Montreal. In 1977, it merged with another gang called the Popeyes.

The FBI estimates the Hells Angels takes in $1 billion a year worldwide from drug trafficking.

In Quebec, the Rock Machine emerged in 1986 and quickly became the biggest rival of the Hells Angels. A turf war between the two gangs in the late 1990s claimed 150 lives, including two prison guards and 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers, who died when a car bomb exploded outside a biker hangout.

His death and the outrage that followed prompted Bill C-95, the legislation that stiffens penalties for convicted offenders who are shown to be members of established criminal organizations.

According to the CISC's 2004 report, the anti-gang law seems to be having an impact. The agency says the law has persuaded two of Canada's major bike gangs - the Outlaws and the Bandidos - to keep a low profile. The report added that of seven Outlaws chapters in Canada, only three were operating with any kind of stability.

Even the Hells Angels, the report said, was "experiencing varying degrees of weakness in Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Atlantic Canada due to law-enforcement operations, internal conflict and increased competition from other criminal organizations."

According to police, biker gangs share several characteristics:

• They show off their colours in public.
• Biker gangs use force and violence to survive and grow. Intimidation, arms and explosives are their weapons of choice.
• The organizations have a hierarchical structure. Committing crimes is left to new recruits while those higher up reap the rewards.
• The hierarchical structure allows the leaders to operate with impunity while flaunting their image of power to attract recruits and draw them into crime.
• It is difficult for law-enforcement agencies to infiltrate these organizations because becoming a member involves committing crimes.

Here's a brief look at the major biker organizations that have operated in Canada.

Hells Angels
Criminal Intelligence Service Canada describes the Hells Angels as the largest "outlaw motorcycle gang" in the country, with at least 32 active chapters and 500 members, especially in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

In its 2004 report, CISC said the Angels derives "significant financial income from various criminal activities across the country such as prostitution, fraud and extortion. However, drug trafficking, particularly cocaine, marijuana and increasingly methamphetamine, remains the primary source of illicit income."