- MONTREAL -- Maurice (Mom) Boucher's triumphant smile and confident swagger
as he left a Montreal courthouse were a good indication of what to expect
from the Hells Angels in 1999.
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- The acquittal of the top biker provided
the gang with one of its biggest victories in 1998 and will likely spur
the outlaw organization's expansion across Canada, biker experts predict.
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- "It's given them more aggressiveness,"
said Jean-Pierre Levesque, an expert on biker gangs with the Criminal Intelligence
Service Canada.
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- "They look at Mom Boucher and the
others and say, 'They can't touch us.'"
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- Boucher was freed Nov. 27 after a jury
rejected a Crown case built on the testimony of an informant who admitted
to being a liar and double-crosser.
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- Boucher, leader of the strong-arm Nomad
section of the gang, had been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly
masterminding the killings of two prison guards.
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- Of the 38 outlaw biker gangs in Canada,
the Hells Angels is recognized as the most powerful and best organized.
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- Only Ontario, which has the most biker
gangs -- 13 -- has escaped its control, but the Angels are thought to be
considering a move into the province.
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- "In 1999, we'll definitely see more
expansion of the Hells Angels across the country," said Levesque.
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- "They're going to finalize in Manitoba.
Ontario is ripe now. I'm sure they'll be able to take it. The two main
gangs there are the Para-Dice Riders and the Vagabonds and both are friendly
with the Hells Angels."
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- In Saskatchewan, the Saskatoon Rebels
officially merged with the Hells Angels at a ceremony in September.
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- But not all the news in 1998 was good
for Boucher and the Angels.
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- A few days before Christmas, one of Boucher's
associates was gunned down in a bar by a hooded killer. A day before that,
a restaurant thought to be his favourite breakfast spot, was firebombed.
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- And as the year ended, the Crown announced
it would seek to appeal Boucher's acquittal.
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- His arrest at the end of 1997 had been
seen as a crippling blow to the organization, locked in a vicious turf
war with the smaller Rock Machine since 1994.
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- The Rock Machine, backed by an alliance
of crime families, wants to wrest control of Montreal's lucrative drug
trade from the older, more organized Angels.
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- But it was mostly Rock Machine bodies
that hit the pavement in 1998 -- including some of the gang's high-profile
members.
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- Leader Richard (Bam-Bam) Legace was gunned
down outside his health club in July. Six weeks later, one of the gang's
founders, Johnny Plescio, was killed by several gunshots while in his home.
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- Almost 70 people have died since the
biker war started, including an 11-year-old boy who was killed as he played
by flying shrapnel from a car bomb.
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- There have been more than 70 bombings
and almost 100 arsons.
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- Also distressing for the Rock Machine
is a stall in the proposed merger with the larger, Texas-based Bandidos.
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- Boucher's acquittal wasn't the only setback
for police this year.
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- In February, the Montreal police pulled
its 39 detectives from the Wolverine anti-biker squad that grouped city
cops with RCMP and Quebec provincial police.
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- The Montreal police, who have maintained
their own anti-biker squad, said they thought the Wolverines had accomplished
their main goals and the investigators were needed elsewhere.
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- But Ontario authorities were clearly
keen on fighting the gangs, injecting $3.4 million in 1998 into anti-biker
efforts, with an emphasis on torpedoing any attempts by the Hells Angels
to establish themselves.
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- The money boosted the size of the Ontario
provincial police anti-biker squad and brought resources from other police
forces into the fold.
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- The Conservative government also guaranteed
annual funding of $2.7 million for the squad.
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- "We are targeting biker gangs because
they are not the free-spirited, easy-rider romantics that they would have
you believe," said Solicitor General Jim Flaherty. "They are
criminals."
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- MONTREAL (CP) -- A restaurant
where an associate of a top Hells Angel was recently killed has been destroyed
by fire.
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- Montreal police said two men were seen pitching a firebomb
through a window of the Maison des bieres importees restaurant before the
blaze ignited Tuesday night.
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- Nobody was injured.
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- Police hesitated to make a link between the arson and
the killing of Lawrence-Lewis Bellas, 38, on Dec. 21.
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- Bellas was an associate of Hells leader Maurice (Mom)
Boucher, who was acquitted last month of masterminding the slayings of
two prison guards. Bellas was shot to death by a hooded gunman as he had
a drink. Two other people were seriously wounded.
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- The Hells and the Rock Machine biker gangs have been
locked in a vicious turf war over control of Montreal's lucrative drug
trade for the last four years.
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- More than 80 people have been killed.
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