More Hell's Angel Arrests
Ninth Commandment
Hells angels exposed
Gang runs coke trade: Cops
Kelly Patrick
Windsor Star
March 12, 2005I t's Feb. 19, 4:25 p.m. Martin Dufresne is on the move,
heading west on Highway 401 near Cornwall. For months, the eyes and
ears of the law have been fixed on the 39-year-old suspected drug
runner for the Hells Angels.
He's not the only one under surveillance.
Using tracking devices hidden in cars, taps on cellphones and a bug in
a Moy Avenue auto shop, police have stalked the key players in an
alleged cocaine distribution network led by Windsor's Hells Angels and
fed by Dufresne's regular deliveries from Sherbrooke, Que., say court
documents obtained by The Star.
After a year-long investigation dubbed Project Provider, Windsor
police and their OPP and RCMP colleagues are primed to pounce. On Jan.
28, police had obtained a general warrant to search any place Dufresne
is suspected to stash drugs. His next trip, the one that begins Feb.
19, will be the trigger to smash the operation.
After following Dufresne, a barrel-chested man with thinning grey
hair, through Toronto and London, through Essex County meetings with
alleged Hells Angels Jose Poulin and Thomas Thibert, police finally
nab him in his 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier as he heads out of the city on
the 401 near Tilbury at 2:22 p.m. Feb. 21.
A sweeping countywide bust follows.
More than 100 officers from Windsor police, RCMP, OPP and other local
forces participate.
Three businesses and a dozen mainly middle-class homes in peaceful
neighbourhoods are raided.
Fifteen people are arrested and charged. Nearly $400,000 in cocaine
and cash is seized -- including $63,000 stashed in a secret
compartment beneath Dufresne's passenger-side dash.
Most significantly, an alleged full-patch Angel is arrested. Poulin, a
tall, olive-skinned Quebecer with a football linebacker's build is
charged with conspiracy to traffic narcotics.
The busts mark the first significant crackdown on cocaine dealing
police say is linked to the Hells Angels since the notorious biker
gang gained a foothold in Windsor in early 2001.
Nearly 400 pages of search warrant documents weave a fascinating tale
of how the Hells Angels gained a stranglehold on the city's cocaine
market and co-opted a pair of local alleged Erie Street drug dealers
and their underlings, including the sister and nephew of one of the
ring's top dealers.
But the search warrant documents contain only the police version of
the story. Defence lawyer Robert DiPietro, who represents most of the
accused nabbed in the Feb. 21 bust, says his clients are innocent. And
none, including Poulin, are Hells Angels or work for the notorious
gang of outlaw bikers, said DiPietro.
"I'm sure that's their theory," he said of police. "But as far as I
know, none of them are involved in the Hells Angels."
Craig McIlquham, a member of the club, declined comment when reached
Friday.
Kirk Munroe, a lawyer representing Dufresne and some of the other
defendants, said police have a self-interest in touting the "great
significance" of their latest arrest.
"Although I have not yet seen the evidence police claim to have, I do
know after more than 30 years of practice that police departments
everywhere tend to exaggerate the nature and strength of their case,"
Munroe said.
"Too many times, police crow about their case on arrest only to eat
crow later on. We'll see just how significant this case is when tested
in a courtroom."
What follows is an account of the investigation based on court
documents accessible to the public and prepared by the police to
obtain search warrants.
* * *
The world's largest and most notorious outlaw motorcycle gang began
its push into Windsor in the late 1990s. At the time the city was home
to at least two "one-percenter" motorcycle clubs -- so-called because
they consider themselves among the one per cent of bikers who eschew
society's rules. The Lobos and the Outlaws each boasted a handful of
local members. In reach and potency, they paled in comparison to the
Angels.
In September of 1999, four Quebec-based Angels paid a visit to a
weekend biker party hosted by the Windsor Lobos at their old
Provincial Road clubhouse. Among the visitors was Richard Ouellette, a
high-ranking Angel the court documents and police sources say
sponsored the Windsor chapter.
Rubbing shoulders with existing biker gangs was key to the Angels'
strategy in Ontario. Their protracted war with rival Quebec outlaws, a
bloody feud that left more than 100 people dead, taught them to co-opt
existing gangs, not battle them, wherever they could.
The Angels' Ontario recruiting drive culminated in an unprecedented
"patch-over" ceremony at their Sorel, Que., bunker on Dec. 29, 2000.
Normally, earning full-patch status takes a minimum of four years,
said RCMP Sgt. Jean-Pierre Levesque, the national co-ordinator on
outlaw motorcycle gangs for Criminal Intelligence Service Canada.
"It's not just an overnight promotion that you get," he said in an
interview. "You have to be sponsored by an actual member of the Hells
Angels who has known you for many years." Then wannabe members must
spend at least a year at each of three preliminary levels -- first
"friend," then "hangaround" and finally "prospect" before earning
full-patch status.
But the 179 Ontario members of the Lobos, Para-Dice Riders, Satan's
Choice and Last Chance biker gangs who switched allegiances at the
December 2000 patch-over bypassed the normally rigorous entry process.
In an instant, they became full-patch Angels.
Seven Windsor Lobos were reportedly among them. Less than two months
later the Angels hung their winged and grinning death-head insignia
outside the old Lobos compound on Provincial Road at the Sixth
Concession. It was a smooth and bloodless transition barely noticed by
anyone but police.
A Windsor police source said at least three long-time local Lobos who
patched over in 2000 -- 50-year-old John Muzzatti, 50-year-old Serge
Cattai and 54-year-old Thomas Thibert -- remain full members of the
Windsor chapter. Three other locals and Quebecer Poulin, whom court
documents say Ouellette dispatched to Windsor to found the local
chapter, round out the club. In 2003, Windsor's Angels moved to a new
fenced compound at 7893/7895 Howard Ave. in Amherstburg.
When the Angels settled in Essex County, it was expected they would
try to monopolize the sale of cocaine.
As one Windsor officer alleges in an application to obtain a warrant
to search the home of alleged mid-level dealer Salvatore Briguglio: "I
know from my involvement in the Biker Enforcement Unit and through
discussions with informants that the Hell's (sic) Angels want to be
the only "business" in town. Once the Hell's (sic) Angels learn that
someone is selling cocaine other that (sic) theirs, they approach that
person and give them several options. The options being they begin to
sell Hell's (sic) Angels cocaine, they get taxed on selling cocaine
supplied by someone else or they completely stop selling cocaine.
Assaults on persons are known to happen if they don't comply."
That's part of what makes the Hells Angels worse for Windsor than
run-of-the-mill drug dealers, said Julian Sher, who along with
co-author William Marsden is researching a second book on the outlaw
gang due this spring.
"The Hells Angels ... bring a level of intimidation and violence," he
said. "There have been drive-by shootings in Manitoba. We had the huge
biker war in Quebec. So the Hells Angels are much more vicious (than
other dealers.)"
Among the Windsorites who agreed to deal for the Angels, police
allege, were 38-year-old Carmen Amante and 27-year-old Attilio
Montaleone.
Amante doesn't work, yet lives "well beyond his means," the documents
say. His South Windsor home boasts an inground pool and handsome
landscaping. Expensive hangings drape his walls and a pool table, bar
and big screen TV fill his basement, say the documents. According to
the documents, Amante, Montaleone and others cut, pressed and packaged
the cocaine they received from Dufresne at Prestia Automotive, a Moy
Avenue auto shop the court documents say is little more than a front
for a drug-processing operation. The court documents say Amante owns a
50 per cent stake in Prestia Automotive.
On June 30, 2004, armed with a warrant to search Prestia without its
owners' knowledge, Windsor police found a suspected cocaine press,
boxes of multi-purpose bags, zip-lock plastic bags, an automatic money
counter, an American currency counterfeit detector, and a large bundle
of $100 bills. They didn't find any drugs. But an officer swabbed
samples from 20 locations around the shop, 18 of which later tested
positive for cocaine residue.
After readying the illicit narcotics for sale, the court documents
allege, Amante paid his 36-year-old sister Rita Payne and her
38-year-old husband, Wilf, a former Windsor Spitfire, $800 a month to
store the illicit narcotics in their upscale home on South Windsor's
Maguire Street. Filippo Polifroni, 62, served as the operation's
bookkeeper, tracking what it collected and what it was owed by its
army of dealers, the court documents say.
All were charged with conspiracy to traffic narcotics after the Feb.
21 raids. Police seized more than four pounds of cocaine worth
$327,000 at the Paynes' house.
Intertwined with their cocaine dealing, Montaleone and Amante ran a
lucrative sports betting operation, police allege. They're facing
bookmaking charges, along with 24-year-old Jason Giorgi, who turned
himself in the day after the big bust.
"Interceptions have shown that, on a regular basis, Montaleone
accepted wagers from his customers on major sporting events such as
NFL football, college football, college basketball, NBA basketball,
and horse racing from several horse race tracks in the Province of
Ontario," reads one court document.
Montaleone and Amante use their gaming profits to prop up the cocaine
dealing operation, say the documents.
Four of the others arrested Feb. 21 and charged with conspiracy to
traffic cocaine, including Amante's nephew, Randy Darocy, 26, of
LaSalle, Kevin Jovetic, 31, Antonio Desantis, 53, and Briguglio, 59,
all of Windsor, are "mid-level dealers," said the police source.
Guiseppe Manzoni, 37, of Essex, Robert Petley, 40 and his brother
Christopher Petley, 43, of Windsor were charged the day of the bust
with weapons offences related to their joint ownership of a single gun
seized in the raid on Prestia Automotive.
The documents show some of the network's main players suspected police
were watching. They conducted their deals in code, often shrouding
them in auto-shop jargon to try to fool police. Orders and debts
recorded in a Prestia log book were listed as gallons of paint, for
example.
Beginning Nov. 5, 2004, police eavesdropped on Amante, Montaleone and
Poulin by tapping their cellphones and installing a voice probe inside
Prestia Automotive. They picked up exchanges like this one in Italian
on Dec. 14 at 1:44 p.m, after Amante asked Briguglio to swing by the
auto shop.
Amante: "I got to look at that bumper again we got to re-paint it."
Briguglio: "Oh you gotta paint?"
A police transcriber then offered his interpretation of what was
really going on.
"I believe that Amante is telling Briguglio that he has cocaine for
him," the officer wrote. "Drug traffickers will often use coded
terminology in an attempt to avoid detection by the police. In this
case I believe Amante is using terms such as 'paint' and 'bumper' in
an attempt to mask the conversation."
After the conversation, Briguglio visited Prestia. When he returned to
his apartment at 1400 Ouellette Ave., an officer parked in the
underground lot spied his 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee. There was no
damage or fresh paint on its bumpers, the court documents say.
Armed with reams of wiretap transcripts like these, surveillance
records and informant statements, police and prosecutors will now try
to win their court case against the ring and establish its connection
to the Hells Angels.
That may not be easy.
"It's rare that a full-patch member gets his hands dirty directly,"
said Sher. "Even once you have the evidence, it can be difficult and
painstaking to get convictions."
Sher cited cases like that of Francisco (Chico) Pires and Ronaldo
Lising, a pair of Vancouver Hells Angels found guilty of conspiring to
traffic in cocaine, trafficking in cocaine and possession of proceeds
of crime valued at more than $1,000. Police began investigating the
pair in 1996 and arrested them in 1998. Their conviction in January
2001 marked the first victory for B.C. prosecutors against members of
the motorcycle gang, but Pires and Lising have since appealed.
For larger biker busts, the sheer volume of evidence and arrests poses
a challenges for the courts. Still, Canada's police and prosecutors
are, slowly, making some headway against the Angels.
According to RCMP figures as of July 2004, Quebec has proved the most
successful with roughly 65 per cent of the gang's 132 Quebec
full-patch members, prospects and hangarounds behind bars or before
the courts. In Ontario, where the Angels are strongest, 38 of 244
members, prospects and hangarounds are either incarcerated or charged.
From Manitoba west 24 of the club's 185 members, prospects and
hangarounds were either jailed or awaiting court appearances.
Everyone charged in the Feb. 21 busts has been released on bail. Their
bail hearings last week made headlines when former Detroit Red Wings
enforcer Bob Probert showed up in the courtroom.
Windsor police Sgt. John St. Louis said he couldn't comment on the
ongoing investigation. "However, we do expect to lay further charges
against other individuals."
kpat...@thestar.canwest.com or 255-5777, ext. 642
- - -
THE HELLS ANGELS IN CANADA
"The Hell's Angels remain the largest and most powerful outlaw
motorcycle gang in Canada with 34 (of which two in Quebec are
currently inactive) chapters across the country comprising
approximately 500 members."
Alberta: three chapters
Saskatchewan: two chapters
Manitoba: one chapter
Quebec: five chapters
Ontario: sixteen chapters, including one in Windsor and one opened
recently in Hamilton.
British Columbia: seven chapters
- Source: Criminal Intelligence Service
of Canada, 2004 annual report on Organized Crime in Canada
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Bob Probert the former Detroit Red Wing is a notorious bar fighter,
alcoholic and cocaine addict.