Hell's Angels Clubhouse Focus Of Investigation
Greg Carr
investigation focusing on the Hell's Angel clubhouse on East Georgia
St in Vancouver.
Tremendous Wang
says...
>
>According to the 1:30pm CKNW 980 AM newscast there is a major
>investigation focusing on the Hell's Angel clubhouse on East Georgia
>St in Vancouver.
You must be on cloud 9!
Greg Carr
3598 East Georgia St, Vancouver,BC
Police raid Hell's Angels operations around BC
Jul, 15 2005 - 4:00 PM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) -- Vancouver Police and the RCMP are involved
in what's described as a large-scale criminal investigation at the
Hell's Angels clubhouse in East Vancouver.
The clubhouse, in the 35 hundred block of East Georgia Street, is
partly covered in tarp at several entrances as police carry out their
investigation.
However, police aren't saying much right now. Vancouver Police
spokesperson Constable Howard Chow will only tell us no further
information will be released until early next week because it's still
very early in the investigation.
Five Hell’s Angels who were inside the clubhouse at the time of the
raid say they are fuming as they pace the sidewalk outside. One of the
bikers says "I think the house got ransacked inside. That's the story.
Come on in, you got a warrant? What do you want?” When asked if he’d
been inside the house during the raid, the biker replied “No, but I
got a lot of information from two people that were in the house and
it's a mess."
Right now we don't know if any Hell’s Angels have been arrested.
Nearby neighbour Lisa Blesca describes the raid as it began this
afternoon: "Bang bang bang bang! And then I heard glass breaking and
then I heard them go up the house and then I came out and they went
'We have a warrant for your arrest, please stay away from your windows
and stay away from your doors.’"
The East End clubhouse in Vancouver isn't the only place where the
Hell's Angels are getting a visit today. Police are also executing
search warrants on Hell's Angels property in Kelowna. Police confirm
arrests have been made in Kelowna, but at this moment, they don't want
to say exactly how many Angels have been taken in.
An operation in Merritt appears to have wrapped up. Again, the
Mounties don't want to say if any Angels have been taken into custody
in that location.
RCMP are also on the scene at a home in Burnaby, a home with
connections to the Angels.
We're told these raids are going to continue into the evening.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police raid Hell's Angels operations around BC
Jul, 15 2005 - 4:00 PM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) -- Vancouver Police and the RCMP are involved in
what's described as a large-scale criminal investigation at the Hell's
Angels clubhouse in East Vancouver.
The clubhouse, in the 35 hundred block of East Georgia Street, is
partly covered in tarp at several entrances as police carry out their
investigation.
However, police aren't saying much right now. Vancouver Police
spokesperson Constable Howard Chow will only tell us no further
information will be released until early next week because it's still
very early in the investigation.
Five Hell’s Angels who were inside the clubhouse at the time of the
raid say they are fuming as they pace the sidewalk outside. One of the
bikers says "I think the house got ransacked inside. That's the story.
Come on in, you got a warrant? What do you want?” When asked if he’d
been inside the house during the raid, the biker replied “No, but I
got a lot of information from two people that were in the house and
it's a mess."
Right now we don't know if any Hell’s Angels have been arrested.
Nearby neighbour Lisa Blesca describes the raid as it began this
afternoon: "Bang bang bang bang! And then I heard glass breaking and
then I heard them go up the house and then I came out and they went
'We have a warrant for your arrest, please stay away from your windows
and stay away from your doors.’"
The East End clubhouse in Vancouver isn't the only place where the
Hell's Angels are getting a visit today. Police are also executing
search warrants on Hell's Angels property in Kelowna. Police confirm
arrests have been made in Kelowna, but at this moment, they don't want
to say exactly how many Angels have been taken in.
An operation in Merritt appears to have wrapped up. Again, the
Mounties don't want to say if any Angels have been taken into custody
in that location.
RCMP are also on the scene at a home in Burnaby, a home with
connections to the Angels.
We're told these raids are going to continue into the evening.
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article.jsp;jsessionid=IAJLKJGOCDAM?content=20050715_193301_1056
Greg Carr
Jul, 15 2005 - 4:00 PM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) -- 15 Hell’s Angels, and counting, are under
arrest, in a sweeping crackdown in cities around BC.
Members of the biker gang have been arrested in Vancouver and in
Kelowna.
Police are tonight looking for at least three more Angels, for an
arrest total of 18.
Seven of those under arrest are full patch-wearing members of the
Angels.
Police moved in on the East Vancouver clubhouse on Georgia Street
earlier in the day. Angels we talked to on the scene compared it to a
"home invasion".
Police have been investigating a home on East Pender in Burnaby. They
tell us that home has connections to the Hell’s Angels.
An operation against the Angels has apparently wrapped-up in Merritt.
It's unclear right now if anyone has been arrested in that community.
Greg Carr
Last updated Jul 15 2005 07:07 PM PDT
CBC News
Vancouver police conducted a major raid on a Hells Angels clubhouse
Friday afternoon.
People living on East Georgia St. say about a dozen SWAT team members
entered the clubhouse with a battering ram.
The police immediately cordoned off the area and set up two police
command units.
Vancouver police aren't saying much, but they confirm the raid was a
joint operation with the RCMP.
"We can confirm that it involves the Hells Angels and the Hells Angels
clubhouse at the 3500 block of East Georgia," Vancouver Police Const.
Howard Chow said. "Any other information will be coming from a press
conference we'll be holding early next week."
Some Hells Angels members weren't happy about the raid. John Bryce
says police roughed up a couple of the club's members during the
initial assault.
Other members of the notorious gang stood across the street as the
police searched their clubhouse.
Bryce read the police warrant and says the officers were looking for
Hells Angels paraphernalia. He called the police raid unnecessary.
"This is all propaganda," he said. "What do they need all these guys
for and a SWAT team? We're not armed and we're not running around
doing anything illegal.
"Knock on the door, I'll look at the warrant and say whoever's there
and I'll say okay come on in."
Police will only say the raid is part of an ongoing investigation.
Bryce says the Hells Angels will be talking to their lawyer.
http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_hells-angels-raid-20050715
If they are really looking for Hell's Angel paraphernalia none of
which the HAMC East End President John Peter Bryce was wearing today
then maybe they are finally going to shut this criminal organization
down. After over 20 years the HAMC was recently found to be a criminal
organization by a Canadian court therefore all members are gangsters
and are guilty under Canadian laws of gangsterism.
Greg Carr
Enraged outlaw gang members accuse police of 'home invasion'
Neal Hall and Amy O'Brian
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Police descended on Hells Angels clubhouses in Vancouver and Kelowna
Friday, armed with warrants, battering rams and the intent to seize
property, lay charges, and prevent the expansion of the outlaw
motorcycle gang into the Okanagan.
RCMP and Vancouver police executed search warrants at the Vancouver
East End chapter clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia, and at the clubhouse
in Kelowna, which is a satellite of the East End chapter.
- olice made 18 arrests and were expected to lay a variety of drugs
and weapons charges.
"We've taken a bunch of members into custody and we're hoping to
charge them with a number of offences -- drugs, violence, weapons,
explosives and criminal organization," said Vancouver RCMP Insp. Bob
Paulson, who is in charge of major investigations involving outlaw
motorcycle gangs in B.C.
Neighbours of the Vancouver clubhouse said SWAT team members used a
battering ram attached to the back of a pickup truck to knock down the
door of the modest white house, which sits on a quiet residential
street close to the Vancouver-Burnaby border.
"We heard bang, bang, bang," said Lisa Blashill, whose mother lives
kitty-corner to the clubhouse. "And we heard a bunch of glass
breaking."
John Bryce, president of the East End chapter, hovered with other
Hells Angels members around the edges of the cordoned-off area Friday
afternoon, watching the police as the police watched them with a video
camera stationed atop one of two large police trailers.
Noticeably angry, the group of men spoke in low voices to each other
and on their cellphones. A couple of them spoke to The Vancouver Sun,
but Bryce was the only one to provide his name.
Asked why the police were raiding the house, Bryce said, "I know as
much as you do."
"They just barged right in and knocked the door down," he said. "We're
not armed. We don't have weapons."
Bryce said the warrant stated police were looking for "Hells Angels
paraphernalia," but would not elaborate.
"They're looking for pictures of us," he said. "They're just gathering
information. That's what they do."
Bryce said two members were inside the house when police arrived, but
neither was arrested.
Immediately after police gave a statement at the scene, one of the
Hells Angels members began yelling at police, likening the police raid
to a "home invasion" and asking, "What's the crime?"
- olice cordoned off the intersection in front of the clubhouse and
backed up what appeared to be a moving truck to the front of the
house.
Blashill said she heard officers say they had a warrant to seize
everything on the property.
Vancouver police Const. Howard Chow gave a brief statement at the
scene, but would only say the raid is part of an continuing
investigation.
"We're involved in a large-scale criminal investigation. What I can
confirm for you now is that it involves the Hells Angels as well as
the Hells Angels clubhouse here in the 3500-block of East Georgia
Street," Chow said.
"There's no further information that we're going to be releasing at
this point, given that it's still early in the investigation and it's
at a very sensitive stage."
Chow said more details will be announced at a news conference Monday
or Tuesday.
The operation is a joint investigation involving the RCMP and
Vancouver police, including the multi-force combined forces special
enforcement unit, which investigates organized crime.
Two members of the East End chapter were convicted in 2001 of cocaine
trafficking in what police said was the first successful prosecution
of Hells Angels members in B.C. on serious charges. Police allege
members of the biker gang are also involved in marijuana grow
operations.
- olice concern about the Hells Angels expanding into the Okanagan
apparently stems from the fact that six members of the East End
chapter of the gang had moved to Kelowna and were trying to set up a
new Hells Angels chapter.
In recent months, there have been a number of incidents linked to
Hells Angels in Kelowna that have attracted the attention of police,
including a fight at Lake City Casino April 22 that was caught on
surveillance video. The video showed a Hells Angels member wearing his
"colours" -- the Hells Angels' death-head logo and the chapter
location that indicates full membership.
Sabino Debenedetto, 46, and Joseph Calendino were both charged with
assault.
Despite the gang's criminal connections, their neighbours in East
Vancouver enjoy having Hells Angels on their street, saying they
provide a degree of safety in the area.
Blashill, who said her sister used to attend parties at the clubhouse,
said she's worried the police raid will mean the end of the club's
presence on her street.
"It makes me scared for the neighbourhood," she said. "They're good
neighbours. We want them to stick around."
Linda Koverola, another of the Hells Angels' neighbours, agreed with
Blashill, and said the only disturbances arising from the clubhouse
are the members' loud motorcycles.
The two women said there was a drive-by shooting about eight years ago
at the house, but nobody was injured and there haven't been any other
violent incidents since then.
Koverola said members at the clubhouse donated $265 to cancer research
in 2003 when her brother was diagnosed with the disease.
Bryce said the Hells Angels have been in the neighbourhood for 18
years and have had very little trouble with police or anyone else.
He said police knocked on the clubhouse door about eight years ago
with a warrant, but did not damage or destroy any property, as he said
they did Friday.
Earlier this year, police charged Norman Edward Krogstad, the
57-year-old president of the Hells Angels Vancouver chapter, with 14
counts of trafficking cocaine.
He is the highest-ranking member of the Angels to face criminal
charges in B.C.
Krogstad was among a police roundup of 10 men charged with trafficking
cocaine and illegal guns.
The two other senior Hells Angels members charged at the same time as
Krogstad were Cedric Smith, 55, of Langley, and David Patrick O'Hara,
43, of Surrey.
Smith is a member of the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels.
O'Hara, a former member of the Vancouver chapter, was a member of the
Mission chapter at the time of the alleged offences of trafficking
marijuana and cocaine.
There are roughly 100 Hells Angels members in B.C. They are considered
to be some of the wealthiest members of the gang in the country.
Canada has more Hells Angels per capita than any other country,
including the U.S., which has chapters in about 20 states.
Businesses linked to B.C. Hells Angels (Not complete)
The list of enterprises includes a Burnaby cafe and a clothing store
John Peter Bryce
(chapter president)
Hi-way Choppers, 3720 Parker Street, Burnaby
Ronald (Bronco) Barry Cameron
Cameron Trucking Ltd., 27613 110 Ave., Maple Ridge
K.E.R. Consulting Ltd., 3435 Mount Seymour Pkwy., North Vancouver.
Current and former directors include Cameron, Lloyd Robinson, Robin
Gauthier and Kelly Roney of Fort Nelson.
Damiano Dipopolo
Digstown Clothing, 3972 East Hastings Street
Francisco (Chico) Pires
Big Shots Cafe Ltd. -- 3900 block of East Hastings, Burnaby. Pires is
listed as a director of the company.
Double E Detail Ltd. Pires and another east end chapter member,
Ronaldo Lising, are listed as directors of this automotive detailing
company. The company is in the process of being dissolved.
- - -
Who's who in the Hells Angels
EAST END CHAPTER (19 current members and three who are now in the
Nomads chapter).
Clubhouse -- 3598 East Georgia Street, Vancouver.
- John Peter Bryce, chapter president.
- Robert William Alvarez, (now a member of the Nomads chapter.)
- Ronald (Bronco) Barry Cameron.
- Michael Christiansen. Moved to B.C. and joined Vancouver's East End
chapter after he was acquitted in a Quebec court, along with three
other Halifax Hells Angels, of the first-degree murders of five Quebec
bikers.
- Damiano Dipopolo.
- Carlo Fabiano.
- David Francis (Gyrator) Giles.
- Stanley Thomas Gillis.
- Richard Christian Goldhammer.
- Hans Frederick Kurth.
- Ronaldo Lising.
- Francisco (Chico) Pires (now a member of the Nomads chapter).
- George Batista Pires, (now a member of the Nomads chapter).
- Randy Potts.
- John Virgil Punko. Was a
- rospect when he threatened the prosecutor who helped convict
Lising and Chico Pires of cocaine trafficking. Received his patch
after completing his jail sentence.
- Mitchell Kenneth Riley.
- Lloyd (Louie) George Robinson. Half-brother of John Bryce.
- Joseph Bruce Skreptak.
- Juel (Jules) Ross Stanton.
- Rob Thomas.
- Marcello Carlo Verna.
- John (Jean) Joseph Violette.
Source: RCMP
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=04e54852-7a61-473f-833c-ce4ce32ed49a
Has pictures.
Greg Carr
CRACKDOWN: 'How many doors do you have to kick in?' asks biker
president
John Colebourn
The Province
July 17, 2005
Hells Angels East End Chapter president John Bryce didn't have to open
the clubhouse doors for reporters who arrived yesterday.
An army of police had already done that, in one of two raids Friday
afternoon at properties owned by the motorcycle gang.
As he hosted a rare glimpse inside the clubhouse on the corner lot of
a quiet East Vancouver street that the Angels have owned for 18 years,
Bryce speculated about why more than 60 officers with search warrants
and battering rams smashed through all six of the premises'
fortress-like reinforced steel doors.
"It wasn't necessary," Bryce said, pointing to the damage to the
building in the 3500-block East Georgia Street. "How many doors do you
have to kick in? Six doors? Once you kick in one door, you'd think
that's enough."
Bryce, who was not in the building when RCMP, Vancouver police and a
Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit swooped in, said the two
people inside were fully co-operating when all hell broke loose.
"They invited them in and said you don't have to run around kicking in
every door," said Bryce. "[But] instead of coming in the gate, they
kicked the fence in, too."
Downstairs, a full gym sported a side door broken down in the raid.
Across a hall, a stocked bar snaked around an ordinary-looking
basement room, its walls lined with photos and Angels paraphernalia.
By the side door, whose bulletproof window was partially smashed, were
three Harley-Davidson motorcycles sporting Hells Angels and Nomads
decals.
During the tour, Bryce continued to question the motives behind the
midday raid, during which police roped off the entire street.
He also questioned whether the ensuing media frenzy that followed had
more to do with promoting the anti-biker agenda of Vancouver police
Chief Jamie Graham.
"I would say [Graham's] probably putting the heat on. He's probably
p---ed off we're calling him a windbag," Bryce said.
Bryce said the Angels might try to seek compensation for the estimated
$8,000 it will cost to repair the damage, but noted that such a move
is "sometimes more hassle than it's worth."
Last month, Graham, chairman of a national biker task force, spoke out
after an Ontario court ruling on a case involving the club, noting
that "we have always maintained [the Angels] are a criminal
organization."
In the landmark case, Justice Michelle Fuerst ruled that the Hells
Angels are a criminal organization.
Under a new section of Canada's Criminal Code, committing an
indictable crime in association with a criminal organization allows
the court to add 14 years on to a prison sentence.
About 100 of Canada's 450 Hells Angels live in B.C. The East End
Chapter is considered one of the wealthiest and most established in
the province.
Police intelligence reports allege the outlaw motorcycle club is
linked to a variety of illegal activities, including the sale of
marijuana and cocaine.
Vancouver police said yesterday they are conducting an "ongoing
investigation" of the East End Chapter. As many as 18 charges in both
Vancouver and Kelowna, where raids also took place, are believed to be
in the works, with police expected to offer details tomorrow.
The recent crackdown on the Hells Angels in B.C. is being followed
closely by author Julian Sher, whose Road to Hell will be followed by
another book on outlaw motorcycle gangs next spring.
"The key thing to watch is, do the police and Crown think they have
enough evidence to charge the Hell Angels under Canada's new anti-gang
law?" Sher said. "Do they have enough evidence to go after them as a
criminal organization and not just individuals? That's what scares the
daylights out of the Hells Angels -- to be tarred as a criminal
organization."
The crackdown in B.C. comes after years in which the club has had few
problems with the law.
Now, Sher notes, "they have never had so many members before the
courts. They have been on Easy Street for decades -- and now they're
not used to the full force of the law."
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.html?id=8c98488a-7bb0-4686-911d-6bfd26b455b4&page=2
Imprison all the patches, prospects and supporters. During the
GlobalNews video of the raided 3598 Georgia St. clubhouse there was a
picture of a bearded Sikh wearing a turban and wearing HA patches on a
vest. Never seen that before, a disgrace to the Sikh religion and
every California HAMC.
Anonymous
Canada let in too. They are worse then the HA's and more powerful. At
least the HA's offered to open the door. The Van Cop's broke it down
and guess will not pay for it. Such is life. If the gang's get to big
for their own boots that Cops have no choice but to clamp down for
the common good. New Conference today, see what they will say. Yes go
after all the gangs white and Chinese too.