White supremacist street gang with ties to the Hells Angels and cells throughout northern Alberta dismantled.During a 15-month investigation, the Metro Edmonton gang unit targeted members of the White Boy Posse.
Officers arrested 17 members after five raids Thursday morning and issued warrants for another five.
It's completely handicapped them. They are not functioning as of this moment," said Staff Sgt. Kevin Galvin.The White Boy Posse has between 50 and 100 members and is involved in trafficking cocaine and other drugs from Yellowknife to Medicine Hat, Galvin said. It often uses the swastika in tattoos and other gang paraphernalia.
Police displayed swords, a handgun, cocaine, cash and gang-related hats and sweaters confiscated during the arrests.Thursday was the end of an initiative police called Project Goliath. Members hit four homes in Old Strathcona, Castle Downs and Clareview and one business in Beverly between 7:45 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Thursday, said gang unit member Const. Brent Dahlseide.Those arrested range in age from 17 to 33. Police confiscated 1.3 kilograms of cocaine and $47,000 in cash.
At the same time, RCMP have been heading Project Krystal, a joint investigation targeting members of the West End Jamaicans and Redd Alert. Sixteen members of those groups have been arrested in the last month.Police Chief Mike Boyd credited members of the public for phoning in tips to help build the cases. "We're getting information on all sorts of gangs every day," he said.
Police forces in Canada have been focusing on street gangs that feed members to more organized criminal networks for the last eight years, Boyd said. That's when it became obvious organized gangs such as the Hells Angels were using specific street gangs to build their reach and their membership.
"Any takedown that culminates in these kinds of arrests is a win for all of us," he said. "But our work isn't finished today. We have to keep working at this problem until we beat it right down."Galvin said those arrested Thursday are mostly mid-level managers, distributors and wholesalers in the gang's drug trade.
Some lower level drug runners were included, but police try to focus on prevention tactics first, he said. Jail time can simply give gang members better street credibility and drug contacts.Galvin estimated there are between 5,000 and 6,000 gang members and affiliates in Edmonton.

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Former senior Mexican intelligence official said that the use of training camps has become "standard practice" for the cartels. "Yes, there are training camps where hitmen from both sides of the border train with weapons from the United States," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. There is no firm estimate of the number of people who have received training in the camps, but a U.S. intelligence official said the number was in the "hundreds" across Mexico. It's all part of a strategy by drug cartels to intimidate their enemies and assert control over besieged communities along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, the officials said. The result has been unprecedented violence – at least 5,000 people killed nationwide in two years – and ongoing brutal confrontations with local, state and federal forces.
"The Zetas paramilitarized the situation with training camps and military background," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official and weapons specialist, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They turned battles into a prolonged war."
In small towns along the Texas-Tamaulipas border, the Zetas operate with seeming impunity, driving late-model SUVs and carrying gold-plated rifles. Roadside altars are appearing that pay tribute to "Santa Muerte," the Saint of Death, adorned with candles and Grim Reaper figurines. Residents regard them as a sign of cartel activity. According to the witness testimony and interviews with U.S. and Mexican officials, training in the camps may range from a few weeks to months, and trainees have included American teenagers. One of them is Rosalio Reta, 18, who was sentenced last year to 40 years in prison for a murder in Laredo. Mr. Reta's career as a cartel hitman began at age 13, he told investigators. Authorities say he may have been involved in as many as 30 execution-style murders in the U.S. and Mexico.
Last year, Mr. Reta gave Laredo police Detective Roberto García an account of how he and other high school-age boys were trained as teenage hitmen for the Zetas. Mr. Reta told Laredo authorities he spent months training under Mateo Díaz López, "Comandante Teo," an alleged top Zeta member arrested last year in the state of Tabasco on drug and weapons charges. Mr. Reta's confession led to the discovery of three clandestine cells in Laredo, allegedly carrying out assignments for reputed cartel leader Miguel Treviño. "I know we're fighting terrorism throughout the world ... but here along the border the narco-terrorists operate on both sides of the border, and so far it's gone largely unnoticed by Washington," said Webb County Assistant District Attorney Jesús Guillén, who prosecuted Mr. Reta.
According to the printed testimony, Rancho Las Amarillas was under the control of reputed Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. Mr. Cárdenas has been extradited to the U.S. and is awaiting trial in Houston on 17 counts of importing and distribution of drugs, as well as three charges of threatening a U.S. federal agent and one of money laundering. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. Mr. Cárdenas used the ranch to raise cattle as well as to train his personal militia, many of them former army soldiers lured by promises of higher pay, according to the testimony. Pay started at about $300 a week but would double within six months – far higher than salaries for soldiers or police. Pay for hitmen and bodyguards began at $1,000 per week, according to testimony. In September 2001, Mr. Cárdenas, a former federal police officer, began ordering new recruits lured from Mexican special forces units to the ranch for advanced training, according to the testimony. "That course lasted two months," according to the testimony of one protected witness, who said he worked for Zeta leader Arturo Guzmán Decena. "From that point on, the Zetas, numbering more than 50, began to engage in larger operations." Mr. Guzmán was later killed in a battle with the Mexican army in Matamoros. Today, the number of "hardcore" Zeta members is more than 300, according to an internal Mexican military intelligence report.
The training is extensive and includes the use of such weapons as AK-47 assault rifles, AR-15s, grenade launchers and .50-caliber machine guns, according to the testimony and U.S. officials. And the training can be deadly. In September 2002, Zeta member Omar Bautista Hernández drowned during an exercise that required him to swim with his backpack and high-powered weapon, according to the testimony.
The camps serve other purposes. In his confession, Mr. Reta told Detective García that the ranches are used as execution sites, where cartel members dispose of their enemies. In one incident, according to testimony, the bodies of four Nuevo Laredo police officers were set on fire inside barrels filled with diesel fuel. The remains were buried there the next day.

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Police are investigating a multiple shooting in a Winnipeg neighbourhood that has left three people dead and two others injured.
Const. Jacqueline Chaput confirms two males and a female were found dead in a home from gunshot wounds on Saturday morning. Two other men and woman were wounded, but are in stable condition in hospital.
The incident is Winnipeg's first triple-slaying since a gang-related killing of three men at a house in August 1996.
"It's a very rare occurrence . . . it's very disconcerting to us," Chaput said.
Chaput says a motive for the shootings isn't known and there are no suspects in custody.
Jordie Williamson, 14, who lives next door to the house, said a family of "really kind people," including up to five children, have lived there for years.
He said the home has no apparent ties to crime, although he said gangs are a problem in the district.
"Gangs around here – they go from harsh to worse, and very deadly," said Williamson.
"I've had a couple friends who went on the wrong path like this, and a couple of them died."
Police refused to reveal any information about those who were killed, except to say that one victim was a man in his early 20s. All three people slain were shot in the upper body."We have no descriptions," Chaput said. "Whether there was one, two, three – we have no idea how many people are responsible."Chaput said investigators do not believe the shooting was a result of a party that went bad, explaining that police don't think whoever was responsible was in the house before the shooting happened.In the 1996 triple-slaying, three men were shot execution-style inside a home as part of an ongoing battle between members of the Manitoba Warriors and associates of the Hells Angels.Two men were eventually convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. A third accused was eventually acquitted by a jury.

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Gardai have linked a number of bomb finds with a major feud between rival Dublin city gangs which has claimed ten lives since 2005.In one of the most significant breakthroughs, the Garda’s Organised Crime Unit discovered two grenades and a high-calibre handgun during a vehicle check in west Dublin earlier thismonth.
Aseries of recent arrests under the auspices of Operation Anvil, which targets armed crime, have led detectives to conclude that several attacks were being planned against a rival gang involving the use of firearms and grenades.
The feuding gangs are based in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area, and have been involved in bloody warfare since a row over seized drugs led to a series of accusations of information being passed to gardai and tit-for-tat killings, which have culminated in at least eight planned assassinations.
But it is the increasing use of home-made bombs by criminals involved in minor disputes which is of most concern to senior gardai. Last week alone there were three bomb finds in central Dublin, including a device left attached to the side of a car outside flats in Pimlico.
Among the concerns that gardai have is the fear that members of the public - in particular, children - will inadvertently detonate a device which they do not realise is a homemade explosive.Describing the threat from recent bombs disabled by the army’s bomb-disposal unit as ‘‘low-grade’’, security risk analyst and former Irish army ranger John Henry said the crude nature of the devices and their deployment suggested that there was ‘‘very fortunately, no significant paramilitary involvement’’.‘‘What we are seeing are really very unsophisticated devices, with none of the components used by expert bomb makers.The natural conclusion is that these devices are made from instructions from the internet,” said Henry, who is the chief executive of Specialist Security Services. ‘‘Their deployment lacks the skill or expertise of trained bomb deployment.”Henry added that this was an indication that the greatest risk of injury caused by such bombs could, in fact, be to members of the public.On a number of occasions, gardai have discovered pipe bombs left in public locations - almost certainly for collection by the criminal gangs who ordered their manufacture.Two such devices were found by a man who was walking his dog in Fairview Park in north Dublin last November. The bombs were left near bushes which are close to a Dublin City Council building and within proximity to a busy pedestrian bridge.Garda forensic experts examined the remnants of the devices after they were made safe. The detonation material was taken from fireworks while the explosive packet was made up of steel screws and bolts. As with several other finds, the bombs in this case were viable but were not primed for detonation.However, despite the poor quality of most of the explosive finds, detectives are concerned that a number of incidents last year included the use of fragmentation grenades, which are military-issue and pose a far greater risk to life than pipe bombs. The grenades most likely originated in the Balkans, though tracing their arrival here is almost impossible.So-called ‘‘frags’’ are designed to kill or maim with maximum effect by propelling fragments of their exterior shell outward at extreme force.
Frag grenades can be used to devastating effect as part of a booby-trap, when the safety pin is removed and the spring-based safety lever is held pressed against another object, such as the steering column of a car, and will not detonate until the foreign object is moved.
Gardai are deeply concerned at the possibility of high-performance military issue explosive devices being freely available to organised criminals here.In one instance, there appears to be a connection between a former INLA activist and the use of frag grenades in a dispute between Dublin-based men. However, Garda intelligence suggests that such military ordnance is not widely in circulation.
Nor is the use of crudely manufactured pipe bombs a purely Dublin phenomenon. Gardai last year discovered a series of pipe bombs outside Limerick city, which they believed were linked to one of the city’s main feuding gangs.
This was not the first time Limerick criminals were shown to have stored explosive devices for use against rivals.

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Drive to break up outlaw bikie gangs is overdue. The gangs indulge in Australia-wide, hugely profitable criminality, including distributing drugs.State and federal attorneys-general have been given details of proposed South Australian laws to break up the gangs. Even before the laws take effect, SA's war on bikie gangs has led to the arrest of 22 gang members and confiscation of $120,000 in cash, cannabis, ecstasy tablets and amphetamines and 35 firearms. Victorian Police Minister Bob Cameron's office last night said he had no intention of signing on to the SA's laws. He believes specific bikie laws are not needed. But Operation Purana's success in ending Victoria's deadly underworld war demonstrates that targeted action works. The bikies are a national menace and require a similar response on a national scale.

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Thursday, 33-year-old Francesco Capicchiano, a known enemy of suspected 'ndrangheta boss Luca Megna, was killed in broad daylight, a slaying investigators believe is linked to the murder a day earlier of 27-year old Giuseppe Cavallo, a police official said.Cavallo's wife was also hit by a bullet in the leg.
On Saturday, Luca Megna, whose father is in jail for ties with the 'ndrangheta, was shot dead in his car as he drove through Crotone with his wife and five-year-old daughter.His daughter is in a coma in the hospital along with his injured wife.
Police said the three men allegedly have ties to the 'ndrangheta, a crime syndicate that has risen in power and international reach in recent years.On Thursday all the teachers in Crotone called in sick, fearing violence around the school that children of the feuding families attend.On Friday the teachers were back at work, and of 450 students only 20 percent were absent.Authorities have said the 'ndrangheta has eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia in power and reach, thanks to its control of Europe's lucrative cocaine market.The group came into the spotlight last summer when six Italians were killed outside a pizzeria in Germany as part of an unrelated clan war.

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Hells Angels "puppet club" with links throughout northern Alberta.
The operation - dubbed Project Goliath - "completely handicapped them (the White Boy Posse). They are not functioning as of this moment," said EPS Staff Sgt. Kevin Galvin. It was shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday that police, acting on search warrants, began a series of raids on four homes and a Beverly-area business to take down 17 members of the Posse. They all face drug-related charges, while police also have warrants out for five other people still at large. Const. Brent Dahlseide, one of the main investigators on the case, called the Posse a puppet club of the Hells Angels. Many Posse members aspire to join the notorious biker gang, which oversees the importation of drugs in order to distribute them to street-level groups like the Posse, Dahlseide noted. Two police tactical teams made the morning arrests without incident since, Dahlseide said, "everybody was caught napping, sleeping." Those charged include two teens, one of whom got involved with the Posse as a girlfriend of a gang member. Police say the Posse is active throughout northern Alberta, with cells in places such as Grande Prairie, Slave Lake, Edson, Whitecourt, Jasper, Lloydminster, Wainwright and Provost. A parallel RCMP investigation called Project Krystal also resulted in 16 charges targeting so-called dial-a-dope operations in communities surrounding Edmonton. They include Strathcona County, Spruce Grove, Leduc and Fort Saskatchewan. But while police hailed the arrests, Galvin acknowledged they alone won't put a major dent in Edmonton's booming drug trade.
"That consumer base will go somewhere else to find their product," he said.
Still, RCMP Supt. Brian McLeod vowed to continue to clamp down on what he called the "merchants of misery" who traffic drugs.
Edmonton police Chief Mike Boyd echoed those sentiments and called on the public to keep calling cops with the types of tips on gang activity that led to the Project Goliath arrests. "This needs to be a signal to those gang members out there that we will not stop working together to bring a change in our communities," he said.
The homes raided Thursday included one in the Old Strathcona area as well as three in north Edmonton in Clareview and Castle Downs. The arrests, as well as smaller raids earlier in the investigation, resulted in the seizure of about two kilograms of cocaine, $47,000 in cash and weapons, including swords and knives. The White Boy Posse is one of 24 gangs police estimate are active in Edmonton. But while the name White Boy Posse indicates a racial origin of the group, Const. Dale Johnson said it's not only white people and racists who join it. "Does somebody need to be a racist or a Nazi to be part of this group? I would say no," Johnson said. He added that Posse members are very overt about the group, often wearing memorabilia such as ballcaps and sweatshirts with gang insignias. "They use it to their advantage. It sends a message to people that see them," Johnson said.
The following are facing charges as a result of a combined police operation against the White Boy Posse:
Matthew Lavigne, 21. Trafficking cocaine, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, possession of cocaine for purpose of trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime. Christopher Rayworth, 23. Trafficking cocaine and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. Michael Robert, 33. Trafficking cocaine and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. Chase Callihoo, 20. Possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Tylor Collins, 18. Trafficking cocaine, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime. Jeffrey Quintal, 22. Trafficking cocaine, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime. William King, 20. Trafficking cocaine, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, possession of a controlled substance and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000.
Matthew Etherington, 19. Possession of a controlled substance and breach of recognizance. Brandon Saint, 20. Possession of a controlled substance and breach of recognizance. A 17-year-old girl. Possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime. Dmitry Vinokurov, 30. Trafficking cocaine and possession of property obtained by crime. Chris Mitchel, 24. Possession of a controlled substance. Ryan Hodgins, 19. Possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of a controlled substance, possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 and breach of recognizance. Daniel Fields, 22. Trafficking cocaine, possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of a controlled substance and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.
Graham Schaump, 19. Possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of a controlled substance and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.
A 17-year-old girl. Possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of a controlled substance and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.
Mark Demeria, 21. Possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of a controlled substance and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.
Cody Roemer, 19, Tyler Corbett, 23, James Surret, 20, and Bobby Jo Gladue, 26, have warrants out for their arrest. Joel Hanson, 24, has two warrants out for his arrest.

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“In Australia, Queensland seems to be the base of (amphetamine) clandestine manufacturing, which supplies the whole country,” the report said.
Outlaw motorcycle gangs are strategically located throughout the North Coast region and the Sunshine Coast for very specific purposes, one of which would be the distribution of amphetamines,” Supt Hanbidge said.
“It’s for this reason that Sunshine Coast police and police throughout the north coast region have commenced an ongoing target of enforcement against outlaw motorcycle gangs.”But he said illicit drug use was a problem everywhere, not just on the Sunshine Coast.“We’ve certainly seen an increase in the number of arrests for drug-related matters but it’s probably more so because of increased enforcement carried out by police, rather than increased drug use,” Supt Hanbidge said.
“But certainly with the use of drugs such as ecstasy there seems to be a mindset amongst young people that this form of drug is not as harmful as others, which is totally incorrect.“The fact remains that it is an extremely dangerous drug with lethal consequences.”Yesterday, detectives from the North Coast Region and State Crime Operations Command in partnership with the Australian Crime Commission arrested 16 people as part of a major police investigation targeting illicit drug supply on the Sunshine Coast.
Seventy police officers were involved in Operation Echo Coma which involved the execution of 22 search warrants on the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Ormeau.
Police seized more than $24,000 in cash suspected of being proceeds of crime as well as a range of illicit drugs including MDMA tablets (ecstasy), methylamphetamine, cannabis and steroids with a street value of approximately $50,000.
A concealable firearm and ammunition were also seized.Police laid 37 criminal charges including supply of a dangerous drug, possession of a dangerous drug (exceeding scheduled amounts), possession of an unlicensed concealable firearm and possession of money suspected of being the proceeds of crime.
Detective Inspector Marty Mickelson from the State Drug Investigation Unit said the operation focused on a number of people suspected by police of being involved or associated with the sale and supply of illicit drugs on the Sunshine Coast.
“This is the second major police operation targeting drugs on the Coast in as many weeks,” Detective Inspector Mickelson said.“Our activities here today, combined with the ongoing efforts by local police, send a clear message to people involved in the drug scene here on the coast that their activities are constantly being monitored and it is only a matter of time until they get caught up in one of our ongoing operations,” he said.Detective Acting Superintendent John Maloney, North Coast Regional Crime Coordinator, is encouraging members of the public to keep reporting these sorts of illegal activities to police.“Once again, valuable information from the community has played a significant part in assisting police in identifying those people involved in the supply and use of illicit drugs here on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.A number of those arrested appeared in the Maroochydore and Beenleigh Magistrates Courts yesterday with the remaining people issued with notices to appear in court at Maroochydore at a later date.Just last month 43 people were charged after a series of raids on the coast netted over $100,000 worth of drugs including ecstasy, cocaine and LSD.One of the sheds raided at Kuluin was believed to be owned by the Rebels Motorcycle gang.
The report from the UN drug watchdog, International Narcotics Control Board, found amphetamine and marijuana use in Australia was among the highest in the world.

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An outlaw motorcycle gang clubhouse has been forfeited under provincial civil forfeiture law.Lawyers for the Attorney General demonstrated to the civil court that a Heron Street clubhouse in Thunder Bay was an instrument of unlawful activity,
including drug possession and trafficking. On March 27, 2008, the Superior
Court ordered it forfeited to the Crown.
"Ontario is a world leader in the use of civil forfeiture law," said
Attorney General Chris Bentley. "It's an innovative law that allows the court
to take away property and assets used as instruments of unlawful activity by
outlaw motorcycle gangs and other criminal organizations."
"In Ontario, unlawful activity doesn't pay," said Bill Mauro, MPP Thunder
Bay-Atikokan. "Instead, Ontario's civil forfeiture legislation allows for
forfeited proceeds to support victims and prevent victimization."
"Outlaw biker gangs are not welcome in our neighbourhoods," said Michael
Gravelle, MPP Thunder Bay-Superior North. "The Attorney General is using civil
forfeiture law to help protect our community by taking away property used for
unlawful activity."
"This is a very significant forfeiture," said Detective Inspector Dan
Redmond, Unit Commander of the Ontario Provincial Police-led Biker Enforcement
Unit. "Outlaw motorcycle gangs and their associates need to know that we're
going to use every available criminal and civil law tool to deal with unlawful
activity."
"The outlaw biker clubhouse in Thunder Bay has long been a thorn in our
side," said Thunder Bay Police Chief Robert Herman. "Its forfeiture is a good
news story for our community and demonstrates our commitment to working with
our partners to stop the unlawful activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs."

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About 10 police cars flooded a south Gilroy apartment complex late Wednesday night to stop a possible gang fight, police said. Two women and a man were arrested on weapons charges stemming from the incident.
About 11 p.m., somebody in the apartment complex called police to report about ten young adults hanging out in the carport between 160 and 180 Southgate Court - off Church Street just south of 10th Street - said officer Joseph Deras. The reporting party said the people had weapons and were possibly preparing for a fight.
Two patrol cars, including a canine unit, came up to the driveway a few minutes later, Deras said.
The officers "heard sounds of metallic hitting the ground," he said. "We didn't know if that was a gun or what."
One of the men in the group ran to a silver truck at the south end of the carport, through something inside, and then ran and hid behind another car, Deras said. The two officers called for backup.Soon, 10 police cars with more than 10 officers were at the scene holding the group at gunpoint, Deras said. Police found multiple weapons including folding knives, rebar, tire irons and shaved stabbing instruments on the ground next to particular men and women. Police arrested two Gilroy residents - a woman and the man who hid behind the car - and a female San Martin resident for weapons violations, Deras said. One of the women might also have been drinking and, as she was on probation, could be arrested for probation violation. Police did not have the names or ages of the arrestees as of 12:30 a.m. Thursday. Police let the rest of the group go after checking if they had outstanding warrants and giving them a verbal warning, Deras said. In addition, police "identified them for future reference." The whole group was suspected of having been part of the Sureño gang.Deras said that Southgate Court, though "densely packed," was full of working families and was not known to be a problem area.Time to time on weekends we're here for loud music or people have barbecues," he said. "That's primarily what we're down here for."
The street was packed with cars and families peered from behind curtains to watch the arrest. Some groups stood outside in the chill air to see the police at work. However, when approached for comment, people scurried inside their apartments and closed their doors, claiming they did not see anything.
When pressed, they said they could not talk because they feared retribution by the gang members.

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Justice Anne MacKenzie acquitted David Giles, a full patch member of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels, for possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Therefore he could not be found guilty of a second charge of directing a criminal investigation, she said. One of the reasons for dismissing the case was that the judge said she could not understand the audio recordings the Crown submitted as evidence, and the Crown was far-reaching in their interpretation of what they heard on the audio evidence. MacKenzie did find Hells Angels associates Richard Rempel, 24, and David Revell, 43, each guilty of one count of possession of cocaine and one count of trafficking cocaine. In 2005, police conducted a large-scale raid on Hells Angels properties as part of a $10-million investigation dubbed Project E-Pandora. Lenny Hochberg, a criminal lawyer who has defended Hells Angels members in the past, says the B.C. court made the right decision.
"It was the absolute right decision . . . that the Hell Angels Motorcycle Club is not a criminal organization," he told CTV Newsnet on Thursday. "There are so many false urban legends around the Hells Angels, all perpetrated by law enforcement and eaten up by the public." Hochberg admitted that were some "criminal elements" in the organization, but said that did not represent the organization as a whole.
"(The legend is) the only way to get into Hells Angels is to commit offences and the profits of your offences have to be paid into the club," he said. "That's not true, the only way they raise money is by selling T-shirts, hats, calendars -- all that stuff you can buy on EBay."
"The Hells Angels are not a criminal organization but they are anti-establishment. They go against the grain of society."
According to the Hells Angels official webpage, if you have to ask how to join the Hells Angels, "you won't understand the answer." Criminal Intelligence Organization Canada (CISC) said the Hells Angels "remains the largest and most powerful outlaw motorcycle gang in Canada" in their 2004 annual report. In 2007, police in Ontario arrested 31 alleged Hells Angels in an operation called Project Develop.
At the time, police said the raids dealt a significant blow to the organization's flagship chapter in Toronto, said to be the largest in the country.
The Toronto Hells Angels clubhouse was seized as well as $500,000 in vehicles, drugs, weapons and more than $500,000 in cash.

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Two alleged members of a new Sydney triad gang preying on overseas Asian tourists have been refused bail, charged with the stabbing murder of a Korean student.
The men, Chinese nationals Ivan Wong and Michael Lee, both 18-year-old students from Carlingford, are charged with the murder of Joon Yup Lee at 1am last Thursday.
The victim died during a running street fight that began in the Liverpool Street Hungry Jack's restaurant and spilled into the adjoining World Square complex.
The pair are also charged with wounding with intent to murder Korean student Jung Ho Song, 20, who was stabbed.They are also charged with assaulting Sui Yoon, who was with Mr Song and Mr Lee.Both Wong and Lee are alleged to be members of the Yee Tong triad style gang whom police allege have been preying on fellow foreign students in a stand-over extortion racket.Wong appeared before Central Local Court magistrate Allan Moore in a videolink from Silverwater jail remand centre while Lee refused to appear on camera.During Wong's brief appearance police alleged that they had 24 CDs of security camera footage of the fight from surveillance cameras in the street and inside the World Square complex.Both men, who did not apply for bail, were formally refused bail and ordered to reappear before the court on May 6.Concerned members of the NSW Asian Crime Squad are understood to have met Department of Immigration officials to detail the activities of the gang that calls itself "Yee Tong". While police have yet to establish how many members the gang has, those identified to date are from mainland China and many are on study visas.
Yee Tong, whose members are in their late teens to early 20s, emerged in the Sydney CBD in the past year amid rising night-time violence in and around the World Square business and residential complex.Police intelligence suggests Yee Tong has laid claim to the World Square complex, bounded by George, Liverpool, Goulburn and Pitt streets, as their turf against the long entrenched rival Big Circle- and Sing Wai-stylised Hong Kong Triad gangs in nearby Chinatown.
Five years ago, the Big Circle and Sing Wai gangs were involved in a series of violent clashes over protection rackets.
Yee Tong came to the attention of police investigating a number of brawls and knife fights in and around World Square in the past year. The gang is believed to prey on Asian students by extorting cash. It is also suspected of break-ins.
It has been at a least a decade since police last saw the emergence of an organised Triad-style gang in Sydney. The last was a gang called the "108 White Tigers" that evolved from the remnants of the 1990s' violent south-west Cabramatta Vietnamese gang, 5T.Like Yee Tong, the 108 White Tigers preyed on overseas students in an extortion racket around the then unfinished World Square complex and the George Street cinema strip.
The 108 White Tigers, whose activities were broken up by police in a two-year operation beginning in 1998, also carried out home invasions on students' accommodation in the inner city and were involved in kidnappings and ransom demands.
Their targets were English-language students on two-year visas studying in the city, who were kidnapped or waylaid in the street and forced to disclose their bank cards and PINs.
Police have yet to establish a motive for last week's attack, which began inside the Hungry Jack's restaurant in George Street with what appeared to be an argument between two groups.
The row continued across the road and into the World Square complex. The victim was stabbed several times and died in hospital.
A 20-year-old male Korean student who was with him survived a stab wound to the upper body.

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Andre Anthony Lewis, 35, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to more than 12 years in prison for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute. He earlier entered a guilty plea to the charge in January 2007.Seattle police were called to the intersection of East Union Street and 23rd Avenue on the afternoon of May 12, 2006. When they arrived, they found Lewis' black Mercedes-Benz riddled with gunfire, its windows shattered. Shell casings littered the ground around the car.
Lewis, bleeding from what he said were glass cuts, was rummaging in the trunk. When asked to describe who shot his car, Lewis reportedly answered, "a 7-foot white guy." He proved no more cooperative during the ensuing investigation into the shooting.
Police impounded the car and Seattle gang detectives conducted a search, discovering 220.5 grams of cocaine they described as 80 percent pure.
Federal officials decided to prosecute the case because of Lewis' long criminal history, which includes a 1992 conviction for manslaughter and later convictions for drug possession and unlawful possession of a firearm. Lewis also allegedly is a member of a Central District gang, the Union Street BGDs. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Lewis faced up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, but in January 2007 he agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence.

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13 members of a Watts street gang have been indicted on charges they ran a PCP drug ring in Southern California over a six-month period.Two indictments, returned by a grand jury last week, charge 13 people who authorities said belong to the Grape Street Crips, considered by police to be one of the city's most dangerous gangs.
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was joined by Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton and other law enforcement officials to announce the indictments.
Those charged are accused of either conspiring to manufacture or sell phencyclidine, commonly known as PCP, between September 2006 and April 2007. The ring produced 54 kilograms of PCP worth an estimated $1 million as well as 40 gallons of the toxic chemicals used to make the drug, prosecutors said.Four of the defendants were expected to make their initial court appearances later Wednesday. Prosecutors said nine people have been arrested, while the other four were being sought.
Mukasey fielded questions from reporters and community members, some of whom suggested the federal government was too distracted by the war in Iraq and terrorism to effectively fight gang violence.Mukasey snapped back, calling domestic crime a high priority — but one that did not overshadow terror threats.
"More attention can always be paid to things that are hurting people and things that are killing people. And we're here to try to pay effective attention to that," Mukasey said.While police statistics show that gang-related violence is down this year in Los Angeles, there has been a recent spate of homicides over the past two months. Among those who have been killed by suspected gang members are a 17-year-old high school running back and a man who was holding a toddler.

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Biker gang gunned down a contractor of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) in the city's Khilgaon yesterday apparently for his refusal to pay toll to extortionists. The victim, Shahadatunnabi Apollo, 40, was the owner of three construction firms.
Witnesses said a gang of three in a motorbike appeared near Apollo at Hajipara in Khilgaon area from behind when he was going to a construction site at Purbachal in Rupganj in a motorcycle at around 6:30am. “One of the gang shot Apollo in the head and he fell to the ground,” Officer-in-Charge of Khilgaon Police Station Sheikh Mohammad Abu Jahid quoted a witness as saying.
Sub-Inspector Abdus Salam, who was on patrol duty in the area, rushed Apollo to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where the doctors declared him dead.
Locals said when the criminals were fleeing the area through an alley their motorbike went out of order. They then ran away leaving the motorcycle on the road.
Police later seized the motorbike.Apollo's brother Anwarunnabi said works on their projects worth around Tk 30 crore are going on.
Family sources said some criminals demanded money from Apollo a few days ago, but he refused to give them money. However, the officer-in-charge of Khilgaon Police Station suspects the murder might have taken place over a business rivalry.
No one was arrested in connection with the murder as of 8:00pm.

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Federal Judge Noel Hillman gave Filipelli a stiffer sentence than he might have otherwise gotten — almost six years in prison for extortion — because he considers Big Vince to be a "money maker for an organization that has a history of violence."
But mob insiders say Filipelli isn't a made member of the Philadelphia Mafia, and has nothing to do with the current local regime. "He might have had to pay off the mob to keep his gambling operation going," one local law enforcement investigator tells Underworld. "But from what we hear, he's independent."
Filipelli was caught on tape bragging that he was "made" to an undercover New Jersey state policeman who owed Filipelli's gambling operation $13,000. Big Vince threatened to put the man he thought was a deadbeat gambler "in the hospital" if he didn't pay up.
A mob associate who agreed to talk to Underworld with the understanding that his identity would be protected tapped his chest with two fingers while discussing Filipelli — a sign indicating that someone is a "made member" of the Philly crime family — and said, "That goofball never got this. People who got it don't talk about it. Never."
The gangster is sitting in a charming café inside a Mount Airy train station. He examines the face of every customer who enters the coffee bar. "This is a nice spot," he says. "Nobody from South Philly would ever find this place." Although he's lived off and on in Philly for decades, he's never been to Mount Airy before.
A local organized-crime investigator also says that Vince Filipelli is not a member of the crime family allegedly run by Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi. "The feds got the wrong information about this guy," the source, sitting in a Fairmount restaurant, tells Underworld. "He is not part of the club just because some FBI informant says so." In the early 1990s, Filipelli served as a bodyguard and enforcer for John Stanfa, an old-fashioned Sicilian mafioso who was fighting for control of the local mob against a crew of young, upstart Italian-Americans from South Philly led by Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino. The killings stopped when the feds jailed Stanfa and crew, and Merlino's guys took over. During the Stanfa racketeering trial, Filipelli made headlines as the gym workout buddy of a Channel 29 weatherman who gave Big Vince some news videotapes of a rival mobster's funeral. Filipelli passed the video on to his boss, Stanfa, who used the tapes to identify and target for murder members of the Merlino crew who had attended. Some former Stanfa loyalists were eventually welcomed back into the mob when it was taken over by Ralph Natale and Merlino — they were good earners, and the mob likes money makers. Filipelli, however, was not accepted back after serving a sentence on a racketeerig extortion charge. Before his recent sentencing, Filipelli said in court that his interaction with the undercover officer was "not an organized crime case." The judge apparently didn't believe him. Big Vince, it seems, talked his way into a longer jail sentence because he claimed membership in a criminal organization that wouldn't have him. "He talked his way back into jail," the mob associate says. "You know what they say: 'A fish that doesn't open his mouth never gets caught.'"

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Six men alleged to be leaders of the Montreal Mafia have decided to proceed with a trial on several charges laid after Project Colisée.
All six, including Nicolo Rizzuto, the octogenarian father of reputed mob boss Vito Rizzuto, appeared before Superior Court Justice James Brunton yesterday via video linkups between the Montreal courthouse and detention centres.
Lawyers representing all six said they are ready to proceed with a trial in Quebec Court before a judge alone. Prosecutor Yvan Poulin said the Crown did not object with the request.Nicolo Rizzuto is taken into police custody in Nov. 2006 in Montreal. He appeared before Superior Court Justice James Brunton on Tuesday through a video linkup.
Lawyers representing all six said they are ready to proceed with a trial in Quebec Court before a judge alone. Prosecutor Yvan Poulin said the Crown did not object to the request. Two weeks in September have been set aside for both sides to argue pre-trial motions. The case is scheduled to be heard at a special courthouse, which was constructed for criminal trials held against members of the Hells Angels a few years ago. Since then, the courthouse has been used for other trials involving several defendants tied to organized crime. Project Colisee was a lengthy police investigation into the activities of the Montreal Mafia and resulted in the arrests of more than 90 people in November 2006. Most of the investigation was conducted while Vito Rizzuto was behind bars and awaiting the outcome of a U.S. case where he ultimately pleaded guilty to racketeering for his role in the 1981 murders of three men in New York. He is serving his sentence in the U.S. The six men who appeared before Brunton on Tuesday were singled out as leaders in the alleged conspiracies probed during Project Colisee, including drug trafficking, extortion and illegal gambling.

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Soperry Chea, 18, was placed on the LAPD's most wanted list after investigators say he stabbed a rival gang member to death in downtown Los Angeles and fled the state three years ago. Officers arrested Chea on Tuesday when he returned to visit some of his old Valley haunts. "Gang members, drugs and guns," Bratton said. "It all comes together - the holy trinity."
Bratton made the announcement during a news conference at the 77th Street Community Police Station in South Los Angeles. Joined by U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the mayor and other officials, Bratton announced several other gang arrests and indictments. The gathering was largely a show of force and solidarity between the different levels of government. The city and federal officials revealed a 10-count indictment naming a dozen members and associated with the Grape Street Crips gang, alleging distribution of the drug PCP in the Watts area. Chea, however, was caught without help from the federal government. Los Angeles police started searching for him just weeks after the April 17, 2005, slaying of Harry Yang, 21, who had once been a member of a rival gang. Yang was stabbed to death during a Cambodian New Year celebration. Chea, also known as "Babyface," was 16 at the time.
Police found the slaying weapon - a knife that had been hurled over a nearby fence - but couldn't find Chea. He left the county almost immediately, and later left the state, said Detective Alan Solomon, a homicide investigator for the LAPD's Asian Crime Taskforce. Van Nuys officers learned that Chea might be in town and recognized him at a fast-food restaurant. They later arrested him at an apartment complex in the 14000 block of Valerio Street. As Chea has been caught, Bratton added a new gang member to round out his department's 10 most-wanted list: Gildardo Peña, a 28-year-old member of the Toonerville gang. Peña killed 45-year-old Donald Nelson on Nov. 6, 2005, in Tujunga for talking to police, Bratton said at the formal announcement.

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Drug raid targeting the Iron Horsemen, has yielded 16 arrests, most of them in York County.Records unsealed late last week in federal court indicate 19 people were indicted on one count each of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana. Some face other charges.A wiretapping operation netted 40 telephone calls between July and September last year, implicating the defendants.The yearlong investigation began at the county level and expanded to include the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, York county Sheriff Maurice Ouellette said.Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Perry, the lead prosecutor in the case, said Monday he is barred from discussing details of the investigation.
Portland police weren't involved in the investigation, but the department tracks motorcycle clubs. Portland Police Sgt. Bob Martin says the biker gangs have been "flying under the radar."The defendants are members or supporters of the Iron Horsemen Motorcycle Club, Ouellette said, and most of them live in Old Orchard Beach, Limerick and nearby towns. Three people still at large are Richard Szpyt of Haverhill, Mass., Michael Balot of South Portland and Robert Boothby of Monson.
A home owned by Szpyt in Old Orchard Beach was used as a meeting spot for the Iron Horsemen. Prosecutors want that property turned over to the federal government.
Keith Babin, the town's deputy police chief, said his department was aware that the property was being used as an Iron Horsemen clubhouse.
Five of the 16 defendants who have been arrested remain in federal custody: Robert Sanborn of Old Orchard Beach, James Weston of Old Orchard Beach, Sherwood Jordan of Albany, Daniel Guarino of Old Orchard Beach, and Charles Green of East Dixfield. Ten others were released after posting bond and one was freed on his own recognizance.

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Two Hells Angels bikers accused of starting a gunfight that injured six rivals in South Dakota.Thirty-two-year-old Chad Wilson of Lynnwood, Wash., and 34-year-old John Midmore of Valparaiso, Ind., face numerous charges. The case stems from a shootout between Hells Angels and the Outlaws Motorcycle Club members in 2006 at a resort in Custer State Park.Their trial has been delayed several times, most recently because of an appeal to the South Dakota Supreme Court.
Retired Circuit Judge Gene Paul Kean of Sioux Falls has since been appointed to hear the case. A hearing is scheduled for April 8 in Rapid City.Two Hells Angels bikerscharged with starting a gunfight acted in self defense because rival Outlaws Motorcycle Club members targeted them, lawyers for the men say. Chad Wilson, 32, of Lynnwood, Wash., and John Midmore, 34, of Valparaiso, Ind., are accused of shooting at Outlaws bikers Aug. 8, 2006, at Legion Lake Resort in Custer State Park, where the Outlaws gathered for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally 70 miles away.
According to a federal court document, an Outlaws member who was not wounded said he returned fire at the man who shot at his group. Wilson is a member of the Dago Chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club in San Diego and Midmore is a prospect of the Haney Chapter of the Hells Angels in British Columbia, Canada, according to court documents. Both men are charged with multiple counts, including conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and commission of a felony while armed. Wilson also is charged with five counts of attempted first-degree murder. The five Outlaws who were shot are Thomas Hass, Al Mathews, Danny Neace, Claudia Wables and Susan Evans-Martin. Another woman, Crystal Schuster, suffered injuries unrelated to a gunshot. Their addresses were not included in court documents. Wilson and Midmore are being held without bond at the county jail in Rapid City. Their trial in Custer has been delayed several times, most recently because of an appeal to the state Supreme Court. The men's federal court filing in Rapid City for an injunction and declaratory judgment is against 19 defendants, including various federal agencies, officials and the federal government. Lawyers want a judge to prevent the defendants from withholding information that could help their case. State prosecutors plan to argue that an ongoing feud between the two clubs was the motive for Wilson and Midmore to fire on the Outlaws, they wrote. "Defendants believe that the converse is true. In fact, the acrimonious relationship led to the ambush of defendants and that these actions were in self defense," Hells Angels lawyers wrote in the court document.As Wilson and Midmore tried to leave the resort, several Outlaws members attacked them, so they fled to save their lives, the document states.
They felt they were in danger because of information law officers told them before they came to the state stemming from past conflicts and the fact that all Outlaws members were required to attend the 2006 Sturgis rally, according to the court document. Government surveillance and information from informants inside both organizations predicted the Outlaws planned attacks on Hells Angels at Cody, Wyo., in July 2006 and Sturgis in August 2006, but the government agencies and officials have repeatedly refused to turn over videos, photos and other such evidence, the Hells Angels lawyers wrote. "The Outlaws surveillance information gathered with respect to Outlaws members and affiliates planned attacks against Hells Angels is relevant and necessary to show the motivation behind the Outlaws ambush of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Midmore and to prove that the Outlaws, not Mr. Wilson and Mr. Midmore, were the aggressors in the Legion Lake incident," the document states.
Hells Angels attorneys also argue that the indictments of several other Outlaws, including some who were shot at Custer, prove the organization was carrying out attacks on Hells Angels members and that information was gathered before the Custer shooting.

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