Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2009
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Laura Payton

'THE MOST UNIQUE, MOST SUCCESSFUL BUST EVER'

A wave of Hell's Angels arrests throughout Quebec on Wednesday is a 
tremendous blow to the gang, says Yves Lavigne, the author of three 
books on the bikers.

"I'm not very free in complimenting the police on things, but this is 
probably the most unique and most successful bust ever," he said as 
police announced they had arrested or sought 150 people on warrants, 
including 111 full-patch gang members.

Lavigne says the arrests not only will set the gang back for a long 
time, but will also dampen drug crime generally in Quebec and part of 
Atlantic Canada.

"(The police have) got the major thinkers in the gang and the major 
importers and the people with the international contacts," he said.

Only three to five Hell's Angels can make major cocaine deals with 
sellers in Colombia, so that drug channel will be closed for a while, 
Lavigne added. Since the gang controls its own labs, the arrests will 
also affect the supply of all drugs, not just cocaine.

While some observers have speculated a gang war could arise out of 
the ashes of the arrests, Lavigne doesn't think Quebecers need to 
worry about that.

"There's nothing to fight about. The street gangs work for the Hell's 
Angels, the street gangs get their drugs from the Hell's Angels," he said.

"There's no turf to fight for here. There's no one else, there are no 
other organizations in Quebec that can come in and fill this void."

Julian Sher, who has written two books about the Hell's Angels, 
agrees the bust hurts the gang.

"(It's a) huge blow in terms of the numbers, huge blow in terms of 
the numbers of full-patch members," he said.

"I don't know of any other operation in Quebec, in Canada, around the 
world, with that many full-patch members (arrested)."

Sher says the Hell's Angels will have less time for crime while 
they're fighting court battles, but he says it's possible another 
gang will try to fill the gap in the drug trade left by these arrests.

"Crime abhors a vacuum," he said. "Drugs aren't going to disappear 
off the street. That's certainly not the purpose of these kinds of raids."

In the short-term, though, "Everybody's going to be a little nervous, 
looking over their shoulder."

Lavigne says the scale of the bust shows organized crime is not invulnerable.

"Police in Quebec are now waging a 24-hour-a-day war against 
organized crime, which no one else is doing in this country."
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