Groups Like the Hells Angels Are Being Aggressively Pursued

Police, prosecutors, governments and agencies, like those involved in liquor licences, banking and real estate, have been more aggressively working together over the last year to target organized crime in B.C. 

"Everybody is really coming together as a common team.  I've never seen this amount of cooperation together before," said Sergeant Larry Butler of the Vancouver Police outlaw motorcycle gang unit. 

Some of the initiatives are starting to bear fruit, such as RCMP, municipal police and prosecutors combining efforts in the past year to lay an unprecedented number of charges against organized crime figures. 

The Vancouver Sun reported Friday that at least 45 full-patch Hells Angels members or their associates were charged with or convicted of offences in B.C.  in the past year. 

As the agencies work more together, Butler predicted more gangsters will be targeted.  "I think we're on the edge of more things happening," he said. 

The B.C.  Liquor Control and Licencing Branch brought in a new policy in August that redefines who is a "fit and proper" person to hold a liquor licence.  The B.C.  Hells Angels, a wealthy and powerful group, own many businesses in the province, and have been linked to at least a half dozen bars in Vancouver and Kelowna. 

Mark Tatchell, the branch's deputy general manager, said his agency is now reviewing the liquor licences for 25 bars, mainly in the Lower Mainland and the southern Interior, that police believe are run by criminals. 

The new policy also requires better background checks conducted on anyone applying for a new licence, for a large bar that can hold more than 150 people, "to prevent the infiltration of criminal interest, including organized crime," said Tatchell. 

The past policy required a criminal-record check on people who applied for licences, but that was not an effective screening system because organized crime groups often used people without convictions. 

Last year, John Bryce, president of the East End chapter, listed 606 Powell St., -- which is the Drake Hotel in Vancouver -- as the address for a numbered company he owns. 

Guy Charles Stanley, a former Hells Angels who was kicked out of the club a few years ago, is listed as a director of Champagne Charlie's Entertainment Inc.  on the B.C.  corporate registry. 

The building where the bar is located on Lawrence Avenue in Kelowna was purchased Sept.  2 by Liquid Zoo Holdings; Damiano Dipopolo, a Hells Angels East End member, is listed as a director in the company, according to the B.C.  corporate registry. 

No bar licences have yet been revoked as a result of the review. 

"For the first time the liquor board has been aggressive and they are not backing down," said RCMP Sgt.  Gary Shinkaruk. 

As a result of the Kelowna RCMP releasing a list of businesses linked to the Angels in their city, Dipopolo told the Kelowna Daily Courier in July the publicity had delayed his purchase of the Champagne Charlie's building. 

"I lost the mortgage I was going to have with the bank because they ( RCMP ) singled me out," Dipopolo said.  "The bank said they thought I was a bad risk.  I am not a bad risk.  I am a successful businessman."

Lyle Newton, who owns Alliford Bay Logging, said in May he was forced to quit the Nanaimo chapter because local businesses and banks stopped doing business with him after a series of stories in The Sun and The Victoria Times-Colonist in 2004 identified him as a Hells Angel. 

Some other businesses the newspapers identified last year as linked to the Hells Angels have since been dissolved or are in the process of being dissolved, or have changed hands, according to B.C.'s corporate registry. 

RCMP Supt.  Marianne Ryan, chief officer of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said the Canadian Bankers Association is one of the agencies that has recently started working with police. 

"There's really an awakening that we need to work together here.  The results are indicative of that change in attitude," she said. 

In November 2004, the superintendent of real estate for B.C.  cancelled Haney chapter member Werner Gonzalez's licence to sell homes for "being a member of a criminal organization."

B.C.  Solicitor-General John Les said federal agencies are also working better with police in B.C., such as Transport Canada uncovering evidence of an ecstasy lab and tipping off the RCMP.  That lead resulted in raids two weeks ago on two Richmond homes that contained sophisticated ecstasy labs, which police said at the time were clearly linked to an Asian organized crime group. 

"There's an example of a federal agency that's waking up, smelling the coffee, and acting appropriately," said Les. 

He also said Health Canada is now better at pursuing leads from the RCMP, for example about ingredients used to make drugs such as crystal meth. 

Municipalities are also getting involved.  Some are working with police to target building infractions, such as steel doors used to fortify clubhouses or telltale signs of a marijuana grow-op. 

In August, the mayor of Kelowna wrote a letter to the province urging it to follow Manitoba's lead in making it illegal to wear gang insignia inside bars. 

The Manitoba legislation is being challenged in the courts, and the outcome will likely determine whether B.C.  will act on Kelowna's request.  "If that survives the courts, then we're certainly going to be looking at bringing that in here," Les said. 

The province is, however, planning to introduce civil proceeds of crime legislation in the next few weeks, Les said.  The government hopes the proposed bill will result in more seizures of homes, cars and other property that criminals have bought with the proceeds of illegal activities. 

"It's always been my position that the real way to attack not only organized crime, but crime in general such as drug trafficking, is to seize the assets," said Attorney-General Wally Oppal. 

Although there has been federal proceeds of crime legislation under the Criminal Code since 1989, B.C.'s bill will aim to tighten up some of the weaknesses in the federal law, he said. 

The province introduced a new prosecution team earlier this year to handle complicated organized crime cases in the courts, but Oppal wants to see prosecutors working even closer with police on these files. 

"I'm more committed to working closer with the police, in fact, putting Crown counsel in touch with police, so that's going to be a new approach in the ministry," Oppal said. 

A 2005 report on organized crime in B.C., published exclusively in The Sun on Friday, indicates there are 108 known organized crime groups in B.C., but police only have the resources to investigate less than 30 per cent. 

So, it has become crucial for municipal police, the RCMP and U.S.  agencies, such as the DEA and FBI, to pool resources to tackle these large cases. 

"No one police department can deal with this by themselves," said Vancouver police chief Jamie Graham, who is also head of a national police task force on biker gangs.  "There's pretty well nobody that carries a shield and a firearm that we don't work with."

Inspector Paul Nadeau, head of the RCMP Vancouver drug section, said grow-ops, which used to be mainly a B.C.  problem, are now popping up in large numbers across Canada -- which has forced politicians to act. 

"Suddenly we have people at every level of government that are impacted by this and are wanting to do something about it," Nadeau said. 

Police have also recruited the Financial Institutions Commission to look at corrupt mortgage brokers and real estate agents working with criminals involved in marijuana grow-ops, an estimated $6-billion industry in B.C.  each year. 

FICom recently laid 42 fraud and forgery charges against a former mortgage broker and two real estate agents who were allegedly using false documents to secure mortgages. 

"The police are not going to make this go away on their own.  We have formed a lot of good relationships in the last year or so with different groups .  .  .  like the real estate board who traditionally may not been as keen to give us information as they are now," Nadeau said. 

Another trend is communities preparing impact statements -- such as explaining how many fires were started in the area because of grow-ops - -- that are read in court to try to get tougher sentences for large-scale pot growers.  "We are trying to educate the judges," Nadeau said. 

Exactly how successful authorities will be in targeting organized crime groups, and whether those measures will be challenged in the courts, is unclear.  But B.C.'s solicitor general vows pressure will be kept on gangs. 

"I think we need to keep the heat on.  We've got to develop a reputation in British Columbia that this isn't an easy place to carry out criminal activity," Les said.