Snitch Leads Cops To The Arrest of 15 Suspected Hells Angels Members
Posted September 29, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
That revelation has many in the Hells Angels fearing what may come next.
The O.P.P. have now officially revealed what led them to arrest 15 members of the biker gang in a series of early morning raids on Thursday. The suspects face a range of charges for drugs, weapons and even murder.
Cops are ecstatic that they’ve been able to get inside information from an entity that normally doesn’t allow for a traitor.
“The significance of this investigation is that we’ve utilized a Hells Angels member to infiltrate this group,” relates Det. Supt. Don Bell. “This is an opportunity that we took ourselves to use this member to gather evidence.
“As such, we were able to take on key members of the group, target their key players. Yesterday we took on members that are very high up in the hierarchy. This will have a significant impact in disrupting the activities of the Hells Angels in Ontario.”
Detectives say the amount of methamphetamines they discovered was especially staggering.
Overall 27 people were hauled down in the sweep which police nicknamed Operation Tandem. Authorities are convinced they’ve dealt the organization a major blow.
“These are long-term outlaw motorcycle gang members, sophisticated criminals and I don’t believe that this investigation will result in these members being replaced,” Bell predicts.
How badly has this hurt the Angels? Organized crime expert Yves Lavinge calculates the effects of having a rogue informant in police hands has replaced their usual swaggers.
“You notice there’s no one mouthing off today with their patch on,” he points out. “They’re concerned because they don’t know exactly what this rat has on them. They just don’t know what the cops have. And there might be another rat.”
Among those arrested, 42-year-old James Earle Boudreau of Harwood, Ont., who was charged with first-degree murder in the death of a man from Cobourg, Ont.
A 29-year-old man was also charged with allegedly plotting a murder in the Peterborough area.
Two other men faced charges of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with an alleged murder plot in Maple, Ont.
This week’s arrests come after a court ruling in Barrie, Ont. last year where a judge deemed the biker club to be a criminal organization after finding Steven Lindsay and Raymond Bonner guilty of extortion and committing the crime “in association with a criminal organization.”
They’re out on bail and the judge’s decision is being appealed.
The Angels have reportedly been in Ontario since December 2000, when gangs including Satan’s Choice, the Para-Dice Riders and the Last Chance joined the Quebec-based organization.
It’s believed there are 175 to 190 full-patch Angels members in this province, and about 450 throughout Canada.
To see unedited footage of Bell, click here.
