Canada, Speed, marijuana odour lead police to hidden weapons in car ..

OFF THE WIRE
By Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun
Four men linked to the Kelowna Hells Angels are expected to appear in a Salmon Arm court this week after the RCMP found a cache of weapons during a routine traffic stop Thursday night.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Keane said the four were picked up when police stopped a speeding vehicle on the Trans-Canada Highway at about 11 p.m.
"Police detected the odour of marijuana and arrested four males from the vehicle," Keane said.
Facing a series of charges are full-patch member Joseph Bruce Skreptak, 43; and associates Carl Ennis, 39; Dennis Miner, 35, and Cory Montemurro, 40.
Skreptak is a former member of the East End Chapter who was one of the first to move to Kelowna to set up a chapter of the notorious biker gang there. That chapter formally opened in the summer of 2007.
Keane said all four of those arrested were "sporting insignia of the Hells Angels organization."
Items seized included a sawed-off shotgun, a large quantity of ammunition, and three handguns. There were also bulletproof vests, balaclavas, a baseball bat, an axe handle, knives, bear spray and a radio jamming device designed to block outgoing transmissions.
" Loaded weapons were all within reach of the vehicle occupants," Keane said.
Biker specialists from the new Kelowna unit of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit were in Salmon Arm helping with the investigation, Sgt. Shinder Kirk of the Gang Task Force said Sunday. He said the Salmon Arm arrest undermines the Hells Angels' continuing claim that it is simply a club of motorcycle enthusiasts and not an organized crime group.
"This arrest is of concern, but it is not surprising," Kirk said.
"Despite the rhetoric we hear, this shows that outlaw motorcycle groups are engaged in criminal activity."
Usually members of organized crime groups don't get directly involved "in the day-to-day dirty work," Kirk said.
"In many cases, they delegate it to their underlings," he said. "This time that doesn't appear to be the case."
Keane said investigators were still trying to determine why the foursome was in Salmon Arm.
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