Alleged Angel jailed on gun, drug charges

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One of seven alleged members of the Hells Angels nabbed in pre-dawn raids by the Ontario Provincial Police in December was handed a six-year prison sentence yesterday after pleading guilty to trafficking in hashish and offering to trade a high-powered assault rifle.

Luis Barberiz, 41, of Hamilton, who was injured in a car crash in November and remains in a wheelchair, was given the standard double credit for six months of pretrial custody by Superior Court Justice Nick Borkovich.

His lawyer Jaime Stephenson said the sentence included one count of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking for which Barberiz had been previously charged. He also entered guilty pleas to one count of trafficking in hashish and another of offering for trade a prohibited AK-47 assault rifle.

Project Manchester, led by the OPP's joint forces biker enforcement unit, employed an undercover operative who infiltrated the outlaw biker's organization. The project targeted nine homes and commercial properties. Six of the nine raids were in Hamilton and other raids were carried out in Cambridge and Nanticoke.

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