BY: REG WATSON
Source: thepeterboroughexaminer.com
This is the Google Streetview image of 126 Park St. S., next to the Peterborough YMCA, where police officers raided the Outlaws MC biker gang clubhouse on Friday night, detaining six bikers and associates.
City police detain six bikers after raid at Park St. house.
Outlaws MC gang moved to new clubhouse after abandoning previous Lansdowne St. clubhouse: Inspector
By SARAH DEETH, Examiner Police Writer
Updated 18 hours ago
Police have made one arrest and expect more to follow following a raid Friday night at a house on Park St. that police say is a new Outlaws MC biker clubhouse.
City police officers, including the emergency response team, joined officers with the OPP's Biker Enforcement Unit and the Toronto Police Biker Enforcement Unit in executing a search warrant at 126 Park St. S., shortly after 6 p.m. Four Outlaws members, one Vigilantes member and an associate were detained, police said, and a 60-year-old man who was in the house at the time of the raid was charged with possession of marijuana.
The house is located just north of the Peterborough YMCA.
City police Insp.
“We’re making this a full-time commitment and we’re going hard at it.”
city police Insp. Tim Farquharson
city police Insp. Tim Farquharson
The gang's former clubhouse, located just outside the city limits on Lansdowne St. W., has been abandoned by the club, which moved into the Peterborough area a couple years ago.
That clubhouse was the subject of intense police scrutiny almost one year ago.
City police, working again with the OPP Biker Enforcement Unit, suspected that a "patching-over" ceremony between the Outlaws and another biker gang was taking place at the location, and stood out on the street monitoring traffic in and out of the house Nov. 6, 2010.
Farquharson wasn't at liberty to comment too much about Friday's investigation. It's being run by the OPP Biker Enforcement Unit.
He did say officers are currently doing follow-up work and will determine if more charges will be laid.
Any items seized would be considered part of the investigation, he said.
The warrant is all part of the force's promise to push back whenever organized crime tries to push its way into the city, he said.
"We've never ignored the problem, not for a moment," Farquharson said.
It's a promise police have committed to keeping, year after year, ever since the Satan's Choice left the city, he said. "We're making this a full-time commitment," Farquharson said, "and we're going hard at it."
Peterborough is a community that cares, he said, and police are benefitting from citizens who talk to police whenever they hear or see anything suspicious.
Christopher Liddle, 60, of Oshawa, was charged with possession of marijuana and was released from custody. He is to appear in court Nov. 24.
sdeeth@peterboroughexaminer.com