OFF THE WIRE
Jane Sims
lfpress.com
DUELLING BIKERS: Weekend Hells Angels party, resurgent Outlaws could signal a rekindling of gang rivalry inthe Forest City
A weekend “show of strength” by the Hells Angels in London could signal tensions between the biker gang and its rivals are heating up.
“There’s turmoil,” Det. Sgt. Len Isnor, head of the OPP-led provincial biker-enforcement unit, said Sunday as more than 100 people gathered at a Grey St. address for a Hells Angels party.
It’s no coincidence the party was planned not long after an apparent resurgence in London of the Outlaws motorcycle club, which has a long and bitter history worldwide with the Hells Angels.
Last summer, police said the Outlaws had once again established a clubhouse in east London, nine years after they were all but eliminated by a province-wide sweep during a police crackdown called Project Retire.
“The Outlaws and the Hells Angels don’t like each other. There’s history,” Isnor said.
While both groups have co-existed for years in many communities, “there’s always that chance of problems.” he said, adding: “we’re prepared to handle any situation that may happen between the Outlaws and the Hells Angels.”
Both the biker enforcement unit and London police monitored the Saturday party until past midnight.
No one was arrested, but Isnor said “numerous Highway Traffic Act charges” were laid after officers checked vehicles and spoke to party-goers.
Isnor said the police couldn’t say exactly what was discussed at the get-together. There are often Hells gatherings at clubhouses across Ontario, he said.
But, given the shift in biker activity in London, he said the party was “a show of strength” and a message to the Outlaws “that this is our town.”
“This is a message that they’re sending not just to the Outlaws, but to other independent gangs in London that ‘we’re here and we’re here to be reckoned with,” he said.
Biker expert Yves Lavigne disagreed the party was meant to send a message.
“If it was a show of force, it was a gentle one,” the Toronto-area author said.
If the Hells Angels are serious about flexing their muscles, Lavigne said they would “crash someone else’s party.”
“More likely than not, they’re just getting together,” he said.
Isnor wouldn’t go so far as to say the Grey St. address of the party is officially the new Hells Angels’ London clubhouse.
The old clubhouse on Swinyard St. was seized by police in July 2008 and remains under a so-called restraint order. A court hearing on its fate is expected next year.
Isnor said permanent clubhouses are no longer the norm and gangs often change meeting places.
There are an estimated 163 Hells Angels in Ontario.
In London, police said, there are 13 members and one prospect, a potential member seeking full status.
There are also four people classified as “hangarounds,” or supporters of the club who aren’t members but associate with the bikers.
There are 12 active Hells Angels chapter in Ontario. One chapter in Thunder Bay is considered frozen because it doesn’t have the required number of active members – at least six – to conduct biker business.
Chapters in Sudbury and Niagara have closed, Isnor said, because they’re feeling the heat from police investigations.
About 40% of Canada’s Hells Angels are in Ontario.
The Hells Angels have been deemed a criminal organization by the courts and been connected to drugs, weapons and violence.
In London, the Hells Angels have kept a low profile since the clubhouse was seized, but there’s been an undercurrent of activity.
More recently, bureaucrats have targeted bars owned by suspected Hells Angels associates and tried to take away their liquor licences because the establishments are associated with an outlaw motorcycle gang.
The first target in London was Fabulous Flesh Gordon’s, a strip club owned by Hells Angels member Rob Barletta.
In October, a two-member panel of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario turned down a request from the commission’s registrar to yank the licence of Flesh Gordon’s. That decision is being appealed.
The hope was to win the case and turn to another London strip club, the Beef Baron, owned by another member of Barletta’s family.
The panel, in rejecting the request to revoke the licence, said Barletta had no record and has followed all the bar-ownership regulations.
Isnor said while there are tensions now, the relationships between bikers can turn on a dime.
He pointed to how, after the war in Quebec between the Rock Machine and Hells Angels ended in 2002, some Rock Machine members patched over to the Hells Angels.
E-mail jane.sims@sunmedia.ca or follow http://twitter.com/janeatlfpress
