OFF THE WIRE
OTTAWA — Ottawa Hells Angels president Paul "Sasquatch" Porter has long avoided prison time, but his luck may run out this spring when he goes on trial for trafficking after a simple, low-key Ottawa police investigation.
Porter, who got his nickname because of his size, is not just any Hells Angel. He is the president of the notorious gxxg's Ontario Nomads.
Born in 1963, Porter is a survivor of a bloody biker war in Quebec that claimed 160 lives — including that of an 11-year-old boy — in the 1990s. He is originally from Montreal, where he climbed the ranks as an independent. He was a close friend of Maurice "Mom" Boucher, the Montreal Hells Angels boss now serving three life sentences in prison for killing civilians in a campaign to destabilize Quebec's justice system.
Porter broke with Boucher and became a founding member of the rival drug gxxg the Rock Machine, which waged the 1990s war against the Hells Angels and had Porter literally dodging bullets, twice.
"It wasn't my time to die," he told the Ottawa Citizen once in an interview while showing the scar on his left arm. In late December 2000, Porter orchestrated a mass defection of more than 160 rival outlaw bikers to his archrivals the Hells Angels, securing him the powerful position of president to the Ontario Nomads, which is a key chapter in the international crime corporation.
After a series of failed contract killings, Porter, along with close associates, sought refuge in Ottawa. Some of those associates have told the Ottawa Citizen that Porter, who stands six-foot-seven and once weighed in at 400 pounds, only fears one thing — prison.
In fact, Porter, who has recently lost at least 100 pounds, used to bring surveillance officers plates of food. He used to tell his associates that he'd rather make less money if it meant staying out of prison.
But that may happen after a simple tip in September 2009 landed Porter in trouble with Ottawa police.
That tip about a drug house on Ottawa's east side had police taking down licence plates of cars coming and going. On Sept. 12, 2009, police spotted a Cadillac driven by Porter. They pulled over the car after it left the alleged drug house.
What happened next was something veteran Ottawa police officers never thought would happen.
It is now alleged that when Porter was pulled over, he told officers that the quarter-kilo of cocaine in his girlfriend's purse belonged to him.
The police then charged Porter and his girlfriend, Debbie S. Brennan, with possession for the purpose of trafficking — an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Police officers who worked the case say they seized 250 grams of cocaine from Porter's girlfriend's purse and $785 from his pockets, which they describe in court papers as proceeds of crime.
Porter told the Ottawa Citizen that he's a member of the Hells Angels and that he makes an honest living as a mechanic earning $50 an hour. In another interview a few years ago, he told the Ottawa Citizen he was a vegetable farmer who worked seven acres of land on the outskirts of Ottawa. He is no longer a farmer and will be represented in April at the Ottawa courthouse by a Montreal lawyer who has represented Hells Angels members in the past.
In April, Porter's lawyer is scheduled to argue that his client's alleged statements were not voluntary.
Police have always treated Porter with respect, going so far as privately describing him as an intelligent, calm negotiator who goes through leaps and bounds to insulate himself against prison time.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ottawa+Hells+Angel+boss+faces+drug+charge/5895650/story.html