Police claim a victory over bikers in Thunder Bay
Police in Thunder Bay say they have dismantled the local Hells Angels chapter after a two-year biker investigation in northwestern Ontario.
Twenty-seven suspects, including five full-patch Angels members, were charged on Wednesday with offences relating to drug trafficking, violence and operating a criminal enterprise, the Ontario Provincial Police said in a statement.
The charges followed dawn raids in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. In Thunder Bay, police used an explosive charge to blow open the door of the Angels' clubhouse.
Donny Peterson, a Toronto motorcycle-shop owner who speaks for the club, called it a publicity stunt. "Instead of blowing up our clubhouses with a grand show, it would be more expedient just to knock," he said.
The investigation, called Operation Husky, was a joint effort of the OPP and Thunder Bay city police with help from the RCMP, the Sûreté du Québec and Calgary police.
It has led to seizures of cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, percocets and OxyContin with retail street value exceeding $2.3 million since January 2004, the OPP statement said. More than half the total was cocaine.
- FROM SEPT. 14, 2004: Top Hells Angels get 20 years in prison
Arrests were made in communities across northern Ontario, including Kenora, Longlac, Kapuskasing and Hearst.
"The investigation involved Thunder Bay, Fort Frances and Kenora, but we don't want you to think it is limited to those communities," OPP Superintendent Mike Armstrong told CBC News.
"These drugs go from those points into the smaller towns, into our First Nations communities across this region and so we've had a major impact with this project in reducing the drug traffic across the region.
According to police, the arrest of four full members of the Thunder Bay Angels chapter means there are only two left in the city, not enough to meet Angels criteria for official chapter status. The chapter will probably be frozen or dismantled, they speculate.