Greg Carr
2023-03-26 14:50:30 UTC
Hells Angels at 40: Criminal convictions and clubhouse seizures mark the bikers celebratory year in B.C.
Police say B.C. residents now understand what the biker gang is all about: “They want the public to believe that they are nice, law-abiding motorcycle enthusiasts ... we and many people know that that's simply not true. They are involved in significant criminality."
Author of the article:Kim Bolan
Published Mar 24, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 10 minute read
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Back in 1989, B.C.’s then tourism minister welcomed Hells Angels from around the world to a giant party organized by the Nanaimo chapter, telling the local paper that “money is money” and that biker cash was as good as any.
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More than three decades later, the provincial government has just seized the Nanaimo clubhouse, along with two other Hells Angels properties in Kelowna and East Vancouver, after a historic court ruling last month that was 15 years in the making.
The B.C. Court of Appeal unanimously reversed a lower court decision and said the notorious biker gang should forfeit the three properties — worth over $3 million — to the director of civil forfeiture because they would likely be used for criminal activity.
“Hells Angels outfitted the clubhouses to prevent police from surreptitiously monitoring its activities,” the three appeal judges noted. “Hells Angels’ ‘penchant for secrecy’ and ‘preoccupation with rats and snitches’ arose out of a wish to prevent the detection of crime and the clubhouses provided a safe space for members to commit or conspire to commit crime.”
Hells Angels clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia St. in Vancouver.
Hells Angels clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia St. in Vancouver. PHOTO BY ARLEN REDEKOP /PNG
They also pointed out how many members and associates of the three chapters “had in the past committed serious crimes” including manslaughter, extortion, drug trafficking and possession of restricted firearms.
RELATED STORIES
B.C.'s highest court orders forfeiture of three Hells Angels clubhouses
B.C.'s highest court orders forfeiture of three Hells Angels clubhouses
The titles for the three clubhouses were transferred to the B.C. government on March 17, property records show — 75 years to the day the Hells Angels were founded in California. B.C. Hells Angels are expected to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear an appeal of the clubhouse ruling. They have until April 17 to file their application.
Club spokesman Rick Ciarniello, the oldest Angel in B.C. at 78, did not respond to a request for comment. A lawyer involved in the case also declined to comment.
Phil Tawtel, the executive director of the Civil Forfeiture Office, said this week that he “can’t comment on anything to do with the current proceedings in this matter or anything to do with future proceedings in any matter.”
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“I can confirm that all three properties are now in the name of the province,” he said.
So what does the loss of clubhouses mean to the Hells Angels as the notorious biker gang is set to mark its 40th anniversary in B.C. this July?
University of the Fraser Valley criminologist Yvon Dandurand said the clubhouse ruling is “absolutely” a victory for civil forfeiture laws.
“No matter what the final outcome is — this ruling has a disruptive impact right away. As this gets sorted out in the legal system, there’s already an impact on the Hells Angels,” said Dandurand, a professor emeritus.
He said the bikers will have to think carefully before seeking leave to appeal to the country’s highest court.
“I am not sure it’s totally in their interest to move forward. And in terms of the government’s position, there might be some genuine legal issues or weaknesses in our civil forfeiture system in terms of the level of proof that is required. But they’re probably still on safe ground.”
Photos: Hells Angels party in Nanaimo in 2018
Former U.S. prosecutor Stefan Cassella, an expert on criminal asset forfeiture, read the Hells Angels ruling soon after its release.
“In general, I can certainly say that forfeiting the property used by or derived from organized crime is critically important to the law enforcement effort, whether you do it as part of a criminal case or in a separate civil forfeiture. There’s no way anyone could argue the opposite of that,” said Cassella, who testified at B.C.’s Cullen Commission into money laundering.
“We in the United States have come to rely on civil forfeiture as a key adjunct to criminal forfeiture when you can’t bring a criminal case. And the ruling in British Columbia means that, at least in British Columbia, that’s going to be possible as well.”
Approximately 100 Hells Angels members and affiliated clubs rally at the HA East End Chapter on April 6, 2019, as part of the Screwy Ride. The annual event is a memorial ride for slain HA member Dave ‘Screwy’ Swartz.
Approximately 100 Hells Angels members and affiliated clubs rally at the HA East End Chapter on April 6, 2019, as part of the Screwy Ride. The annual event is a memorial ride for slain HA member Dave ‘Screwy’ Swartz. PHOTO BY JASON PAYNE /PNG
‘Any opportunity to disrupt’
Could other biker clubhouses also be targeted by the province’s civil forfeiture office?
Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, would only speak generally.
“I think we will see in the coming years … more decisions about seizure of assets of criminal organizations,” he said.
In the past year alone, several B.C. Hells Angels have been charged or convicted of serious crimes.
In January, Haney member Vincenzo Sansalone pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in Vancouver. He is due to be sentenced in June, where his previous 2011 conviction in Ontario for trafficking GHB will no doubt be part of Crown submissions. Another Haney member, Courtenay Lafreniere, was charged in December with trafficking on behalf of a criminal organization and conspiracy to traffic.
From left: Vincenzo Sansalone, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in Vancouver; Jason Arkinstall, who was sentenced to 10 years for smuggling drugs; Courtney Vasseur, who is is facing securities and wire fraud charges in New York; Larry Amero, who was convicted last August of two counts of conspiracy to murder rivals.
In October, a Mission City full-patch Angel, Jason Arkinstall, was sentenced to 10 years for smuggling large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine, worth millions, across the Canada-U.S. border. He also got caught in Spain in 2013 trying to smuggle half-a-tonne of cocaine into the country aboard a boat that had sailed from Colombia.
Two other Nanaimo Hells Angels were charged in December after a major drug trafficking investigation on Vancouver Island.
Courtney Vasseur, of the Angels’ elite Nomads chapter, is facing securities and wire fraud charges in New York state that allege he was involved in an international stock scam with illicit profits of US$35 million.
West Point Angel Larry Amero was convicted last August of two counts of conspiracy to murder rivals though has not yet been sentenced.
John Dillon Brown, 30, was found dead inside his car near the west side of a bridge to Sayward, about 75 kilometres north of Campbell River on March 12, 2016. PHOTO BY YOUTUBE
Not just full-fledged Angels have been convicted. A jury found Ricky Alexander, the longtime head of the Devil’s Army, an HA support club, guilty of first-degree murder on March 15. He killed MMA fighter John Dillon Brown inside the gang’s Campbell River clubhouse in 2016. Alexander owns the property on Petersen Road, assessed at $569,000.
Three of the 10 Hells Angels chapters in B.C. don’t own clubhouses. The Nomads rent an industrial unit at 7228 Winston St. in Burnaby, after selling their original clubhouse on Grant several years ago. The two newest chapters — Hardside and Amero’s West Point — rent buildings in Langley and Surrey.
But older chapters — Haney, Mission, Vancouver and White Rock — all own properties that are used for weekly so-called church meetings, gathering spots for commemorative rides, and annual parties marking each other’s founding. The total value of the four remaining properties is almost $4.5 million, according to B.C. Assessment documents.
B.C. bikers are not the only ones who have lost court battles over their clubhouses.
Cassella, the U.S. expert, said there have been several cases south of the border where clubhouses owned by the Hells Angels and their rival Outlaws have been forfeited in criminal and civil proceedings.
In Ontario, clubhouses in Oshawa, Niagara, Thunder Bay and London have been seized using civil forfeiture laws.
Two of the seizures came after a major joint investigation called Project Tandem in 2006 targeting Hells Angels across southern Ontario.
David Brown, a now-retired Durham Regional Police superintendent, spent decades working on biker and organized crime investigations, including Project Tandem, before becoming a private investigator in 2020.
He praised the Appeal Court ruling against the bikers in B.C.
“Any opportunity to disrupt their activity is an opportunity that should be taken. And that was one of our objectives. We never dreamed that we were going to eradicate them, but we were going to disrupt them and when you disrupt them, they’ll make mistakes,” said Brown, who works for Investigative Solutions Network.
“It’s good for public relations. It’s good for showing that the police have taken a hard stance and they care about these things, but the Hells Angels will just find another place to go.”
Most Ontario biker gangs rent their clubhouses now.
Despite myriad criminal convictions there, Brown thinks the Hells Angels still have more public support than they should, in part because of “the Hollywood perception with these shows like Sons of Anarchy and the Mayans.”
“Some of these guys are making a living from consulting on these things that glamorize them.”
Clubhouses in residential areas
The three clubhouses now owned by “His Majesty the King in right of the province of B.C.” are in traditionally working-class neighbourhoods of their communities.
The Kelowna property, assessed at almost $1.3 million, is a stucco bungalow with a small upstairs surrounded by a metal fence and hedge in a neighbourhood of similar homes just south of Knox Mountain. The house is across from the site where Tolko mill operated for decades, right on Okanagan Lake. The mill closed two years ago and the waterfront site is now slated for redevelopment.
The East Georgia house, valued at just over $1.5 million, is in a Vancouver Special modified over the years by the bikers with a gym and bar inside. It has a high metal fence and gate with security cameras on three sides. Backlit custom metal death head logos are still hanging in the decorative dormers of the stucco and brick house.
A lone motorcycle is parked outside of the Hells Angels’s Kelowna clubhouse in this photo from 2012.
A lone motorcycle is parked outside of the Hells Angels’s Kelowna clubhouse in this photo from 2012. PHOTO BY THE DAILY COURIER
The Nanaimo clubhouse, built in 1901 and assessed at $282,500, is south of the city’s downtown and just west of the old Island Highway in a building that looks more like a one-time garage, though it now features an airbrushed mural of skull-faced bikers on Harleys surrounded by flames.
Nanaimo is where the long-running civil case began in November 2007, with the other two clubhouses added to the court proceedings in 2012.
A sign outside the Hells Angels clubhouse on Victoria Avenue in Nanaimo on Aug. 4, 2004.
A sign outside the Hells Angels clubhouse on Victoria Avenue in Nanaimo on Aug. 4, 2004. PHOTO BY BRUCE STOTESBURY /Times Colonist
For 13 years, the Nanaimo chapter had no access to the building until the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in the bikers’ favour in June 2020, only to be overturned on Feb. 15.
REAL SCOOP: Hells Angels still powerful after 35 years in B.C.
When they were cut off from the clubhouse, the Nanaimo Angels moved into two neighbouring houses and created a new compound where they hosted the Hells Angels 35th anniversary party in 2018.
Since that bash five years ago, two members who attended have been murdered — Chad Wilson was shot to death under the Golden Ears Bridge on Nov. 18, 2018. No one has been charged. And Suminder “Allie” Grewal was gunned down in a South Surrey Starbucks drive-thru on Aug. 2, 2019, by Alberta hit men Calvin Junior Powery-Hooker and Nathan James De Jong. They pleaded guilty to second-degree murder but never identified who hired them.
RELATED STORIES
Hells Angel Chad Wilson recalled 'terror' he felt before shootout with rivals
Hells Angel Chad Wilson recalled 'terror' he felt before shootout with rivals
Whether the Hells Angels will celebrate their 40th anniversary in B.C. this summer given their challenging year remains to be seen.
Nanaimo, Vancouver and White Rock all started on the same date — July 23, 1983 — when members of an earlier club, Satan’s Angels, “patched over” to the new gang in town.
There from the beginning was Rick Ciarniello, a former Satan’s Angel member who has been the public face of B.C. Hells Angels ever since. While he has refused to talk to Postmedia, he testified in the clubhouse case about why he has stuck with his beloved motorcycle club through thick and thin, through dozens of member convictions, through the murders of several of his brethren.
Rick Ciarniello (second from right) of Satan’s Angels in 1977.
Rick Ciarniello (second from right) of Satan’s Angels in 1977. Vancouver Sun
It was the “brotherhood” that attracted him, he said.
“He testified that when he was a single parent he suffered a bad motorcycle accident in 1989 because of which he could not work. He said that during his recovery his chapter ‘brothers’ paid for all of his rent and groceries and never sought repayment,” the June 2020 ruling noted.
“He also testified that he received more disadvantages than benefits from being a member of the Hells Angels including more attention than he wanted and a large police presence.”
Staff Sergeant Lindsey Houghton of The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia works from across the street of the Nanaimo Hells Angels clubhouse on July, 20, 2018. PHOTO BY RICHARD LAM /PNG
‘Puppet club’ expansion
Despite the tumultuous times for B.C. bikers, the Hells Angels are doing surprisingly well recruiting members, the CFSEU’s Houghton said.
For years, HA membership in the province hovered between 100 and 115. That included full-patch members — those who have earned the three-piece death head patch on their leather vests — as well as entry-level prospects, who wear a patch-less vest, and hang-arounds, the term used for men hoping to join the gang.
Now the number is more than 130.
“There’s always attrition and turnover, so the numbers regularly fluctuate,” Houghton said.
“Quite frankly, some are getting pretty old. Like other enterprises, they need a succession plan and find ways to bring in younger people.”
Some of the new recruits are coming from the puppet or support clubs, which Houghton calls “their farm team system.”
Biker clubs linked to Hells Angels popping up across B.C.
Biker clubs linked to Hells Angels popping up across B.C.
He said the number of puppet clubs has surged across B.C. with one or two new ones showing up every year. And more of them — like the Hells Angels — are wearing the “one per cent patch” distinguishing them from the 99 per cent of bikers once described by the American Motorcycle Association as peaceful, law-abiding citizens.
Police are particularly concerned about puppet club expansion into northern B.C. where the now-defunct Renegades once did the Hells Angels bidding from their Prince George base, but were “effectively dismantled.”
“Then there was a bit of a lull there but what we see now are two groups, the Horsemen and the Heavy Hitters, based in Smithers. They have a significant presence up there,” Houghton said.
Photos: Hells Angels bid farewell to Hells Angels Haney chapter president Michael “Spike” Hadden in 2021
Still, the Hells Angels remain the dominant biker gang. They “have no equals or no rivals here in B.C. And they’re the puppet masters. They control that landscape,” Houghton said.
After four decades and dozens of criminal convictions and now the forfeiture of three clubhouses, he believes B.C. residents understand what the biker gang is all about.
“The Hells Angels for decades have had a very well-manicured public image, and they want the public to believe that they are nice, law-abiding motorcycle enthusiasts who raise money for charities and do good in our communities. And, and we and many people know that that’s simply not true.” Houghton said.
“They are involved in significant criminality, and that’s not just here, that’s all around the world.”
***@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kbolan
https://www.facebook.com/stories/657125035106937?source=profile_highlight The H.A. crowd from Kelly's Pub in Newton. Rav the Indo manager of the Superstore at King's Cross Mall is all ganged up so are the idiots who run Taste Of Himilaya restaurant. Planet India and Spice Villa much better.
Hope Mr. Alexander gets life in prison I hope Brown's relatives sue and also sue the Devil's Army and H.A.M.C. if they lose what have you lost? https://theprovince.com/.../f6e088cb-0ce3-4bfb-a461... The court has ordered 3 H.A. clubhouses forfeited to the govt. It is the number one trending article in the Vancouver Sun.
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Lots Of Negative Comments About Brandi's Strip Bar In Vancouver Gino Zumpano H.A. Pres. Runs It. Anyone Call The LCB Or VPD Or RCMP?
Police say B.C. residents now understand what the biker gang is all about: “They want the public to believe that they are nice, law-abiding motorcycle enthusiasts ... we and many people know that that's simply not true. They are involved in significant criminality."
Author of the article:Kim Bolan
Published Mar 24, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 10 minute read
Join the conversation
Article content
Back in 1989, B.C.’s then tourism minister welcomed Hells Angels from around the world to a giant party organized by the Nanaimo chapter, telling the local paper that “money is money” and that biker cash was as good as any.
Advertisement 2
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
More than three decades later, the provincial government has just seized the Nanaimo clubhouse, along with two other Hells Angels properties in Kelowna and East Vancouver, after a historic court ruling last month that was 15 years in the making.
The B.C. Court of Appeal unanimously reversed a lower court decision and said the notorious biker gang should forfeit the three properties — worth over $3 million — to the director of civil forfeiture because they would likely be used for criminal activity.
“Hells Angels outfitted the clubhouses to prevent police from surreptitiously monitoring its activities,” the three appeal judges noted. “Hells Angels’ ‘penchant for secrecy’ and ‘preoccupation with rats and snitches’ arose out of a wish to prevent the detection of crime and the clubhouses provided a safe space for members to commit or conspire to commit crime.”
Hells Angels clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia St. in Vancouver.
Hells Angels clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia St. in Vancouver. PHOTO BY ARLEN REDEKOP /PNG
They also pointed out how many members and associates of the three chapters “had in the past committed serious crimes” including manslaughter, extortion, drug trafficking and possession of restricted firearms.
RELATED STORIES
B.C.'s highest court orders forfeiture of three Hells Angels clubhouses
B.C.'s highest court orders forfeiture of three Hells Angels clubhouses
The titles for the three clubhouses were transferred to the B.C. government on March 17, property records show — 75 years to the day the Hells Angels were founded in California. B.C. Hells Angels are expected to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear an appeal of the clubhouse ruling. They have until April 17 to file their application.
Club spokesman Rick Ciarniello, the oldest Angel in B.C. at 78, did not respond to a request for comment. A lawyer involved in the case also declined to comment.
Phil Tawtel, the executive director of the Civil Forfeiture Office, said this week that he “can’t comment on anything to do with the current proceedings in this matter or anything to do with future proceedings in any matter.”
Article content
Advertisement 4
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
“I can confirm that all three properties are now in the name of the province,” he said.
So what does the loss of clubhouses mean to the Hells Angels as the notorious biker gang is set to mark its 40th anniversary in B.C. this July?
University of the Fraser Valley criminologist Yvon Dandurand said the clubhouse ruling is “absolutely” a victory for civil forfeiture laws.
“No matter what the final outcome is — this ruling has a disruptive impact right away. As this gets sorted out in the legal system, there’s already an impact on the Hells Angels,” said Dandurand, a professor emeritus.
He said the bikers will have to think carefully before seeking leave to appeal to the country’s highest court.
“I am not sure it’s totally in their interest to move forward. And in terms of the government’s position, there might be some genuine legal issues or weaknesses in our civil forfeiture system in terms of the level of proof that is required. But they’re probably still on safe ground.”
Photos: Hells Angels party in Nanaimo in 2018
Former U.S. prosecutor Stefan Cassella, an expert on criminal asset forfeiture, read the Hells Angels ruling soon after its release.
“In general, I can certainly say that forfeiting the property used by or derived from organized crime is critically important to the law enforcement effort, whether you do it as part of a criminal case or in a separate civil forfeiture. There’s no way anyone could argue the opposite of that,” said Cassella, who testified at B.C.’s Cullen Commission into money laundering.
“We in the United States have come to rely on civil forfeiture as a key adjunct to criminal forfeiture when you can’t bring a criminal case. And the ruling in British Columbia means that, at least in British Columbia, that’s going to be possible as well.”
Approximately 100 Hells Angels members and affiliated clubs rally at the HA East End Chapter on April 6, 2019, as part of the Screwy Ride. The annual event is a memorial ride for slain HA member Dave ‘Screwy’ Swartz.
Approximately 100 Hells Angels members and affiliated clubs rally at the HA East End Chapter on April 6, 2019, as part of the Screwy Ride. The annual event is a memorial ride for slain HA member Dave ‘Screwy’ Swartz. PHOTO BY JASON PAYNE /PNG
‘Any opportunity to disrupt’
Could other biker clubhouses also be targeted by the province’s civil forfeiture office?
Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, would only speak generally.
“I think we will see in the coming years … more decisions about seizure of assets of criminal organizations,” he said.
In the past year alone, several B.C. Hells Angels have been charged or convicted of serious crimes.
In January, Haney member Vincenzo Sansalone pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in Vancouver. He is due to be sentenced in June, where his previous 2011 conviction in Ontario for trafficking GHB will no doubt be part of Crown submissions. Another Haney member, Courtenay Lafreniere, was charged in December with trafficking on behalf of a criminal organization and conspiracy to traffic.
From left: Vincenzo Sansalone, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in Vancouver; Jason Arkinstall, who was sentenced to 10 years for smuggling drugs; Courtney Vasseur, who is is facing securities and wire fraud charges in New York; Larry Amero, who was convicted last August of two counts of conspiracy to murder rivals.
In October, a Mission City full-patch Angel, Jason Arkinstall, was sentenced to 10 years for smuggling large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine, worth millions, across the Canada-U.S. border. He also got caught in Spain in 2013 trying to smuggle half-a-tonne of cocaine into the country aboard a boat that had sailed from Colombia.
Two other Nanaimo Hells Angels were charged in December after a major drug trafficking investigation on Vancouver Island.
Courtney Vasseur, of the Angels’ elite Nomads chapter, is facing securities and wire fraud charges in New York state that allege he was involved in an international stock scam with illicit profits of US$35 million.
West Point Angel Larry Amero was convicted last August of two counts of conspiracy to murder rivals though has not yet been sentenced.
John Dillon Brown, 30, was found dead inside his car near the west side of a bridge to Sayward, about 75 kilometres north of Campbell River on March 12, 2016. PHOTO BY YOUTUBE
Not just full-fledged Angels have been convicted. A jury found Ricky Alexander, the longtime head of the Devil’s Army, an HA support club, guilty of first-degree murder on March 15. He killed MMA fighter John Dillon Brown inside the gang’s Campbell River clubhouse in 2016. Alexander owns the property on Petersen Road, assessed at $569,000.
Three of the 10 Hells Angels chapters in B.C. don’t own clubhouses. The Nomads rent an industrial unit at 7228 Winston St. in Burnaby, after selling their original clubhouse on Grant several years ago. The two newest chapters — Hardside and Amero’s West Point — rent buildings in Langley and Surrey.
But older chapters — Haney, Mission, Vancouver and White Rock — all own properties that are used for weekly so-called church meetings, gathering spots for commemorative rides, and annual parties marking each other’s founding. The total value of the four remaining properties is almost $4.5 million, according to B.C. Assessment documents.
B.C. bikers are not the only ones who have lost court battles over their clubhouses.
Cassella, the U.S. expert, said there have been several cases south of the border where clubhouses owned by the Hells Angels and their rival Outlaws have been forfeited in criminal and civil proceedings.
In Ontario, clubhouses in Oshawa, Niagara, Thunder Bay and London have been seized using civil forfeiture laws.
Two of the seizures came after a major joint investigation called Project Tandem in 2006 targeting Hells Angels across southern Ontario.
David Brown, a now-retired Durham Regional Police superintendent, spent decades working on biker and organized crime investigations, including Project Tandem, before becoming a private investigator in 2020.
He praised the Appeal Court ruling against the bikers in B.C.
“Any opportunity to disrupt their activity is an opportunity that should be taken. And that was one of our objectives. We never dreamed that we were going to eradicate them, but we were going to disrupt them and when you disrupt them, they’ll make mistakes,” said Brown, who works for Investigative Solutions Network.
“It’s good for public relations. It’s good for showing that the police have taken a hard stance and they care about these things, but the Hells Angels will just find another place to go.”
Most Ontario biker gangs rent their clubhouses now.
Despite myriad criminal convictions there, Brown thinks the Hells Angels still have more public support than they should, in part because of “the Hollywood perception with these shows like Sons of Anarchy and the Mayans.”
“Some of these guys are making a living from consulting on these things that glamorize them.”
Clubhouses in residential areas
The three clubhouses now owned by “His Majesty the King in right of the province of B.C.” are in traditionally working-class neighbourhoods of their communities.
The Kelowna property, assessed at almost $1.3 million, is a stucco bungalow with a small upstairs surrounded by a metal fence and hedge in a neighbourhood of similar homes just south of Knox Mountain. The house is across from the site where Tolko mill operated for decades, right on Okanagan Lake. The mill closed two years ago and the waterfront site is now slated for redevelopment.
The East Georgia house, valued at just over $1.5 million, is in a Vancouver Special modified over the years by the bikers with a gym and bar inside. It has a high metal fence and gate with security cameras on three sides. Backlit custom metal death head logos are still hanging in the decorative dormers of the stucco and brick house.
A lone motorcycle is parked outside of the Hells Angels’s Kelowna clubhouse in this photo from 2012.
A lone motorcycle is parked outside of the Hells Angels’s Kelowna clubhouse in this photo from 2012. PHOTO BY THE DAILY COURIER
The Nanaimo clubhouse, built in 1901 and assessed at $282,500, is south of the city’s downtown and just west of the old Island Highway in a building that looks more like a one-time garage, though it now features an airbrushed mural of skull-faced bikers on Harleys surrounded by flames.
Nanaimo is where the long-running civil case began in November 2007, with the other two clubhouses added to the court proceedings in 2012.
A sign outside the Hells Angels clubhouse on Victoria Avenue in Nanaimo on Aug. 4, 2004.
A sign outside the Hells Angels clubhouse on Victoria Avenue in Nanaimo on Aug. 4, 2004. PHOTO BY BRUCE STOTESBURY /Times Colonist
For 13 years, the Nanaimo chapter had no access to the building until the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in the bikers’ favour in June 2020, only to be overturned on Feb. 15.
REAL SCOOP: Hells Angels still powerful after 35 years in B.C.
When they were cut off from the clubhouse, the Nanaimo Angels moved into two neighbouring houses and created a new compound where they hosted the Hells Angels 35th anniversary party in 2018.
Since that bash five years ago, two members who attended have been murdered — Chad Wilson was shot to death under the Golden Ears Bridge on Nov. 18, 2018. No one has been charged. And Suminder “Allie” Grewal was gunned down in a South Surrey Starbucks drive-thru on Aug. 2, 2019, by Alberta hit men Calvin Junior Powery-Hooker and Nathan James De Jong. They pleaded guilty to second-degree murder but never identified who hired them.
RELATED STORIES
Hells Angel Chad Wilson recalled 'terror' he felt before shootout with rivals
Hells Angel Chad Wilson recalled 'terror' he felt before shootout with rivals
Whether the Hells Angels will celebrate their 40th anniversary in B.C. this summer given their challenging year remains to be seen.
Nanaimo, Vancouver and White Rock all started on the same date — July 23, 1983 — when members of an earlier club, Satan’s Angels, “patched over” to the new gang in town.
There from the beginning was Rick Ciarniello, a former Satan’s Angel member who has been the public face of B.C. Hells Angels ever since. While he has refused to talk to Postmedia, he testified in the clubhouse case about why he has stuck with his beloved motorcycle club through thick and thin, through dozens of member convictions, through the murders of several of his brethren.
Rick Ciarniello (second from right) of Satan’s Angels in 1977.
Rick Ciarniello (second from right) of Satan’s Angels in 1977. Vancouver Sun
It was the “brotherhood” that attracted him, he said.
“He testified that when he was a single parent he suffered a bad motorcycle accident in 1989 because of which he could not work. He said that during his recovery his chapter ‘brothers’ paid for all of his rent and groceries and never sought repayment,” the June 2020 ruling noted.
“He also testified that he received more disadvantages than benefits from being a member of the Hells Angels including more attention than he wanted and a large police presence.”
Staff Sergeant Lindsey Houghton of The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia works from across the street of the Nanaimo Hells Angels clubhouse on July, 20, 2018. PHOTO BY RICHARD LAM /PNG
‘Puppet club’ expansion
Despite the tumultuous times for B.C. bikers, the Hells Angels are doing surprisingly well recruiting members, the CFSEU’s Houghton said.
For years, HA membership in the province hovered between 100 and 115. That included full-patch members — those who have earned the three-piece death head patch on their leather vests — as well as entry-level prospects, who wear a patch-less vest, and hang-arounds, the term used for men hoping to join the gang.
Now the number is more than 130.
“There’s always attrition and turnover, so the numbers regularly fluctuate,” Houghton said.
“Quite frankly, some are getting pretty old. Like other enterprises, they need a succession plan and find ways to bring in younger people.”
Some of the new recruits are coming from the puppet or support clubs, which Houghton calls “their farm team system.”
Biker clubs linked to Hells Angels popping up across B.C.
Biker clubs linked to Hells Angels popping up across B.C.
He said the number of puppet clubs has surged across B.C. with one or two new ones showing up every year. And more of them — like the Hells Angels — are wearing the “one per cent patch” distinguishing them from the 99 per cent of bikers once described by the American Motorcycle Association as peaceful, law-abiding citizens.
Police are particularly concerned about puppet club expansion into northern B.C. where the now-defunct Renegades once did the Hells Angels bidding from their Prince George base, but were “effectively dismantled.”
“Then there was a bit of a lull there but what we see now are two groups, the Horsemen and the Heavy Hitters, based in Smithers. They have a significant presence up there,” Houghton said.
Photos: Hells Angels bid farewell to Hells Angels Haney chapter president Michael “Spike” Hadden in 2021
Still, the Hells Angels remain the dominant biker gang. They “have no equals or no rivals here in B.C. And they’re the puppet masters. They control that landscape,” Houghton said.
After four decades and dozens of criminal convictions and now the forfeiture of three clubhouses, he believes B.C. residents understand what the biker gang is all about.
“The Hells Angels for decades have had a very well-manicured public image, and they want the public to believe that they are nice, law-abiding motorcycle enthusiasts who raise money for charities and do good in our communities. And, and we and many people know that that’s simply not true.” Houghton said.
“They are involved in significant criminality, and that’s not just here, that’s all around the world.”
***@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kbolan
https://www.facebook.com/stories/657125035106937?source=profile_highlight The H.A. crowd from Kelly's Pub in Newton. Rav the Indo manager of the Superstore at King's Cross Mall is all ganged up so are the idiots who run Taste Of Himilaya restaurant. Planet India and Spice Villa much better.
Hope Mr. Alexander gets life in prison I hope Brown's relatives sue and also sue the Devil's Army and H.A.M.C. if they lose what have you lost? https://theprovince.com/.../f6e088cb-0ce3-4bfb-a461... The court has ordered 3 H.A. clubhouses forfeited to the govt. It is the number one trending article in the Vancouver Sun.
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Lots Of Negative Comments About Brandi's Strip Bar In Vancouver Gino Zumpano H.A. Pres. Runs It. Anyone Call The LCB Or VPD Or RCMP?