Biker Trials, The (52 page)

There are also signs that people won't forget that the Hells Angels in Ontario grew out of Quebec's violent biker war. In March 2005, a prosecutor in Barrie, Ontario, played a police videotape of the December 2000 patch-over ceremony in Sorel as he made his closing arguments in an extortion trial involving two Ontario Hells Angels based in Woodbridge. The prosecutor said he did it to prove the pair were part of a large criminal organization, and not just a couple of “motorcycle-riding enthusiasts,” as the Ontario chapters would like the general public to believe.

The trial produced a precedent-setting judgement when, on June 30, 2005, Ontario Superior Court Justice Michele Fuerst determined the Hells Angels to be a criminal organization in Canada. Steven (Tiger) Lindsay, a man who had the words “Hells Angels” tattooed on his chest, and Ray Bonner were found guilty of extortion and committing a crime “in association with” a criminal organization, part of federal anti-gang legislation that allows gang members to be sentenced to an additional 14 years for their crimes. In that case, an expert on organized crime testified that the key test of a criminal organization is its ability to exist beyond the control of one leader.

The Hells Angels have grown worldwide from three chapters in California in 1957 to 227 chapters, with more than 2,500 members, in 29 countries. That includes 118 members in Quebec.

Guy Ouellette, the retired Sûreté du Québec sergeant, testified during the Barrie trial as well, revealing that members of the South, Trois Rivières and Sherbrooke chapters picked up the pieces in Montreal's lucrative drug trade after the Nomads chapter in Montreal was shut down in 2001. Fuerst wrote in her judgement: “It simply defies common sense that a group so deeply involved in crime in Quebec would have any interest in establishing benign counterparts in a neighboring province. It makes little sense that its primary ambassadors would be prolific drug traffickers, if the purpose of expansion was benign. It makes even less sense that if it were expanding for benign reasons, it would choose to do so by assimilating long-established outlaw motorcycle clubs, contrary to its usual cautious approach to acquiring new members. It does make every sense that, at a time when it was under pressure because of events in Quebec, it would expand to strengthen its drug trafficking networks and attempt to shut out its competitor.”

Hopefully, no one in Ontario is buying the argument the Hells Angels are simply riding enthusiasts.

Sebastien (Bass) Beauchamp
—Joined the Rockers as a striker on March 26,1999, and became a full-patch member on October 16,
2OOO
. He was convicted of drug trafficking and gangsterism but dodged a bullet when a jury also acquitted him of conspiring to murder rival gang members. He was sentenced to serve seven years and nine months beginning from the day he was sentenced, April 8, 2004.The Quebec Court of Appeal later reduced the sentence to seven years.

Normand (Pluch) Bélanger
—A close friend of Maurice (Mom) Boucher. He was considered an important player in the Hells Angels' expansion into the ecstasy market. He joined the Rockers on March 26, i998.He became a prospect in the Nomads chapter on October 5, 2000. He was excused from one of the Hells Angels' megatrials because he suffered from cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B, diabetes, hypertension and the after-effects of two heart attacks and was too ill to assist his lawyer. When he was arrested a second time in a loansharking case brought against him and other Hells Angels in February 2004, he had to appear in court in a wheelchair. He died in May 2004.

Luc (Bordel) Bordeleau —
A founding member of the Rockers when the gang was created by Boucher on March 26, 1992. Served a five-year term for the Hells Angels after he was caught scuba diving while looking for a large quantity of cocaine gang members had to toss overboard during the early 1990s. He had close ties to Boucher and lived near his compound. He was made a prospect in the Nomads chapter on its fifth anniversary. When the police searched his house in 2001 they found a grenade launcher among a collection of other weapons. He was convicted in the only Project Rush-related trial to go before a jury. With the time he served awaiting the outcome of his case counting as double, he was sentenced to serve more than 14 years starting from April 8, 2004, his sentencing date. He has to serve at least half that behind bars before he can apply for parole.

Françis (Le Fils) Boucher
— The son of Hells Angels' leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher. He was made a member of the Rockers on March 26,1999. On November 18,2002, he pleaded guilty to his role in the biker war and was sentenced to serve a 10-year sentence from that date. He is required to serve at least half his sentence before he can apply for parole.

Maurice (Mom) Boucher
— Became a Hells Angel on May 1,1987. Created a gang of thugs and drug dealers called the Rockers in 1992. Split off from the Montreal chapter and formed his own elite Nomads chapter which was chartered on June 24, 1995. Many informants describe him as the leader behind the Nomads during the biker war and the person who started the conflict. Sentenced to life in prison on two first-degree murder convictions and an attempted murder conviction after he ordered the Rockers to kill prison guards in an effort to destabilize the justice system. He has appealed the verdicts.

Jean-Guy Bourgoin
— A founding member of the Rockers. He remained with the underling gang throughout the biker war and was still a member when he was arrested in 2001. On September 23, 2003,he and a group of fellow Rockers and Hells Angels ended their megatrial by agreeing to a plea bargain that saw first-degree murder charges dropped. Bourgoin was sentenced to 15 years. With time served factored in, he had only 10 years left on the sentence from the day he pleaded guilty.

Serge (Pacha) Boutin
— Started out the biker war as a drug dealer for a group called the Alliance which opposed the Hells Angels. Joined the Rockers on October 12, 1999, and decided to turn informant after being charged with helping to kill an informant and several other criminal
accusations. He was sentenced to life for the murder of the informant but he managed to plead guilty to manslaughter which meant he would have quicker access to parole.