October 20, 2008
ATTACK ON HELLS ANGELS FORTRESS
Men who fled in pickup sought in bunker fire

Globe and Mail October 21, 2008

MONTREAL -- Quebec police are looking for two men who fled in a pickup truck moments after one of Canada's most eminent symbols of biker power went up in flames over the weekend.

Provincial police are advancing no theories about who might have rammed a truck into a Hells Angels bunker, normally regarded as an impregnable fortress, in the city of Sorel-Tracy, northeast of Montreal.

Investigators hauled the truck out of the charred debris of the clubhouse, the Canadian birthplace of the outlaw gang. Sorel was where the Hells Angels first planted the flag when they moved into Canada from the United States in 1977 and opened the first club.

Police spokesman Ronald McInnis said someone may have driven the truck into the bunker on Saturday night, then jumped out and set the building ablaze. But it's more likely the tanker truck, stolen a few hours earlier from a transport company lot, was propelled unmanned into the fortress, sparking a huge blaze that reduced the symbol of might to rubble.

"We believe there was an accelerant inside the truck, because the building burned intensely," Constable McInnis said. "Was it diesel fuel? Gasoline? Fuel oil? We're continuing to search the debris for clues to allow us to advance our investigation."

Witnesses spotted two men fleeing in a blue pickup truck seconds after the bunker burst into flames.

The destruction of an outpost of Canada's most notorious biker gang - now a vestige of Canadian crime history - set off speculation about whether Quebec is on the verge of another round of biker-related violence.

"This is the boldest attack ever seen against a symbol of the Hells Angels in Canada," said investigative journalist Julian Sher, an expert on the gang.

"This is like attacking the U.S. Bagram air base in Afghanistan. You're not attacking a couple of soldiers. You're attacking the air base."

Unknown is whether the attackers are confined to Sorel, or affiliated with Canadian or international gangs. "If this was done by rivals like the Bandidos, we're in deep, deep trouble," said Mr. Sher, co-author with William Marsden of Angels of Death.

Either way, the attack is a sign that Quebec has let down its guard since the 2001 sweep that netted more than 120 people and effectively ended the treacherous biker wars in Quebec.

"This is a wake-up call to Quebec, which has been asleep at the switch," Mr. Sher said. "In Quebec, the feeling was that we solved the problem and it's over. But it never went away."

The spectacular fire in Sorel came only days after the arrest of three men, identified as being tied to criminal biker gangs, with more than 900 kilograms of explosives in a minivan. In all, police last week recovered 1,200 kg of explosives that had been stolen from a quarry in the Gaspé region.

Veteran organized-crime reporter Michel Auger believes the weekend fire does not signal the start of a new biker war because the Hells Angels have no organized enemies. He said the gang integrated former rivals such as the Bandidos and Rock Machine, and remain as powerful as ever.

Despite the fact biker boss Mom Boucher is in jail, the organization was not substantially destabilized by the 2001 arrests, Mr. Auger said.

"There is no biker war because there are no opponents. There is only one biker gang in Quebec, and that is the Hells," he said. Mr. Auger, who was shot in the back in 2000 after writing an exposé on biker activities, said he believes an independent, freelance group of drug traffickers is behind the Sorel attack.

He calls their act "suicidal" because the Hells Angels will be sure to strike back.

"There is only one big horse left," Mr. Auger said of the biker gang, "and a fly just attacked the horse."