Posted on 12/04/2003 6:20:01 PM PST by blam
Police in raids on Hell's Angels over 'peace' killings
Oliver Poole
(Filed: 05/12/2003)
Armed police raided dozens of Hell's Angels' clubhouses yesterday in the climax of a two-year undercover operation that authorities claim implicates the infamous motorcycle gang in drug dealing, firearms and murder.
The operation, the largest co-ordinated action against the Angels for almost two decades, resulted in the confiscation of 127 firearms, 1,000 rounds of ammunition, military explosives, methamphetamine and four stolen vehicles.
Fifty-five gang members and their associates were arrested and police said "several" are likely to face federal murder charges, primarily over an incident in April last year when four people died and dozens were wounded at a bikers' "peace conference" in Nevada.
It was that brawl, in which members of the Angels and their bitterest rivals, the Mongols, attacked each other with guns and knives, that brought an upswing in motorcycle gang violence to public attention.
During much of the 1990s, the Angels tried to shed their criminal reputation, claiming they were now more concerned with charitable work than hell-raising. Rallies were often staged to raise money for children's hospitals.
However, according to police, the rise of rival gangs - the Pagans and Outlaws on the east coast, the Bandidos in Texas and Mongols in California - has recently caused an intensifying of the turf wars over prostitution and drugs profits.
Many of the new gangs are primarily Hispanic and from inner-city areas. The Angels responded with a recruitment drive in which small gangs were persuaded to join them for a share of the spoils from their various rackets.
In July, federal agents in Arizona arrested 18 Angels and their associates on charges that included a murder-for-hire scheme and illegal weapons use.
Yesterday's raids, which occurred in southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Alaska, involved several hundred agents.
In San Francisco, the gang's city headquarters on Tennessee Street was raided at 6am. Agents armed with assault rifles ringed the street while officers broke down the wall from an adjacent house to get into the building.
Donald Kincaid, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the operation had exposed the continued criminal nature of elements within the motorcycle gang.
"If you have toys-for-tots run on the same day you're cooking methamphetamine, which is your real persona?" he said.
However, George Christie, a long-time Angels leader in southern California, dismissed the raids as a stunt. "I'm sure it is hyped - that's what they always do," he said.
"How many of the guns were illegal? And I didn't know it was against the law to have ammunition. How many people were actual members? We're a long way from this getting into a courtroom."
The HAs ought to sue the government for doing the same thing, which would included failing to do their sworn duty to protect our sovereignty and borders. The millions of illegals are bringing in drugs by the truck load, killing our cops and citizens, and creating fraud on a nationwide scale. They ought to get a good attorney and go after the fedgov.
I'm guessing the peace talks didn't go well....
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