Nine Hells Angels and associates convicted of total of 26 criminal charges

MONTREAL (CP) - In what one lawyer called a legal precedent in Canada, a jury convicted nine Hells Angels and associates on gangsterism charges Monday and found them guilty on 26 out of a total of 27 criminal charges.

The accused, who were arrested in a major police crackdown on biker gangs in 2001, each faced three charges - gangsterism, drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit murder. Eight of the men were convicted on all three counts, while the ninth was acquitted of the murder charge.

Crown prosecutor Madeleine Giauque praised the jurors, who heard about 125 days of testimony in the year-long trial.

"They did a marvellous job," Giauque said. "They were attentive all the time and they were very dedicated to their job."

"It's the first time anywhere in Canada a jury had to decide about a verdict on gangsterism," Giauque noted. "That's the proof that it's possible."

"Unfortunately, crime is organized in Quebec and I think that police, Justice Department officials, including the courts, have to be organized to deliver an efficient fight against organized crime."

Sentencing arguments will be heard March 22. The drug and murder charges each carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, while the gangsterism convictions carry a maximum sentence of 14 years, to be served consecutively.

Roger Carriere, another Crown prosecutor, said he believes police videotapes of the accused holding meetings proved crucial.

"You see people meeting to commit crimes," Carriere said. "They're all meeting around the table. You can't get better evidence than that."

"It shows that the mega-trials are an effective weapon against organized crime," he said in a statement.

The nine accused were members of the Hells or the Rockers, a farmclub of the Angels.

They were charged with conspiring between 1995 and 2001 to kill people who were in rival gangs like the Rock Machine and the Bandidos. The Hells were locked in a war with their rivals for supremacy in the illegal-drug trade.

The trial made headlines in August 2002 after Superior Court Justice Jean-Guy Boilard withdrew as the presiding judge four months into proceedings.

Boilard said he did not have the moral authority to preside over the trial because the Canadian Judicial Council criticized him for the way he had blasted a lawyer in another case for mediocre work.

When Justice Pierre Beliveau took over in 2003, he decided to abort the trial so it could start again with a fresh jury.

Initially, there were 17 defendants. Seven later pleaded guilty and one avoided trial for health reasons.

The charges resulted from a police operation called Operation Springtime 2001, which ended seven years of battles in the streets of Montreal between the gangs.

The trial's long hours exacted a toll on the lawyers involved in the case. Some commented bitterly on the confrontational atmosphere that characterized disputes between the prosecutors and defence lawyers.

Defence lawyer Lucie Joncas, whose client Sebastien Beauchamp was the only one of the accused to get the one acquittal, expressed some satisfaction.

"Obviously I'm relieved that just because you're a member of the Rockers doesn't mean you necessarily are involved in any criminal activity," Joncas said.

"I think it's important there was a distinction made between being a member and committing a criminal offence."

Pierre Panaccio, who represented several of the convicted bikers, said he accepted the verdict and felt the jurors performed their duties fairly.

"The system being what it is, the only thing left for us is to argue for a sentence to obtain the best possible result for our clients," said Panaccio, who refused to speculate on the eventual sentence his clients would receive.

Asked what the first thing was to race through her mind as the verdicts were read out, Giauque replied: "Holidays."

The trial was held at a specially built $16.5-million courthouse in the city's north end. Another Hells mega-trial held at the same place ended last fall with nine people pleading guilty to gangsterism, drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit murder.

Other mega-trials scheduled for Winnipeg and Edmonton in recent years never got going because of plea bargains and a judge's decision to stay charges on the basis the trial had been unreasonably delayed.

"What's the difference between the Hells Angels and the Bandidos? I think all we have in Houston are Bandidos and they seem like normal people to me."

Perhaps the Globe and Mail story of today's date will give you some more insights into this "club":

Hells Angels members convicted in Montreal
By U THANH HA
Globe and Mail Update
Montreal - In a victory for the authorities in their long war against Quebec's most feared crime syndicate, a jury has returned guilty verdicts in a major jury trial against all defendants nine members of the Hells Angels and their puppet gang, the Rockers.
The men were accused of 27 criminal counts for drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder and participating in the activities of a criminal gang. The jury returned guilty verdicts on 26 counts.
And the legal troubles of the defendants are not over. Six of them - Luc Bordeleau, André Couture, Éric Fournier, Bruno Lefebvre, Richard Mayrand and Ronald (Popo) Paulin - still face multiple first-degree murder charges.
The jury had been hearing evidence since Feb. 4, 2003, making the high-profile case perhaps the longest criminal jury trial in Canadian history.
The nine defendants are part of a group of 91 people who were accused when police cracked down against the organization of the Nomads, an elite chapter of the Hells Angels.
Already, 67 of them have pleaded guilty to offenses such as conspiracy to murder, manslaughter, drug trafficking, money laundering and membership in a criminal gang. In separate proceedings, two more pleaded guilty.
The verdict came on the 12th day of deliberations by a Superior Court jury. It was the first megatrial that reached the jury stage. Other megatrials against organized crime had ended prematurely, twice in Montreal and once in Edmonton, raising concerns about the viability of large-scale prosecutions.
Many observers had doubted that a jury could handle such a long, complex case. The trial heard testimony from 146 witnesses and more than 1,380 exhibits were tabled. The evidence came from more than 274,000 wiretaps and 1,100 surveillance operations.
The Crown says that between 1995, and 2001 the men banded together in a crime syndicate that systematically killed rival gang members to monopolize Montreal's lucrative drug trade. Under the leadership of their kingpin Maurice (Mom) Boucher, the gang conspired to kill up to 134 people, the prosecution alleged at one point.
"They thought they were untouchables . . . Find them guilty," Crown prosecutor Madeleine Giauque had told the jurors.
To fight their rivals, the Rock Machine and the Bandidos, the Hells Angels gathered far-reaching intelligence on their victims. They kept photo albums of their enemies (some of the pictures had been stolen from police) and collected their addresses, names of relatives and licence-plate numbers.
Most of the killings were done with car bombs or pistols fired at close range but the police later seized documents showing the gang was apparently shopping for M-16 assault rifles, Uzi submachine guns and a bazooka-fired rocket.
They acted in a highly secretive fashion but their ruthless, criminal aims still transpired in the evidence.
In meetings the police covertly videotaped, the bikers feared wiretaps so they discreetly made gestures mimicking pistols rather than speak out loud about shooting enemies. Even when no one else stood close to them in public areas, they would whisper in each other's ears. The top leaders never travelled without bodyguards.
The nine accused are part of a group of 17 whose trial began in 2002 under the supervision of Mr. Justice Jean-Guy Boilard. However, after four months before a jury, Judge Boilard suddenly quit after he was criticized by a disciplinary council for the way he chewed out a biker lawyer in another proceeding.
The trial had to start again with a new jury, a new magistrate and fewer defendants, since nine had pleaded guilty and another one was released for health reasons.

What's a megatrial? Essentially the Canadian equivalent of a RICO case, where multiple members of a criminal syndicate are charged under a racketeering statute and related charges in one mass trial. These trials involve a lot of police surveillance evidence intended to show a pattern of organized criminal activity. Two of these trials, one in Edmonton and one in Winnipeg, collapsed because the prosecution took so long to organize its case that the defendants were able to argue that hey had been denied the right to a speedy trial. Although some of these proceeding have involved Chinese triads, Vietnamese gangs, and native Indian gangs, the majority of them are motorcycle gangs.

The Hells Angels are the biggest motorcycle gang in Canada, having destroyed and/or taken over their competition. Their main business is dealing drugs, mainly heroin and cocaine, but also methamphetamine and marijuana which they export to the United States. Some hold down jobs like longshoremen in Vancouver, where there is a problem with corruption and smuggling within the ports. The leaders of these gangs are full-time big-time criminals worth millions of dollars. I have seen enough and heard enough about these people to assure you that they are bad bad bad actors who kill anybody who gets in their way. Their place ought to be jail, but many of them stay out by intimidating any potential witnesses against them. The Mounties of Hollywood legend may have always gotten their man, but most actually existing Canadian law enforcement is closer to the Keystone Kops -- and the judges are worse.

Here's a picture of Quebec Hells Angels leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher when he was convicted in 1999 of murdering two prison guards.

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