Pubdate: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON) Copyright: The Hamilton Spectator 2001 Contact: http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181 Author: Susan Clairmont Section: FEATURE COLUMN INSIDE CANADA'S BIGGEST ONE-DAY BUST It was billed as the largest one-day police operation of its kind in Canadian history. It saw more than 80 outlaw bikers arrested in Quebec. It involved nearly 2,000 police officers doing 288 searches. And it netted 20 buildings, $12.5 million cash, 70 guns, one rocket launcher, 44 cars and motorcycles, one stick of dynamite, 120 kilograms of hashish and 10 kilograms of cocaine. It also put handcuffs on two Ontario Hells Angels -- Walter Stadnick from Hamilton and Donald Stockford from Ancaster. Stadnick is a Hells Angels leader and part of the elite Nomads chapter that roams the country looking for new members. Stockford is also a Nomad. Some of this made headlines when Operation Springtime was carried out on March 28. Other details trickled out as reporters in two provinces ferreted them out in the months since. But yesterday, for the first time since the sweeping raids took place, a more thorough look at the long and large intelligence operation was made public when the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada released its 2001 annual report. The report describes how a gang member wore a wire to a high level meeting, how police learned the gang was working with the traditional Mafia to set drug prices and how cops hit the motherlode when they raided one Montreal apartment building. Every year, the CISC report provides an overview of organized crime in Canada, touching on everything from traditional organized crime groups, to Asian-based organized crime, to outlaw motorcycle gangs. The information is compiled largely from federal, provincial and municipal police forces across the country that have full-time intelligence units. This year, a special section outlining Operation Springtime was added to the report -- just another indication of the unprecedented impact the raids had on biker gangs. Springtime's joint-forces operation brought together four existing biker task forces that had been investigating the Hells Angels, and groups they associate with, for six years. The RCMP, Quebec police force, Montreal police, Ontario Provincial Police Special Squad, the Organized Crime Agency of British Columbia and 25 other municipal police forces took part in the raids. While Stockford was quietly arrested at his house in Ancaster, Stadnick was picked up three days later while vacationing in Jamaica. His arrest came with help from Jamaican police and Interpol. The CISC report says the Hells Angels, particularly the Nomads, controlled the distribution of cocaine and hashish throughout Quebec before the busts. "In the gang's highly structured hierarchical system, the lower level puppet clubs (the muscle for the real chapters) and their associated street gangs performed the bulk of the criminal activities, particularly the more dangerous, violent or overt activities," the report says. In Quebec, the biker gangs ran a billion-dollar-a-year distribution operation, moving hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and hashish a month. Interestingly, the report says that almost all Hells Angels chapters in Quebec were required to go through the Nomads to buy cocaine. That reinforces Stadnick and Stockford's influence in the gang, since they and all other Nomads are free to do business anywhere they wish. Taped conversations between Nomads members revealed to police they were setting drug prices with the blessing of the Italian Mafia. The CISC report says that in July 2000, a member of the Rocker biker gang, who worked as a driver and bodyguard for two Nomads members, attended a high level meeting between an influential Nomad and a group of Rockers at a Montreal restaurant. Nobody knew the bodyguard was working as a police informant and was wearing a concealed wire. Or that he was helping police solve 13 murders committed by the Hells Angels as a result of their turf war with the Rock Machine. During the meeting, the Nomad provided police with evidence that organized crime gangs often work together for their mutual benefit. "The price of a kilo is now $50,000," the Nomad said during the meeting. "I made a deal with the Italians." The CISC report tells how, by July 2000, investigators had copies of the Nomads' books, which listed accounts to people identified only by a nickname. Drug deals were identified by codes: BL for blanc or cocaine; BR for brun or hashish. The spreadsheets gave police an inroad to probe the Hells Angels drug finances. In September 2000, according to the CISC, police surveillance focused on one apartment building in the north end of Montreal. Police had determined it was a delivery area for drug money and that there were regular weekly dropoffs of bags full of cash. Two apartments in the building were rented by the Nomads. One was used as a dropoff for the drugs and money. The other had a safe, money-counting machines, spreadsheets and Hells Angels accountants. It also had $5.6 million in cash. Operation Springtime led to all 13 Quebec-based Nomads each being charged with 13 counts of first degree murder and three counts each of attempted murder. Stadnick was also charged with 13 counts of murder as well as charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Trials for some of the Nomads are to begin next month in a specially built, high-security courthouse being constructed next to a Montreal jail where many of the Hells Angels members are being held. Only the prisoners, the judge, lawyers, witnesses, police and jurors will be allowed in the courtroom. Everyone else will have to watch the proceeding on closed-circuit television. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom