Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jun 2002
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2002 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Bruce Owen

BAD TO THE BONE

Don't Be Fooled By The Hells Angels' Attempts To Clean Up Their Image; 
Authorities Say They're Still Murderous, Drug-Dealing Outlaws

What happened to Donny Magnussen is just one example of what the Hells 
Angels are all about.

On May 23, 1998 Magnussen's bound, decomposed body was pulled out of the 
St. Lawrence Seaway. Magnussen was the bodyguard for Scott Steinert, a 
flamboyant, high-ranking Montreal Hells Angel and would-be porn star.

It's believed on Nov. 4, 1997 Steinert called on Magnussen to go to a 
meeting. Both were later beaten to death with a ballpeen hammer, wrapped in 
plastic and dumped in the seaway. Steinert's body wouldn't surface until 
about a year later. No one knows why the two were killed, although it's 
believed to have been part of an internal gang purge.

"They say he cried before it happened," says Yves Lavigne, a Toronto 
journalist who has written several books on the Hells Angels in Canada. 
"That's the thing. They all know what's going to happen before it happens. 
But they still go."

Magnussen, about 30 years old, died about three years before a Hells Angel 
chapter was set up in Manitoba, yet he plays a central part in the gang's 
expansion to the Keystone Province and its continued presence.

He was originally from Thunder Bay, but was no stranger to Winnipeg.

He was shot in the legs outside the Windsor Park Inn Dec. 15, 1993. He was 
waiting for a cab at about 2:30 a.m. when someone opened fire on him from a 
pickup truck. Ten to 15 shots from a weapon believed to be a 
nine-millimetre semi-automatic handgun were fired.

The truck was found a short distance away behind Pierre Radisson Collegiate 
in St. Boniface. Police said then that the truck belonged to a member of 
the Los Brovos Motorcycle Club. The Los Brovos, at the time, were at war 
with the recently reorganized Spartans Motorcycle Club. Both gangs have 
their roots in the 1960s, and at the time of the Magnussen shooting, the 
Spartans had reformed after several years of inactivity, incorporating 
themselves under the leadership of Darwin Randall Sylvester.

Of all the shots fired at Magnussen, only one bullet hit him, apparently 
passing through both legs as he ran for cover back in the hotel. He later 
discharged himself after treatment at St. Boniface General Hospital, 
refusing to speak to police.

Former Insp. Ray Johns said at the time Magnussen was a known associate of 
the Hells Angels. Five months earlier he was charged along with Walter 
"Nurget" Stadnik, the national president of the Hells Angels, and another 
man with the beating of two off-duty Winnipeg police officers on Aug. 20. 
The two officers had been apparently taunting the bikers, one even climbing 
on one of the biker's motorcycles.

The two plainclothes officers were treated in hospital for facial cuts and 
bruises after three bikers beat them up in the parking lot of VJ's Drive-in 
on Main Street.

On May 20, 1994, the Crown dropped assault charges against Stadnik, 
Magnussen and another man because of a lack of evidence.

Back in 1993, Magnussen was Stadnik's muscle, accompanying the 
Hamilton-based biker as he worked to establish the Hells Angels in 
Manitoba. Stadnik is now in a Montreal jail cell, facing 13 murder charges 
in relation to several gangland slayings during the war between the Hells 
Angels and the former Rock Machine in Quebec.

In the scheme of things, Magnussen was a little fish in a big sea. But he 
does signify a link to what we see today on the streets of Winnipeg.

For example, Lavigne says members of the Manitoba Hells Angels were trained 
by Stadnik and the Quebec Hells Angels, which in his view explains why 
there have been several gang-related firebombings and other attempts to 
intimidate witnesses in Winnipeg, one involving an aborted attack on a city 
police officer's home last Feb. 12. The Quebec HA have a reputation for 
being quick to resort to violence, while Angels on the West Coast prefer to 
lay low and make lots of money. So, in the slow and sometimes deadly 
evolution of the Hells Angels in Manitoba, the work Magnussen and Stadnik 
did a decade ago, the connections they made and the people they put in 
place are, for the most part still there, still hard at work, still taking 
care of business.

Walter Stadnik is the main guy who's credited with bringing the Hells 
Angels to Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta, the guy with the vision of seeing 
the Hells Angels established from coast to coast.

Winnipeg was his second home for about six years during the '90s, as he put 
together a network of bikers and businessmen to expand the Quebec drug 
pipeline westwards and stave off expansion of rival outlaw motorcycle gangs 
- -- the Outlaws, the Rock Machine and the Bandidos. That network would 
eventually call itself the Redliners, a short-lived third motorcycle gang 
to compete with Los Brovos and Spartans for membership in the new Hells 
Angels Manitoba chapter.

Stadnik had been visiting Winnipeg from Hamilton and his base in Sorel, 
Que. since the late 1980s. He had a girlfriend here, and the couple even 
had a baby boy. Both still live in Winnipeg. Stadnik would eventually serve 
eight years as the club's national president, and would be one ofthe nine 
founding Nomads chapter members. The group, led by Maurice "Mom" Boucher, 
comprised the club's elite members. Their ultimate goal was to establish 
Hells Angels chapters in Ontario, in the Golden Horseshoe region.

On Jan. 16, 1992, Stadnik was arrested by city police and charged under the 
Narcotics Control Act with possession of the proceeds of crime -- suspected 
drug profits. He was picked up at the Winnipeg International Airport with 
more than $80,000 in a bag.

On Jan. 23, 1995, the Crown stayed the charge after an agreement was 
reached that he forfeit the money to Revenue Canada to pay any outstanding 
tax or penalties. The end of the case merited just a few paragraphs in the 
paper, but it highlighted a problem law enforcement had then and continues 
to have now in investigating and prosecuting members of outlaw motorcycle 
gangs.

How do you make charges against gang members stick? Meaningful 
investigations of outlaw motorcycle gangs, involving wiretaps and 
clandestine surveillance, take a lot of time, a lot of dedicated people and 
a lot of money.

And the sad truth, Lavigne and police sources say, is that for a variety of 
reasons -- unfocused police investigations, a lack of political will and 
the belief the Hells Angels were not a threat -- the gang's expansion 
across Canada was allowed to remain unchecked. It was only after 
11-year-old Daniel Desrochers was killed when a car bomb exploded Aug. 9, 
1995 near the Montreal park where he was playing did politicians and police 
in Quebec and than in the rest of the country sit up and take notice of 
what the Hells Angels were doing.

What they were doing was operating more as an international corporation 
than a bunch of white-trash street thugs.

They had evolved into a tightly-knit group of committed individuals that 
had connections throughout most of the world.

High-ranking gang members had succeeded in isolating themselves from the 
day-to-day goings on, but were earning the most money. The dirty work was 
being done by low-ranking people in so-called puppet clubs, who agreed to 
kill or beat people up so they could impress their bosses and move up the 
biker gang hierarchy. Police say the chief business of the Hells Angels is 
cocaine, marijuana and ecstasy distribution and drug debt collection. The 
goal of the Hells Angels is to control the market. They set prices for 
narcotics and try to oversee as much as much distribution as possible.

Street sources say those who don't fall in line and agree to sell 
Angels-supplied drugs must pay a "tax" if they wish to continue. That means 
they're allowed to import their own drugs, but must pay the Angels part of 
what they earn if they want to stay in business.

Police believe those who don't agree to pay the tax have their businesses 
set on fire or are killed.

The Hells Angels also hire the best legal advice and work the criminal 
justice system as well as any Broadway lawyer.

"They've spent the last 50 years fighting the rest of society," Lavigne 
says, adding it's not too late for police to catch up.

What police must do is dedicate experienced officers to gather intelligence 
and investigate the bikers over a long period of time.

Lavinge said in many Canadian police agencies, officers are routinely 
transferred out of gang units every three or four years, taking what 
they've learned with them. "They need more brain power," Lavigne said. "You 
can have 24 Tie Domis on your team and you're still not going to win a 
Stanley Cup. You need a few Steve Yzermans and Sergei Federovs, too."

On Jan. 29, 1999 there was a meeting of sorts at the Ichi Ban Japanese 
Steakhouse in downtown Winnipeg. It had nothing to do with food.

Nine members of the Los Brovos, a lone Redliner and three Spartans sat in 
the same room with nine representatives from Western Canadian chapters of 
the Hells Angels. The three Spartans sat separately from the other two 
groups, spectators more than participants.

It was a meeting held to begin the process of bringing the Angels to 
Manitoba. Walter Stadnik wasn't there; the work he had started years 
earlier had to be finished by members of the Western Canadian chapters of 
the Hell Angels.

Lavigne says that's because the Quebec Angels were too busy dealing with an 
increasingly violent turf war with the former Rock Machine to oversee the 
"patch over" in Manitoba.

Donny Magnussen had been dead more than a year.

In Manitoba, four other people were dead due to biker violence. And Darwin 
Randall Sylvester, the charismatic leader of the Spartans, had been missing 
since May 28, 1998. It's believed he was killed.

Ten days before the Ichi Ban meeting, Spartans gang member Robert Glen 
Rosmus was found face-up shot dead on a snow-packed Transport Road east of 
the Perimeter Highway

At the time, a source said Rosmus had driven Sylvester to a meeting in 
Winnipeg on the day he vanished. It was also reported Rosmus planned to 
start a new gang in Winnipeg.

In any event, several members of the Los Brovos got the nod from the West 
Coast Hells Angels to become part of their expanding world empire, 
nicknamed The Big Red Machine.

For all intents and purposes, the Spartans and Redliners ceased to exist at 
that moment. People went their separate ways, although a couple of 
associates of the Redliners went on to be associates of the Manitoba Hells 
Angels.

The Los Brovos were officially designated a Hells Angels prospect club on 
July 21, 2000. That Dec. 22, the 11 members of the club got their full club 
status. One Redliner, a member of a short-lived motorcycle gang in Winnipeg 
set up by Stadnik, also became a member. The speed of the "patch-over" -- 
it's supposed to be a year's probation -- was considered to be an 
aggressive countermeasure to the Bandidos patch-over of the Rock Machine in 
Ontario and Quebec.

The Los Brovos were also no more. A gang that got its start in the late 
1960s as an alternative to the Spartans -- you had to be 21 to join the 
Spartans in 1967 -- had been taken over by a new crew of people in the late 
'90s who were eager to join the Angels and not stay an independent 
organization.

Today, the 10 remaining members of the Manitoba chapter of the Hells Angels 
- -- a founding member was expelled last January and another was deported to 
Portugal -- are now full members in one of the world's most visible 
criminal organizations.

Some of the 10 Manitoba Hells Angels have also cleaned up their acts, 
keeping low profiles and staying out of trouble, despite the best efforts 
of police to lock them up. They've cut their long hair and started shaving 
more regularly. Some started wearing long-sleeved shirts in public to cover 
up their tattoos. Some also have honest jobs.

Police say that shouldn't fool anyone.

The Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, in its 2001 annual report, says 
the Hells Angels are involved in money laundering, intimidation, assaults, 
attempted murder, murder, fraud, theft, counterfeiting, loan-sharking, 
extortion, prostitution, escort agencies, strip clubs, booze cans (selling 
alcohol illegally),the possession and trafficking of illegal weapons, 
stolen goods, contraband, alcohol and cigarettes.

It also says members of the Hells Angels continue to be involved in the 
importation and trafficking of cocaine, the cultivation and exportation of 
high-grade marijuana and, to a lesser extent, the production and 
trafficking of methamphetamine, the trafficking of ecstasy and other 
synthetic illicit drugs.

City police say there is also now growing evidence the local Hells Angels, 
with help from cash-rich B.C. chapters, have started taking over at least 
two local hotels and are now moving into controlling the local stripper trade.

Members of the gang also want to open a store at 44 Albert St. to sell 
mail-order custom motorcycle parts and do tattoo and body-piercing. They 
also want to sell Hells Angels clothing, so-called "support gear."

Lavigne says the store should concern Winnipeggers, as it could become a 
possible target.

He says two recent violent incidents in the United States by rival gangs 
against the Hells Angels are a sign the world's largest motorcycle gang is 
open for attack, even here.

In April, in Laughlin, Nev., two Hells Angels and a Mongol Motorcycle Club 
member were killed during a gun and knife battle in Harrah's casino, and a 
third Hells Angels member was shot and killed while leaving town. In 
February, a group of Pagans clashed with Hells Angels at the Angels' annual 
Hellraiser Ball on Long Island, N.Y. The incident left one Pagan dead and a 
Hells Angel charged with murder.

Lavigne says because the Hells Angels are so big and so visible, they've 
become easy targets by those competing against them.

"They're cocky and arrogant," Lavigne says. "They defy their enemies to 
come after them, and those enemies do." 
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