Pubdate: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 Source: Montreal Gazette (Canada) Contact: http://www.montrealgazette.com/ Authors: Monique Beaudin and Paul Cherry BIKERS GOING ON WARPATH Get Set For More Violence, RCMP Gang Expert Warns The Hell's Angels are cranking up their war machine and Montrealers should brace themselves for even more violence, a top police expert said yesterday after a leader of the rival Rock Machine gang was shot dead in his Laval home. "The Hell's Angels seem to be quite serious in ending the war," said RCMP Staff-Sgt. Jean-Pierre Levesque of Criminal Intelligence Service Canada. "For a long time they were going after the knees (of the Rock Machine), now they're going for the head." In the past two months, Rock Machine leader Richard (Bam-Bam) Lagace and Johnny Plescio, one of the founders of the gang, have been killed. Lagace was gunned down outside his Saint-Lin health club and Plescio slain at home - killed by several shots fired from outside his house. More than 50 people have died in the past four years in the criminal-gang war, fought between the Hell's Angels and the Rock Machine for control of the lucrative illegal-drug trade in Quebec. A member of Plescio's family found the 34-year-old man's body in his Katia St. home in Laval's St. Francois district yesterday afternoon - less than 24 hours after a burned-out car with two machine guns in the back seat was found in the same neighbourhood. Police officers had their antennas up after that - a burned-out car is often the signature of a crime committed by one of the criminal gangs. Plescio - described as one of the Rock Machine's strong arms - had a criminal record for narcotics, criminal harassment and intimidation. Two of the Rock Machine's other leaders - Giovanni Cazzetta, 41, and Gilles Lambert, 42 - are in jail, while a third man, Fred Faucher, heads the gang's activities around Quebec City. They could be the next targets, Levesque said. "We expect more attempts - I think the Hell's are really out to get the heads of the Rock Machine," he said. The Hell's have stepped up their attacks since five members of the Hell's-affiliated Rockers gang were acquitted in July of the murder of a Rock Machine member, Levesque said. "Until then, everything was low-key," Levesque said. "But that kind of gave (the Hell's) a second wind, and it was time for them to take care of business." Taking care of business means wiping out the Rock Machine leadership and any ties it might have to the Texas-based Bandidos gang, Levesque added. The Bandidos and the Hell's have been locked in a brutal war in Scandinavia, where at least 14 people have died. There have been reports the Rock Machine wants to join the Bandidos, whose U.S. national vice-president, George Wegers, is a candidate to become president. Wegers was arrested in Quebec City in October while having dinner with Rock Machine members. "If the Hell's Angels are able to get rid of some of the big names in the Rock Machine, they'll be able to say to the Bandidos, why would you want the Rock Machine," Levesque said. But the Rock Machine appears to be striking back through spectacular car bombings, including one yesterday morning in Montreal's Point St. Charles district. Pierre Dore, 40, a Rockers sympathizer, narrowly escaped death when his car exploded as he drove down residential Ropery St. Dore, who police described as a drug dealer, was taken to a hospital, but his injuries - lacerations to his back and an arm - weren't considered life-threatening. Police say it was the second attempt in a week aimed at people associated with the Rockers. On Friday, two men also suspected of having ties to the Rockers were injured when a bomb went off in the pickup truck they were driving in Montreal's Cote St. Paul district. A Montreal Urban Community police spokesman said the early indications of their investigation are that both bombs are very similar. Dore was driving along Ropery St. and turning westward on St. Charles St. after 9 a.m. when the bomb went off in his car, a maroon-coloured Grand Prix. It came to rest with its front wheels on a sidewalk. The driver side of the vehicle was heavily damaged. The blast was strong enough to shatter the windows of the two buildings on either side of the street where the bomb went off. People living as far as two blocks away said they felt their apartment floors shake. They also said they saw a second man take off his shirt and wrap Dore's arm with it. Veronique Jubert was sleeping in her apartment when she was awakened by the sound of the explosion and glass flying through her room. She was asleep in a bed less than 20 metres from where the car exploded. "A few minutes later, I looked outside and saw a man sitting on the sidewalk. His arm was wrapped in a shirt and he looked badly injured," she said. The bomb also shattered several windows of a building across the street from Jubert's, a seniors' residence. No one in either building was injured, police said. Police reported Dore was able to get out of the damaged car on his own. Foam from a car-seat cushion sprayed out of the vehicle, and police marked off areas as far as 35 metres away indicating where debris from the car had landed. One woman who lives a few doors away from where the explosion occurred complained that if the gangs are at war they should keep it among themselves, adding that many young children live on her block. She recalled the 1995 incident where 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers died after he was hit in the head by a piece of shrapnel. The boy was riding his bike when a drug dealer's booby-trapped jeep exploded. His death sparked public outrage and led to the creation of the Wolverine anti-gang squad, which was composed of the RCMP, Surete du Quebec and MUC police until the latter force decided to pull out last February. With debris from the blast barely swept up, Marcel Sevigny, Point St. Charles city councillor, said MUC police should rejoin the anti-gang force and, in an open letter to MUC chairman Vera Danyluk, demanded the idea be considered immediately. "It seems to me that the Wolverine squad had a certain control over the war, and it's not a coincidence that the attacks have started again since that pressure has slackened," he pointed out. The fact that yesterday's explosion occurred in a residential neighbourhood shows that the Rock Machine is feeling the pressure from the Hell's, Levesque said. "They're like rats," he said. "When you're stuck in a corner and you feel the heat, you'll do anything. It seems they want to go back to what we lived through in 1994 when the war started - anything goes." - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry