How the Hells Angels maintain their influence without a chapter in cities like Thunder Bay
CBC
The Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle club may not have an active chapter in Thunder Bay, but their influence is still felt in the city, and region, the deputy director of the OPP's Provincial Biker Enforcement Unit says.
"Similar to other areas of the province, the Hells Angels have had presence," OPP Det. Insp. Scott Wade said. "They've been disrupted by police projects, investigations or just straight-out alternative disruption that affects their membership."
"Thunder Bay particularly has seen the flux of that membership, and membership has gone up and down," he said. "The chapter has been closed and opened. And right now, according to my intelligence and my information ... the Thunder Bay chapter is closed right now."
"But there are still members in the area who are influencing the Hells Angels in the area."
One major hit to the Canadian Hells Angels came in 2006, in an operation known as Project Husky. OPP, along with Thunder Bay police, the RCMP, Surete du Quebec, and Calgary police, worked together in a two-year long investigation that led to multiple arrests in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.
In Thunder Bay, police raided the Hells Angels clubhouse, and arrested four Hells Angels members, and some associates.
Overall, Project Husky also saw police seize more than $2.3 million in illicit drugs.
More recently, the Hells Angels had established a clubhouse on Simpson Street. However, that building was destroyed by fire in 2020.
Wade said while police continue enforcement efforts against outlaw biker gangs in Ontario, there been "exponential growth" in what he called support clubs across the province.
"Some clubs support the Hells Angels," he said. "That means they attend their events, they hang out with them."
"They're a friendly club or an associate club or a supporter club, whereas some of the more prominent clubs like the Iron Dragons Motorcycle Club, the Red Devils, they are support clubs directly linked to the Hells Angels, and they wear a support 81 patch on their best, which means they support the Hells Angels in an official capacity."
Wade said those clubs act as a network that the larger clubs, such as the Hells Angels, will utilize to "facilitate their criminal acts so they can remain in the shadows, they can remain out of the police eye, and the public eye, and have others conduct their criminal activity."
Wade said some clubs that associate with the Hells Angels are in Thunder Bay, and the surrounding area.
Kenneth Dowler, an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University — who teaches a course on biker gangs at the school's criminology department — said outlaw biker gangs try their best to keep a low profile when it comes to criminal activity including drugs, extortion, and human trafficking.