Organized Criminal Group Involved: The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club
- General Modus Operandi: the facilitation or commission of serious criminal offences, likely resulting in the direct or indirect receipt of a material benefit, including a financial benefit, by the group or by any of the persons who constitute the group, whether in or outside of Canada
- Types of Crime the Hells Angels Usually Engage In, include, inter alia, the following:
(i) Trafficking in Illicit Drugs, primarily cocaine and other drugs;
(ii) Trafficking in Firearms;
(ii) Murder
(iii) Attempt Murder
(iv) Extortion
(v) Money Laundering
(vi) Illicit Gambling;
(vii) Bombings
(viii) Property Related offences
- Characteristics of the Hell Angels as an Outlaw Motorcycle Club, both Nationally and Internationally, include, inter alia, the following:
(i) Hierarchical Structure (such as physical corporate organizational lists)
(ii) Membership (such as carrying cards and HA jewellery paraphernalia and a strict and lengthy probation term to become a full-patch member, from a hang-around, prospect and finally a member)
(iii) Club Rules
(iv) Colours (such as the Hells Angels patch, skull with wings)
(v) Clubhouses
(vi) Counter-Intelligence Gathering against the police (as is evidenced by the physical seizure of sensitive internal police documents seized from the Hells Angels’ Clubhouses and in the homes of full-patch members in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada
(vii) Associates; and
(viii) Criminal Activities
(i) Factual Summary Of the Hells Angels as An Outlaw Motorcycle Club
The Hells Angels are a highly-structured group which is deliberately organized to facilitate the commission of criminal offences by and among its members, in particular, the trafficking of drugs.
Members of the Hells Angels belong to individual chapters or “Charters”, and must abide by the rules set by the Hells Angels. In Ontario, Hells Angels members are governed by world rules, Canada-wide rules, and Ontario rules. The rules create an environment within which Hells Angels members can carry out criminal activity free from detection by the police. For example, membership is tightly controlled, so that only trusted individuals with no connection to law enforcement can join. Potential members are carefully screened and only permitted to become “full-patch” members after first being a “Hangaround”, then a “Prospect”. In order to become a “Hangaround”, an individual must be systematically involved in crime. “Prospects” are actively involved in criminal activities and are on probation for a period of one to two years. The transition from “Hangaround” to “Prospect” status, and from “Prospect” status to “full-patch” member, can only occur if 100% of the members approve of the change. New members must be sponsored by a full-patch member and are under probation for one year. Photographs of members are distributed to all chapters in Canada to avoid infiltration by police undercover officers.
Other rules facilitate the commission of crime by members of the Hells Angels. No person who has ever been in law enforcement, or who has ever taken steps to become a police officer or prison guard, is permitted to be a member. Members must abide by a strict “no snitching” rule, which prevents them from even reporting to the police that they have been a victim of crime at the hands of another. The Hells Angels also have a strict “no rips” rule, which helps to ensure that individuals can enter into drug-related business with members of the Hells Angels without fear of being the victim of a drug “rip-off”, and thereby enhances the ability of Hells Angels members to engage in drug-related activity.
Individuals are not permitted to become members of the Hells Angels until they have demonstrated their loyalty and trustworthiness to the criminal organization. Once members, they are considered to be club “brothers” who will assist each other in criminal endeavours when called on.
Members of the Hells Angels also know that if there is a dispute or conflict among members, other members will step in to mediate or arbitrate the dispute. Criminal activity conducted between members is not carried out in isolation from their membership in the Hells Angels; rather, members know that if a dispute arises, the Hells Angels will actively intervene and mediate the dispute.
In addition to the rules and highly-structured organization of the Hells Angels which facilitate the commission of offences by club members, individual chapters of the Hells Angels operate secure, fortified clubhouses within which members can meet to engage in criminal activity.
(ii) Factual and Legal Summary of the Instant Case, R. v. Wagner
The accused, Kenneth Wagner (“Wagner’), was a high-ranking, full-patch member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club – Niagrara Chapter, a criminal organization notorious for facilitating the commission of criminal offences by its members. Wagner was a party to a number of cocaine transactions and a gun transaction with another full-patch member of the Hells Angels, Steven Gault (“Gault”), who also happened to be a police agent, who had been wired with a judicially authorized recording device. Although Wagner admitted to cocaine trafficking on several occasions in excess of 4 kilograms, he denied that he instructed others to commit the offence of trafficking in cocaine and transferring a firearm for the benefit of the criminal organization, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
As an executive member of the Hells Angels' Oshawa Chapter, Mr. Steven Gault became a police agent. In the summer of 2005, that agent, Steven Gault, contacted Mr. Gerald Ward who is the President of the Niagara Chapter of the Hells Angels. Gault spoke directly to Gerald Ward about purchasing a kilogram of cocaine from Ward. It was agreed that since the Oshawa Chapter owed a drug debt to Mr. Ward of the Niagara Chapter, that Mr. Gault would pay a premium of $2,000 on top of the cost of purchasing the kilogram of cocaine to work down the debt owed by the Oshawa Chapter by Mr. Ward of the Niagara Chapter.
On August 18, 2005, Mr. Gault attended in Niagara and paid $42,000 directly to Mr. Ward. Ward then arrange to have Mr. Wagner, a full patch member of the Hells Angels, to arrange for the cocaine to be delivered by Hells Angels associates, prospects or hangarounds.
In the first transaction, Mr. Wagner arranged to have a Mr. Muise deliver the drugs. This procedure was followed on four separate occasions.
On October 5, 2005, Gault purchased from Ward a kilo of cocaine for $38,000. Mr. Wagner arranged to have a Mr. Lacroix and Mr. Muise deliver the drugs.
Again on January 11, 2006, Mr. Ward sold the drugs for $38,000. Again, Ward got the money and Mr. Wagner was left to arrange delivery and he had Lacroix and Muise deliver the drugs on that date.
In February of 2006, there was another kilogram transaction. Again Mr. Ward was the one receiving the money, Mr. Wagner arranged to have Mr. Beaulieu deliver the drugs and Mr. Wagner received the $400 in cash for the 48 calibre magnum handgun that was transferred. The other cash money for the cocaine went directly to Ward.
The last transaction in drug trafficking took place on August 16, 2006, where 10 ounces of drugs were trafficked for the Harley Davidson motorcycle.
In total the police agent purchased 4.38 kilograms of cocaine, that on average was 91 percent pure. He also purchased a handgun for $400 and the cocaine totalling $156,000 plus a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
On all of these transactions, Mr. Ward was the person who set the price, discussed the deal and received the money. Wagner was the person who directed other prospect members and associates of the Hells Angels, namely Muise, Lacroix and Beaulieu, to commit the offences of actually delivering the drugs physically and the firearm to Mr. Gault.
Based upon the wiretaps, the trial judge convicted Mr. Wagner under section 467.13 of the Criminal Code of Canada. The trial judge found the following:
• Ward is the person who was in command. He is the one who made the arrangement and set the price. It is Mr. Wagner's involvement, he admits he is a full patch member of the Hells Angels who then made the necessary arrangements to have those drugs delivered.
• that Mr. Wagner would be number two in the hierarchy of these various drug transactions, although he made a point of not touching the drugs but simply making the arrangements. As a full-patch member, he was insulated from those who actually had to carry out the delivery.
• When the police arrested Mr. Wagner on September 28, 2006, he was found in possession of $150,675 in cash. He also has acknowledged that the truck he owned and the motorcycle were also proceeds of crime and he fairly has conceded that they should be forfeited to Her Majesty the Queen.
• that these gun and drug transactions were not simply committed between individuals, but that Wagner instructed Muise, Beaulieu and Lacroix to traffic in these drugs and transfer the firearm for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with the Hells Angels, which the trial judge found to be a criminal organization.
CanadaSteven Gault, an executive full-patch member of the Hells Angels, Oshawa Chapter, agreed to act as an agent for the police. Gault held the important role of Sergeant-at-Arms in charge of the Chapters security and enforcement.
Police signed an “Agency Agreement” with Gault, detailing the terms of the contract between Gault and the police. Gault received a monetary payment for his assistance to the police.
Police obtained a judicially authorized one-party consent order (otherwise commonly referred to as a “body pack or wire”) that allowed Gault to surreptitiously record his conversation with the accused, Wagner and others.
Gault was handled by a police handler(s) throughout the investigation. Police would conduct a videotaped briefing and debriefing after each scheduled drug transaction. This was done primarily to protect the police from any future allegations by the agent himself and/or the accused Gault, to suggest that the police exerted pressure on the police agent, Gault.
Given the incriminating audio recorded conversation between Gault and Wagner and the others, Wagner entered guilty pleas at trial, pursuant to an agreed statement of facts. At trial and pursuant to the agreed statement of facts, Wagner admitted that he and Gault knew each other as fellow Hells Angels and conducted their drug transactions on that basis and knew each other as club brothers and used that membership in order to conduct their drug transactions. It was also an admitted fact that Wagner used his membership as a Hells Angel to act as a middle-man. No viva voce evidence was heard at trial. The Agreed Statement of Facts from Wagner’s guilty plea was filed as an exhibit at trial. Wagner was also content that the Crown file its evidence by way of a documentary record containing various books of supporting material, including electronic and physical surveillance evidence.
However, Wagner disputed that he directed the drug and gun transactions for the benefit of the criminal organization. He also vehemently disputed that the Hells Angels were a criminal organization.
Full-patch member of The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, Niagrara Chapter
In convicting Mr. Wagner, the trial judge relied and applied the following provisions in the Criminal Code:
467.1 (1) The following definitions apply in this Act.
"criminal organization" means a group, however organized, that
(a) is composed of three or more persons in or outside Canada; and
(b) has as one of its main purposes or main activities the facilitation or commission of one or more serious offences that, if committed, would likely result in the direct or indirect receipt of a material benefit, including a financial benefit, by the group or by any of the persons who constitute the group.
It does not include a group of persons that forms randomly for the immediate commission of a single offence.
"serious offence" means an indictable offence under this or any other Act of Parliament for which the maximum punishment is imprisonment for five years or more, or another offence that is prescribed by regulation.
(2) For the purposes of this section and section 467.11, facilitation of an offence does not require knowledge of a particular offence the commission of which is facilitated, or that an offence actually be committed.
(3) In this section and in sections 467.11 to 467.13, committing an offence means being a party to it or counselling any person to be a party to it.
467.13 (1) Every person who is one of the persons who constitute a criminal organization and who knowingly instructs, directly or indirectly, any person to commit an offence under this or any other Act of Parliament for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, the criminal organization is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.
467.13(2) Prosecution
(2) In a prosecution for an offence under subsection (1), it is not necessary for the prosecutor to prove that
(a) an offence other than the offence under subsection (1) was actually committed;
(b) the accused instructed a particular person to commit an offence; or
(c) the accused knew the identity of all of the persons who constitute the criminal organization.
Section 467.13(1) creates the most serious offence apparently aimed at the leaders of the criminal organization, making it an offence for a member of the organization to knowingly instruct any person to commit an offence for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a criminal organization.
Instruct Criminal Organization, namely instructing others to commit the offence of trafficking in cocaine and transferring a firearm for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a criminal organization, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club
Trafficking Cocaine
Possession Proceeds
While this is a sentencing case, it is a good review of a standard investigation in this kind of organized crime group. The use of agents, witness protection, wiretapping, and physical surveillance. It is also a good overview of the group itself.