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Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Former Hells Angels MC clubhouse listed for sale

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (January 21, 2025) - Public Safety Minister Garry Begg says the province has listed the former clubhouse of the Vancouver Hells Angels Motorcycle Club for sale. The former clubhouse, located at 3598 East Georgia Street, was assessed at $1.58 million as of July 1, 2024, which is about $66,000 from when the property was first forfeited to the province.
 


This marks the first of three seized Hells Angels MC properties to be made available for commercial sale and "a further step in undercutting organized crime in British Columbia," Begg said in a news release Monday, January 20, 2025.

Related | Hells Angels MC Clubhouses Seized by Court


The house sits on a corner lot that is 10 metres (33 feet) by 33 metres (109 feet) long. The listing says the two-story house has about 2200 square feet of floor space with five bedrooms and three baths. The property was seized by the government, along with two other clubhouses in Nanaimo and Kelowna, after a 16-year court battle over whether the sites had been used to commit crimes.



The province finally won in 2023. He said the sale “when completed, will include a right of entry, a legal tool authorizing the Civil Forfeiture Office to take the property back if it is ever acquired and used by organized crime in the future.”

The former clubhouse is listed at REALTOR.CO 3598 East Georgia

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Motorcycle Clubs Continued 1-15-25

 

Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club, Canada, circa 1967

Trial for Cossacks MC Prez continues

Tyler, Texas, USA (January 15, 2025) - The second trial for the National President of a Motorcycle Club accused of making orders that led to an East Texas motorcyclist’s death continues.
 


Kevin Higgins is charged with directing activities in connection with the May 2, 2020 death of Brandon Edwards, a member of the 1%er Cossacks MC, who was allegedly chased and shot by Cossacks MC members in the Chapel Hill area. In December, the previous trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.

RELATED | Cossacks MC Member Acquitted 


Higgins maintains his innocence and entered a plea of not guilty. The state argues his role as the National President links him to a string of criminal activities including aggravated assault and murder.



Colorado Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Douglas Pearson said there was a split in the Cossacks Motorcycle Club after the 2015 Waco massacre. The two groups that emerged were the Cossacks MC and the 1%er Cossacks MC.

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Police Raid Hells Angels MC Clubhouse

Trois-Rivières, Quebec (January 11, 2025) - A Hells Angels MC clubhouse was the target of a major police operation in Hérouxville, Mauricie. Around 90 police officers were mobilized Friday evening for a raid targeting violent crimes and drug trafficking. The searches are related to various events in recent weeks and months, such as shootings on Rang St-Pierre in Hérouxville.

Police found 16 people at the scene, including an armed 67-year-old man who was arrested. He was held in custody pending his scheduled appearance at the Shawinigan courthouse on Saturday. Police searched three vehicles and the entire property, consisting mainly of two buildings. They allegedly seized a rifle, firearm ammunition, methamphetamine tablets, clothing and jewelry with the HAMC branding along with Hells Angels patched jackets.
 


Those apprehended at the scene are all men aged between 27 and 71. They are “members in good standing” of the Trois-Rivières Hells Angels, as well as “prospects” and members of Hells Angels support clubs. A spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Éloïse Cossette, stressed that the Mauricie region is not immune from violence and drug trafficking.

“The goal of the investigation is to put an end to the activities of people who engage in acts of violence,” she said. Friday's searches are believed to be linked to several violent episodes during which gunshots and bangs were heard on Rang Saint-Pierre, in Hérouxville, in December 2023, September 2024 and at the beginning of 2025.

The operation involved officers from the Mauricie Regional Joint Task Force (ER), the National Organized Crime Enforcement Team (ENRCO), the Organized Crime Intervention Team (OCIT), intelligence officers, crime scene technicians, firearms specialists, dog handlers and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) Emergency Response Team (ERT).

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Couple of lawsuits settled in Pagan's and cops brawl

Pittsburgh, PA, USA (January 9, 2025) - The City of Pittsburgh will pay over $170,000 to settle two of four lawsuits from a brawl at Kopy’s bar six years ago between members of the Pagan's Motorcycle Club and several drunk, undercover police officers. 
 
Screenshot of video taken from Kopy's bar on October 12, 2018

The lawsuits include allegations of malicious prosecution and assault and battery, as well as civil rights claims based on the city’s alcohol policy that allowed undercover officers to drink on the job.

The incident began around 12:30 a.m. on October 12, 2018. Earlier that night, four undercover Pittsburgh police officers investigating drug activity entered the Kopy's bar, identified themselves as construction workers and began drinking. Four members of the Pagan's MC, arrived about 11:30 p.m. Within an hour, a brawl had erupted, and the four Pagan's MC members were arrested.

Related | Pagans MC Lawsuit Against Drunk Cops Goes to Trial


The four Pagan's MC members were charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy and riot. The undercover officers, David Honick, Brian Burgunder, Brian Martin and David Lincoln, were supposedly investigating a drug complaint at Kopy's bar the night of the brawl.



According to city’s lawyer's, the officers knew the Pagan's MC members to carry weapons, and they believed that their undercover status had been compromised by the four bikers. According to an affidavit by Stephen Kopy, the now-deceased owner of the bar, the officers told him that night they had issues with the Pagan's MC.

“I was then asked by one of the undercover officers whether I was ‘siding’ with the bikers,” Kopy wrote in the affidavit. “I told them that I was not ‘siding’ with the bikers. I just did not agree with the undercover officers that the bikers were trying to cause trouble.” As the Pagan's MC members got up to leave, he continued, the officers stopped them and spoke with them. 

Related | Bar Owner Sues City And Cops


But his lawsuit said that the officers, who were visibly intoxicated, impeded his exit from the bar, with David Honick repeatedly showing him his loaded handgun in the front band of his pants, not revealing that he or any of the others was a police officer. About a month later, the criminal charges were dropped by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s. The officers were ultimately suspended for five days without pay and reassigned. 


Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Motorcycle Clubs Continued 1-7-25


Members of two Motorcycle Clubs embrace as a show of Brotherhood, date unknown

Ex Hells Angels MC freed from prison

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (January 7, 2025) - In a decision made on Friday, the Parole Board of Canada reinstated Jacques Pelletier’s full parole. The 69-year-old former Hells Angel MC member is serving the life sentence he received in 1986 for his role in the first-degree murders of fellow club members in Lennoxville, carried out inside what was then a bunker used by the club’s Sherbrooke chapter. The slaughter, which came to be known as the Lennoxville Purge.

The ambush was planned by leaders of the Hells Angels MC based in Quebec who felt the club’s Laval chapter had become undisciplined when it came to drug trafficking and that this caused problems with other criminal organizations, including the West End Gang, who supplied them with drugs like cocaine.
 


On March 24, 1985, five Laval Hells Angels MC members were shot to death after they were summoned to a Hells Angels clubhouse in Lennoxville, just outside Sherbrooke. Several Hells Angels MC members were present that day and played a role in the slaughter, but only four, including Pelletier, were convicted of first-degree murder and received life sentences.

Pelletier was granted full parole in 2013, but the release was suspended five times since for different reasons. For example, in October 2017 he was returned to a penitentiary after police noticed his motorcycle parked outside a strip club frequented by known criminals.
 
An undated photo of the Laval chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club

Most recently, his parole was suspended following a collision on October 4. During Pelletier’s hearing on Friday, the parole board members who heard his case were presented with different versions of what actually occurred, including Pelletier’s, and determined they did not have enough information to keep him inside the federal penitentiary where he spent the past three months.

According to a written summary of the decision made last week, Pelletier’s parole was suspended following a collision with another vehicle on October 4 and after he refused to submit to a breathalyzer test.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Outlaws MC club member pleads guilty

Buffalo, New York, USA (January 2, 2025) - An Outlaws MC club member who pleaded guilty to a gun charge has already been in jail for a portion of what federal guidelines suggest for a sentence. Scott Barnes, whom prosecutors have described as a national enforcer for the Outlaws, has been in jail since December 2023.

Federal agents on December 7, 2023, executed a search warrant at the 400 block of Northumberland Avenue, Buffalo, New York. Scott had been living in the upper portion of the building for several weeks before law enforcement searched it.
 


During the search, agents recovered a .40 caliber Glock handgun loaded with 11 rounds of ammunition on an end table near his sleeping area with other personal items. The firearm was reported stolen in 2013 by its owner.

Scott was among nine defendants named in the Pharaoh’s witness retaliation indictment. But his charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and also possessing a stolen Glock .40-caliber pistol were not related to the alleged retaliation against Crystal Quinn, 37, a former exotic dancer who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2023.

Among the other defendants in the retaliation case are four people accused of participating in a witness-tampering and retaliation conspiracy targeting Quinn. At the time of her death, Quinn had entered into a formal cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors to testify in Gerace’s bribery, sex- and drug-trafficking trial.