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BREAKING: Hells Angels MC on scene after body found under bridge

Vancouver, British Columbia (November 18, 2018) BTN —Police are on scene after a body was discovered beneath the Golden Ears Bridge in Maple Ridge Sunday. The discovery was made just before 11:30 a.m. at Wharf Street and Hazelwood Street.

Police and Firefighters on scene 

RCMP and firefighters have responded and several men wearing Hells Angels insignia are on scene.

Body found beneath the Golden Ears Bridge in #MapleRidge
Posted by The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News on Sunday, November 18, 2018

More to follow: Surrey Now Reader

Police raid locations targeting motorcycle club members

Montreal, Canada (November 16, 2018) BTN — An anti-drug operation involving five police forces and targeting a motorcycle club linked to the Hells Angels MC saw 14 arrests and as many raids carried out Thursday as part of an investigation sparked by a string of fentanyl overdose deaths in 2017.

Officers from Quebec City, Granby and Laval are also involved in the operation.

Montreal police say there were 12 raids carried out in Montreal, including at a car parts shop on Henri-Bourassa Blvd. E. in Montréal-Est, while two sites were raided in Laval. The focus of the raids was the Minotaures West-Montreal, a motorcycle club affiliated with the Hells Angels that was formed last year.

Members of the support club are alleged to have headed a network that trafficked in cocaine and heroin even though the Hells Angels MC worldwide have a long-established internal rule that states: “All contact or use of heroin is strictly forbidden.”

  

Police officers seized 50 pounds of marijuana, 11 kilograms of cocaine, 75 grams of heroin and roughly 600,000 methamphetamine pills. They also seized an AK47 assault rifle, seven other types of firearms, $122,460 in cash as well as clothing and other items bearing the Minotaures MC logo, the horned head of the beast from Greek mythology.

According to a release issued by the Montreal police, the 14 arrests made on Thursday were part of a long investigation through which 20 other people have already been charged in the past. 

The people arrested on Thursday are expected to appear in court on Friday.

Officers from Quebec City, Granby and Laval are also involved in the operation.

SOURCE: Montreal Gazette 

Devils Diciples MC: Michigan members sentenced to prison

Detroit, MI (November 15, 2018) BTN— The former national president of the Devils Diciples Motorcycle Club, Jeff Garvin Smith, aka “Fat Dog,” was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.

According to court documents, Smith, 64, of Mount Clemens, was convicted along with the national vice president and national warlord, and three others, for their participation in various criminal acts, including RICO, violent crimes in aid of racketeering, methamphetamine production and trafficking, illegal firearms offenses, obstruction of justice, subornation of perjury and other federal offenses.

“The life sentence imposed on this defendant is a clear indication of the seriousness of the violence he engaged in and how committed the law enforcement community is to stop this kind of organized violence,” said Special Agent in Charge Timothy R. Slater, Detroit Division of the FBI.

“The FBI, our state and local partners and the U.S. Attorney’s offices across the region will not rest until all who would harm the peace and safety of our residents are brought to justice, regardless of where those threats originate."

Awaiting sentencing are four remaining defendants, three from Michigan, who were found guilty by a jury of engaging in a RICO conspiracy, methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct justice, violent crimes in aid of racketeering and various substantive charges.

Those individuals include National Vice President Paul Anthony Darrah, of Macomb Township, Victor Castano, of St. Clair Shores, and David Randy Drozdowski, of Fair Haven, Michigan.

Drozdowski was separately found guilty by a jury of committing violent crimes in aid of racketeering and being a felon in possession of ammunition, while Castano was separately found guilty of obstruction of justice and subornation of perjury.

According to evidence presented at these trials, the Devils Diciples (which is intentionally misspelled) is a motorcycle club with its national headquarters in Clinton Township. For decades, the Devils Diciples operated regional chapters in cities throughout Michigan, Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and engaged in criminal activities to protect the enterprise and for financial gain.

Prosecutors said members are required to own Harley-Davidson motorcycles and are required to follow orders from the clubs’s leadership, including orders to assault, threaten and intimidate others, to transport and distribute drugs, to lie to law enforcement and to hide or destroy evidence.

According to evidence presented at trial, Smith and Darrah were responsible for overall management of the activities of the other Devils Diciples members and chapters, including giving final approval to any activity generally affecting the club as a whole and a individuals, including members and associates of the club, were beaten and robbed, and Smith also participated in this activity directly.

In addition to the four trial defendants sentenced recently, over 50 members and associates of the Devil’s Diciples have pleaded guilty to various crimes as result of this investigation. The investigation further resulted in the seizure of more than 60 firearms and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition and the dismantling of eight methamphetamine manufacturing laboratories across the country.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the Michigan State Police, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office and the County of Macomb Enforcement Team, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office.

SOURCE: Click on Detroit

Hells Angels member and wife sentenced to death

Perth, Thailand (November 15, 2018) — A Perth father turned Hells Angels MC member and drugs trafficker and his wife have been sentenced to death in Thailand over a failed bid to smuggle half a tonne of crystal meth-amphetamine through the country to Australia.

Luke Joshua Cook, 35, and his Thai wife Kanyarat Wechapitak were arrested in December at Bangkok International Airport when he returned on a flight from Australia after local police linked him to a plot to import meth into Thailand two years earlier.

The Thai courts sentenced the pair to death for the plan to traffic the crystal meth, also known as ice, with an estimated street value of $300 million. Their sentences are expected to be commuted to life in jail.

Assets linked to the pair worth $800,000 including property, cash and cars are to be forfeited.

Veneer of boats, bars and baht fell apart in Thailand for Perth man Luke Cook. Cook, who is believed to have two children, was born in Duncraig in 1983 and spent part of his childhood in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea before returning to WA as a teenager.

According to a CV he posted on LinkedIn, from mid-2003 he spent several years working as a chef in fly-in, fly-out positions around WA including on a fishing boat and at mine sites, as well as at the Christmas Island immigration detention centre. After meeting his future wife online, he moved to Thailand where he bought a bar in the beach resort town of Pattaya, set up a business importing boats and marine parts and joined the Pattaya branch of the Hells Angels.

Police said that in 2015, Cook took a yacht into international waters off the Thai coast to collect 500kg of meth from a Chinese trawler. The illicit cargo was dumped overboard after the Thai Coast Guard came across the boat on its way back to port.

Although the patrol boat saw a man throwing bags over the side, he escaped in the dim, early-morning light. Four sacks containing about 50kg of the meth were found washed ashore on Mae Ramphueng Beach in Rayong province.

Thai authorities said Cook was given $15 million by high-ranking Australian Hells Angels bikie Wayne Schneider to buy and store the drugs for later shipment to Australia.

After the failed delivery, Schneider — a fugitive who was wanted in Australia on multiple warrants and was deemed at the time to be the biggest importer of narcotics into Australia — demanded his money back. He was murdered in November 2015 by members of his gang, his naked and mutilated body found in a shallow grave by the side of a road in Pattaya.

Cook was convicted and handed a suspended sentence over his involvement in the Schneider murder after trying to help former Sydney gangster Antonio Bagnato flee the country and cross the border to Cambodia. Bagnato was arrested, found guilty and sentenced to death over the murder but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined to comment on Cook’s sentencing citing privacy reasons.

Luke Joshua Cook, 35, and his Thai wife Kanyarat Wechapitak

A spokeswoman confirmed “the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to an Australian in Thailand”.

An Australian Federal Police spokesman said that it was not appropriate to comment as it was a matter for the Thai authorities. “The AFP was briefed in relation to this matter following the arrest by Thai authorities,” he said yesterday. “The AFP had no involvement in the Thai investigation that resulted in this man’s arrest and subsequent conviction.”

The arrest of Cook and his 40-year-old wife in December was part of a series of raids by the Thai police in an operation dubbed Clipping The Wings Of Angels as it sought to smash Australian Outlaw Motorcycle Gang-led bikie chapters in Thailand. Several Australians were arrested and deported and at least two remain on the run.

Thai police said the Australian men were involved in drugs, extortion, money laundering, weapons, human trafficking for the sex industry and posed a national threat to security.

An investigation last year found that in Thailand alone, 36 motorcycle club chapters had been established by Australian-led or affiliated gang members, particularly around tourist resort cities of Pattaya, Phuket and Chiang Mai and the capital Bangkok.

Chapters have also been established in Indonesia, Cambodia and Singapore.

SOURCE: The West Australian