Cornwall police signs target motorcycle clubs

Cornwall, Ontario – (April 12, 2019) BTN – The Cornwall Police Service (CPS) is striving to reduce the presence of motorcycle clubs locally by launching a “No Gang Colours, No Gang Clothing” program.

“As Cornwall experiences an increased presence of outlaw motorcycle gangs, it is important to send a clear message that the city is not ‘open for business’ to the activities of any criminal enterprises…(this) is a partnership between the police and participating businesses in an effort to stop outlaw motorcycle gangs from intimidating other patrons, and preventing future crimes from occurring on their property,” read a statement in a CPS press release.

The CPS will supply signs to interested local businesses, which clearly state the “No Gang Colour, No Gang Clothing” policy is being enforced through the Trespass to Property Act. The CPS will have authority to enforce the Act for patrons violating the dress code by wearing gang colors or clothing where a sign is posted, in effort of fostering safer and more secure local environments.

“Drug trafficking, fraud, human trafficking, and contraband smuggling are all known to be criminal activities conducted by outlaw gangs, and we want to help our local business community ensure these activities are not occurring on their premises,” explained Det. S/Sgt. Robert Archambault, Criminal Investigations Division.

The CPS will work with participating businesses to help differentiate between outlaw motorcycle gang colours and law-abiding motorcycle clubs. Outlaw gangs often wear patches and pins that denote club status.

In March, the Ontario government announced an investment of $16.4 million over two years towards a Gun and Gang Support Unit, which will enhance major investigations and prosecutions, as well as province-wide intelligence gathering. The province also established a Gun and Gang Specialized Investigations Fund to support joint forces operations.

“In communities across Ontario and here in Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, our government is sending a clear signal that we support the work of the Cornwall Police Service and SDG OPP and community partners to fight back against gun crime and gangs that prey on our young people and put everyone’s safety at risk, ” said MPP Jim McDonell in a press release. “When we help protect at-risk young people, we create safer and stronger communities.”

“In June of 2018, the CPS assisted the Toronto Police Service Gun and Gang Task Force in a gun smuggling investigation, resulting in the seizure of 60 prohibited handguns,” said Stephanie MacRae, CPS Communications Coordinator. “The CPS will continue to work with all partnering agencies in order to assist in preventing these types of weapons from entering our community, in addition to countering organized crime and gang activity in the City of Cornwall.”

The government also announced that it will work with communities to establish justice centres across the province that move justice out of a traditional courtroom and into a community setting.

SOURCE: Seaway News

Gypsy Joker MC murder trial continues

Portland, OR (April 12, 2019) BTN – The star government witness in the torture-style killing of a former Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club member is the man who wielded the fatal blow with a baseball bat strike to the head, a defense lawyer said in court Thursday.

The prosecution’s case largely rests on the words of the actual murderer, Tiler Evan Pribbernow, who has cooperated with the government, said attorney Matthew Schindler, who represents one of the co-defendants in the case.

Schindler called it “outrageous” that prosecutors would allow Pribbernow to plead guilty to only racketeering to leverage his testimony against others. The deal allows Pribbernow to avoid accountability for the killing and save his own life by avoiding a potential death sentence, the lawyer said.

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“Tiler Pribbernow did it because he’s a lunatic. That’s why,” Schindler said. “We’ve seen one witness statement, and that statement is the statement of the murderer. … He killed this guy.”

Racketeering, kidnapping and murder charges are pending against five others in the 2015 death of Robert “Bagger” Huggins, 56. Loggers found his battered body dumped in a Clark County field. He had a fractured skull, a broken rib, a broken leg, a removed nipple, nails driven through his boots, slash wounds to his back and face and many blows to his face, authorities said.

Schindler was arguing for the pretrial release of his client, Ryan Anthony Negrinelli, now 36. At the time of the killing, Negrinelli was a “prospect’’ to join the club. After the killing, he became a full member who went by the nickname “Striker” before splitting from the club in mid-2018, a prosecutor said.

Schindler said the government has no physical evidence placing Negrinelli at the scene. Negrinelli has no prior criminal record, he said. The lawyer also pointed to Negrinelli’s full custody of his 14-year-old daughter and ties to the community. U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones ordered Negrinelli to remain in custody, citing the gravity of the alleged offense. But the judge said he wasn’t willing to let the defendants languish in county jail indefinitely while waiting for “some bureaucrat’’ at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., to “make up their mind” and decide whether to pursue the death penalty in the case.

He said he was told it could take up to a year for the decision, and that’s not acceptable. Schindler also urged the judge to discount Negrinelli’s statement to two Portland detectives after his arrest, saying it should be suppressed because the detectives failed to acknowledge Negrinelli’s repeated requests for a lawyer, placed him in a holding cell for eight hours without food and then plied him with leading information about the attack. Negrinelli also told the detectives he suffered from a childhood brain injury that impairs his memory.

The judge said he’d rule on a motion to suppress any statements at a later date.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Bolstad said Negrinelli was involved in a “premeditated, planned hunt of someone who angered the group he was part of.” According to Pribbernow, Portland’s Gypsy Jokers president Mark Leroy Dencklau ordered the attack on Huggins and others helped. The June 30, 2015, kidnapping and subsequent killing was in retaliation for Huggins’ burglary and robbery at Dencklau’s Woodburn home earlier that month, the government alleges. Dencklau is also charged in the killing.


Huggins had targeted Dencklau’s home after getting kicked out of the club for stealing and breaking club rules, Bolstad said. Dencklau’s then-girlfriend was tied up and Huggins stole some of Dencklau’s property, including guns, the prosecutor said.

While Pribbernow is a key witness and has implicated co-defendants, he’s not the only witness, Bolstad said. Information Pribbernow shared with investigators has been corroborated, including use of a Chevy Tahoe by some of the defendants to carry Huggins’ body and dump him in Ridgefield, Wash., she said. DNA from blood found under carpet in the trunk of the Tahoe matched that of Huggins, she said.

According to Bolstad, Negrinelli helped grabbed Huggins in the driveway of a Portland home and put him into an SUV, where he and four others beat him and drove him to a shed in Woodlawn, Wash. Negrinelli helped place Huggins in the shed, where the defendants continued to torture Huggins, according to Bolstad. In his own words, Negrinelli told Portland detectives after his arrest that he “blasted,’’ or punched, Huggins a few times, Bolstad said.

Negrinelli also used water-boarding on Huggins, placing a scarf over his mouth and pouring water into it, triggering a choking response, Bolstad said. He also helped apply burning hot wire to Huggins’ body, she said. While others dumped Huggins’ body, Negrinelli and two co-defendants drove away in another car to discard weapons, throwing baseball bats into brush off the side of a road, Bolstad said.

Kenneth Earl Hause, the national president of the Gypsy Jokers Outlaw Motorcycle Club, is the only one of the defendants who has was released from jail this year to home detention with electric monitoring as he awaits trial. Hause’s circumstances are different, Bolstad argued, because Hause is charged only in the alleged racketeering conspiracy and not with murder.

SOURCE: Oregon Live

Quebec police arrest dozens in drug raids

Toronto, ON (April 11, 2019) BTN — Police forces in Quebec arrested 33 people Wednesday in relation to an alleged drug network extending from Montreal to Outaouais, Centre-du-Québec, the Montérégie and more. A total of 37 searches were carried out, and police say nearly two kilograms of cocaine and 27,100 methamphetamine pills were seized as part of Operation Orca.

Officers say they also seized 23 vehicles, $120,000, four firearms, six jackets in the colours of the Hells Angels and an escutcheon. Two of those arrested were Claude Gauthier and Pascal Facchino, identified by authorities as part of the Angels’ Trois-Rivières chapter, alleged to be leaders in the sale of narcotics in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu region.

Quebec provincial police‘s joint organized crime unit, known as ENCRO, is mandated to specifically target those in charge of organized crime rings. The squad consists of more than 160 police officers from the Sûreté du Québec as well as police departments from Montreal, Quebec City, Laval and Lévis.

SOURCE: CBC

Former Bandidos MC member to be deported

Sydney, AU (April 11, 2019) BTN — An Irish ex-bikie who has lived in Australia since he was six years old, but has spent time behind bars, will be deported after his visa was cancelled and his appeal rejected in the Federal Court.

John Paul Pennie, who moved to Australia with his parents in 1980, was sentenced in July 2015 to four-and-a-half years in a WA prison for charges including possessing methylamphetamine with intent to sell or supply and wilful destruction of evidence. In January 2016, a delegate of the Home Affairs Minister cancelled Pennie’s visa, ruling he did not pass the character test due to his criminal record which included being a former vice president of the Bandidos bikies.

After the minister refused to revoke the cancellation, Pennie took his case to the Federal Court but on Thursday his application was rejected. Pennie had claimed he feared a lack of medical care for his health issues in Ireland and that he would be homeless. But Justice Katrina Banks-Smith said the minister had considered possible hardship and had not made an error.

Pennie also argued he did not pose an unacceptable risk to the Australian community, in part because he had severed ties with the Bandidos. After Pennie announced he was leaving the club, he was told he had to stab a fellow inmate and assault another, but he refused, which led to Pennie being attacked in Casuarina prison.

“Different minds might reach different conclusions as to the likelihood of the applicant being exposed to contact with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club upon release into the community and the relevance of such exposure to the risk of harm to the Australian community,” Justice Banks-Smith said. “But that does not mean the minister’s views can be described as illogical or irrational.”

SOURCE: The West Australian

Police seize assets from Comanchero MC

Auckland, New Zealand (April 11, 2019) BTN — Police have seized $3.7 million in assets in a major operation across Auckland targeting a high-profile motorcycle club. Police said in a statement a year-long investigation into the activities of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club has concluded, as a number of search warrants were earlier executed.

It's understood New Zealand criminals deported from Australia were setting up a chapter here. "More than 80 police staff, including special groups such as the Armed Offenders Squad, dog section and specialist search group have been executing search warrants at seven properties throughout the Auckland region this morning," a statement from police says.

A number of people have been arrested, including "senior members and associates of the Comanchero motorcycle club," the statement says. About $3.7 million in assets have been seized, including two residential properties and several high end vehicles, including a number of Range Rovers, a Rolls Royce and two Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Motorcycle Clubs  use expensive items to "market themselves" national manager of the financial crime group Detective Superintendent Iain Chapman says. "We are determined to strip them of that wealth that we allege has come from criminal offending and take the profit out of it," he says.

A photo posted to the Facebook page "Gangs of New Zealand" in December 2017 showed five men, two of whom were wearing Comanchero paraphernalia, along with the caption:

"Comanchero New Zealand. Making moves here in Aotearoa. Respect." Chris Cahill, president of the Police Association, said at the time it's "no surprise" we may be seeing a rise in Comanchero and affiliated gangsters. "Some of these gangs are very experienced. They have international links and that's adding to the level of concern we have in gangs around New Zealand."

He says one of the major concerns with gang activity moving over from Australia is that as we are a small country, they are likely to quickly clash with other gangs as they compete for turf.

SOURCE: News Hub

Hells Angels MC still fighting for their clubhouse

Nanaimo, BC, Canada (April 10, 2019) BTN — A lawyer for the Hells Angels suggested Tuesday that a civil-forfeiture case against the motorcycle club was motivated by a desire by the RCMP to get “bad guys,” and had nothing to do with concerns about the club’s Nanaimo property.

The comments were made by lawyer Joseph Arvay during the second day of his questioning of Phil Tawtel, the executive director of the provincial civil-forfeiture office. Arvay was asking Tawtel about a referral document in which the RCMP recommended in 2007 that the Hells Angels clubhouse in Nanaimo should be targeted for civil forfeiture.

A lawyer for the director objected to Arvay’s questioning based on the document and the witness was asked to leave the courtroom while the lawyers argued the matter. Arvay told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies that he was going to ask the court to draw the inference that from the police perspective at least, the RCMP referral was much more about simply going after the motorcycle club than any real concern about the property.

He accused the director of looking for “whatever hooks” are available in the applicable legislation to go after the property.

Arvay said that although the RCMP referred to a possible beating in the clubhouse and the discovery of some guns inside the premises, the major basis for the referral was that the clubhouse was a “booze can” and operating without a liquor licence. “That was the hook,” he told the judge. “But the fundamental reason for recommending this civil forfeiture is: These are bad guys, you should go after them.”

Brent Olthuis, a lawyer for the director, objected to the questioning on the basis that it was calling for hearsay from a witness on the motivation of the RCMP as the referring agency. “I say you can’t do that. You simply cannot do that,” Olthuis said.

Olthuis also objected to the questioning on the basis that it was not relevant to the issues in the case. But the judge said that in “general terms” he agreed with Arvay and noted that in canvassing the constitutional issues being raised in the case, he needed a “full factual matrix” to make a final decision. “The director has opined that the Hells Angels are a worldwide organization with criminal purposes and that the clubhouses act to facilitate that role,” said the judge.

“To deny the defendants the right to examine the basis upon which these proceedings were commenced, and the interaction between the RCMP and the director, would render the constitutional question something to be decided in a factual vacuum. That will not occur.” The judge said that he agreed it might be difficult to determine the motivation of the RCMP, but added that what was relevant in the case was the actions taken by the director in response to the RCMP referral.

The long-running case saw the civil-forfeiture office launch its lawsuit seeking forfeiture of the Nanaimo clubhouse in 2007. The director alleges the clubhouse is an “instrument of unlawful activity” and that it’s an asset that should be forfeited to the government.

In 2012, the office filed another lawsuit seeking the forfeiture of two more Hells Angels clubhouses — in Vancouver and Kelowna.

The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.

SOURCE: Times Colonist 

Pagan's MC leader sentenced in meth bust

Daytona Beach, Florida, USA (April 10, 2019) BTN — A Port Orange man who was a leader of the Pagan’s Motorcycle Cub was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in federal prison for his role in a meth distribution conspiracy, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Brian “Sledge” Burt, 47, pleaded guilty on Jan. 16 to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Orlando. Burt was a member of the Pagan’s Mother Chapter, a group of 13 that directed the Pagan’s criminal activities throughout the United States and conspired with different drug trafficking groups to distribute methamphetamine in and around Daytona Beach, officials said in an emailed statement.

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Burt was the first biker sentenced. Another Pagan indicted in the case, Michael “Clutch” Andrews, 33, of Palm Coast, has also pleaded guilty. Andrew “Yeti” Shettler, 33, of Palm Coast, was also indicted and identified as a member of the Thunderguards Motorcycle Club, which is affiliated with the Pagan’s, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Shettler has also pleaded guilty.

The FBI, which was later joined by the Drug Enforcement Administration, began an investigation in April 2017 into drug trafficking groups that had supplied motorcycle clubs, including the Pagan’s, in Central Florida, with distribution amounts of methamphetamine, the release said.

So far, 19 individuals in all have been found guilty as a result of this joint investigation. “This case exemplifies the cooperation among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to dismantle dangerous criminal organizations that threaten the safety of our communities,” said Rachel L. Rojas, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Jacksonville Division. “The FBI will continue to target the leadership of these organizations and bring them to justice for the harm caused by their criminal actions.”

SOURCE: The Daytona Beech News-Journal 

Cop suspended for assaulting club member

Quebec, Canada (April 8, 2019) BTN — A Sûreté du Québec officer has been suspended for 60 days without pay for assaulting a member of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club while the latter was in custody in 2014.

The sanction against Bruno Landry was issued by the Quebec Police Ethics Committee last week and follows Landry’s conviction for assault in connection with the same incident in Quebec Court in 2016. However, the police officer’s guilty plea was followed by an unconditional discharge, meaning Landry would not have a criminal record.

In October 2014, Landry was called in as backup in the arrest of Jean-François Émard, a member of the Rock Machine, on suspicion of possession of drugs. After Émard had been placed in a cell, Landry’s colleague asked him three times to accompany him to question the suspect. Landry finally agreed, and the officers said they were subjected to string of insults and provocations from Émard during the process.

Landry began to leave the cell but the insults continued and, finally, the officer turned around and struck the suspect. The ethics committee heard that after the fight had been broken up, Landry felt tremendous remorse and realized he had made a mistake. He was suspended from duty by the SQ days later.

Landry sought therapy to control his emotions and, during his absence from the force, went to university to study cybersecurity and did volunteer work. When he was returned to duty, Landry worked in administrative roles at the SQ’s highway patrol section.

After his guilty plea in Quebec Court, Landry had to face the SQ’s internal disciplinary committee in 2017. After hearing the facts of the case, including details of the stress that Landry was dealing with in his personal life at the time of the incident, the disciplinary committee decided Landry should be suspended for 85 days rather than dismissed from the force, as called for by the nature of the offence.

Finally, the police ethics committee heard the case and, considering a joint recommendation from the defence and the prosecution, buttressed by Landry’s reiteration of his remorse and avowals of confidence in the officer from his superiors, ruled he should be suspended for 60 days.

SOURCE: Montreal Gazette