Pittsburgh, PA (November 20, 2018) BTN — The district attorney of Allegheny County has questions about several undercover Pittsburgh police officers who got in a drunken brawl while on the job. Last week, Stephen Zappala decided to withdraw all criminal charges against the members of the Pagan Motorcycle Club.
Bar fight scene at Kopy's Bar
The fight, which was caught on surveillance video on Oct. 12 at Kopy’s Bar, involved members of the Pagan Motorcycle Club and undercover officers.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation along with the Citizens Police Review Board are investigating the incident. "We had a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. I don't think they committed a crime," Zappala said.The cops that were involved are still on duty.
Queensland, Australia (November 19, 2018) BTN — Police claim they are winning the war on bikies, but they admit the motorcycle clubs will never be completely defeated.
As the second anniversary of the Labor Government’s revamped anti-gang laws looms, the state’s bikie-busting top cop says bikie bosses are handing in their colours and fleeing the state.
A member of the Mongols MC stands with his motorcycle
Detective Superintendent Roger Lowe revealed police were providing protection for bikies wanting to leave violent gangs.
“Patched” gang membership across the state has plummeted from 1158 in 2013, when the Newman Government ushered in the controversial VLAD laws in response to the infamous Broadbeach bikie brawl, to about 700 now.
Supt Lowe, who heads the Organised Crime Gangs Group, says police are using the new legislation to score significant victories in the ongoing battle with bikies involved in violence and drug trafficking.
Hundreds of bikies have been charged or hit with criminal consorting notices which could see them jailed for three years. Ten have been charged with habitual consorting.
Taskforce Maxima boss Supt Roger Lowe
More than 50 gang members have been charged with participating in a criminal organisation, which carries a mandatory seven-year jail term.
Supt Lowe said police were using the anti-consorting laws to launch pre-emptive strikes against the gangs, while the ban on bikies wearing colours had taken away one of their main lifestyle lures – the ability to flaunt gang membership and intimidate the public.
More than 30 bikies have been charged with wearing gang paraphernalia in public.
“The fact that they can’t ride (as patched bikies), they can’t have clubhouses and can’t wear their colours is a significant victory for the community,” Supt Lowe said.
“There’s not that overt presence any longer that causes fear and concern to the public.
“They can’t be in licensed premises or standing out the front causing fear and intimidation.”
Supt Lowe said raids targeting the Rebels bikie gang in Mount Isa earlier this year had led to the club president handing in his colours and leaving town.
Not even jailed bikies are escaping attention, with a Mongols member recently charged with trying to recruit new members behind bars.
“(Bikies) still exist in Queensland, I don’t think they’ll ever go away,” Supt Lowe conceded.
“But our absolute main objective is limiting their ability to expand and be involved in serious and organised crime ... we’ve made some terrific inroads.”
Vancouver, British Columbia (November 19, 2018) BTN — A full-patch Hells Angel MC member with the Hellside Chapter was found
murdered under the Golden Ears Bridge Sunday.
Chad Wilson, a former Hells Angel in San Diego, then Haney,
joined the clubs’s newest chapter when it formed last year. Some of his buddies had reported him missing the night before his body was found in the 20000-block of Wharf Street, Postmedia has learned.
Hardside chapter of the Hells Angels, From left, Chad Wilson
(formerly of the Haney chapter); Suminder Grewal (formerly of the Haney
chapter); and Jamie Yochlowitz (formerly of the Vancouver chapter)
Firefighters were first called to the scene about 11:30 a.m.
Sunday. They immediately called in the Mounties when they found Wilson’s body.
Friends of Wilson’s, wearing their death head patched Hells
Angels vests, soon showed up at the scene.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is working with
Ridge Meadows RCMP on the case.
Wilson’s name had not yet been released by police, but
fellow bikers and family were already paying tribute to the dead 43-year-old on
Sunday night. Wilson was a high-profile and popular member of the Hells
Angels and his murder is expected to increase the volatility in the Lower
Mainland motorcycle club landscape.
Police are saying only that Wilson’s death was targeted and
that he was known to police.
In fact, he was known to police in several parts of the
world.
In 2013, Wilson was charged in Spain with B.C. Hells Angel
Jason Arkinstall and two associates after police there seized half a tonne of
cocaine from a sailboat that had arrived from Colombia.
The Spanish government said one of the B.C. bikers was on
the vessel, while the others were waiting in Spain. They were arrested in a
restaurant in Pontevedra, a port in the northwest of Spain.
Officials said the drug conspiracy was linked to a member of
the San Diego chapter of the Hells Angels – the same chapter that Wilson had
joined as a prospect on Jan. 28, 2005. Wilson became a full-patch Hells Angel a year later on Jan.
28, 2006.
Within a few months he was sitting in a jail cell in South Dakota,
charged along with fellow HA member John Midmore, with attempted murder for an
Aug. 8, 2006 gunfight with members of the rival Outlaws biker club.
Several bikers and passersby were struck. One Outlaw was
paralyzed by Wilson.
But both he and Midmore claimed self-defence and were later
acquitted.
Video on the Hells Angels put out by the Vancouver Sun
Wilson, however, pleaded guilty in April 2009 of being an
alien in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to four years in jail.
In his letter to the judge, Wilson claimed that he would
have been killed if he had not shot at the Outlaws when he did.
“To have to go through this nightmare I have been through
for the past 983 days…to have people people think I am somehow at fault for the
extreme injuries that not just Mr. Neale, but others suffered as well –
psychological and physical – that is just outright wrong to do to me,” Wilson
complained. “Don’t think for one second that I don’t live with the nightmare in
my head.”
He said he had replayed the events that led to the shootout
“over and over again in my head.”
“I come up with the same answer every time. If I did not
have a gun that day – Auig. 8, 2006 – and I did not shoot back, I would be
DEAD!!” he said. “This situation was 100% out of my control. I have the right
to defend myself. I want to go home. I have everything great waiting for me, my
drilling job, my kids, my wife and my dog and the number one thing, my LIFE!!”
He said being in jail is “true hell that I’ve been through.”
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.
