Hells Angels cause heavy provincial police presence

MONTREAL — In what police describe as an elaborate show of force, up to 700 Hells Angels bikers and associates are expected to descend on a rural Quebec town this weekend for their annual national gathering.

Quebec provincial police say they’ll be keeping close tabs as the so-called Canada Run settles in for a few days in the Monteregie region southeast of Montreal.

The mandatory meeting for the roughly 500 full-patch members nationwide changes province every year, with last year’s edition held in Calgary and the 2016 version taking place in Carlsbad Springs, near Ottawa.

“We have 500 full-patch members in Canada, but you can expect support groups, other motorcycle gangs that gravitate around the Hells Angels to also show up, so that’s why we’re evaluating anywhere between 500 and 700 bikers showing up,” provincial police Insp. Guy Lapointe said in an interview.

Lapointe said the event, the first national get-together in Quebec since 2008, is meant as a show of force by the bikers, with the message aimed at authorities as well as rival organized crime groups.

For police, it presents a unique opportunity to gather intelligence, photos and court-worthy evidence on the Hells with virtually every full-patch member in a single spot, he added.

In Quebec, the gang has the drug trafficking market cornered. Provincial police have made organized crime their investigative priority since 2017.

“It’s practically a monopoly — they control 98 per cent of the market when it comes to cocaine and synthetic drugs,” Lapointe said.

Lapointe said the Hells in Quebec have been emboldened by a series of recent wins before the courts.

“They are more confident, they’re coming out, they’re showing their flag,” Lapointe said.

Le Journal de Montreal reported last month that even Lapointe and his namesake father, former Montreal Canadiens hockey player Guy Lapointe, were the subject of threats, allegedly in the form of a letter from someone associated with the Hells.

Lapointe said an investigation is ongoing about the source of the threat and whether it was founded.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not going to bend to any intimidation, I’m going to keep doing my job,” he said. “The day people start stepping down if there’s intimidation, the battle is lost.”

While the big events this weekend will be in St-Charles-sur-Richelieu, many Hells members are staying in hotels in nearby St-Hyacinthe, where a city spokesperson said the mayor is keeping in touch with police.