Hells Angels descend on town
National gathering near Montreal
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 on the so-called Canada Run as it settles in for a few days in the Montérégie region southeast of Montreal.
The mandatory meeting for the full-patch members nationwide changes province every year, with last year’s edition held in Calgary and the 2016 version 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 on the groups with virtually every fullpatch member in a single spot, he added.
In Quebec, the gang has cornered the drug trafficking market. 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.
He said the Hells Angels in Quebec have been emboldened by a series of recent wins before the courts.
Le Journal de Montreal reported last month that even Lapointe and his 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 gang.
Lapointe said an investigation is ongoing about the source of the threat and if it was founded.
“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 StCharles-sur-Richelieu, many Hells Angels members are staying in hotels in nearby St-Hyacinthe, where a city spokeswoman said the mayor is keeping in touch with police. In St-Charlessur-Richelieu, Mayor Marc Lavigne said provincial police and the RCMP attended the last council meeting to brief citizens on preparations and answer questions.
“Everybody believes it will go well, the police will be very present to assure there’s no issues,” Lavigne said. “We’re not anticipating any problems.”
Lapointe said there will be a heavy police presence and authorities are vowing to ensure laws are followed and locals in the town of 1,700 aren’t bothered by the biker gang’s presence.
The veteran officer said police have no special warnings for locals other than to go about business as usual.