Wooley, a former member of the Rockers, a Hells Angels puppet gang, was serving time for offences that took place during the biker gang war

The operation, touted as "unprecedented" when it comes to street gangs in Montreal, followed a lengthy investigation into drug trafficking, and targeted both dealers and gang leaders. Hundreds of police officers in Quebec and Ontario carried out a massive sweep Thursday to crack down on street gang members. In Quebec, more than 700 police officers, including members of the Laval and Longueuil police, fanned out across the greater Montreal area. Other municipalities in Quebec and in Ottawa were involved.
Operation Axe was a lengthy investigation into drug trafficking in Montreal, Ottawa and Kingston, Ont., and targeted both dealers and gang leaders.
Screen grabBesides nabbing several alleged drug couriers, the Montreal police believe they also rounded up the "businessmen" who make the key decisions for street gangs who are part of a larger group collectively known in Montreal as the Crips or Blues.

Project Axe centered on the city's most influential street gang members and resulted in the arrests of 47 people Thursday, including a former weightlifter who represented Canada in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The Montreal police would not be specific but initially stated they were hoping to arrest more than 50 people.

"The leaders arrested were considered as untouchable citizens in the eyes of emerging street gangs. These arrests show no criminal is on safe ground," said Cmdr. Denis Mainville. "This operation is, without doubt, one of the most important police operations carried out by the Montreal police to date."
Mainville said one of three organized crime groups targeted in Project Axe was selling between five to 10 kilos of cocaine per week in Montreal and bringing in roughly $400,000. The people expected to appear in court Friday via a video conference, face charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy, weapons offences and committing crimes for a criminal organization. At least two people will be charged with conspiring to commit murder. Police executed 63 search warrants, seizing 25 weapons, 2,300 rocks of crack cocaine, 41 kilograms of cocaine, 225 kilograms of marijuana, bulletproof vests, 12 computers and $600,000 in cash.Included among those arrested in the operation is Gregory Wooley, an influential member of the Hells Angels former underling network who was serving time at a penitentiary in Kingston, Ont. Wooley, a former member of the Rockers, a Hells Angels puppet gang, was serving time for offences that took place during the biker gang war in the 1990s. But he is now facing new charges related to the current investigation which targeted major Montreal-based street gangs. Wooley was scheduled to have a parole hearing in the coming weeks.Dany Cadet-Sprinces, 38, an inmate at another federal penitentiary, the Leclerc Institution in Laval, Que., also was placed under arrest. The man at Leclerc is believed to be the head of the Syndicate street gang and was arrested in another large drug bust that struck his gang and the Hells Angels.Jean Lavertue, 34, a former Olympic weightlifter, was arrested at his home. He is alleged to have been part of a well-structured group, uncovered during the Project Axe investigation, that controlled a significant amount of drug trafficking in the southwest part of the city. In 1996, he finished 28th in his weight class while competing at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. "This operation targeted people involved with cocaine trafficking," said Montreal police Sgt. Ian Lafreniere, adding suspects were involved in importing and trafficking in Montreal and in Ottawa. "It's not only the people selling on the street level. It's top people (in the gangs), as well," he said. "This investigation began in January 2006. So this was a long investigation and a huge operation today. We believe we've hit the top of the chain."Ontario police forces meanwhile, conducted search warrants Wednesday night and Thursday morning on residences in Smiths Falls, Ont., and in Ottawa. The investigation by the Smiths Falls Police, Ottawa Police and the Ontario Provincial Police went after street-level drug dealers and involved an undercover police officer who was placed in the drug subculture to make illegal drug buys.Police say the list grew to more than 25 street-level drug dealers and quantities of cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy and other prescription-controlled substances were purchased and seized. A number of charges, including trafficking in controlled substances, against several people were laid.

Mongol motorcycle gang member Ezekiel Lujan, 31, of Glendora on suspicion of dealing methamphetamines all over the San Gabriel Valley.

Glendora Police arrested Ezekiel Lujan, 31, of Glendora on suspicion of dealing methamphetamines all over the San Gabriel Valley. Lujan is also is suspected of possessing handguns as a felon.Police say they have arrested another Mongol motorcycle gang member, this time on drug charges.Officers watched Lujan for a month before pulling him over and detaining him Tuesday near a West Covina house he frequented, said Lt. Joe Ward of the Glendora Police Department.In the house on the 200 block of North Garvey Avenue, police found four pounds of meth, $46,000 and two hand guns, Ward said."He was dealing meth all over the San Gabriel Valley," Ward said. The drugs had a wholesale value of $100,000, Ward said.Police also found a helmet and a jacket emblazoned with Mongols symbols.Lujan lived in a Glendora apartment, where the investigation started. No one else was arrested in connection with the case, Ward said.In October, a nationwide, federal sweep targeting members of the outlaw motorcycle gang led to 61 arrests in Southern California, concluding a three-year undercover investigation.Many of the arrests in "Operation Black Rain" were made in the San Gabriel Valley. Everyone arrested in that sweep is a suspected member or associate of the Mongols Motorcycle Club, an organization that originated in Montebello in the 1970s, but is now headquartered in West Covina.Ward said the investigation into Lujan was not related to the federal sweep, but he suspected federal agencies were paying attention, he said.
"In law enforcement, everybody knows pretty quick when you make an arrest like this," he said.The investigation into Lujan was carried out in conjunction with the La Verne and Irwindale police departments, Ward said.Lujan bailed out of jail for $200,000, Ward said.

Silverwater Street and Custom Motorcycle Show man was shot in broad daylight behind bushes on the outskirts of the event.

Hundreds of people were in attendance at a show run by a Christian motorcycle club in Sydney's west as a man was shot in broad daylight behind bushes on the outskirts of the event.The 33-year-old man was shot in the leg about 2.50pm (AEDT) on Sunday and taken to Liverpool Hospital in a serious condition.The organiser of The Silverwater Street and Custom Motorcycle Show, Greg Hirst, told AAP few people were aware of the incident."We were running the show at the time."There was an incident here over in the bushes behind the show."I got called over. There were paramedics in attendance and an ambulance.''Mr Hirst said the show, held at Clyde Street, Silverwater, did not normally attract trouble."We've never had an incident in 15 years,'' he said."It's a family show.''About an hour after the shooting Mr Hirst said a man was giving a "God talk'' before trophies were awarded to motorcycle owners.It is not known if the shooting was related to an explosion outside the Hells Angels clubhouse on Crystal Street in the inner west suburb of Petersham early on Wednesday morning.

Finks member Travis Lemm, 28, of Trott Park, and Frank Borg, 51, of Semaphore Park, appeared in court on January 6 charged with blackmail.

Salisbury man, 32, suspected to be a Finks bikie associate, was arrested on Tuesday at a Golden Grove house and charged over five alleged serious criminal tresspass incidents and associated thefts in the southern suburbs the same day.
Police said a search of a house uncovered a stolen Holden Statesman sedan and two firearms.Crime Gangs Task Force later charged the man with the alleged $100,000 blackmail attempt and several firearm offences. He remains in custody and will appear in Holden Hill Magistrates Court on March 12.Finks member Travis Lemm, 28, of Trott Park, and Frank Borg, 51, of Semaphore Park, appeared in court on January 6 charged with blackmail.Adelaide Magistrates Court heard the victims of the alleged blackmail attempt were in danger of assualt while the third man remained at large.

Hells Angel Fontaine Found Guilty

Hells Angel Paul Fontaine has been on trial for the 1997 murder of Pierre Rondeau and attempted murder of Robert Corriveau. Members of the jury began deliberating last Tuesday, but their deliberations were put on hold while judge Marc David considered motions put for the by Fontaine’s lawyer to have the case ruled a mistrial.Carole Beaucage, lawyer for Fontaine, filed a myriad of motions. The most prominent arguments made were: the crown repeatedly sent incomplete evidence in an untimely fashion; Fontaine’s efforts to get a lawyer of his choice were blocked; and most seriously, the latest incident where two jurors were caught playing detective outside of jury deliberations (the two scrambled onto the bumper and hood of a prison bus trying to recreate the shooting ambush of prison guards Pierre Rondeau and Richard Corriveau). Beaucage says that action risked contaminating the jury.Regardless, judge Marc David ruled that the defense failed to prove there was a real danger of prejudice against Fontaine or a risk of judicial error. He also called some of the defense’s arguments unfounded or speculation, and others coming too late at this point in the trial.

Deliberations resumed on Saturday and by Sunday the jury had come back with a guilty verdict. You will recall that on Sept. 8, 1997, Rondeau and Corriveau’s van was sprayed with bullets as they stopped on their daily route to a Montreal detention centre to collect prisoners. Former Hells Angel leader Mourice “Mom” Boucher as an attempt to destabilize the justice system and intimidate informants supposedly masterminded the attack.

The Crown’s primary witness in the trial was Hells Angels informant Stephane Gagne, who was with Fontaine when the crime was committed.
It’s now up to Quebec Superior Court Judge Marc David to decide Fontaine’s sentence.

Hells Angels biker gang ,Jørn Jønke Nielsen, is back in court today charged with gross bodily harm.

Hells Angels’ most prominent member, Jørn Jønke Nielsen, was in court today charged with gross bodily harmThe spokesman for the Hells Angels biker gang ,Jørn Jønke Nielsen, is back in court today charged with gross bodily harm. Jønke was remanded in custody in December 2007 after stabbing a man in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen. Jønke remained in custody for months after he refused to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, before being released in October 2008.On his return to court today he was joined by around 50 biker supporters. Jønke and a member of the Hells Angels support group, AK 81, are charged with the attack but continue to maintain that they acted in self-defence.A third man involved in the dispute, identified only as Mr. S., also appeared in court charged with attacking Jønke and the AK 81 member. Mr. S. was brought to the courthouse wearing a bullet proof vest and surrounded by armed police guards.All three have pleaded not guilty to charges and the case could be finished as early as Friday. Jønke was one of the founding members of the first Danish Hells Angels chapter. He came to prominence in 1984 when he killed the head of the rival biker gang Bullshit. The 24-year-old fled the country to Canada and returned four years later to face a 16 year jail sentence.During the height of the biker warfare between the Hells Angels and Bandidos in 1996, Bandidos members tried to assassinate Jønke while he was serving his sentence in Jyderup state prison. He was shot with a machine gun but survived the attack. Hand grenades were also thrown in front of his cell.The biker was involved in the death of a man during a 2001 fight at an Aalborg disco, which saw him receive a four year jail term.

Massive explosion has blown the front off the Hells Angels bikie clubhouse

Massive explosion has blown the front off the Hells Angels bikie clubhouse at Petersham this morning, damaging surrounding homes and businesses.Residents say the force of the blast shook them from their beds, with a massive bang around 2am this morning.The front of the Hells Angels bikie clubhouse on Crystal Street is now rubble. Shattered glass from nearby businesses and homes lies across the street.
The force of the blast even blew the awning off the solicitors’ building across the road.Two men in a black four-wheel drive were seen fleeing the scene. The damage to the Hells Angels clubhouse appears contained to the front of the building. A solid brick protects the inside, which remains intact.