How the Hells Angels maintain their influence without a chapter in cities like Thunder Bay

The Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle club may not have an active chapter in Thunder Bay, but their influence is still felt in the city, and region, the deputy director of the OPP's Provincial Biker Enforcement Unit says. 

"Similar to other areas of the province, the Hells Angels have had presence," OPP Det. Insp. Scott Wade said. "They've been disrupted by police projects, investigations or just straight-out alternative disruption that affects their membership."

"Thunder Bay particularly has seen the flux of that membership, and membership has gone up and down," he said. "The chapter has been closed and opened. And right now, according to my intelligence and my information ... the Thunder Bay chapter is closed right now."

"But there are still members in the area who are influencing the Hells Angels in the area."

One major hit to the Canadian Hells Angels came in 2006, in an operation known as Project Husky. OPP, along with Thunder Bay police, the RCMP, Surete du Quebec, and Calgary police, worked together in a two-year long investigation that led to multiple arrests in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.

In Thunder Bay, police raided the Hells Angels clubhouse, and arrested four Hells Angels members, and some associates.

Overall, Project Husky also saw police seize more than $2.3 million in illicit drugs.

More recently, the Hells Angels had established a clubhouse on Simpson Street. However, that building was destroyed by fire in 2020.

Wade said while police continue enforcement efforts against outlaw biker gangs in Ontario, there been "exponential growth" in what he called support clubs across the province.

"Some clubs support the Hells Angels," he said. "That means they attend their events, they hang out with them."

"They're a friendly club or an associate club or a supporter club, whereas some of the more prominent clubs like the Iron Dragons Motorcycle Club, the Red Devils, they are support clubs directly linked to the Hells Angels, and they wear a support 81 patch on their vest, which means they support the Hells Angels in an official capacity."

Wade said those clubs act as a network that the larger clubs, such as the Hells Angels, will utilize to "facilitate their criminal acts so they can remain in the shadows, they can remain out of the police eye, and the public eye, and have others conduct their criminal activity."

Wade said some clubs that associate with the Hells Angels are in Thunder Bay, and the surrounding area.

Kenneth Dowler, an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University — who teaches a course on biker gangs at the school's criminology department — said outlaw biker gangs try their best to keep a low profile when it comes to criminal activity including drugs, extortion, and human trafficking.

"When an entity controls the crime market, you're going to see relative calm," Dowler said.

"If you're looking at like where the murder rates come and go, a lot of time, it's because of the the market that opens up. And all of a sudden people are like pushing to try to make money."

Generally, though, Dowler said, the biker gangs don't want to attract too much attention to themselves, and wouldn't accept members who are engaged in random violent acts.

"At one point, back in the history of the bikers, they used to do a lot of tourism," he said. "They go through town, they get in the bar fights, and they do all that kind of stuff."

"Now they don't want that attention," Dowler said, adding that biker gangs would also participate in things like Toys for Tots, and rides raising funds for cancer research.

"They wanted to have this public image that they're these good guys on bikes," he said. "That's because they do not want anything negative kind of infringing on their operation."

Thunder Bay has seen an influx of street gangs from southern Ontario in recent years, who have essentially taken over the drug trade in the city and region. Wade said outlaw bikers will work in tandem with those gangs, so long as it's profitable.

"We've been lucky enough through good police, intelligence and enforcement activity that we don't have any significant conflict, which is our number one priority, to make sure that there's no threat to public safety or officer safety by conflicts between these groups," Wade said. "But they do arise from time to time."

Wade said currently, police don't believe there's a high risk of widespread violence due to conflict between the various criminal groups.

Dowler said conflict, however, has certainly happened in the past.

"It happened in B.C. at one point, I think it was around that 2000," he said. "There was a another criminal organization that was non-biker related that wanted to get in."

"There was a bit of violence that took place, but my understanding is that kind of cut a deal," Dowler said. "That's kind of like what happened in Montreal with the Irish mob, and the Italian Mafia and bikers all kind of worked together at one point to make sure that they're still operating."

"So at this point in time, there hasn't been a real challenge," he said. "As long as these other organizations either pay some money or basically they carve out the territory and they're not really infringing, that's what's keeping the violence to a minimum at this time."

Dowler said violence does erupt, but not the level that was seen during the Quebec biker wars.

"The biker war was between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels," Dowler said. "The Rock Machine was basically a biker gang that really wasn't concerned at all about the culture of motorcycle clubs, they just were experienced drug dealers that wanted to take over the market."

"The whole war was driven on the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels fighting for control of the drug market."

"That was one of the more violent episodes in Canadian history."

Wade said currently, there are several hundred Hells Angels members in Ontario, and investigating their activities is very resources-intensive.

"The court process is protracted and very resource-heavy, so our investigations have to be done very efficiently," he said. "One of the big ways we do that in Biker Enforcement Unit is with our partnerships."

"We have over 20 municipal partners involved in the biker enforcement unit with members across the province."

And while Thunder Bay doesn't currently have an active Hells Angels chapter, Wade said he believes the gang does still assert an influence on the city.

"Really good enforcement activity by the Thunder Bay police and the OPP and our partners have impacted their ability to maintain a chapter, but I believe they will maintain their sphere of influence in that area," he said. "We may see a growth of support clubs because the chapter is still here, but that kind of remains to be seen."

"Things change very quickly in the biker world."