Biker Trials, The (23 page)

For his part, Lacoursiere received a three-year sentence. He qualified for an expedited review of his case before the National Parole Board by April 2002. At the age of 50, this was Lacoursiere's first federal sentence. He had no criminal record and the parole board found his risk of re-offending to be “nonexistent.” He was released on the condition he supply a regular report on his finances for the duration of his sentence. “The recruitment of people with no criminal records who would not be suspected were frequently part of the strategy used by criminal organizations to launder the fruit of their illegal activities,” the parole board noted in its decision to release Lacoursiere. He told the board he had owned his company for 20 years and that he decided to help move the money because the company was in
trouble. He found prison difficult because he wasn't a hardened criminal and had been held with some of the toughest gangsters behind bars while awaiting trial.

Bonin, who was in his early sixties, ended up sentenced to nearly four years. He claimed to have only been working as a cash mule for eight months before he was arrested. Bonin said he met some Hells Angels' associates through a campground where he worked, and when they got to know him well enough they hired him, in part because he didn't have a criminal record. He had spent most of his adult life living on the margins, working out of bars under the table while collecting welfare. From the beginning ofhis sentence, Bonin asked to be separated from the Hells Angels in his penitentiary because he wanted nothing more to do with them. Despite never shedding any light on who was behind the Usine account, Bonin was out on full parole by the spring of 2004.

Not everyone outside the Hells Angels in Project Ocean was as careful as Lacoursiere and Bonin in prison. Tony Capozzi, a man with alleged ties to Montreal's Mafia and a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, had delivered more than $210,000 to the Nomads Bank using a silver briefcase, making four trips between November 2 and December 14, 2000. Capozzi's money was accounted for in the “independents” column of the Nomads chapter's computerized ledger, but police were unable to determine how much money he brought on five other occasions, between December 21, 2000, and January 30, 2001, after it became more difficult for the police to sneak in to the apartments used by the gang. What they did learn was that Capozzi was able to buy drugs for the same price as any member of the Hells Angels.

When the police searched his home in Ile Bizard they found weapons, including a .38-calibre firearm that was later determined to be part of a shipment of 30 firearms that had been smuggled into Canada illegally and had already been linked to a
biker gang. The police also found paperwork that suggested Capozzi controlled a small network that sold 39 kilos of cocaine in six months. They found a laminated card showing all the telephone numbers of the Syndicate, a Rockers affiliate gang. Capozzi was 34 when he was arrested along with everyone else on March 28,2001, a few months before his scheduled wedding. And while he was serving his six-year sentence related to Project Ocean, Capozzi was hit with more bad news: the Quebec government had seized his luxury home, claiming Capozzi owed them $550,000 in unpaid taxes.

Capozzi was also turned down for parole in November 2004 because he was caught serving contraband food, or “hearty meals” as the National Parole Board phrased it, to two other inmates, both with drug trafficking convictions.

One of the more interesting motives for being a courier for a gang as notorious as the Hells Angels can be seen in the case of Claude Joannette. He was a founding member of the Dark Circle and had been convicted of plotting to kill members of the Hells Angels in 1996. As a way to erase his role in the 1996 murder plot, he agreed to deliver their drug money. While serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence for couriering, Joannette disassociated himself from gang members and asked to be separated from them while behind bars. Because of this, he was granted early parole by November 2003.

Éric Bouffard was one of the full-patch Hells Angels arrested in Project Ocean. He would later be mentioned in a scandal that took on great importance to the average Quebecer. It came after the
Journal de Montréal
published a photo of Montreal Canadiens goaltender José Theodore partying at the bunker belonging to the South chapter of the Hells Angels. The photo was seized at Bouffard's home when he was arrested on March 28, 2001. The police also learned Bouffard had the hockey star's cell phone number. The story came out on the heels of the arrests
of several members of Theodore's family who were operating a loan-sharking ring.

Meanwhile, Bouffard had been a member of the South chapter since 1998. While the police were monitoring the apartments used in the Nomads Bank, they saw him make two deposits totaling roughly $1 million.

While serving his three-year sentence Bouffard used the time to complete a college degree in social sciences, but he maintained his allegiance to the Hells Angels.

“I don't see why I should be blamed for all the crimes of the Hells Angels,” Bouffard told the parole board on August 21, 2003. “Eventually I plan on leaving the group, but that moment hasn't come yet. I want to do my sentence as a Hells Angel.” Because of this devotion, the National Parole Board decided to hold Bouffard until he served the full two-thirds of his sentence. But his statutory release was revoked in April 2004. He had been spotted months earlier on day parole at the same South chapter bunker where Theodore had partied with the gang.

Someone else who had no intention of leaving the Hells Angels was Daniel Gagné, the son of Yves (Flag) Gagné, a longtime member of the Trois Rivières chapter. At the age of 22, Daniel Gagné took one for his dad's team and pleaded guilty in Project Ocean on October 29, 2001, and was handed a three-year sentence. At the time, the police considered him a mere striker in the Rowdy Crew, a Hells Angels' underling gang. He had made two deliveries to the Nomads Bank worth around $400,000 total. While in prison he turned down a transfer to a minimum security penitentiary because he wanted to hang out with the Hells Angels in medium security. According to the police, his loyalty and pedigree were rewarded because, when he had reached the point of statutory release and was let go, he was immediately made a prospect in the Hells Angels' Trois Rivières chapter.

Marc-André Hotte, a full-patch member of the Hells Angels'
Trois Rivières chapter, surrendered himselfto the police 14 months after Project Ocean was carried out. He quickly pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than four years in prison. When he arrived at his penitentiary, other members of the gang welcomed him into their wing. They even cleaned up his cell and helped him carry the personal effects he was allowed to have with him.

When he was up for parole in April 2004, Hotte told the commissioners that he was only interested in the Hells Angels as a motorcycle club. They didn't buy it. His request was rejected because of his obvious devotion to the outlaw biker gang. Other Hells Angels were also finding out that the parole board had apparently decided to take a hard line with them. If they were still members of the Hells Angels and maintained their ties to the gang while behind bars, they would have to wait until their statutory release date.

Dean Moore, a longtime Hells Angel, received a six-year sentence thanks to Project Ocean. Until December 2004, he was considered a model inmate, helping to run a suicide-prevention program and becoming president of an inmates' committee. During the biker war, the police were told by Dany Kane that Moore seemed to show no interest in what Boucher and the other members of the Nomads chapter wanted to accomplish. But according to police intelligence, Moore had also been Godfather to the Evil Ones, a Hells Angels' underling gang.

A couple of weeks before Christmas 2004,Moore,a member of the South chapter, was turned down for parole. To add to his woes, Project Ocean had also made Moore a lightning rod for the provincial taxman. Moore was stuck with an $80,000 bill for taxes on his undeclared revenue.

Another member of the South chapter taken out of commission by Project Ocean was Bertrand Joyal. He claimed to like the motorcycle riding aspect of the Hells Angels. At the age of 48,he told the parole board in September 2004 that if he got out he'd
go back to managing a motorcycle store or work on a farm. Again, the parole board could not get past the fact that, like the others, Joyal remained loyal to his gang. He was turned down for parole. He was only released after serving two-thirds of his six-year sentence. On June 8,2005, the parole board could only place restrictions on him that forbade him from associating with his gang, or other known criminals, for the remaining two years of his sentence. He was also ordered to supply his parole officer with a budget and a record of expenses on a monthly basis.

Jean-Paul Ramsay, a longtime member of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter, arrested in Project Ocean.

Despite being a Hells Angel for more than a decade, Jean-Paul Ramsay had never done serious prison time until he ended up as one of the people nabbed in Project Ocean. The longtime member of the Montreal chapter had managed to operate pretty much under the radar until he was noticed making several cash deliveries for an account labeled “Nath.” He was given a five-year sentence. While behind bars, Ramsay tried to use the time well and enrolled in school courses. He was considered an excellent student, but snitches in his penitentiary also revealed that he was the head of a drug trafficking ring that operated from May to October 2003.

Ramsay was immediately placed in isolation and sent to a maximum security penitentiary. When it came time for his statutory release on March 10, 2005, the National Parole Board chose instead to keep him in. This is something reserved for the worst federal inmates — only five percent are held after the two-thirds mark of their term. In its explanation for keeping him behind bars, the board declared he was a high risk to sell drugs while still serving his sentence.

It was an indication that many of the Hells Angels in Quebec saw drug trafficking as a way of life.

Luc Landry, a police investigator and a financial analyst for the Sûreté du Québec, was given the task of sorting out how much money the Hells Angels pocketed from their drug trafficking. While testifying during the trial of Walter (Nurget) Stadnick and Donald (Pup) Stockford, both members of the Nomads chapter, originally from Ontario, he submitted his analysis of the chapter's accounting.

Landry detailed the chapter's $18 million in sales between November 10 and December 19, 2000. During that period, the Hells Angels moved 1,916 kilograms of cocaine for a profit of more than $8 million. They were averaging $4,530 profit on every kilo sold. When it came to hashish, the chapter was not doing too badly either. They moved 838 kilograms of hash and made more than $680,000 profit.

If there is one thing to emerge from Project Ocean that might define Gerald Matticks, it was the contents of a folder found on his desk of the butcher shop and meat warehouse he owned on the South Shore. The police were monitoring him as he conducted high-level drug deals with Maurice (Mom) Boucher and other Hells Angels, and based on their investigation, they obtained a warrant to search Matticks' office above the butcher shop. Matticks had long been known as a member of the West End Gang, a group of criminals, mostly of Irish descent, who emerged from a poverty-stricken area of western Montreal to become influential thieves and drug traffickers.

Besides his personal items, like the negatives of photos of him celebrating Saint Patrick's Day, the police noticed a folder that contained only two pieces of paper. One was a letter from the Bandidos politely asking Matticks if he wanted to switch sides and supply them, instead of the Hells Angels, with drugs. The document was evidence of Matticks' notoriety in Quebec as a drug trafficker. But in the same folder was a document concerning the details of an Easter party for children. Matticks' meat company was sponsoring it. The documents were indicative of Matticks' dual nature. On the one hand, he was a cunning smuggler who had collected photos of police investigators he believed were tailing him; on the other, he was a generous person to the communities where he lived, and especially kind to children.