WATCH: Hell’s Angels bikers are in Nanaimo to celebrate the gang’s 35th anniversary in BC.
With police watching their every move members of the Hells Angels biker gang were paying little attention to all the notoriety Saturday as they came and went from their clubhouse on Victoria Road in Nanaimo.
Three-hundred gang members were expected to attend a dinner Saturday night to celebrate the gang’s 35th anniversary in B.C.
“This is a by-invite event only so anyone who comes to this has been invited exclusively by the Hells Angels so we’ve had reports all day of bikers coming over on the B.C. Ferries,” said Staff Sargent Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C.
They came from as far as Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario and were met by a large police presence when they arrived.
“Part of their presence here is to intimidate the public and intimidate and cause fear amongst rival criminal organizations and to reestablish or reaffirm that they are essentially the top dog,” stated Houghton. “We are here to keep them in check and make sure nothing bad happens.”
Police say the Hells Angels control virtually every aspect of the drug trade in the territories they control including in Nanaimo and that the public shouldn’t be fooled into thinking they’re anything but a dangerous, law-breaking gang.
“Violence, extortion and intimidation, conspiracy, drug trafficking and homicide related files all across Canada,” added Houghton.
Most of the neighbours CHEK News spoke to say it’s mostly quiet around the clubhouse but with the influx of bikers this weekend they’re happy to see the extra police presence.
“Definitely a reason why the police are there and you can’t have a group of people organizing as if they’re a force without the proper force looking after them,” said one man who lives nearby.
The weekend gathering is happening right next-door to the Hells Angels old clubhouse.
It was seized in 2007 and is now closed and the subject of a civil forfeiture case.
The Hells angels visitors will be leaving Nanaimo on Sunday.
Dean Stoltz
