'Full-patch' member of Hells Angels support club among 3 arrested in B.C. organized crime probe
Police investigating drug trafficking and organized crime arrested three people, including one member of the Savages Motorcycle Club, when they raided the group's clubhouse and eight other properties around the B.C. capital last week.
The simultaneous searches on the morning of Jan. 31 led to the arrest of a 27-year-old woman from Colwood and two men from Langford, ages 45 and 41.
Police said Thursday that one of the men arrested is a member of the Savages Motorcycle Club, a known support club for the Hells Angels. The group's Langford clubhouse was the most high-profile property caught up in the months-long investigation.
An RCMP emergency response team vehicle punched through a security gate at the Spencer Road property in a largely residential neighbourhood at around 8 a.m.
Forty police officers from multiple agencies took part in the coordinated searches on three other residential properties in Langford, two residences in Victoria, one in Colwood and two commercial properties in View Royal and North Saanich.
Three vehicles were also searched as part of the investigation, police said.
Investigators seized approximately 450 grams of fentanyl, 150 grams of methamphetamine, 200 grams of psilocybin, a kilogram of an unknown substance, small amounts of cocaine and hundreds of various pills, according to a statement Thursday from the West Shore RCMP.
Police also took into evidence more than $46,000 in cash, one SKS rifle, a prohibited handgun and an imitation handgun, they said.
"Four-hundred and fifty grams of fentanyl at minimum would make up 4,500 individual doses," West Shore RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Nancy Saggar said in the statement. "However, this number could be drastically higher and in the tens of thousands based upon the purity level of the fentanyl. Investigators won’t know the purity level until lab testing is complete."
'Full-patch' Savages member arrested
B.C.'s anti-gang task force, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, was directly involved in the investigation. On Thursday, CFSEU spokesperson Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said the arrests, "including that of a full-patch member of the Savages," constitute a significant development for the unit's efforts to tackle organized crime "due to the level of violence and harm they inflict on our communities."
The Savages clubhouse property is within a few hundred metres of an elementary school and a middle school. Following the raid, neighbourhood resident Becky Paquette described the clubhouse as a typically quiet and unassuming neighbour.
"You never really hear loud music," she said. "On the weekends, in the summertime, in the fall, they had their kids there and barbecues – it was kind of like a family event."
She said she was initially "shocked" when she saw police swarming the property.
"They look like normal everyday people," she said of the people who hang around the clubhouse. "This is suburbia."
The same property was the subject of a public warning from the RCMP nearly a decade ago.
In April 2015, the Mounties issued an advisory warning that the Devil's Army, an affiliate gang of the Hells Angels, was establishing its clubhouse inside the flat-roofed, single-storey building at 2775 Spencer Rd.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.