Interesting story from close by. Taken from
http://www.24news.ca/the-news/canada-new...len-saints-clubThe StarPhoenix has conducted a series of interviews with a source who has extensive knowledge of the Project Forseti investigation, as well as the inner workings of the Saskatoon Hells Angels, Fallen Saints and other groups.
Source
The source spoke on condition of anonymity. All details in the following story come from that source, unless attributed to earlier news reports, police, or other sources.
One morning late last summer, more than a dozen members of the Hells Angels and Fallen Saints motorcycle clubs rode out of town together. Through a steady rain, they headed north on Highway 11. Their journey ended just before noon at the Prince Albert clubhouse of fellow bikers, the Saints and Sinners.
This was no social call.
The P.A. club was hosting a key meeting of the Saskatchewan Motorcycle Coalition, the governing council of the province’s outlaw bikers.
The lunch meeting, chaired by a member of the Iron Workers Motorcycle Club, was called to order. The only major item on the itinerary was a request to make the Fallen Saints a full “three-patch” club. The privilege to decorate a club’s leather jacket with three patches – the logo, club name and city – can only be granted by the council.
Although the Saskatoon Hells Angels were clearly backing the Fallen Saints, speakers at the meeting expressed almost unanimous opposition. A speech from Fallen Saints leader Mark Nowakoski had no effect.
The coalition worried the Fallen Saints would bring unwanted negative attention to outlaw clubs in the province. The Fallen Saints’ ranks included convicted drug traffickers, gun smugglers, repeat domestic abusers and other “thugs” and “loose cannons” eager to please their Saskatoon Hells Angels patrons.
The coalition also chafed at the unprecedented Hells Angels proposal that the Fallen Saints would need only one year of probation to qualify for patches. Most clubs, including the Hells Angels, forced prospects to wait at least five years.
Even the Regina Hells Angels spoke out against it, calling it a “rush job.”
The Saskatoon Hells Angels needed a yes vote. They were desperate to enlist a new army of foot soldiers to fend off their hated rivals, the Outlaws, who had moved into Saskatoon and were gaining strength, thanks to a partnership with an aboriginal street gang.
That’s when a Hells Angels leader decided he’d heard enough. He rose from one of the centre seats in the oval-shaped table arrangement and looked around the room.
“These are my friends,” he said, gesturing to the Fallen Saints seated next to him.
“This is gonna happen. If anyone has a problem, come here and talk to me about it.”
No one said a word. The Fallen Saints briefly left the room while the voting occurred. By a unanimous show of hands, the Fallen Saints were approved as a threepatch motorcycle club. They were welcomed back to the room with shouts of “Congratulations, brother!” and loud applause.
The Hells Angels in Saskatoon and around the world have always said they are simply a group of men with a common interest in riding motorcycles. Last month, through their lawyer, Morris Bodnar, they denied any connection with the Fallen Saints.
“The police are trying to link the Fallen Saints and the Hells Angels. No. Not there,” Bodnar told reporters outside provincial court.
Neither Bodnar nor a spokesman for the Hells Angels could be reached for comment this week. A lawyer for one of the Fallen Saints said he’d pass along a request for an interview, but no one responded.
The idea to create the Fallen Saints was hatched in late 2013 over drinks in a Saskatoon bar.
The bar owner, who has hosted both parties and formal meetings of Hells Angels, the Terror Squad street gang and later the Fallen Saints, sat with a pair of Hells Angels. One was a longtime Saskatoon member who has since been charged with cocaine trafficking and assault. The other was a recent arrival from Quebec, a veteran of the bloody biker wars in that province who’d served a decade in prison for various offences.
Richard Marjan/The Starphoenix
The three men chatted about the growing threat posed by the Outlaws. Formed in Illinois in 1935 – more than a decade before the Hells Angels was founded in California – the Outlaws’ reach is also global. Their website notes recent chapters opened in Serbia and the Philippines. The group’s Canadian website lists chapters in Ontario and Newfoundland, but none yet in Saskatchewan.
Like the Hells Angels, they say they’re simply a group of men with a common passion for riding motorcycles.
The Outlaws, however, had teamed up with another recent arrival to Saskatoon, Deuce – a gang of largely aboriginal street youth founded in Manitoba, according to the source.
The marriage served two purposes for the Outlaws. First, the Outlaws now had an army of street kids to deal imported cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs.
“They were giving it away for next to nothing,” the source said.
Second, the Outlaws needed allies inside federal penitentiaries in Western Canada. The partnership ensured any convicted Outlaws’ safety in prison ranges occupied by Deuce members.
Although the majority of Hells Angels weren’t personally involved in drug dealing, prostitution and illegal firearms, they all knew their power depended on controlling those who did, the source said.
The bar owner and the Hells Angels began recruiting. Within a few weeks, several high profile criminals had agreed to start the new gang loyal to the Hells Angels.
They held their own meeting to discuss a name, logo and constitution. After pondering “Devil’s Posse” and “Devil’s Crew,” they settled on Fallen Saints.
Nowakoski was named president and others became vice-president, secretary, treasurer, sergeant-atarms and road captain. They later discovered another law-abiding motorcycle club of military and police veterans already used the name, but decided to keep it.
Then, to get the official blessing of the Saskatoon Hells Angels, they attended a weekly meeting known as “church” at the Hells Angels’ Holiday Park-area clubhouse.
Not long afterward, the two clubs rode to Prince Albert together and obtained the approval of the provincial council.
“The Fallen Saints were formed because the Hells Angels wanted it,” the source said.
Soon, their numbers grew to 18 full-patch members paying $300 a month in club dues. It included men such as Clint McLaughlin, whose repeated convictions for vicious assaults on previous girlfriends were well-known when he was recruited. The Hells Angels’ code of conduct prohibits membership for domestic or child abusers, but McLaughlin was allowed to join the Fallen Saints.
Last summer, McLaughlin kidnapped his fiancee and nearly beat her to death when she returned his engagement ring. He was kicked out of the club.
Not all Fallen Saints were hardcore criminals. A handful “just sold weed or steroids,” the source said. Like some Hells Angels, a few were not criminally active at all – they just enjoyed being part of outlaw biker culture.
Fallen Saints members attended weekly clubhouse “church” meetings to give reports. A Hells Angel would often attend meetings at the Fallen Saints clubhouse on 11th Street West.
One evening last summer, Fallen Saints members received a text message. It contained the name of a Saskatoon bar and the words “pink flamingos” – their code name for Outlaws.
Fallen Saints immediately rode to the bar and confronted the Outlaws, who had been brazen enough to wear their full patch jackets in public. When they began to fight outside, the Outlaws’ superior numbers gave them the upper hand, the source said. That’s when several Hells Angels arrived with batons and brass knuckles. The brawl resulted in severe beatings for the Outlaws.
The bar owner was threatened and ordered to “lose” the security tape footage from the parking lot, but police have plenty of other evidence, the source said.
It was around this time the Hells Angels realized they needed even more muscle. They convinced two other clubs – P.A.’s Saints and Sinners and Saskatoon’s Silver Ghosts – to “patch over” and become Fallen Saints.
Their numbers more than doubled, but the Hells Angels were still nervous, the source said.
They directed the Fallen Saints to solidify their relationship with Saskatoon’s largest aboriginal street gang, the Terror Squad, the source said. There had long been connections and informal overlap. For example, Terror Squad leader Darren Harper was linked to the Hells Angels in a parole board report following his cocaine trafficking conviction several years ago.
Two Fallen Saints and three Terror Squad bosses met and agreed to work more together, the source said.
In one incident, they jointly agreed on discipline for a Fallen Saints prospect member who insulted a Terror Squad boss.
By the end of 2014, the Outlaws had finally been driven underground, and many left town, the source said. The Hells Angels, Fallen Saints and Terror Squad had achieved the dominance they craved. It wouldn’t last long – the Project Forseti raids came just weeks later.
So far, 16 people have been charged as a result of Project Forseti. The massive police raids targeted the Fallen Saints and Hells Angels and uncovered hundreds of firearms and more than $8 million worth of drugs. While several of the bikers who were arrested are now out on bail, police have confirmed they are considering criminal organization charges against some of those arrested in Project Forseti.
