Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
The trial of a member of the Saskatoon Hells Angels continued Tuesday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.
Rob Allen was charged with cocaine trafficking in the wake of Project Forseti – a series of police raids targeting the Hells Angels and Fallen Saints motorcycle clubs in January 2015.
The Crown’s case relies heavily on evidence from Noel Harder, a former Saskatoon drug dealer turned police informant, who infiltrated the Fallen Saints motorcycle club when it was founded and fed police information between September and December 2014.
On Tuesday, court heard several audio recordings of conversations between Harder and Allen.
On the stand, Harder explained the conversations were often kept vague because Allen feared being recorded by police.
In many cases, Harder testified that gaps in the taped conversations were being filled with coded hand gestures or the quiet mouthing of words.
Harder said the phrase ‘Hells Angels’ was forbidden in conversations with Allen, replaced with the gesture of placing a hand on the shoulder, as if pointing to a motorcycle club patch.
A hand gesture with the thumbs and fore-fingers of each hand forming a rectangle was used to denote a kilogram of cocaine, according to Harder.
In one exchange, Harder testified that he and Allen were discussing efforts to set up a meeting with a pair of Hells Angels out of Ontario who were allegedly supposed to provide cocaine to be sold in Saskatoon.
Harder told court that Allen would oftenly mouth the names of cities, including Montreal, which Harder testified is the home base for Canada’s most elite Hells Angels.
All told, Project Forseti saw 19 locations raided across Alberta and Saskatchewan, with police stating that they seized some $8 million in drugs and about 200 guns.
The Fallen Saints have been called a Hells Angels puppet club by police. While several Fallen Saints members were arrested after Forseti, only two Hells Angels were charged, Allen in Saskatoon and Terry Eide in Calgary.
Eide pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the raids in 2015, including a charge of cocaine trafficking.
He was sentenced to eight years
Allen pleaded guilty in September to a pair of more minor charges stemming from the raids, one for possessing brass knuckles and one for possessing hydromorphone pills.
Those counts netted him a $585 fine.
