WINNIPEG -- Despite a flurry of arrests, the latest crackdown on Hells Angels members and associates won't be the final chapter in the back-and-forth saga between organized crime and law enforcement in Manitoba.
Sources said the local Hells Angels chapter, which has several members on the street, has lost a bit of insulation by having so many of its underlings arrested but, like it has in past setbacks, will regroup.
Plenty of people are waiting in the wings or willing to align with the outlaw motorcycle group to replace those swept up in a 13-month investigation known as Project Divide, sources said.
One Hells Angels member has been arrested in the sting, which focused on alleged drug trafficking and related activities revolving around its so-called puppet club, the Zig Zag Crew. It's one of the largest busts in Manitoba history.
While these groups won't go away, neither will police.
"It's not going to stop. Our goal is to continue to target these individuals," said Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen.
This is the third time in four years the Manitoba integrated organized crime task force -- comprised of RCMP and Winnipeg and Brandon police service members -- has targeted Hells Angels members or affiliates, resulting in about 60 arrests and many convictions.
Police chalked up their success to collaboration between the agencies and techniques.
In Project Divide, a source said, police paid a career criminal hundreds of thousands of dollars to be an informant and infiltrate the organizations.
The informant was known to some of those charged and trusted, the source said.
Like in projects Defence and Drill before it, the informant was involved in drug transactions and discussions, which were recorded on video and audio. The informant is in the witness protection program and has been relocated, the source said.
Meanwhile, police have named the latest suspects to be arrested, bringing to 29 the number of people taken into custody. They are Kyle Oliferchuk, 31, of Winnipeg, Eric John Sandberg, 28, of Surrey, B.C., and Daniel Hawkins, 29, of Burnaby, B.C.
Police also released photos of four of five people who've eluded investigators so far -- Zig Zag Crew member Bruce Brown, 43, Lloyd Henry Jansen, 38, and Blair Denton Alford, 55, of Winnipeg, and Zig Zag Crew prospect Gerald Russell Frommelt, 25, of Selkirk.
Police said the fifth person is a Zig Zag Crew prospect who will be arrested on a peace bond and won't face criminal charges, like two others arrested in Wednesday's raids.
chris.kitching@sunmedia.ca
