Recent Hells Angels Clubhouse Forfeitures in B.C.: What to Know

Hells Angels clubhouses in Surrey, Mission and Pitt Meadows are part of the province’s latest civil forfeiture claim in B.C. Supreme Court. The Public Safety Ministry announced Wednesday (Dec. 3) that the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office has filed a claim in court seeking the forfeiture of the three clubhouses – the Hardside chapter in Surrey, the Mission chapter and the Haney chapter in Pitt Meadows – “in an effort to target and undercut organized crime.” The release adds that the clubhouses are “central to the operations” of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and “successfully forfeiting them would be a major disruption to this criminal organization.” The ministry alleges the properties have been financed and maintained using funds “derived from unlawful activity and are alleged to be the proceeds and instruments of crime.”

Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger said the government has been working with “a focus and resolve” to go after gangs and remove the profits of criminal activities. “As criminals attempt to hide their illegal activities and shield their members from law enforcement, we are finding ways to permanently take away their assets while protecting British Columbians,” Krieger said. The B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office has partnered with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit B.C. on these claims.

Manny Mann, the assistant commissioner for the unit, said that by combining investigative expertise with civil-forfeiture tools, “we are able to remove assets that undermine community safety and redirect them toward prevention and public good.” This is just the latest in civil forfeiture claims of Hells Angels clubhouses in B.C. Three other Hells Angels clubhouses – the Nanaimo chapter, the East End chapter in Vancouver and the Kelowna chapter – were forfeited in February 2023.

The province said that followed more than a decade of legal proceedings and was “the first successful forfeiture of any outlaw motorcycle gang clubhouses in B.C.” The properties have since been sold or demolished. Funds from properties that have been forfeited go directly toward supporting the communities, the ministry said, adding that since 2006, more than $93 million in civil-forfeiture recoveries has been disbursed as grants supporting community organizations throughout the province. Ongoing litigation in Campbell River There is also ongoing litigation involving the Devil’s Army clubhouse in Campbell River, the ministry added in the release. The Devil’s Army, according to the province, is a known Hells Angels “puppet club,” a support club. The property is owned by Richard Alexander, who is a founding member of the Devil’s Army. He was convicted of murder in 2023. The B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office filed the claim on June 14, 2023 to have the property at 70 Petersen Road be forfeited to the B.C. government under the Civil Forfeiture Act as proceeds from unlawful activity. Alexander was a Maple Ridge resident when he was convicted on March 15, 2023 for the first-degree murder in the 2016 killing of John Dillon Brown inside the clubhouse and then leaving his body in the trunk of a car near Sayward.

Source: Langley Advance Times