HELL'S KINGPIN CHARGED IN COCAINE BUST

One of the few surviving founding members of the Hell's Angels in
Montreal has had his wings clipped.

Michel (Sky) Langlois - so nicknamed because he enjoys flying his
Cessna airplane - was arrested at his home in Longueuil yesterday by
members of the Wolverine police squad.

Langlois, 52, faces five charges arising from the seizure in January
of a large shipment of cocaine at the Lacolle border crossing. Police
said they had long suspected Langlois of organizing the shipment but
only recently found evidence to charge him.

``He's one of the most influential members of the south chapter,''
said Cpl. Richard Bourdon of the Surete du Quebec, referring to the
recently formed South Shore cell of the Hell's.

At the same time as Langlois was being arrested without incident,
other members of the Wolverine anti-gang squad surrounded and
thoroughly searched a fortified house in Saint-Basile-le-Grand
suspected of being a Hell's Angels bunker.

The house was previously owned by the Evil Ones, a Hell's Angels
affiliate, and was the target of a similar police raid in 1990.
Yesterday, two video cameras were planted on the front lawn of the
bunker, and a sliding gate in a fence around the property, activated
from inside the bunker, blocked access to the driveway. The back of
the house looked less imposing, with a swimming pool and an outdoor
dining area.

The back yard also had a restaurant-sized grill and a see-through
beverage refrigerator. Above the refrigerator was a metal sign that
said Hell's Angels South.

Police also searched a motorcycle shop owned by Langlois on Taschereau
Blvd. in Longueuil. A warehouse in Beloeil where Langlois keeps his
airplane was left untouched.

The Wolverine squad is composed of members of the RCMP and Surete du
Quebec. Police from both forces were involved in yesterday's raids.

Two full-fledged, or ``full-patch,'' members of the Hell's Angels were
arrested at the bunker but later released.

A third man, Ken Brandon, believed to be a member of the Hell's Angels
in California, was also arrested in the bunker. Reported to be in
Canada illegally, he was turned over to immigration
authorities.

One of the full-patch members arrested returned to the bunker hours
later, noting what was being taken away as evidence. He sat in a green
van watching police enter and leave the residence and, at one point,
he got out to urinate on the front lawn.

The Wolverine squad had watched shipments of cocaine being moved from
Mexico into Canada since 1997 and, on Jan. 18, a recreational camper
was stopped at the Lacolle border crossing. A search of the camper
turned up 178.5 kilograms of cocaine stuffed inside the walls of the
vehicle. Police estimated the cocaine was worth $71 million.
Law-enforcement agencies in the United States tracked the camper for
the Wolverine squad after a driver picked up the cocaine in Mexico.

The driver caught at the Lacolle border, Richard Savard, 45, was the
first of seven people arrested in connection with the shipment.

Langlois was the latest, and police have arrest warrants out for two
other Hell's Angels members - Gordon McQuade, 33, and Hugo Desrochers,
29.

Langlois is one of three surviving members of the first Montreal
chapter of the Hell's Angels, established in December 1977. He and
another founding member, Normand (Billy) Labelle, are reputed to be
the heads of the Hell's Angels South chapter.

Formed in March 1997, the South Shore chapter was filled with members
who have had no criminal records for the past five years to keep them
from being prosecuted under federal anti-gang legislation that makes

it illegal for someone to be involved with an organization whose
members have committed crimes.

Both Langlois and Labelle attended the Hell's Angels 20th-anniversary
party in Sorel last December.

``Because he's been there since Hour 1,'' said Surete Sgt. Guy
Ouellette, an expert on Quebec biker gangs, ``he has passed through
the biker wars of the '70s and the '80s. As a member of the Hell's
Angels, he's a powerful man, and other members ask for his advice often.''

Langlois was one of several Hell's Angels linked to the 1985 slaughter
of five biker-gang members in Lennoxville. He served two years in
prison after being sentenced as an accessory after the fact, but not
before once giving police the slip at a motorcycle show.

Langlois was once a partner in a motorcycle shop with Louis Lapierre,
who was one of the highest-ranking members of the Hell's until he
ended his life in 1994 in his chalet in Sorel. Both Lapierre and
Langlois were implicated in the 1985 slaughter, which police sometimes
refer to as the ``Lennoxville purge.''

Members of the Laval chapter of the Hell's had been called to a
meeting at the Lennoxville bunker on March 24, 1985. It was there that
five were shot dead for being undisciplined and unruly, even in
biker-gang circles. Their bodies were later found in the St. Lawrence
River near Sorel, not far from Lapierre's home, zipped into sleeping
bags weighted down with concrete blocks and bodybuilding weights.
Twenty-nine Angels were arrested in the Lennoxville massacre. Three
were convicted of murder and 15, including Langlois, of being
accessories after the fact.

The shooting put an end to the Laval chapter of the Hell's Angels. It
also left the whole organization exposed to police
investigators.

Ouellette said yesterday that since the 1985 massacre the Hell's have
ceased to operate as connected chapters. Instead, he said, the six
chapters in Quebec, like the one on the South Shore, operate
independently of one another.

Langlois appeared in court yesterday and was ordered held in custody
for his next court date, scheduled for Oct. 23.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady