More than 100 Hells Angels members barred from city businesses but no arrests at annual gathering
Bill Kaufmann
Mon, July 21, 2025
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/hells-angels-members-barred-city-193359802.html
Dozens of Hells Angels members were barred from city businesses but police laid no charges against any of the hundreds who came to the city for an annual national gathering over the weekend.
Operators of businesses throughout the city notified law enforcement about the presence of the motorcycle club members, 145 of whom were then ejected under the province’s Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act, said city police.
“No arrests were made in relation to these ejections,” police said in a press release.
About 10 tickets were issued to Hells Angels members for traffic or parking violations, they added but the public impact from the bikers’ presence was minimal.
Due to the plan and resources in place by the Calgary Police Service (CPS) and other law enforcement agencies, the disruption from the city-wide Hells Angels Motorcycle Club event held from July 18-20, 2025, in Calgary, was reduced considerably,” said police.
Those actions are taken to prevent the bikers from intimidating members of the public.
A senior member of the club said the only irritant for he and his colleagues was being barred from restaurants and other businesses and the event otherwise went without incident.
“Nothing ever happens during them, I’ve never heard of any issues” said the man, who chose anonymity.
City police said they closely monitored club members they consider part of an organized criminal group and that plainclothes intelligence officers from across the country were also present.
Club members were well aware of the police presence but weren’t put-off by it, he said.
“I have no complaints – we’re so used to it it doesn’t even faze us,” said the man who insists he and his Calgary colleagues are simply working men in a motorcycle club.
Hosting Hells Angels members something Calgary club ‘thrives on’ says member
Most of the gathering was held at the Hells Angels’ Calgary clubhouse on 84 St. S.E. where a circus tent was set up for a party held Friday and Saturday.
The senior member said about 600 full-fledged members and those with support clubs were serenaded by an AC/DC tribute band and consumed “a lot” of beer but used shuttle buses to avoid impaired driving to hotels.
He said hosting their colleagues from across Canada was a point of pride to the two local chapters whose members number about 25.
“It was originally supposed to be in Nanaimo but there was some reason they couldn’t put it on,” he said.
“We’ve done it in the past, it’s something we thrive on.”
A national gathering held in Calgary in 2017 to mark the 20th anniversary of the club’s establishment in the city passed without incident.
Last summer, the Hells Angels set up a chapter in Lethbridge, an event closely-monitored by police there.
In February 2001, the trial began in the case of former Calgary club president Kenneth Szczerba, who was of plotting to blow up the homes of alderman Dale Hodges and two other people. Hodges was a strong opponent of the Angels’ clubhouse being built. Szczerba was later found guilty.
City police raided the Angels’ Calgary clubhouse in Ogden and other locations in March 2001, seizing 11 kilograms of cocaine and other drugs, along with weapons. Charges were laid against 43 people, eight of them members of the club’s chapter
.
BKaufmann@postmedia.com
Comments