arrived as backup drew their weapons and ordered Lanthier and his friends to get out of the cars.
Inside the two cars, the police found a 9-mm pistol with chrome plating and a black cross on the handle. They also found a smaller calibre handgun under a back seat. Both weapons were loaded. Three bulletproofvests were in one ofthe trunks. The passenger in Lanthierâs car pleaded guilty to possessing all the weapons and received a four-month prison sentence. Lanthier was acquitted shortly after his friend was sentenced. The incident fit a pattern police would see in the coming years where Rockers underlings were expected to âtake the fallâ for full-patch members. The Hells Angels expected the same loyalty from the Rockers.
Gregory Wooley
Gregory Wooley was another member of the Rockers who was targeted in Project Rush. Wooley had grown up in a tough section of northern Montreal and gravitated to a street gang composed of the children of Haitian immigrants who had developed a distinct community in Montreal North and the cityâs St. Michel district. Despite being black, Wooley rose quickly through the ranks of the lily-white Rockers. Though he knew he had little chance of ever becoming a Hells Angel because of the gangâs racist exclusionary rule, he did not seem deterred.
Like Houle and Mathieu, Gregory Wooley was behind bars when Operation Springtime 2001 was carried out. When the charges were filed, he was still recovering from a serious head injury he had suffered while in a maximum-security penitentiary. On January 31, 2001, Wooley was pushed during a fight in the penitentiaryâs weight room, and when he fell, his head struckthe metal bar of a bench press. The man suspected of nearly killing Wooley was in prison for homicide but had no ties to the biker war. He was never charged with the assault, but Wooleyâs parole officer, aware of the bikerâs reputation, would later call the attack âa suicidal actâ on the part of the other inmate.
Some police detectives in the Montreal police force wondered if Wooley had run out of luck on April 5, 2000. The full-patch member of the Rockers was preparing to board a flight to Haiti when security checking one of his suitcases found a .44 Smith & Wesson handgun inside. Wooley was arrested and quickly pleaded guilty to possession of the weapon, which earned him his first significant sentence.
Investigators in the Montreal police were puzzled by Wooleyâs apparent miscue, and some speculated that he might have believed he was untouchable at that point. They also couldnât help but notice that Wooley was leaving Canada just after two members of an underling gang he ran, called the Syndicate, had been murdered outside a Montreal strip club.
Mere months earlier, a judge had tossed out evidence in a trial against Wooley on a weapons charge; he had been acquitted. A gun had been recovered on a sidewalk near where Wooley had been stopped for what the police claimed was a routine traffic stop. That summer night in 1999, Wooley had been driving through downtown Montreal on a motorcycle. According to the official police version, he was pulled over because he was speeding and the muffler on his motorcycle was making a lot of noise. He was stopped at a downtown intersection by Constable Michel Bureau, a Montreal police constable who would later testify that he immediately recognized Wooley and noticed he was wearing his gang colors. The cop found out that Wooley only held an apprenticeship licence and was supposed to be accompanied by another motorcyclist. After Officer Bureau returned to his car and began processing the traffic violations, he said he noticedWooley make a sudden movement and seemed to be adjusting something under his jacket.
âI knew at that moment that Mr. Wooley had already been implicated in murders. He was a violent individual, and he was the only black to be admitted into a biker gang. There were certainly reasons to
Inside the two cars, the police found a 9-mm pistol with chrome plating and a black cross on the handle. They also found a smaller calibre handgun under a back seat. Both weapons were loaded. Three bulletproofvests were in one ofthe trunks. The passenger in Lanthierâs car pleaded guilty to possessing all the weapons and received a four-month prison sentence. Lanthier was acquitted shortly after his friend was sentenced. The incident fit a pattern police would see in the coming years where Rockers underlings were expected to âtake the fallâ for full-patch members. The Hells Angels expected the same loyalty from the Rockers.
Gregory Wooley
Gregory Wooley was another member of the Rockers who was targeted in Project Rush. Wooley had grown up in a tough section of northern Montreal and gravitated to a street gang composed of the children of Haitian immigrants who had developed a distinct community in Montreal North and the cityâs St. Michel district. Despite being black, Wooley rose quickly through the ranks of the lily-white Rockers. Though he knew he had little chance of ever becoming a Hells Angel because of the gangâs racist exclusionary rule, he did not seem deterred.
Like Houle and Mathieu, Gregory Wooley was behind bars when Operation Springtime 2001 was carried out. When the charges were filed, he was still recovering from a serious head injury he had suffered while in a maximum-security penitentiary. On January 31, 2001, Wooley was pushed during a fight in the penitentiaryâs weight room, and when he fell, his head struckthe metal bar of a bench press. The man suspected of nearly killing Wooley was in prison for homicide but had no ties to the biker war. He was never charged with the assault, but Wooleyâs parole officer, aware of the bikerâs reputation, would later call the attack âa suicidal actâ on the part of the other inmate.
Some police detectives in the Montreal police force wondered if Wooley had run out of luck on April 5, 2000. The full-patch member of the Rockers was preparing to board a flight to Haiti when security checking one of his suitcases found a .44 Smith & Wesson handgun inside. Wooley was arrested and quickly pleaded guilty to possession of the weapon, which earned him his first significant sentence.
Investigators in the Montreal police were puzzled by Wooleyâs apparent miscue, and some speculated that he might have believed he was untouchable at that point. They also couldnât help but notice that Wooley was leaving Canada just after two members of an underling gang he ran, called the Syndicate, had been murdered outside a Montreal strip club.
Mere months earlier, a judge had tossed out evidence in a trial against Wooley on a weapons charge; he had been acquitted. A gun had been recovered on a sidewalk near where Wooley had been stopped for what the police claimed was a routine traffic stop. That summer night in 1999, Wooley had been driving through downtown Montreal on a motorcycle. According to the official police version, he was pulled over because he was speeding and the muffler on his motorcycle was making a lot of noise. He was stopped at a downtown intersection by Constable Michel Bureau, a Montreal police constable who would later testify that he immediately recognized Wooley and noticed he was wearing his gang colors. The cop found out that Wooley only held an apprenticeship licence and was supposed to be accompanied by another motorcyclist. After Officer Bureau returned to his car and began processing the traffic violations, he said he noticedWooley make a sudden movement and seemed to be adjusting something under his jacket.
âI knew at that moment that Mr. Wooley had already been implicated in murders. He was a violent individual, and he was the only black to be admitted into a biker gang. There were certainly reasons to
Similar Books
