SUMMARY

The Hells Angels is a motorcycle club which has local chapters spread over the world. The Montreal chapter, which was the one mostly involved in the non-state conflict in the 1990s and early 2000s, is thus only one out of many Hells Angels chapters in Canada. The organisation expands by absorbing local motorcycle clubs that are already established in the area to which they expand. The organisation as such was founded in 1948, in Canada and the first crew to become members were the Montreal Popeyes in 1977, and two years later the Lavals. In the early to mid-1980s there was an internal struggle in the Quebec area, when the Laval group had gone rogue by getting addicted to the drugs they were selling. In 1985 five of the top leaders of the Laval chapter were found dead, bringing an end to the internal dispute.

The Hells Angels are often associated with illegal activities in the areas where they reside. Their way of showing off, by the marks on their vests, that they belong to a group which is often considered to be involved in organised crime, is often perceived as arrogant.

One of the leading figures of Hells Angels in Montreal in the 1990s was Maurice “Mom” Boucher. Boucher was also the head of the so called Nomads, an elite branch of Hells Angels without territorial bounds to any specific location.

Hells Angels has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence..