Article content
The outlaw motorcycle club whose vests were stolen during a clash with the Hells Angels in Southwestern Ontario was the Loners, The Free Press has learned.
Article content
Police investigated a Sept. 21 robbery in Cambridge involving members of the Hells Angels, their support club the Red Devils and another outlaw motorcycle club, police have said. OPP Det.-Insp. Scott Wade, head of the biker enforcement unit, declined to identify the other club involved, citing safety concerns.
Article content
But a police source said the other club was the Loners, an outlaw motorcycle club with chapters across across the world and nearly a dozen in Ontario, including several in the London region.
Motorcycle vests were stolen in the Cambridge robbery, according to court documents. The complainant identified in the documents has a Facebook prolife featuring photos of the Loners logo, a half-werewolf, half-skull creature.
Bikers publicly wear patches – a leather vest bearing their club’s logo and chapter location – to claim territory and intimidate rivals, Wade said of “the power of the patch.”
“When bikers steal vests, it is basically a demonstration of their power,” he said.
The Loners, like other outlaw motorcycle clubs, have a long history of violent confrontations with their rivals in Canada. Most recently, they clashed with the Outlaws, the world’s third-largest biker club and the longtime enemies of the Hells Angels, in eastern Ontario in July 3, 2023.
Bikers from both clubs got into a brawl in a Cornwall parking lot, where an Outlaw member was shot and two Loners stabbed. The Outlaws’ Cornwall clubhouse was set ablaze less than two days later, prompting police to carry out a series of raids that resulted in two guns seized and nine people charged.
Article content
In response to the September robbery, investigators carried out searches in Cambridge, Waterloo, Seaforth and Whitby in October and seized 17 guns, ammunition, nine magazines, three Hells Angels vests, cellphones and a quantity of unknown pills, police said.
Among the weapons seized from a Huron County home was a get-back whip, a prohibited weapon Wade said is becoming increasingly popular among outlaw bikers.
Traditionally made out of braided leather and equipped with a quick-release attachment on one end, get-back whips were used by motorcyclists to increase their visibility and keep other motorists a safe distance away. But it’s the metal objects attached to the other end of the whips that makes them dangerous and illegal.
Five people – four alleged members of the Hells Angels, one an alleged member of the Red Devils – face a combined 14 charges including robbery, possession of property valued at more than $5,000 obtained by crime, unauthorized possession of a weapon, disguise with intent and theft of less than $5,000.
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network
