[1] In the early 1990s, the Hells Angels national president Walter Stadnick frequently visited Winnipeg to meet with both los Brovos and the Spartans as he sought to play off the two gangs.
[1] The journalists Julian Sher and William Marsden wrote that Manitoba was crucial in the Canadian underworld because it was "the axis of distribution for any drugs moving east and west in the country.
"[2] The majority of the drugs in British Columbia are either consumed locally or exported to more profitable markets such as the United States, Japan and Australia.
[7] To avoid the infamy of associating with the Spartans, Stadnick threw his support behind los Bravos, granting them hang-around status with the Angels on 18 October 1997.
[10] On 22 December 2000, Stadnick arranged for Dew and los Bravos gang to join the Hells Angels as "full patch" members after only five months of waiting as prospects instead of the normal year.
[4] The journalist Jerry Langton wrote that in the early 21st century there was "a period of near-hegemony in Winnipeg's organized crime by the Hells Angels through their allies, the Zig Zag Crew".
[15] On 21 June 2001, Sylvester saw a Hells Angel, Rod Sweeney, stop his car at a railroad crossing, and pulled up his motorcycle to open fire on Sweeny.
[19] Gold sought to put Sylvester on trial, portraying him as a violent man who made a plea bargain with the Crown to escape serious prison time for his crimes.
[19] The trial ended in September 2002 with Justice Perry Schulman stating that Sylvester was a worthless witness who had brazenly committed perjury in his courtroom and Sweeney being acquitted of attempted murder.
[22] Ernie Dew, the president of the Winnipeg chapter, was a licensed automobile mechanic whose house was likewise located in a middle-class neighborhood of St.
[25] Members of the Zig Zag Crew walked into a 7-Eleven store in the Elmwood district and brazenly engaged in shop-lifting by not paying the food they took with them.
[25] After the members of the Zig Zag Crew were arrested for theft, on 26 March 2002, a Molotov cocktail was tossed into the 7-Eleven store, which failed to explode.
[28] Coquete turned Crown's evidence and named a number of Manitoba Hells Angels and Zig Zag Crew members as the perpetrators of violent acts.
[41] Ray Parry of the Winnipeg police service said of the relationship between the Hells Angels and the Zig Zag Crew: "There is no rivalry, no predatory group.
[45] On the basis of the evidence collected by Atanasovic, on 15 February 2006 the police arrested Dew, his wife Vera, Grant and another "full patch" Hells Angel Jeff Peck.
[48] Vera Dew made a plea bargain with the Crown where she admitted to selling cocaine for the Hells Angels and agreed to forfeit her house in St.
[49] The Zeneli brothers came into conflict with a Hells Angel, Scott "Taz" Robertson, a truck driver who smuggled drugs from Winnipeg to Thompson.
[50] Robertson was a former member of the Spartans who was one of the last people to see Darwin Sylvester alive before he disappeared on 29 May 1998, and had then joined the Redliners and finally the Hells Angels.
[50] On 1 July 2007, Bekim Zeneli was found in a Winnipeg motel torturing a man tied to a chair, but the charges were dropped after the victim refused to testify.
[51] In November 2007, Robertson while wearing a wire, recorded a plot to kill the Zeneli brothers, whom it was stated were major competition for the Hells Angels in Thompson.
[53] Langton wrote: "Indeed the Hells Angels had secured Thompson, but their reputation as money-hungry drug delaer who would kille their brothers-both metaphorical and biological-over debuts led to a group of deeply disgrunted people in Winnipeg".
[55] A "full patch" of the Zig Zag Crew, Michael Satsatin, turned police informer in 2009 and while wearing a wire recorded plans to sell cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy, methamphetamine, OxyContin and marihuana along with guns.
[59] A former member of the Zig Zag Crew, Fat Corey, who had allied himself with the Rock Machine was heard to make insulting remarks about the Hells Angels.
[62] Also charged with Hells Angels associates Kurtis Scott and Christopher Gerula along with Bredin Wall and Donovan Lafrance of the Redlined Support Crew.
[62] Jean Paul Beaumont, a former member of the Zig Zag Crew who joined the Rock Machine was found murdered inside his cell at the Brandon Correctional Centre on 14 October 2012.