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Rock Machine Motorcycle Club
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==Quebec Biker war== {{Very long|section|date=February 2024}} {{Main|Quebec Biker War}} Founder of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club, [[Salvatore Cazzetta]] was arrested at a pitbull farm located in [[Fort Erie, Ontario]] during 1994. He was charged with attempting to import more than eleven tons (22,000lbs) of cocaine valued at an estimated 275 million dollars US (adjusting for inflation the 2021 value is $513,238,697). [[Claude Vézina]], who was president of the Quebec City chapter at the time, became the new National President of the Rock Machine. [[Renaud Jomphe]] was made president of the Montreal chapter, while [[Marcel Demers]] became the president of the Quebec City chapter until eventually opening the Beauport chapter in late 1996.<ref name=BikerWars/> Recently promoted Hells Angels Montreal President Boucher began to increase pressure on the Rock Machine shortly after the arrest, which initiated the [[Quebec Biker war]].<ref name="julian"/> The local Rock Machine Motorcycle Club formed an affiliation, the Alliance, with Montreal crime families such as the Pelletier Clan, Dark Circle and other independent dealers who wished to resist the Hells Angels' attempts to establish a monopoly on street-level drug trade in the city.<ref name=Winterhalder2008/><ref>Winterhalder, Edward ''Out In Bad Standings; Inside The Bandidos Motorcycle Club'', Blockhead City Press, 2005/Seven Locks Press, 2007</ref> A violent turf war ensued with the Hells Angels. The Rock Machine MC, its support clubs and the Pelletier Clan would provide manpower while the Dark Circle would provide the funding. The Dark Circle's leadership was ruled by a committee of five. The chairman was Michel Duclos.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick in the Canadian Hells Angels |last=Langton |first=Jerry |date=31 March 2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd. |isbn=0-470-83710-1 }}</ref> Boucher organized "puppet clubs" to persuade Rock Machine-controlled bars and their resident drug dealers to surrender their illegal drug business.<ref name=BikerWars/> This led to the creation of the Palmers MC, a Rock Machine MC support club with chapters in Montreal and Quebec City. It was created to counter Hell's Angels allies, the Rockers MC, Evil ones and Death Riders MC support clubs. It was led and organized by Rock Machine members Jean "Le Francais" Duquaire and André "Dédé" Désormeaux, who was initially a member of the Dark Circle but joined the Rock Machine. These two were described as the grandfathers of the Palmers MC, all of whose members would be patched into the Rock Machine in 2000. The starting point of the conflict is disputed; however, on 13 July 1994, three members of the Rock Machine entered a business in downtown Montreal. They assassinated Pierre Daoust, a member of a Hells Angel support club, the Death Riders Motorcycle Club. Once it was confirmed they had the right target, he was shot 16 times in the head and torso.<ref name="montrealgazette">{{cite web|url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebecs-biker-war-started-25-years-ago-today|title=Quebec's biker war started 25 years ago today|website=Montrealgazette.com|access-date=2021-11-13}}</ref> There was very little coverage of this incident, but many in Montreal's underground knew that the Rock Machine was defending its territory, months before the death of Daoust. The members of the Alliance (Rock Machine MC, Pelletier Clan, the Dark Circle) as well as other individual narcotics dealers and street gangs met to discuss a united front against the Hells Angels after they gave the narcotics community of Quebec an ultimatum to have them as their mandatory supplier of all contraband goods and narcotics. This offer was refused and the Alliance was formed; due to the Hells Angels' "monopolistic attitude", they had decided to take the initiative and strike first. A day after on 14 July 1994, The Rock Machine attempted to assassinate Normand Robitaille, a member of Hells Angels support club the Rockers MC and a future and prominent member of the Hells Angels. The attempt failed and Quebec police announced that they had arrested five members of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club for planning to bomb the Evil Ones MC clubhouse which was also aligned with the Hells Angels.<ref name="montrealgazette"/> With current knowledge of events due to information from Sylvain Boulanger, it is known that on 15 July 1994, the hierarchy of the Hells Angels in Quebec held emergency meetings in the city of [[Longueuil, Quebec]]. All four chapters in Quebec at the time were present (Montreal, Quebec City, Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke). There was also a meeting at Hells Angels bunker during this period of time. All chapters had to vote on whether they would participate in the conflict against the Rock Machine and their alliance. All four chapters agreed and the club began to prepare for the long conflict ahead. The Hells Angels was an international organization and received aid from all over the country and internationally, giving them more support than the Rock Machine.<ref name="montrealgazette"/> On 19 October 1994, a local drug dealer Maurice Lavoie was gunned down in his car and his girlfriend was wounded.<ref name="Welton">{{cite web |last = Welton |first = Benjamin |title = 10 Incidents of the Quebec Biker War |publisher = The Trebuchet |date = 24 July 2016 |url = http://literarytrebuchet.blogspot.ca/2016/07/10-incidents-of-quebec-biker-war.html |access-date = 2016-11-30 }}</ref> Lavoie had previously been buying his wares from the Pelletier Clan associated with the Rock Machine, but had recently switched to the Hells Angels, and as a result the Pelletier Clan hired a hitman named Patrick Call to kill Lavoie.<ref name="Welton"/> On 28 October 1994, Sylvain Pelletier, the leader of the Pelletier Clan, was killed by the Hells Angels, who threatened to murder any drug dealer who did not buy their supplies from them.<ref name="Welton"/> After these killings, an increasingly murderous struggle for the control of the drug trade in Montreal began between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine that would see 20 dead before the end of 1994.<ref name="Welton"/> After Pelletier was killed, the independent drug dealers of Montreal formed the "Alliance to fight the Angels" headed by his younger brother, Harold Pelletier, whose first act was an attempt to assassinate Boucher in November 1994. Another member of the Pelletier Clan, Martin Simard, purchased enough stolen dynamite to fill a truck, which was left near Boucher's favorite restaurant by Alliance member Martin Pellerin.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=69}} The plan was to set off the explosives by remote control when Boucher arrived, killing him and everybody else in the restaurant, but a Montreal parking officer noticed the truck was parked illegally and had it towed, thus unknowingly foiling the plot.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=69}} On 24 June 1995, Boucher founded the Nomads, an elite chapter of the Angels, that unlike the other chapters, had no geographical limit and were to operate all over Canada.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=17}} To join the Nomads, applicants were required to commit murders, which ensured that no undercover police agents could enter the Nomads chapter. Additionally, only the highest-quality Angels who had proven themselves could join the Nomads. On 13 August 1995, a Jeep wired with a remote-controlled bomb exploded, killing Hells Angels associate Marc Dube and an 11-year-old boy, Daniel Desrochers, who was playing in a nearby schoolyard, An [[Interpol]] informant claimed that the plan was created and facilitated by Boucher to earn back public credit. The first full-patch Hells Angels member was shot to death entering his car at a shopping mall a month later. Nine bombs went off around the province during his funeral, targeting several Hells Angels businesses and properties.<ref name="julian"/> This series of violence related to Operation Wolverine, a police crackdown on both groups in which 130 were arrested. in October 1995, Harold Pelletier, one of the heads of the Pelletier Clan (member of the Alliance), turned himself in to the ''Sûreté du Québec'', confessing that on the night of 7 August 1983, he had murdered a drug dealer named Michel Beaulieu who was behind in his payments to the Pelletier Clan. He asked that the police provide him with protection from the Angels in exchange for more information about his crimes.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=73-74}} Ultimately, Pelletier confessed to committing 17 murders between 1983 and 1995, yet he was convicted only of the murder of Beaulieu. His murder of Beaulieu was classified as [[Second-degree murder|second degree murder]], despite the fact Beaulieu had fallen asleep after Pelletier got him drunk before he was shot. Since the murder was premeditated, it should have been classified as a [[first degree murder]].{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=74-75}} Steinert was the biggest pimp in Montreal, owning the Sensations escort service, whose office in Montreal was destroyed in a case of arson in August 1996 by the Rock Machine.{{sfn|Lavigne|1999|p=85}} In his plea bargain struck in June 1996, Pelletier was sentenced to life imprisonment with a promise that he receive full [[parole]] after 10 years served, in exchange for which he shared all he knew about the Montreal underworld.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=74-75}} The Crown justified the plea bargain with Pelletier, given that he was guilty of 17 murders, on the grounds he was a "mine of information" about the underworld of Montreal.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=75}} Pelletier's motives for striking a plea bargain was that the "Alliance against the Angels" was collapsing with Alliance members defecting over to the Angels, and he wanted Crown protection from the Angels.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=75}} However, Pelletier violated the terms of his plea bargain, under which he promised not to commit any more crimes, when he was caught in 2002 attempting to bribe another prison inmate to kill a prisoner whom he disliked, allowing the Crown to revoke its agreement. Pelletier was not released in June 2006, as had been promised 10 years earlier.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=75}} He finally received full parole in December 2013 after he completed his high school equivalency degree, started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and demonstrated an ability to get along with penitentiary staff.<ref>{{cite news | last = Cherry | first = Paul | title = Former Killer for Hire Granted Parole After 17 Years In Prison | newspaper = The Montreal Gazette | date = 5 December 2013 | url = http://www.pressreader.com/canada/montreal-gazette/20131205/281625303103078 | access-date = 2016-11-30 | archive-date = 2017-12-01 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171201040659/http://www.pressreader.com/canada/montreal-gazette/20131205/281625303103078 | url-status = live }}</ref> On 18 October 1996. president of the Rock Machine Montreal chapter, Renaud Jomphe, was shot and killed. He was seated with fellow club members Christian Deschenes and Raymond Laureau in a booth at the rear of a Chinese restaurant known as Restaurant Kim Hoa, located on Wellington Street. A man entered the establishment, approached the table, fired several shots, and fled out the rear of the building. Jomphe and Deschenes were killed, while Laureau was wounded in the shoulder. One of the Paradis brothers, Peter Paradis, would succeed Jomphe as president of the Montreal chapter, taking over much of his business in the suburb of Verdun.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 January 2001 |title=Anti-gang case in court |url=https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.279514 |access-date=21 October 2023 |website=[[CBC News]]}}</ref> In November 1996, the Rock Machine planted a bomb in the old Hells Angels bunker in St. Nicholas and the residential neighborhood where it was located was shaken by the immense force of the blast. The bunker received significant damage. On 28 March 1997, Rocker member [[Aimé Simard]], stating he was acting under the orders of the Rocker president, a man known as Gregory "Pissaro" Wooley, murdered Rock Machine member Jean-Marc Caissy as he entered a Montreal arena to play hockey with his friends.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=45}} In early 1997, Giovanni Cazzetta was released from prison and returned to the Rock Machine. Claude Vézina willingly stepped down and Giovanni was given the position of national president in his brother's absence. He would lead the club through the conflict until May 1997. In May, Giovanni was subject to a police sting in which a man from Alberta attempted to purchase 15 kilos of cocaine (valued at $600,000; adjusting for inflation, the modern{{when|date=January 2025}} equivalent of $1,132,000). This individual turned out to be an informant for the crown. The mules Frank Bonneville and Donald Waite, who delivered the cocaine to the informant, were arrested and the narcotics were seized by police, Matticks, Bonneville and Waite pleaded guilty on 17 June 1997, and were sentenced to three, four, and two years respectively. Claude Vézina was momentarily reinstated as national president of the Rock Machine. Giovanni attempted to fight the charges brought against him, but he lost these appeals and was sentenced to five years prison time in April 1998. Maria Cazzetta, Giovanni's sister, and Suzanne Poudrier received one year conditional sentences.<ref name="auto"/> On 19 May 1997, Prominent Rock Machine member Serge Cyr was placed under arrest and charged with conspiracy along with 13 others including members of the Rock Machine, Pelletier Clan and Palmers MC for planning the murder of Hells Angels president Maurice "Mom" Boucher. In 1994, a stolen van loaded with explosives was discovered outside the Cri-Cri restaurant on St. Catherine Street, the restaurant was an establishment where Boucher often ate. Cyr was released soon after, with the condition that he report to police once a week, which he never did. Cyr gained a reputation from this, and after the December 2000 arrests, he was promoted to president of the Montreal chapter.<ref>{{cite web |title=Serge "Merlin" Cyr |url=https://www.oocities.org/wiseguywally/SergeCyr.html |website=www.oocities.org}}</ref>{{self-published inline|certain=yes|date=April 2022}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=20 May 1997, 1 - The Gazette at Montreal Gazette |url=https://montrealgazette.newspapers.com/image/425046233/?terms= |url-access=subscription |access-date=21 October 2023 |website=[[Montreal Gazette]]}}</ref> On 21 May 1997, [[Claude Vézina]] and his sergeant-at-arms Dany "Le Gros" Légaré were both charged with the trafficking of narcotics. In order to conduct his arrest, police had to sneak by guard dogs that he had located on his property; they entered his home and arrested him in his bedroom.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oocities.org/wiseguywally/ClaudeVezina.html |title=Claude "Ti-Loup" Vézina |access-date=2022-04-25}}</ref>{{self-published inline|certain=yes|date=April 2022}} This was all the result of a [[sting operation]] set up by the Quebec police. A police informant had completed seven transactions of narcotics with the two members of Rock Machine, during a five-month period.{{sfn|Schneider|2009|p=415}} The massive raid launched by authorities as part of Operation Carcajou resulted in the seizure of a laboratory where narcotics such as PCP and methamphetamine were produced. $1,500,000 worth of various other narcotics, over 325 kg (716.5 lbs) of dynamite along with detonators, seven pistols, two fully automatic machine guns, three semi-automatic carbines and a pistol suppressor.{{sfn|Schneider|2009|p=420-421}} After the arrest of Vézina, [[Frédéric Faucher]] became the Rock Machine's new national president on 11 September 1997, Alain "Red Tomato" Brunette was promoted to president of the Quebec City chapter.{{sfn|Schneider|2009|p=420-421}} In mid-1997, an imprisoned Hells Angel, Denis Houle, was the victim of an unsuccessful assassination attempt when a Rock Machine member opened fire on him from beyond the prison fence.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=33-34}} The resulting investigation first alerted the public to the existence of the Dark Circle, and it was reported that the Hells Angels would pay well for information identifying the members of the Dark Circle. Over the next two years, two members of the Dark Circle were murdered by the Hells Angels while a third escaped when the Hells Angels shot and killed the wrong Serge.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=34}} As the war turned into a battle of attrition the Hells Angels began to gain the upper hand as ever-increasing levels of support poured in from around Canada and internationally, but at the same time, the [[Great Nordic Biker War]] was taking place, and the Rock Machine was impressed with the way that the Scandinavian branches of the Bandidos held their own against the Scandinavian branches of the Hells Angels.<ref name="Edwards 2010">{{cite web | last = Edwards | first = Peter | title = The Bandido Massacre | publisher = Peter Edwards | date = 2010 | url = http://bandidomassacre.com/extended-chronology | access-date = 2016-11-30 | archive-date = 2016-10-09 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161009215144/http://bandidomassacre.com/extended-chronology/ | url-status = live }}</ref> In June 1997, the three leaders of the Rock Machine, Fred Faucher, Johnny Plescio, and Robert "Tout Tout" Léger, went to Stockholm to seek support from the Swedish branch of the Bandidos, but were expelled by the Swedish police, who declared that they did not want Canadian bikers in their country.<ref name="Edwards 2010b">{{cite web|last=Edwards|first=Peter|title=The Bandido Massacre|publisher=Peter Edwards|date=2010|url=http://bandidomassacre.com/extended-chronology/|access-date=2016-11-30|archive-date=2010-02-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223035729/http://bandidomassacre.com/extended-chronology/|url-status=live}}</ref> Faucher, had been the President of the Rock Machine Quebec City chapter prior to his promotion to National President, he had gained wide attention in underworld circles by blowing up the Hells Angels clubhouse in Quebec City in February 1997 and after the Rock Machine's leader Claude "Ti-Loup" Vézina was arrested for drug smuggling, he became the Rock Machine's new leader on 11 September 1997. {{citation needed span|text=Faucher decided the best hope for the Rock Machine was to have the club absorbed into the Bandidos, the second-largest outlaw biker club in the world.|date=April 2022}} On 23 August 1998, a team of Rock Machine killers consisting of Frédéric Faucher, Gerald Gallant, and Marcel Demers rode by on their motorcycles and gunned down Paolo Cotroni in his driveway. {{citation needed span|text=Cotroni was a member of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta [[Cotroni crime family]] who were the rivals of the Sicilian Mafia [[Rizzuto crime family]].|date=April 2022}} Cotroni was killed partly to gain the favor of the Rizzutos and partly because he was a friend of Boucher.{{sfn|O'Connor|2011|p=27}} On 8 September 1998, Johnny Plescio, a founding member of the Rock Machine, was at his Laval home watching television when his cable was severed.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=124}} As he rose to see what was wrong with his television, 27 bullets went through Plescios's living room window, 16 of which struck him.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=124}} At Plescio's funeral, a flower arrangement appeared bearing the word Bandidos, which was the first sign that the Bandidos Motorcycle Club of Texas was taking an interest in the Rock Machine.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=124}} On 28 October 1998. Police arrested 25 Rock Machine members and associates as they were eating dinner in the restaurant of a downtown hotel. The men were forced to lie facedown on the ground, they were searched, and then placed under arrest. Richard Lagacé and Denis Belleau were among those arrested. Many were freed the next day, after swearing to stay away from the others who were picked up by police. Disaster struck the Dark Circle when one of their number, Salvatore Brunnettii, a restaurateur, bar owner and drug dealer, defected to the Hells Angels and gave them a list of the remaining members of the Dark Circle. This basically led to their collapse, leaving the Rock Machine and fragmented members of the "Alliance" to face the Hells Angels and their support clubs.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=16}} By 1999 the Rock Machine MC were seriously looking to align itself with longtime Hells Angels rivals the [[Bandidos Motorcycle Club]] as the other factions in the Alliance had been devastated, with the Rock Machine itself receiving substantial losses. In May 1999 the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club became a "hang-around" club for the Bandidos. On 17 April 2000, Normand Hamel, one of the Nomads, was killed when attempting to flee from Rock Machine assassins in a Laval parking lot while he and his wife were taking his son to the doctor.{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=95}} He was the most senior member of the Hells Angels killed during the conflict. On 12 May 2000, the Angels tried to kill the two Rock Machine members, Tony Duguay and Denis Boucher, suspected of killing Hamel, leading to a wild car crash, during which Duguay took bullet wounds to his arms, right hand, and thigh. About forty police officers from the Carcajou squad raided the Rock Machine chapter in Beauport but found nothing worthwhile. In June 2000, the Rock Machine set up in Ontario began recruiting former members of the [[Outlaws Motorcycle Club]].{{sfn|Cherry|2005|p=95}} In July 2000, Boucher's plans to set up an internet company were derailed when Robert "Bob" Savard, the loan shark who charged 52% interest on the loans he made to the desperate and needy, was gunned down at the Déjeuners Eggstra! restaurant in the north end of Montreal. Savard had been a Hells Angels associate for several years and was considered a right-hand man for Boucher.<ref>{{cite news |last1 = Appleby |first1 = Timonty |last2 = Ha |first2 = Tu Thanh |title = Bikers expand crime empire |newspaper = The Globe and Mail |date = 24 July 2000 |url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/bikers-expand-crime-empire/article1041299/ |access-date = 2017-11-30 |archive-date = 2019-12-07 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191207042130/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/bikers-expand-crime-empire/article1041299/ |url-status = live }}</ref> Savard's dinner companion, Normand Descoteaux, a hockey player turned loan shark, was also a target, but he survived by grabbing a waitress, Hélène Brunet, and using her as an involuntary human shield, ensuring that she took four bullets meant for him.<ref>{{cite web | title = Bernier's ex dined in 2006 with loan shark tied to bikers | publisher = CBC | date = 5 June 2008 | url = http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bernier-s-ex-dined-in-2006-with-loan-shark-tied-to-bikers-1.743017 | access-date = 2017-11-28 | archive-date = 2019-12-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191207042135/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bernier-s-ex-dined-in-2006-with-loan-shark-tied-to-bikers-1.743017 | url-status = live }}</ref> Despite the fact that Brunet took bullets in her arms, legs and shin, Descoteaux was not charged.<ref name="inside"/>{{rp|242}} The shooter's were infamous Canadian hitman, [[Gerald Gallant]] and an unidentified associate of his. Gallant was employed by Michel Duclos, the leader of the Dark Circle, and also frequently carried out contracts for the Rock Machine during the conflict with the Hells Angels,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/quebec-contract-killer-pleads-guilty-to-27-counts-of-murder/article_2b9d6271-9d06-555a-a7d0-d825ae3fcac8.html|title=Quebec contract killer pleads guilty to 27 counts of murder | The Star|website=Thestar.com|date=31 March 2009 |access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref> from 1980 to 2003, he was responsible for 28 murders and 13 attempted murders. His most active years were during the Quebec Biker War, where he killed two members of Hells Angels support clubs in 1997; a third survived an assassination attempt. In 1998 he eliminated five men, including Paul Cotroni Jr., son of deposed mob boss Frank Cotroni, making this his most prominent year as a hitman. He also at times worked for the Irish-Canadian [[West End Gang]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://torontosun.com/2014/11/07/gerald-gallant-confessions-of-canadas-most-prolific-hit-man|title=Gerald Gallant: Confessions of Canada's most prolific hit man|website=Torontosun.com|access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref> During this period both groups started to expand into [[Ontario]], with both opening several clubhouses. The Rock Machine opened three chapters in Ontario ([[Toronto]], [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]] and [[Niagara Falls]]). The Loners had aligned themselves with the Rock Machine, holding a party in Toronto in June 2000 that was attended by dozens of "machinists", as the Rock Machine are known in outlaw biker circles.<ref name="montrealgazette"/> Also in June 2000 before the Hells Angels.{{clarify|date=January 2025}}{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=131}} Not wanting to lose ground to the Rock Machine in the province, Hells Angels opened its first clubhouse and in 2000, and gave a limited time offer to outlaw motorcycle clubs in Ontario (especially [[Satan's Choice]] and the Para-Dice Riders). There would be no probationary period for Hells Angels club membership and all members would receive full-patch. This resulted in 168 members of the Para-Dice Riders, Satan's Choice, Lobos and Last Chance "patching" to the Angels. Overnight the Hells Angels went from one chapter in Ontario to 14, giving them a massive advantage in the province. This gave the Hells Angels 29 chapters in total, with 418 full-patch members in Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.<ref name="montrealgazette"/> On 6 December 2000, 255 police officers tracked and arrested 16 Rock Machine members and associates on narcotics trafficking charges. The "ring", operated by Marcel Demers Leader of the Beauport chapter and National President Fred Faucher of the Quebec City chapter, were accused of distributing more than two kilograms of cocaine a month and generated almost $5 million in profits annually (the modern{{when|date=January 2025}} equivalent of $8,347,967). Alain Brunette was promoted to the position of national president, until he became the first president of Bandidos Canada on 1 December 2001. Jean-Claude Belanger replaced Brunette as president of the Quebec City chapter. Robert Léger would head the Beauport chapter until his death. Also in December 2000, the Rock Machine officially became a probationary club of the Bandidos. Seeing the division this caused, the Hells Angels approached the Alliance with the offer of a ceasefire brokered by the [[Rizzuto crime family]], which was accepted. The truce had an ulterior motive for the Hells Angels, as they hoped to halt the expansion of the Bandidos in Canada, especially Ontario. The Hells Angels also convinced members of the Rock Machine who did not agree with the "patch-over" to join them. The truce lasted for only a brief period before hostilities continued.<ref name="montrealgazette"/> In December 2000, most of the Rock Machine's Ontario members joined the Hells Angels.{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=23}} The Hells Angels national president, [[Walter Stadnick]], offered Hells Angels membership to the Rock Machine's Kingston and Toronto chapters while excluding the London chapter, saying that the members of the London chapter were unqualified to be Hells Angels.{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=22-23}} Most of the Ontario members of the Rock Machine took up Stadnick's offer as it was felt that the Bandidos patch with its cartoonish drawing of a Mexican bandit was "silly".{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=22-23}} Furthermore, Stadnick offered Hells Angels membership on a "patch-for-patch" basis, allowing members to trade their current patches for equivalent Hells Angels, while the Bandidos required new members to take a reduction in rank.{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=22}} Paul "Sasquatch" Porter, a founding member of the Rock Machine and the president of their Kingston chapter, wrote on the wall of the clubhouse: "Hello to all the RMMC, I wish you the best with your new colors! Bye my brothers!"{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=23}} Porter became the president of the Hells Angels' new Ottawa chapter.{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=135}} The fact that the Hells Angels had conspired to kill Porter when he was a member of the Rock Machine did not stop him from defecting.{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=135}} Regardless of the prior issues, on 1 December 2001, the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club became official members of the Bandidos Canada in a "patch-over" ceremony at the Rock Machine's Kingston chapter club house. The Bandidos Canada inherited seven new chapters (Montreal, Quebec City, Point-Aux-Trembles, Beauport, Toronto, Kingston and Niagara Falls). On 28 March of the same year, a massive investigation by Canadian authorities dubbed Operation Springtime was launched against the Hells Angels. The raids resulted in the arrests of 138 members of the Hells Angels, including Maurice Boucher himself and associates connected with the motorcycle club. This brought about a power vacuum in the country's narcotics market.<ref name="montrealgazette"/> The Bandidos Canada were looking to take advantage of this opportunity to regain territory lost and take new territory from the Hells Angels. However, a concurrent investigation, Operation Amigo, was underway targeting the Bandidos Canada operations. This operation had initially gone under a different title and was created to target the Rock Machine as a result of the conflict in Quebec. When The Rock Machine patched over to the Bandidos they became the main focus. On 5 June 2002, raids led to the arrests of 62 members of the Bandidos Canada (Rock Machine) including all of its Quebec manpower and many other associates.{{sfn|Langton|2010|p=172}} This put an end to the conflict as it was the first time since the start of the war that both sides had large numbers of men and their respective leaders in custody and facing charges. All in all it is the deadliest recorded biker conflict in history, with over 162 dead, over 300 wounded, 100 plus arrested and 20 people missing. It cost the government of Canada and Quebec millions of dollars in damages,<ref name="montrealgazette"/> with 84 [[bombings]] and 130 cases of [[arson]].<ref name="Organized Crime Fact Sheet">[http://ww2.ps-sp.gc.ca/policing/organized_crime/FactSheets/omg_e.asp Organized Crime Fact Sheet] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081018195221/http://ww2.ps-sp.gc.ca/policing/organized_crime/FactSheets/omg_e.asp |date=18 October 2008 }}- Public Safety Canada</ref>
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