It's complicated, but think of it from the point of view of a hierarchy, of competing jurisdictions, and also the whole question of three generations. In other words, the lowest level of organized crime is breaking legs; the thugs, killers, street gangs. The second level is when you are the king of the castle of organized criminals. Think of Mom Boucher. You're well known, you're known as a thug and a criminal. The top level is when you are now clean. You've taken your profits and now you're in organized, clean business.
If you look at that hierarchy, there are shifts. There are members of the Hells Angels who started off as street thugs to break legs for the Mafia. They then moved up. Walter Stadnick is an example of that in Hamilton. He then becomes a top organized crime leader. But eventually the Hells Angels became powerful enough.... Originally they were the gofer boys for the Mafia when the Mafia brought in the drugs and they would just do the distribution. They literally became powerful enough, especially in Quebec, as we documented in one of our books, to sit at the same table to negotiate the price of cocaine. Then at one point the Hells Angels felt strong enough to go directly to Latin America to import and go around the Mafia. So they begin to move up.
Members of the Hells Angels in B.C. are clean enough now that they've invested in the stock market and become legitimate businessmen. They own cellphone stores and clothing stores. So they've moved up to that level. What you're now seeing in British Columbia is that the Hells Angels can now use the street gangs, which are still at the bottom level, for some of their dirty work. But when the Hells Angels are in trouble, some of the more powerful street gangs--like the United Nations or the Independent Soldiers-- begin to move up to that second level.
It constantly shifts. So look at it from that perspective.