holdings are extensive

holdings are extensiveIn the 3900 block of East Hastings in Burnaby, you can buy a cappuccino at Big Shots Cafe and go across the street to get the latest hip hop styles at Digstown clothing.Members of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels are involved in both businesses. Convicted cocaine dealer Francisco (Chico) Pires is a director of Big Shots Cafe and Damiano Dipopolo owns Digstown, which has a tanning salon and tattoo shop attached.Dipopolo also holds the business licence for a coffee bar, Caffe Napoli, at 1670 Commercial Drive, just a few steps north of First Avenue. But Lisa Cristiano said this week that she bought the coffee bar in 2000 and hasn’t yet transferred the Tim Jennings Jersey licence. "I have no connection with the Hells Angels," she said. Her company applied Thursday at city hall for a new business licence after Cristiano was contacted by The Vancouver Sun.Haney chapter member Werner Giovani Gonzalez is a director of Pronto Moda Boutique at 3895 East Hastings St. and a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Tri Tel Realty.At 6568 East Hastings is Kensington Travel Ltd., which lists Nicodemo (Nick) Manno, 45, as president and secretary. Manno is a member of the elite Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels, which doesn’t have the jurisdictional limitations of other chapters.The president of the East End chapter, John Bryce, is the longtime owner of Hi Way Choppers at 3720 Parker St., located blocks from the East End chapter’s clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia St. Ltd., which lists its address as 606 Powell, where the Drake Hotel and strip club is located. The Drake is owned, according to the City of Vancouver, by Royal Drake Investments Ltd.; Bryce is not listed as an owner or director.Bryce owns more than $2 million worth of property, including a $600,000 home at 341 Springer in Burnaby and three houses in the 1700 block of Caledonia in North Alshon Jeffery Women Jersey Vancouver.When he lived in Vancouver’s east end, at 2806 Wall, he listed his occupation as "longshoreman." Now he lists his occupation as businessman.Police allege the Hells Angels is a criminal organization that derives significant income from marijuana growing operations, importing and distributing cocaine and other drug trafficking. chapters have some of the Tim Jennings Women Jersey wealthiest Hells Angels in all of North America.But Vancouver Hells Angels member Rick Ciarnello, who often speaks on behalf of the club, has repeatedly maintained the motorcycle club has no business interests and no control over the lives of individual members some of whom have been convicted for cocaine trafficking, assault, extortion and weapons offences.Fred Widdifield, a Hells Angel member in Nanaimo who owns several businesses, gets indignant about police focus on Angels owned businesses. "They list our assets, they don’t list our liabilities. I have a mortgage just like you. How are you supposed to get ahead without working?" he asked. "If we were doing what they say we are doing, why the hell would you have a mortgage and work your ass off every day?"Another Nanaimo chapter Angel, Ralph MacGregor, wondered where all the money is going from the illicit activities police believe the www.nflbearsofficial.com/Nike-Charles-Tillman-Jersey.html Hells Angels are involved in. "If we owned all the shit they say we own, we could retire," he said.Still, police maintain some Hells Angels have invested ill gotten gains in real estate, legitimate businesses and the stock market.Hells Angels members certainly own a wide variety of nflbearsofficial.com/Nike-Kyle-Fuller-Jersey.html legitimate ventures, including trucking companies, a movie transportation company, even a Super Valu in Vancouver’s West End.(The Super Valu is owned by Haney chapter Hells Angels member Ross McLellan, who has been in the grocery trade for decades.)Gino Zumpano and Nomads chapter member Jamie Holland are the directors of GJP Holdings, which bought the old Spinning Wheel nightclub and hotel at 210 Carrall St. last year for $800,000. It remains closed, but is for sale for $1.75 million.In June, Zumpano’s investment company, GPAV Investments, declared it owned 2.6 million shares worth more than $5 million in House of Brussels Chocolates, which has a manufacturing plant and retail outlets in Vancouver.Hells Angels members also have extensive real estate holdings. Dipopolo, for example, owns a $500,000 home at 3587 Trinity St. in Vancouver. He also owns two homes in Kelowna in the 900 block of Clement with Shane Bunting, also known as Mad Child, a member of the Vancouver band Swollen Members.Francesco Amoretto, president of the Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels, owns a $700,000 house at 5755 Charles in Burnaby with lawyer Kim Marie Heath, whose Burnaby office Alshon Jeffery Jersey is located in the same 3900 block of East Hastings as Digstown clothing.Ronald Lising, who was sentenced last year to four and a half years in prison for cocaine trafficking, was released on bail last Feb. 4 pending an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Since his release, Lising has bought a $400,000 house at 7008 Patterson in Burnaby and is driving a new Lincoln Navigator.Police say the Hells Angels are expanding into Kelowna, where the Angels plan to open another chapter. A number of Hells Angels have already bought property there because of its business potential large numbers of young people looking for drugs, packed nightclubs and a relatively cheap real estate market.Why should citizens care about Hells Angels owning businesses?"There’s a lot of violence in the club," says Sgt. Larry Butler of the Vancouver police outlaw motorcycle gang unit. "We arrest guys with handguns and a number of members for kidnapping, extortion, assault."