The Associated Press
Montreal, Canada (CP) -- Two high-ranking Hells Angels members from Ontario were convicted Wednesday on drug and gangsterism charges stemming from Quebec’s bloody biker war.
Walter Stadnick and Donald Stockford, both of Hamilton, were each found guilty of conspiracy to traffic in drugs between 1997 and 2001, conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a criminal organization.
They were found not guilty of conspiracy to traffic drugs between 1995 and 1997 because of a change in the law.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Jerry Zigman gave an exhaustive accounting of the trial in rendering the verdicts, which he was to complete later Wednesday.
Stadnick, who the Crown says was the second-highest ranking member of the elite Nomads’ chapter of the Hells Angels, is also charged with 13 counts of first-degree murder and three of attempted murder.
Stadnick and Stockford lived in the Hamilton area in 2001 when police arrested dozens of Hells Angels and associates in a massive sweep that crippled the gang.
Most of the arrests took place in Quebec, but Stadnick and Stockford were picked up in Ontario.
The Crown said both men ran the Nomads out of Montreal in the mid-to-late 1990s as the group expanded its reach across Canada while killing rival Rock Machine members.