There\u2019s an empty lot at 498 Eastern Ave. in South Riverdale, the site where the downtown chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club once stood. <\/p>\n
This was Canada\u2019s largest outlaw biker gathering spot in the early 2000s: a two-storey cinder block, bunkerlike, members-only fortress, with a thick solid steel front door, secured with multiple deadbolts.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, it\u2019s a patch of vacant muddy land owned by the federal government, next to the Kitty Korner cat-grooming salon, a decidedly non-criminal enterprise with pink, yellow and blue frolicking kittens painted on the exterior wall facing the empty lot where the fortified biker bunker once stood.<\/p>\n
The Hells Angels remain the world\u2019s largest outlaw motorcycle club and are still a top tier organized crime threat inside Canada, with more than 500 members spread across the country in 34 chapters, 160 of whom are in Ontario, according to the RCMP.<\/p>\n
But with many criminal\u00a0enterprises shifting online and becoming more global in scale, the idea of a bricks-and-mortar clubhouse is emblematic of a version of the Hells Angels that no longer exists in southern Ontario. And, over the years, as the Hells Angels themselves or law enforcement dismantled their clubhouses, they were never replaced.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A 2015 photo shows the Hells Angels clubhouse in South Riverdale.\u00a0While the Toronto clubhouses aren\u2019t visible any longer, there are still Canadian Hells Angels spread across chapters in Central America, South America, Europe and Southeast Asia, the RCMP said.<\/p>\n
Carlos Osorio Toronto Star<\/p>\n
Taking care of business<\/p>\n
There are 39 full-patch Hells Angels members in Toronto, police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer says.<\/p>\n
While those aren\u2019t huge numbers, they remain a significant force in cyberspace, says Declan Hill, an Oxford educated Ph.D. who is an associate professor of investigations at Henry C. Lees College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, University of New Haven, Conn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe HA understood globalization\u00a0long before most Fortune 500 companies did,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThey moved their bookmaking operations offshore, and closed down the clubhouses\u00a0\u2014 which always drew too much attention from law enforcement\u00a0\u2014 to an online, \u2018Taking Care of Business\u2019\u201d lifestyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the Toronto clubhouses aren\u2019t visible any longer, there are still Canadian Hells Angels spread across chapters in Central America, South America, Europe and Southeast Asia, the RCMP said.<\/p>\n
Publicity blitz<\/p>\n
In its heyday, back in the early 2000s, the Eastern Avenue clubhouse had almost three dozen full patch members, which was tops for the country.<\/p>\n
It thrived amidst a publicity blitz that even included a billboard over the northbound Don Valley Parkway and an \u201copen letter\u201d in the Globe and Mail, both of which compared the outlaw bikers to freedom-loving Allied fighter pilots in the Second World War.<\/p>\n
The billboard boasted, \u201cStill\u00a0Fighting for Democracy & Freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A billboard over the Don Valley Parkway commissioned by the Toronto Hells Angels in 2004 likened them to freedom-loving Allied fighter pilots in World War II.<\/p>\n
R.J. Johnston Toronto Star<\/p>\n
The open letter complained,\u00a0\u201cWe ask only to be treated fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a strict, \u201cno murders, no wives policy\u201d at Eastern Avenue, as in all the other clubhouses, Quebec biker-hit-man-turned-informer Gilles (Kid) Lalonde told The Star.<\/p>\n
It was strictly a members-only club and those members were carefully vetted to ensure they were not police officers or former police officers.<\/p>\n
Those members remain barred from going to the police and are bound by a no rip-off rule in drug deals.<\/p>\n
Back in the day, the entire Eastern\u00a0Avenue property was gated and fenced, with several cement posts blocking the front entrance and a cement wall just inside the front door.<\/p>\n
A series of security cameras ringed the building\u2019s perimeter, allowing members inside to see everyone who was coming and going.<\/p>\n
Even the mailbox was high-security: see-through Plexiglas, so its contents could be easily identified.<\/p>\n
The insides of the building were surprisingly clean, scrubbed down by aspiring wannabe bikers who hoped to someday gain membership, Lalonde said.<\/p>\n
![\"‘Brazen’](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/681a3dbc9b52e.image.jpg\")