It was December 5, 1977, and the Popeyes, a motorcycle gang based in Quebec, had patched over to join the American motorcycle gang at a party in Laval, a suburb just north of Montreal. It was a triumph for both the Hells and the Popeyes, says Isnor, and was the first step in a path that would ultimately see the Hells Angles became one of, if not the, dominant criminal enterprise in the country.

That knowledge, Isnor believes, will help the criminals adapt, change, and head off new threats. "We're going to have to work a lot harder, and need a lot more money," he says.

"We're back to square one again," he says. "And they are a lot wiser now [because of the disclosure of evidence in the trials]. The Crown had to give the defense everything it had on how we got into the organization."

The biggest and most obvious indicator is the influx onto the streets of some of the dozens of bikers who were arrested in 2009 as part of Operation SharQc . The major sweep led by the Sûreté du Québec and the RCMP resulted in 156 arrests, but many of these charges were thrown out when the mega trial was deemed to have violated a number of the defendants' basic charter rights to a speedy trial.

That's according to Len Isnor, and he knows what he's talking about. The Ontario Provincial Police staff sergeant is the officer in charge of the province's OPP-led biker enforcement unit, and has seen firsthand the fortunes of the world's most storied motorcycle gang ebb and flow over the years. And while the biker front has been quiet for some time, he, like other Canadian organized crime experts contacted for this article, believes that change is coming to gangland.

"You can't underestimate the power of the patch," Isnor says. "You see someone with the Hells Angels colors, it has to mean something. There is a reputation that patch has built up over the years."

The Hells Angels' path to eventually dominating the Canadian crime scene was a bloody one, but also one that was carefully thought out and executed. The biker gang has maintained that dominance through a savvy combination of diplomacy, business sense, marketing, and bloodshed.

In 2018, the Hells Angels will celebrate 70 years of existence. Like most other motorcycle gangs, the Hells Angels were founded by veterans of World War II bored with the tedium of civilian life. In the decades since its birth in 1948, the Hells Angels MC expanded and morphed into the criminal organization it is today. By the time they arrived in Canada in 1977, they were experienced and tough enough to either absorb or muscle out local gangs.

As Isnor tells it, the Hells Angels had scouted possible Canadian franchises for some time, and eventually decided on the Popeyes. "They had the reputation for being the most prosperous and the most violent," he says. "They'd take on anyone. And win." Having access to the Port of Montreal was also a bonus, as were their existing ties to local criminal organizations like the Italian Mafia and the predominantly Irish West End Gang.

Timing was an issue. In the US, the Angels had been involved in a long-running dispute with a rival biker gang, the Outlaws, who had established themselves in Ontario months before and had begun to move into Quebec. From 1977 to 1982, the Outlaws and the Hells Angels fought what came to be known as the First Biker War. The Angels won. As the Outlaws retreated into their Ontario stronghold, the Angels began consolidating their criminal activities and expanding, moving into port cities Halifax and Vancouver.