TORONTO, March 16 (UPI) -- The Hells Angels gang wants seized copyrighted items returned even as a convicted Canadian Hells Angels member was to be sentenced in Toronto Monday.
Gerald Ward, a founding member of the Niagara-area chapter, was to appear before Justice John McMahon of the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto, the last of 26 people arrested in a 2006 undercover sweep that netted $3 million worth of drugs, the Globe and Mail reported.
Among the items seized were Hells Angels' death-head-motif belt buckles and jackets with the winged skull emblem. Court documents indicate the biker gang wants those copyrighted items returned to its U.S. headquarters. Crown attorney Tom Andreopoulos told the newspaper he would fight the request.
"The symbolic force of (the Hells Angels brand) has a very real and practical effect, and as a matter of public interest we're obliged to keep it out of circulation," he said.
A copy of "Hells Angels World Rules" seized during the sweep, says members found selling unauthorized items would be "de-patched," or thrown-out dishonorably. When that happens, Andreopoulos said, even tattoos on the person would be removed or scarred over with a hot knife or cheese grater, the report said.
