Hell's Angels

From Rap Dictionary

The Hell's Angels is a motorcycle club formed in 1948 in Fontana, California. The club is said to take its name from either the movie Hell's Angels, directed by Howard Hughes, or from the U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division. It is estimated to have 2,500 members in 227 chapters, located in 30 countries. As a collective, the H.A. has been shown to take in large sums of money from illegal activities such as prostitution, illegal pornography, extortion, fraudulent telemarketing and drug trafficking, but the club itself has traditionally claimed that these are individuals within the club that are involved and not the club as a whole.

The H.A. organizes a number of motorcycle runs all over the world and also runs a patch system (similar to a military medal); the literal symbolic meaning of each patch is not publicly known, but it identifies warriors on the battlefield and serves as a warning to those who might approach and challenge the authority of any biker wearing it. At one time, the Nomads chapter, ran by Maurice (Mom) Boucher, ran the illicit drug trade in Montreal, but after a series of raid, that chapter was defunct and was taken over by the Trois Rivieres chapter.

In the years following 1994, biker wars in the province have resulted in more than 100 deaths (including a child killed by an exploding car bomb), 84 bombings, 130 reported cases of arson, and nine missing persons. They have chapters in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta.