Hell To Pay Paperback - 2014

From the jacket flap

Vancouver's East End chapter of the Hells Angels had a reputation for being among the club's elite. One of the wealthiest chapters in the world, it has also proven to be nearly immune to prosecution. The cops had long wanted to take down the Vancouver chapter, and when they arrested enforcer Michael Plante on charges of extortion and assault, they offered him a deal: turn informant, walk away from the charges, and earn some serious coin. Ultimately, Plante could have a million-dollar payday.

Ratting on the Hells Angels may have been Plante's get-out-of-jail-free card, but he soon realized he had possibly bargained his life away. He was also stuck: there was no turning back.

Wired up and kept under tabs nearly 24/7, Plante became the cops' eyes and ears as he went about his everyday business for the Angels. Through Plante's undercover work and testimony, veteran crime reporter Neal Hall introduces the reader to numerous and powerful Hells Angels. Through their own words, Hall reveals the extent of their criminal operations and allegiances, and the means they use to protect their turf and deal with people who have either the lack of brains or the overabundance of balls to try to rip them off.

The cops push Plante to his limit before they pull him off the case. The hammer falls on the Angels-mass arrests that eviscerate the East End chapter. The tense and dramatic trials that follow prove to be another test for Plante-and for the evidence the cops worked so hard to collect.

Through eyewitness accounts, interviews, court testimony and police wiretaps, Neal Hall opens a window into the operations of the world's most powerful outlaw motorcycle gang and the massive efforts used by law enforcement to bust and try the bikers. As the Hells Angels prove, even in court they are a force to be reckoned with.