When the folks tasked with watching our borders announced in March that they'd arrested a Lower Sackville man for allegedly smuggling prohibited weapons into Canada, they failed to mention he's a member of what police have dubbed a Hells Angels support club and that Steven Lynn Rowntree was deployed twice to Afghanistan during his nearly two decades in the Royal Canadian Navy.
Rowntree, who turned 43 in April, popped up on the Canada Border Services Agency’s radar last August when they intercepted a package of 10 centrifugal knives in leather cases at their international mail processing centre in Mississauga, Ontario.
The knives are considered prohibited weapons in Canada. Smuggling them into the country can trigger fines up to $500,000 or as much as five years in prison.
A CBSA officer ran the package through an x-ray machine on Aug. 26, 2022. When he opened the parcel, which had come from China, the officer examined one of the knives and “noticed that it opened with a flipper,” CBSA officer Graham Estabrooks said in his application for a search warrant in the case, noting the knives were declared as “kitchen utensils and appliances.”
The knives were destined for Rowntree’s home on Sunnyvale Court in Lower Sackville and his name was on the package.
Niners member
The agency seized the parcel and launched a criminal investigation in Halifax, “primarily due to the volume of knives” that Rowntree was allegedly trying to import, “which is indicative of resale or distribution to the broader public,” Estabrooks said.
“Additional aggravating factors found … during this investigation include: the discovery of additional imports in fall 2022, declared as knives with sheaths that were not searched or intercepted by the CBSA and Mr. Rowntree’s confirmed full patch membership in local 1 per cent outlaw motorcycle gang called the Route 333 Niners.”
An outlaw motorcycle gang is “any group of motorcycle riders and/or supporters who voluntarily made a commitment to band together, abide by their (organization’s) rules and engage in criminal activities,” said the investigator.
“The one per cent symbol distinguishes outlaw motorcycle riders from the majority of law-abiding motorcycle enthusiasts,” Estabrooks said.
When investigators went through Rowntree’s social media posts, they “found multiple photos of a man wearing a black leather vest with a three-piece patch indicative of outlaw motorcycle gangs with the words ‘Niners -- Route 333 – MC.’ There was also a yellow diamond ‘1 per center’ patch on the front right of the vest often seen with OMG full patch members.”
'Support group'
They confirmed the photos Rowntree had posted on his Facebook were him by comparing them to his driver’s licence.
Border agents reached out to RCMP Const. Jeff Tremblett, who investigates outlaw bikers in Nova Scotia, looking for more intel.
“The Niners MC are a 1 per cent outlaw motorcycle group which have been active in Nova Scotia for over ten years and are believed to be a support group for the Hells Angels MC,” Tremblett told them.
Niners president Dave ‘Pinkie’ Duggan wouldn’t agree to an interview when approached recently outside the Niners clubhouse in McGraths Cove. Though Duggan – who sports a pink Mohawk haircut – was adamant that the Niners are not a support club for the Hells Angels.
According to one police source, the Niners recently started displaying the one per cent diamond on their vests.
Only a dominant motorcycle club can issue those to other clubs, said the source.
“There would be issues for any club if they just decided to start displaying the 1 per cent without permission. There are protocols that have to be followed ... When a dominant motorcycle club gives out a 1 per cent diamond to a club below them it is done to keep that club loyal to the dominant club and as a sign of respect for continued support."
Rowntree’s military service isn’t mentioned in the warrant application, but it was likely on the minds of investigators.
The Department of National Defence confirmed recently that Rowntree joined the Canadian Armed Forces in March 2001, and was released in August 2019. He was a Petty Officer 2nd class and served as a marine technician with the navy.
Rowntree was deployed to Bahrain from November of 2007 until April of 2008, and did two stints in Afghanistan: one from October 2009 until April of 2010, and the other from March 2011 until August of that same year.
'Garbage grab'
Investigators conducted physical surveillance on Rowntree and even did a “garbage grab” from in front of his Sunnyvale Court home to confirm he owned the place and lived there, Estabrooks said in information to obtain a warrant filed at Dartmouth provincial court.
They snatched a single black garbage bag and took it back to a CBSA office. Inside they found an empty Amazon package addressed to Rowntree and a Swoop airlines boarding pass with his name on it from last December.
CBSA officers arrested Rowntree on Jan. 25 of this year after pulling him over while he was driving in Beaver Bank.
“Mr. Rowntree was found to be in possession of an unloaded Bursa .380 handgun and loaded magazine for that firearm on his person,” Estabrooks said.
“The plan was to arrest Rowntree at a safe location away from his dwelling. During the arrest and frisk of Rowntree, CBSA investigators also located a cellular telephone and seized it incidental to arrest. The CBSA was aware based on their risk assessment that Mr. Rowntree had registered firearms that were likely on his property. Because Mr. Rowntree was found in possession of a firearm upon his arrest, which is an offence, all other firearms would have to be secured and removed from his property.”
Items seized
Border agents got a warrant to search Rowntree’s home, where investigators seized two laptop computers, “five registered handguns, 13 long guns (assault style and hunting style), nine overcapacity firearms magazines, body armour and various firearm parts and ammunition,” Estabrooks said.
“Finally, a Samsung cellular telephone was seized from Rowntree incidental to arrest.”
The investigation heated up when Estabrooks learned couriers had delivered 11 other packages to Rowntree’s home last year. Seven of them “stood out,” said the investigator, including a shipment of 30 knives with sheaths from Pakistan; two packages labelled “hardware parts” from Los Angeles, California, that originated in China; another containing 25 knives with sheaths from Pakistan; one labelled “stainless steel kitchenware” from a shipper with a Chinese name; and two parcels marked “hardware parts” that originated in China.
“All of the seven above mentioned shipments listed the importer as Steven Rowntree.”
Estabrooks persuaded a justice of the peace to grant a second warrant to comb through the data on Rowntree’s mobile phone.
Forensic analysis
He got permission to do a forensic analysis on the Samsung looking for information about Rowntree’s imports, shipping, product descriptions, banking activity, electronic communications, web browsing history, photos and videos from between June 1, 2022, and Jan. 25 of this year.
Estabrooks was looking for “purchase information including bills of sale, contracts, proof of purchases, receipts, order confirmations and invoices – which will provide evidence that prohibited weapons and devices were imported by Steven Rowntree, including quantity, value, description, country of origin and order dates.”
Rowntree was released from custody on conditions including that he lives at home and doesn’t possess any weapons. He’s only allowed to handle knives to make food or for work.
He is not facing any smuggling charges.
In March, the CBSA announced they’d charged him with a slew of offences including careless handling of a firearm; possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose; carrying a concealed firearm; nine counts of unauthorized possession of prohibited devices; and possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition.
Rowntree is slated to return to Dartmouth provincial court June 13 for election and/or plea.
Long history
Outlaw biker gangs have a long history of trying to recruit members with military backgrounds, said Stephen Schneider, a criminology professor at Saint Mary’s University who studies organized crime.
“The Hells Angels was basically formed by a bunch of ex (U.S.) air force pilots,” Schneider said Friday.
Biker gangs seek members with military discipline, said the author of Canadian Organized Crime.
“I would say it’s still a very small percentage of outlaw bikers that are members of the military,” Schneider said.
“You have to separate motorcycle enthusiasts, and there are a number of military-based biker clubs, but they’re not one per center clubs.”
The one per cent label also has military origins, he said.
“Legend has it that to kind of recreate the thrill and excitement of combat, a number of these veterans came home (after the Second World War) and started buying motorcycles, having races and off-road races, and they got increasingly rowdy and, at one point, they tore up a California town, which was sort of celebrated and immortalized in the Marlon Brando movie The Wild One,” Schneider said.
“The sheriff of that town kind of condemned all bikers and then the American Motorcycle Association came out and said, ‘These rowdies – they only make up one per cent of our ranks. Ninety-nine per cent are law-abiding, weekend motorcycle enthusiasts.’ And so, the outlaw bikers just took that label and ran with it, and it really fortified their subculture counterculture predispositions. They wanted to separate themselves from the rest of society.”
'Very profitable'
The moniker “grew increasingly into a label that meant not just outlaw, but criminal,” he said.
“Pretty much every outlaw biker group or one per center group in Nova Scotia is a Hells Angels support group. And, without a doubt, they’re involved in smuggling and trafficking of weapons, whether it’s firearms or knives or whatever. So, it’s very profitable in Canada because there are relatively short supplies. So, you get a lot of smuggling from the U.S. into Canada.”
Outlaw motorcycle gangs aren’t as interested as they used to be in recruiting people with military discipline or those who personify rowdy anti-social biker stereotypes, he said.
“The evolution of recruitment now is you want to recruit members that are going to make you money,” Schneider said.
“That’s the guiding force.”
