The fact that Michael Plante was a trusted associate of the East End Hells Angels certainly caught the attention of police, who had been trying for years to find someone to infiltrate the gang. The police alleged that East End Hells Angels were well known in the criminal underworld for controlling the cocaine trade at a wholesale level, using violence to persuade potential competition to stay away.

In recent years the bikers had expanded into the production and distribution of synthetic drugs as ecstasy and methamphetamine, know on the street as crystal meth, as well as moving into internet porn and online gambling, police claimed.

Plante was taken to an interview room where he was visited by two Mounties, who would eventually become his police handlers. ... One of the officers told him that, based on the witness statement relating to his extortion charges, he was looking at doing prison time. But Plante was told that if he was interested in cooperating, the police would make the charges go away.

Plante told the cop he was interested but hesitant, knowing that people who cooperate with the police in Hells Angels investigations usually end up dead. ...

The only good rat is a dead rat, he had been told repeatedly.