All the heat isn’t from the rubbing of staffers at London, Ont. strip clubs. In London, a  Hells Angel is shot, along with a female companion. A string of strip clubs in London and St. Thomas are attacked. And the folks arrested are from a street gang, not the Outlaws? The times are a-changing.

Fires at a strip club and other businesses connected to the London, Ont. Hells Angels. Now more violence. Safe to say things are heating up in the Forest City.

You don’t rise up in policing by being a quote machine. Witness the quotes from the London, Ont. police, when they finally break their silence about a string of fires set at biker-related businesses in London, Ont. over the weekend.

It wasn’t so long ago that the wildest thing in London, Ont. was when someone varied the pinstripes or lapel widths of a business suit. London’s now a fascinating spot in the biker world, with one of the most organized Hells Angels chapters and real competition from the Outlaws. These recent fire-bombings suggest the Angels won’t have an easy ride.

Few people in the mainstream know about it. Fewer still can pronounce its name. But the ‘Ndrangheta (en-dran-getta) – or Calabrian Mafia – is for real.

I’ve heard an argument from old school bikers that they weren’t really organized crime because they weren’t that organized. The ‘Ndrangheta is both, to the point that one of their biggest problems is now to launder their money.

There was a time – there must have been – when being an outlaw meant avoiding the courts. Not so any more, even in wildest Winnipeg.

Just how did the old Niagara Hells Angels get their hands on confidential police documents? The Crown has managed to win a new trial against an officer they claim is dirty. The officer has maintained that the Angels broke into the police station. Stay tuned.

It’ll be interesting what 2012 brings for mountainous Paul (Sasquatch) Porter of Ottawa, who has been a big blip on the police radar for years. Porter – known in biker circles as “Sas” – was pinched on a cocaine bust after managing to stay out of the hands of police since before the biker wars of more than a decade ago. He survived assassination bids and attempted stings and was finally pulled in on what appears to be a routine drug bust.

The man at the centre of what a judge called the biggest seizure of date rape drug in Canadian history was no where to be found when a judge handed out his sentence. Am I the only one wondering why he was out on bail after he was found guilty of wholesaling a drug designed for date rape?

Many commentators in the media have just assumed that all of the Mafia violence in Montreal is directed against the Rizzuto crime family. Certainly, the family has been bloodied, with imprisoned boss Vito Rizzuto loosing both his father and his son. But there have been victims on the other side as well. The arrest this week of longtime Vito Rizzuto ally Raynald Desjardins sheds some light on the mob blood-letting. I definitely wouldn’t count the Rizzutos out yet.