Toronto — Hells Angels bikers in Ontario are relying increasingly on street gangs with some members as young as 10 to do their dirty work and insulate themselves from police, criminal intelligence authorities say.

Vaughn Collins, deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, says these young "puppet gang" members who are armed with handguns and knives are among the most violent agents of the biker gang.

It's an emerging trend, he says, that is proving irresistible to youth gang members and one that police are increasingly alarmed over because of the heightened potential for violence on the province's streets.

"They are prone to violence more easily than the more mature motorcycle gangs even," Deputy Commissioner Collins said in a recent interview.

"[Bikers] use these people to do the violent acts, to take over the turf, plus the kids are trying to prove something."

Adolescents are attractive as criminal recruits because the law is more lenient on them than it is on adults, police and youth workers say. And the lure of status and quick money is drawing them in.

Members of these street gangs vary widely in numbers and ages, but they can include members who have barely graduated from riding tricycles along with already hardened criminals.

They have access to lethal weaponry, and are not afraid to use the guns and knives they carry, police said.

"Some of the reputation of the Hells Angels spills over to the street gangs, puffs them up, and they're already the most violent of the wannabees," said Deputy Commissioner Collins.

Robert Herman, chief of police in Thunder Bay, Ont., said one of that city's youth gangs is linked to the Hells Angels but that even those that are not can be brutal.

"Their level of violence is extremely vicious," said Chief Herman.

The first real link between street gangs and bikers in Ontario was made two years ago with the formal arrival of the Hells Angels in the province. But the association between the two has grown rapidly since then.

In the last year, as many as 27 new groups linked to the Hells Angels emerged in the province, including in more remote northern regions, police said. Some of those gangs have already folded, officials said.

Stuart Auty, of the Canadian Safe School Network, says there's no question that increasingly violent gangs are finding their way into the province's schools.

He says their access to drugs suggests they are linked to biker gangs.

"It's assumed that there's a connection [to bikers]," said Mr. Auty. "Kids wouldn't be into trafficking drugs without a form of arrangement with a higher power."

The puppet gangs provide an added layer of protection for outlaw bikers, who face tougher law enforcement and legislation, said Det.-Insp. Don Bell, head of Ontario's elite Biker Enforcement Unit.

"They have to find another means to generate the criminal activity and still draw the profits, and how you do that is by getting other people to do your work for you," said Det.-Insp. Bell.

"We're seeing it through the puppet clubs and we're seeing it through the street gangs."

The 2002 annual report of Criminal Intelligence Service Canada warns that gangs such as the Hells Angels, the Outlaws and Bandidos "are increasingly joining alliances with numerous street gangs."

Ontario's Public Safety Minister said the very existence of street gangs is worrisome.

The connection to biker gangs is much more daunting.

"The uniqueness in Canada — Quebec and Ontario specifically — is the connections to biker gangs, and Hells Angels specifically," said Bob Runciman.

"We are seeing a growth and it's obviously a significant concern."