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Alejandro Mariano deported from Canada over Hells Angels membership

Being a Hells Angel or even a wannabe is enough to get you kicked out of Canada if you're a foreigner.

The federal Immigration and Refugee Board has ruled the infamous motorcycle gang is a criminal organization and on those grounds deported Chilean citizen Alejandro Mariano Chung, the National Post reports.

He's the latest in a string of Hells Angels associates deported in the last few years.

The 43-year-old Winnipeg resident was put on a plane last month after a ruling by a board panel that Chung's association with the Hells Angels made it likely he knew about its criminal activities.

"The PC [person concerned] testified that he was not aware of any criminal activity on the part of the Manitoba Chapter and that he just wanted to ride motorcycles with the club," the synopsis of the ruling says. "The panel did not find the PC's testimony to be credible. The panel found that the mens rea of membership, namely knowledge of the illegal activities of the organization, was made out.

"The panel found on reasonable grounds that Hells Angels is a criminal organization and that the PC was a member. The PC was inadmissible on the grounds of organized criminality and a deportation order was issued against him."

Chung, who came to Canada in 1979 but never became a citizen, was apparently working on becoming a full-patch member of the Hells Angels. He was one of two people found in the club house — supposedly there to tidy up — when authorities arrived to seize it under the Criminal Property Forfeiture Act.

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Chung and his companion weren't charged but that incident and several other encounters with police were used as evidence at his immigration hearing, the Post said.

He denied witnessing any criminal doings but Winnipeg and Ontario police officers testified almost all members of the Manitoba chapter have criminal records.

"The business of the Hells Angels is crime," the board ruled. "From the organization's point of view it would make no sense to invest time in bringing Mr. Chung up through the ranks unless he was going to be part of their criminal activity."

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Chung is appealing his deportation in the Federal Court of Canada.

He's not the first non-Canadian associate of the Hells Angels to be removed from Canada, the Post noted. Australian Mitchell Vaughan, a member of the Angels' Nomads chapter from Melbourne, was detained in Victoria and sent back to Australia in September 2011. Mark Staples, treasurer of the Angels' downtown Toronto chapter, came to Canada from Scotland more than 40 years ago at age seven but never became a citizen. He was stopped at Vancouver International Airport returning from Japan on his British passport and deported in 2010. American Adam Hall, a member of the Angels in Massachusetts, was sent back to the U.S. in 2007 despite having a Canadian mother, the Post said.

Membership in a criminal organization is grounds for inadmissibility to Canada but the Hells Angels insist they're merely group of motorcycle enthusiasts.

The Angels filed suit in the United States this year challenging the U.S. government's ban on foreign members of the club entering the country, the Post noted.