SANTO DOMINGO.-  The Quebec authorities, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and several other police departments including Dominican Republic’s were conducting a major operation targeting the Hell's Angels biker gang Wednesday, in one of the most significant sweeps of the gang's alleged criminal activities in Canadian history, newspaper Ottawa Citizen reports.

The president of the country’s Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) said Steve Rainville and Marc Readman were arrested in simultaneous raids in the tourist town Cabarete, where they both lived as ordinary foreigners.

Gilberto Delgado said both foreigners will be repatriated to Canada in the next few hours, where they’ll face charges of  conspiracy to commit murders, believed to be as  many as 22, and of trafficking controlled substances, especially cocaine and heroin.

Two 9 millimeter pistols and two 12 gauge shotguns were seized from the bikers, the official said.

“Police planned to arrest 156 people in Quebec, New Brunswick, the Dominican Republic and France. These include 111 full-patch members, or nearly all currently active members of the Hell's Angels in Quebec,” is said.

It said the people arrested, who include at least one woman, are expected to be arraigned Wednesday in various locations in Quebec, on charges including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking and gangsterism, quoting SQ Insp. Michel Martin.

In Dominican Republic, the Hell's Angels have based their criminal operationas in the north coast towns Puerto Plata, Sosua and Cabarete, where they’ve teemed up with the local bike gang Barracos.