Here are a couple of court rulings I have reported on in recent days but have not had a chance to put up on the blog yet.

Golf instructor turned drug line worker busted ‘first day on the job’ in Coquitlam

A golf instructor convicted of working for a dial-a-dope line was arrested on “his first day on the job,” a B.C. Supreme Court judge noted.

Justice Ian Bruce Josephson sentenced Jeong Hun Kim to 90 days in jail, to be served intermittently, in New Westminster Supreme Court earlier this month.

Josephson said Kim, 27, was remorseful and that his circumstances warranted imposing a sentence lower than the mandatory six-month minimum.

“I am satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist here to take the sentence outside the normal range,” Josephson said in written reasons released April 13.

Kim was arrested in Coquitlam in August 2014 “after police witnessed a drug sale from his vehicle in a typical dial-a-dope operation,” Josephson said.

He was caught with 100 rocks of cocaine, 58 spitballs of heroin and 30 clorazepam pills.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking after a voir dire — a trial within a trial — was held in the case.

“Mr. Kim testified in a voir dire before his guilty plea. He testified that this was his first day on the job,” Josephson said. “He testified that he owed money to a person who recruited him in this illicit operation. That recruitment, he testified, came with threats to ‘hurt my family members or friends’ if he did not cooperate.”

Josephson said the fact Kim had no criminal record was an important factor in deciding on an appropriate sentence.

“He is well liked and respected by those who know him,” he said. “He has expressed complete remorse, regret, and embarrassment for his actions, which I accept as genuine. This was a brief foray into crime and Mr. Kim has since returned to his former lawful ways.”

He said Kim “has the support of his acquaintances and clients of his golf instruction business.”

Josephson said the amount of drugs Kim had, worth about $5,000, was “significant.”

But he said there was very little risk that Kim would re-offend given all of the circumstances in the case.

“This appears to be a unique case of a one day foray into criminality from what had been a law abiding life,” Josephson said. “It ended badly for Mr. Kim and has had and will have serious consequences for him.”

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Former B.C. gang associate gets 15 months for trafficking

When Adam Stephen Donald was arrested for selling drugs in Victoria three years ago, he was described as an associate of the Red Scorpion gang.

When he was recently sentenced after pleading guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking, he was described as a former addict who was suffering from depression when he committed his crime.

Donald, 43, was sentenced in Victoria to 15 months in jail after a joint submission by Crown and defence.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brian MacKenzie’s reasons from the February sentencing hearing were posted on the court’s website last week.

“Over a period of about two weeks, Mr. Donald brought narcotics from the Lower Mainland area and sold them in the Greater Victoria area at the street level,” Donald wrote. “He was arrested after coming off the ferry from the Lower Mainland and found in his possession were a couple of cellular phones, a small amount of cash, and 43 grams of cocaine, 10.34 grams of crack cocaine, almost 16 grams of heroin, and then in another baggie, 10.7 grams of cocaine.”

Donald was arrested in January 2014 in Sidney after a two-month investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Team.

Police said at the time that he had been seen the same day as his arrest in Mission meeting with Red Scorpion associates.

MacKenzie said “Donald was cooperative and admitted his involvement in this matter when arrested by the police.”

“I am advised he was tempted to delve into the drug trade in order to earn some income and found himself dealing drugs on the streets of Victoria,” he said. “While the offence here is a serious one and Mr. Donald has a not insignificant, albeit quite dated, criminal record, Crown and defence have proposed a joint sentence of 15 months’ incarceration.”

Donald’s record dates back to 1997, and he has had convictions for trafficking, theft and production of a controlled substance.

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I was back at the Cory Vallee murder trial for the first of four Crown witnesses who are former UN gang members now cooperating with police. They can only be identified as A, B, C and D. D was on the stand today.

There were 10 lawyers in court today – most of them paid for by the government.

The publication ban in the case is much more sweeping than the ones issued in the Surrey Six murder case (and more sweeping than I was led to believe when it was imposed last fall.) Very important evidence that covered at least two hours of the testimony today can not be reported. Nor can I even tell you what is covered by the ban.

I strongly disagree with the broad nature of this ban. But I also must respect it given that it’s a court order. Please don’t speculate about who the witness is. I will have to close comments if you do.

Here’s my story:

Cory Vallee in photos released by police in 2011.

Former UN gangster tells B.C. murder trial he was paid $300,000 by police

It was another interesting day at the murder trial of Cory Vallee as a former United Nations gang member described the inner workings of the gang both before and after its founder Clay Roueche was arrested in the U.S. in May 2008.

So far, the witness, who can only be identified as D, has said virtually nothing about Vallee or the conspiracy to kill the Bacons that Vallee is charged in.

Here’s my story:

UN gang logo displayed at Cory Vallee murder trial

The United Nations gang had a sub-group of assassins that was always prepared to carry out “surgical” killings, a former UN member testified Wednesday.

The witness, who can only be identified as D, told B.C. Supreme Court that members of the UN had different roles in the notorious gang.

In his second day on the stand at the murder trial of Cory Vallee, D continued to provide general insight into the gang founded by Clay Roueche, who is now serving a 30-year sentence in the U.S. for drug smuggling. 

“At the time of Clay’s arrest there was a specific group — an assassin or shooter group — put together,” D said, adding that the killers were “always prepared.”

He told Justice Janice Dillon that there were smaller groups within the UN that had different roles, even when it came to violence.

“There are the blunt instruments you can count on going to a bar and beating someone up or going to their house and threatening them,” D testified. “However if it was going to be a more precision kind of strike where they were going to kill someone or do a shooting of some kind, there would be the surgeon’s tool or sharper instruments if you will.”

Among the gang’s “blunt instruments” were the “Iraqi group” which included the recently deported Barzan Tilli-Choli, Duane Meyer, who was shot to death in May 2008, Trevor (Fingers) Gilbert and the late Johnny (K-9) Croitoru, D said.

The “surgical tool people” would be called upon to commit “violent acts that required considerably more planning,” D said.

“Generally it was members of the FOB Killers or the FK group in Calgary.”

Just like Vallee, some members of the FK have been charged with conspiracy to murder the Bacon brothers over several months in 2008 and 2009. 

Vallee is also charged with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Bacon pal Kevin LeClair outside a Langley strip mall in February 2009. 

Clay Roueche UN gang ring seized by US authorities

D, who was paid more than $300,000 to be a Crown witness, said he travelled to Mexico with Roueche to meet cartel representatives.

After Roueche’s May 2008 arrest, he continued to travel to Mexico for both pleasure and his drug business, D said.

Several photos of D with other UN gangsters in Mexico were shown in court as D provided names and nicknames of those pictures.

He described several UN gang rituals for the judge, including the ceremony at a Vancouver restaurant where UN rings would be presented to members.

He said a man nicknamed Versace, whom Roueche perceived as his uncle, would hand out the rings after a banquet of Chinese seafood and an open bar.

“He would be drunk. He would stand shirtless on a chair. He would give a kind of speech if you will about willing to die for everyone in the group and that everyone is his brother,” D said. “He would call out the individual’s name or names one after the other and he would present them with a ring.”

D said the UN gang existed primarily because members were involved in the drug trade together and knew that if there were more them, enemies would be less likely to rip them off.

“We are talking sometimes of over a million dollars, so knowing that there are other people with you, other people behind you, gives people pause and perhaps makes them think twice before doing something like that,” D said.

He said Roueche was “the glue that kept the group together.”

“He was very active in organizing dinners and bringing people out. If we were going to a nightclub or having a New Year’s Eve party, he would make sure everyone would come and spend time together and do business together.”

The trial continues.

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Former United Nations gangster “D” has barely mentioned accused killer Cory Vallee during his three days on the stand at the Vallee murder trial.

But he has painted a disturbing picture of the senseless gang violence of the mid-2000s linked to the battle between the Bacon brothers (and later the Red Scorpions) and the United Nations – all over the money to be made in the drug trade.

Many of the murders and shootings he has mentioned so far remain unsolved, even though he is linking them to members of his own gang.

Here’s my story:

Witness links United Nations gang to Bacon shooting, Bacon associate’s murder

Jamie Bacon (left) and Kevin LeClair in an undated photo.

 

A former United Nations member says he believes the gang was behind the attempt on Jonathan Bacon’s life in September 2006 — as well as the slaying of a Bacon associate a few months earlier.

The man, who can only be identified as D, testified in B.C. Supreme Court about the bounties the UN put on the heads of Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon, along with their Red Scorpions gang associates.

D was on the stand for a third day on Thursday at the trial of Cory Vallee, who is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers and murder in the fatal shooting of their associate Kevin LeClair in February 2009.

D told Justice Janice Dillon that he was one of the UN members aiding the hunt by collecting data on the places the Bacons frequented, as well as the vehicles they drove.

As part of that research, he and gangmates Mark Kim and Troy Tran drove by the Bacon family home in east Abbotsford, where Jonathan was later critically wounded in the 2006 shooting.

He said he, Tran and Kim also scouted out an Abbotsford apartment building where Bacon associate Dave Tumber was later shot to death in March 2006.

Both shootings remain unsolved. While D admitted he had no direct knowledge of who committed the crimes, he said both Kim and Tran left town immediately after both shootings.

Jonathan Bacon was later shot to death in Kelowna. His accused killers are set to go to trial next month.

D testified that he circulated target photos of the Bacon brothers that were provided to him by UN gang leader Clay Roueche, who is currently serving a 30-year sentence in the U.S. for drug smuggling.

He described how tensions between the Bacons and their rivals built for months after the Abbotsford siblings began targeting UN drug lines in the Fraser Valley.

Roueche was more determined to resolve the Bacon problem after he was shot at by a Bacon associate inside a restaurant, D testified.

“He had gone to the bathroom at the restaurant. And an individual…was in the bathroom and … he saw Clay, became startled, pulled out a handgun and fired a shot in Clay’s direction,” D said.

D said Roueche then arranged a meeting with some Hells Angels.

“It was my understanding that he was trying to see if they were willing to help in any way in this conflict with the Bacon brothers,” D said.

“The Hells Angels had agreed to put up a portion of a bounty for individual Bacon brothers and at least one of their associates that I can remember. And they had given Clay an advance of $50,000 to help with the effort being made to target the Bacon brothers and their associates.”

Asked by Crown prosecutor Alex Burton about the purpose for the bounty, D said: “We call it putting a price on someone’s head. If they are killed, the person that has executed the act of killing them can expect to get paid X amount of dollars — whatever the bounty was at the time.”

D described another shooting he believes was related to the ongoing conflict. 

UN member Conor D’Monte and his brother Ciaran, who D only knew as “Q,” were at a Chilliwack nightclub when they were spotted by a rival group, D testified.

“An individual had followed them into the parking lot and produced a firearm and fired shots in their direction and hit his brother Q in the abdominal area,” D said.

Ciaran D’Monte survived the shooting.

Conor D’Monte is also charged in the Bacon conspiracy and the murder of LeClair, but he remains a fugitive. 

The trial continues.

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Finally Friday, in his fourth day on the stand, an ex-UN gangster testified about Cory Vallee, the man charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons, and the murder of Kevin LeClair. 

The witness, who can only be called D, said Vallee was brought to UN leader Clay Roueche  by Johnny “K-9” Croitoru.

He said Roueche wanted someone unknown to police in B.C., and to the Bacon brothers and their associates. 

This witness has one more day under direct examination, then four days under cross-examination by defence lawyers for Vallee.

Here’s my story:

A former United Nations gangster says he provided a handgun to accused killer Cory Vallee, who he described as a “hitman” hired by the gang.

The man, who can only be identified as D, said he was surprised when Vallee seemed excited about the Colt semi-automatic gun, given Vallee’s purported line of work.

He said he gave the gun to Vallee at an apartment that UN gang leader Clay Roueche had arranged for Vallee while the gang was at war with the Bacon brothers.

“He took it and was admiring it. He was very happy about it. He had a big smile. He thought it was very cool,” D told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon. “I thought it was a little bit strange that he was so excited by it.”

Cory Vallee

Asked to explain why he thought Vallee’s reaction was unusual, D said: “My understanding was that this was an individual that had done these kinds of jobs — that of being a hitman — before for the biker gangs in eastern Canada somewhere.”

“And I assumed that someone with that kind of repertoire — if you will — would have seen a lot of guns and wouldn’t really think much of a firearm.”

No one had seen (Vallee), no one was familiar with his face. He was not on law enforcement radar

In his fourth day on the stand at Vallee’s trial, D described the increasingly violent conflict with the Bacons and the UN.

He said he provided information about the Bacons to Vallee, including details of a Langley restaurant and gym they frequented.

Vallee is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons over several months in 2008 and 2009, as well as the first-degree murder of Bacon associate Kevin LeClair in Langley in February 2009.

D testified Friday that Roueche wanted an outside hitman because he would not be recognized by law enforcement or known to the Bacons.

“No one had seen him, no one was familiar with his face. He was not on law enforcement radar,” he testified.  

An undated handout photo of Kevin LeClair, who was gunned down Feb. 6, 2009, in Langley.

“(The Bacons) had not seen him before to the best of our knowledge, and that gave him a significant advantage if he wanted to carry out an act of violence against them.”

Before the UN could strike, one of their own was gunned down on the steps of an Abbotsford home on May 8, 2008.  

Duane Meyer had been a popular member of the UN and close to Roueche at the time of his death, D testified.

“Clay was visibly upset and sad about it. It was a person he respected and was close to.”

Meyer’s murder made the UN realize it had underestimated the Bacons and their associates, D said.  

“The murder of Duane Meyer showed a significant level of ability and intelligence in our enemy that I myself and others in our group … did not believe existed before that,” D testified.

D said until then he had thought of the Bacons as “cowboys … shooting ’em up kind of thugs, not having the level of intelligence or tactical know-how to execute a murder of this scale so efficiently.”

“This displayed they were smarter than that. They had the ability to gather intelligence on members of the UN and act on that intelligence in a smart way.”

He said the UN’s hunt intensified, leading to the mistaken murder of stereo installer Jonathan Barber, who was driving one of the Bacon brothers’ vehicles when he was fatally shot in Burnaby.

D said he was with UN gangster Elliott (Taco) Castaneda at an Abbotsford bar when Castaneda got a BlackBerry message about the Burnaby murder.  

Elliott Castaneda of Abbotsford was shot dead in Guadalajara, Mexico. [PNG Merlin Archive] Elliot Castaneda

The message indicated that Jamie Bacon, who the UN referred to as “#3,” had been killed.“We were both quite excited about it. However I told Elliott to take it easy. There was talk of us buying champagne — popping a champagne bottle — but I didn’t want to count the chicken before it hatched,” D said.

The trial continues.

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Homicide investigators are on the scene of a murder in a popular Richmond park.

Richmond RCMP said that just after 6:30 a.m. Monday, police were notified about a man’s body in Terra Nova Park in the 2800-block of River Road 

They determined the man had been the victim of a fatal targeted attack and notified the the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

No other details were provided Monday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-IHIT or ihittipline@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

Cory Vallee’s defence lawyer Eric Gottardi finally began his cross-examination of witness D Monday.

It was interesting from the start, with Gottardi pointing to 2010 police statements D made that showed vaguer comments from the former UN gang member than those he has made over the past week in court.

Gottardi suggested to D that his memory now seems to be better than it was seven years ago.

D said “for some things yes” it is better now.

I will try to cover as much of the cross-examination this week as I can, but due to the sweeping ban on publication, there are many parts of the cross that I will NOT be able to document publicly for you. That was already the case with about 45 minutes of Gottardi’s questions on Monday afternoon. I disagree with this ban. But it’s in place and I therefore must follow it. 

Here’s my story:

Jamie Bacon (left) and Kevin LeClair in an undated photo.

Ex-gangster accused of lying at murder trial of Cory Vallee

An ex-United Nations gangster denied in B.C. Supreme Court Monday that he lied about a conversation in which he says accused killer Cory Vallee admitted a role in the murder of a rival.

The man, who can only be identified as D, told Justice Janie Dillon earlier Monday that Vallee nodded and smiled after D made a cryptic reference to the fatal shooting of Kevin LeClair on Feb. 6, 2009.

But defence lawyer Eric Gottardi suggested there is no way D would have broken the UN code to ask someone in the gang about a murder.

“At the time of the LeClair killing, you weren’t close enough in relationship to Cory Vallee where he would tell you his real name and yet you purport to tell this court that he was close enough that he would somehow indicate to you his involvement in the murder. Is that your evidence?”

D replied: “Yes.”

Gottardi suggested the conversation with Vallee was fabricated.

“Despite the suit, you’ve come here and you’ve told a lie in this court. Do you agree?”

“I disagree,” D said.

Much of Gottardi’s cross-examination of D, which began Monday afternoon, cannot be reported due to a sweeping publication ban.

D testified earlier Monday that Vallee left town for a while after LeClair’s murder.

When he resurfaced, the two met for a meal during which D asked about what happened.

 As Vallee sipped his soup, D said: “I just looked at him and I said `Everything went OK?’”

“And then he just kind of looked up at me and nodded and gave a smile, yep, and he just went back to eating his soup.”

D said the cryptic reference was “significant to me.”

“I was making a reference to the LeClair shooting,” he said.

D has already testified that Vallee was brought into the UN fold as a hitman to kill the Bacon brothers and their associates, including LeClair who was formerly with the UN.

Vallee is charged with the first-degree murder of LeClair, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacons over several months in 2008 and 2009.

In the months before LeClair’s murder, D said he associated regularly with Vallee and another UN member named Jesse “Egon” Adkins. The two men showed D an AR-15 firearm they had been given for the Bacon hunt.

A short time before LeClair was killed, D was driving in Abbotsford with Vallee and Adkins when they saw Jamie Bacon and LeClair on an isolated Abbotsford road, he testified.

D said he recognized Bacon and that Adkins said the other man was LeClair or “Traitor” as the UN called him.

“At the time I knew that he was an individual who had worked within the UN and then had jumped over to the Bacons and he was sought after as an associate of the Bacons,” D testified.

They discussed the possibility of running over the pair because they had no gun in the car. But D said he thought that would be stupid.

On the day LeClair was shot, D said he received an encrypted message on his BlackBerry from then UN leader Conor D’Monte, “asking me to go and act as eyes in that area.”

“I made up an excuse and said that I was busy and wouldn’t be able to do it,” D said.

“I really didn’t want to go.”

He later learned from the news that LeClair had been shot and immediately believed his own gang was behind the hit even though “no one was openly talking about it.”

“You didn’t do that,” D said. “You could tell just the atmosphere of the group had changed. It was seen as a big win.”

After the LeClair murder, Vallee seemed to have a higher status in the UN, D said.

“People were more accepting of listening to him and showing him respect.”

And before long, Vallee was presented with UN gold rings at a special ceremony at a Vancouver Chinese food restaurant, D said.

RELATED

• Ex-gangster testifies he gave gun to ‘hitman’ Cory Vallee

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I was only back at the Cory Vallee murder trial for the morning Tuesday, but it was a familiar theme from defence lawyer Eric Gottardi, who accused star witness D of lying repeatedly over the years.

D didn’t deny that he has lied to police and to border agents. He said he was a criminal and it was all apart of his lifestyle. But he denied lying during his evidence at Vallee’s trial on charges of conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers, as well as the murder of Kevin LeClair.

Here’s my story:

Cory Vallee in photos issued by police in 2011

Former UN gangster admits in court to lying to police ‘many times’

A former United Nations gangster admitted in B.C. Supreme Court Tuesday that he lied to police for years when he was immersed in the criminal underworld.

The man, who can only be identified as D due to a publication ban, was grilled for a second day by Eric Gottardi, the lawyer for accused killer Cory “Frankie” Vallee.

D said he was testifying truthfully at the trial of Vallee, who is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers in 2008 and 2009, as well as the murder of Bacon associate Kevin LeClair in February 2009.

But Gottardi pointed to instances in statements D had given to police even after he became a confidential informant in April 2009 where he had lied.

D explained to Justice Janice Dillon that he was very apprehensive when he first started working with police.

He said he feared that anything he told them about his criminal ties to the UN gang might be used against him even though the officers claimed that wouldn’t happen.

“I had contacted them with the intent to provide information but I was very apprehensive,” he testified.

His skepticism about police continued for months even after he was assisting them, he said.

“I would say I had that impression for a long time because I came from a lifestyle …where you don’t trust the police. That’s just standard being a criminal,” D testified.

But he denied lying in his evidence over the last week at the Vancouver Law Courts where he testified that Vallee made cryptic references to being involved in LeClair’s murder.

D also testified that Vallee was brought to the UN gang as an outside hitman to go after the Bacon brothers and their associates.

Among those on the hit list was LeClair, who the UN called “Traitor” because he had left their gang to hook up with the Bacons.

Gottardi said D enjoyed manipulating police and saw his interaction with them as “a game.”

He showed D a September 2009 statement in which D falsely claimed that he was not a member of the UN. 

“I take it you will agree with me that you have lied to the police many, many times?” Gottardi asked.

Replied D: “Yes, I have over the course of my life lied to the police many, many times.”

D eventually agreed to become a witness in the case against Vallee and was paid $300,000 by police.

Gottardi suggested that D’s detailed description of a ceremony where Vallee was presented with his UN gang rings was made up.   

Ring seized from Clay Roueche when he was arrested in May 2008

“If I suggested you never attended a ring ceremony for Frankie, would you agree or disagree?” Gottardi asked.

D said he would “strongly disagree” with Gottardi as he detailed what happened at the ceremony in a back room at the Kirin restaurant on Cambie Street sometime in the spring of 2009.

“I remember Versace standing up on a chair as he customarily has done previously at other events and calling out his name. I remember him referring to him as Frankie and him coming over and being presented the ring.”

He testified that Vallee did not say anything because “it is not customary in these events for the person getting the ring to give a kind of speech or anything.”

“People will generally go up and congratulate them and shake hands and give them hugs or what not,” he said.

D’s cross-examination is expected to last all week.

The trial continues.

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I have seen this happen so many times before – Canadians charged in the U.S. fight extradition for years, claiming they are innocent to judges on this side of the border in their attempt to avoid being sent to the U.S.

Then when they are extradited, they end up pleading guilty in short order. That’s what Ranj Cheema did. It’s what Alvin Randhawa. Sean Doak too. 

And now Kevin Donald Kerfoot has also pleaded guilty in a drug case dating back to 2005 – despite pleading his innocence all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Here’s my story:

As Real Scoop readers first revealed, accused killer Jujhar Khun-Khun has been having some health issues related to the shootings he has survived.

As a result, the murder trial for him and his co-accused has been delayed again.

Here’s my story:

Trial delayed again for men accused of killing B.C. gangster Jonathan Bacon

The trial for three men charged with the 2011 murder of Red Scorpion gangster Jonathan Bacon has been delayed by two weeks.

Accused killers Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun, Michael Jones and Jason McBride were supposed to go to trial May 1.

But because Khun-Khun has suffered some medical issues, the trial has now been postponed until May 15.

Khun-Khun survived targeted shootings in 2011 and 2013, but has some permanent injuries as a result.  

Khun-Khun, Jones and McBride were charged in February 2013 with first-degree murder for allegedly gunning down Bacon in Kelowna in August 2011. They were also charged with the attempted murder of Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach and two women who were all in the Porsche Cayenne with Bacon when it was sprayed by gunfire near a popular resort and casino.  

At the time of the Kelowna shooting, Bacon, Amero, Riach and some of their gang associates had formed a loose coalition they dubbed the Wolf Pack to carry on their criminal business.

Amero is now in jail in Montreal awaiting trial in a major undercover drug investigation. Riach is believed to be out of the country.

A number of cases have been thrown out in recent months because of delays getting to trial.

A Supreme Court of Canada decision last summer, known as Jordan, set time limits for the completion of trials at both the Supreme Court and Provincial Court levels. The ruling said that unless exceptional circumstances exist, a case in B.C. Supreme Court is supposed to conclude within 30 months, while a case at the lower court level should conclude within 18 months.

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There was more interesting evidence during the cross-examination of witness D at the Cory Vallee murder trial Wednesday. 

Defence lawyer Eric Gottardi continued to attack D’s credibility as a Crown witness.

He brought up emails D sent years ago to his close friend and fellow UN member Amir Eghtesad about setting up an associate named Duke for a potential robbery. Gottardi painted a portrait of a ruthless, immoral criminal who loved to manipulate and toy with those around him – even people who were supposed allies.

Eghtesad earlier pleaded guilty in the conspiracy to kill the Bacons and was sentenced to seven years minus time-served.

Here’s my story:

 In a candid exchange at the Cory Vallee murder trial Thursday, the man they call D said he regretted cooperating with the police and agreeing to testify.

He was portrayed by Vallee lawyer Eric Gottardi as a greedy, bitter manipulator who was only testifying because of the $300,000 he was paid by police.

He argued that money was compensation for the disruption to his life that came from the decision to help police.

Here’s my story:

I was not back at the Cory Vallee trial Friday as I was working on other stories, including this one about a long-time Independent Soldier getting arrested recently. Donnie Lyons is facing one firearms count right now, but remains under investigation in a drug case in the Vernon area.

Here’s my story:

Longtime Independent Soldier gangster Donnie Lyons back behind bars

A longtime member of the Independent Soldiers gang is behind bars after allegedly carrying a firearm contrary to a court order.

Donald Bryce Lyons, 45, was arrested in Revelstoke on April 14 by B.C.’s anti-gang unit.

He remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in a Vernon courtroom on May 11.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Lyons was the subject of a drug investigation in Vernon when he was arrested on the gun charge.

“In the course of that investigation, Lyons was found to be in possession of firearms against a court-imposed prohibition,” Winpenny said Friday. “He is being held due to those charges.”

She said the original drug investigation is ongoing.

Lyons’s arrest came three weeks after Dustin Rogers, a 26-year-old member of the Independent Soldiers, was found murdered near the intersection of Wilson Jackson and Jordache roads in Vernon.

Rogers had travelled to Thailand and Indonesia in the weeks before his death with other members of the IS from Calgary. His gang-mates then attended his funeral on April 15.

Lyons has a long history with police. He had his parole revoked in November 2014 for hanging out with criminals, just months after being granted statutory release on drug trafficking and firearms convictions in both Manitoba and B.C.

In December 2012, he was returned to prison after allegations he put a hit out on someone. Corrections officials couldn’t confirm the information, and he was later released.

In July 2013, he was accused of assaulting a girlfriend and picked up for violating his parole. He was charged with assault and later pleaded guilty to uttering a death threat. 

Donnie Lyons with his IS tattoo on his right side

Parole documents from 2014 state that he was “observed by police with three other men who all have criminal records.”

“The three men were wearing disguises, were in possession of weapons, and were believed by police to be planning to break into a marijuana grow-op.”

Two of those caught with Lyons were also on parole conditions.

After he was returned to jail, Lyons claimed to corrections officials that he didn’t really know the men he was with, and that they had each denied they had criminal records.

The parole board wasn’t buying it.

“The board notes that you were in the community for less than a month before your release was suspended,” the decision said. “You chose to put yourself in a high-risk situation and you appear to have been involved in the planning of potential criminal activity.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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I was back at the Cory Vallee murder trial Monday morning and caught an interesting exchange between witness D and defence lawyer Eric Gottardi. The lawyer had D watch a video of a statement he gave to a police officer several years ago while they were watching a surveillance video taken from a McDonald’s in Burnaby near where Jonathan Barber was shot to death on May 9, 2008.

D told police year ago, and testified Monday, that he was confident one of the men on the video was Vallee. He also said another man in the photo was Troy Tran, a Calgary gangster charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons.

Gottardi challenged D on the accuracy of his ID.

Here’s my story:

The second of four former UN gang member testifying at the Cory Vallee murder trial took the stand Thursday.

He can only be identified as C due to the continuing publication ban. He says he was in the UN for 16 years and was even a leader at one point.

He matter-of-factly described ruthless violence – a bar room brawl where a bouncer ended up in a coma, another fight against the Independent Soldiers, a beating in Victoria after which he thought he might have killed the guy, smashing a man in Vernon in the face with a sledge hammer and then striking his body with a baseball bat, a murder plot that ended up with a North Vancouver man wounded by gunfire and even a successful plot to kill his close friend, who was sent to Argentina.

That friend, Adam Naname (Nam) Kataoka, was later shot in the head in Buenos Airies. I wrote about that death at the time. 

Kataoka was convicted in B.C. in the 1990 kidnapping of Vancouver billionaire Jim Pattison’s daughter Cynthia Kilburn and served a three-year sentence.

Here’s my story:

United Nations gang members were behind the murder of one of their own in Argentina, as well as the unsolved shooting of a North Vancouver realtor almost a decade ago, B.C. Supreme Court heard Thursday.

In startling testimony, a former UN gangster, who can only be identified as C, described brutal assaults over drug debts, as well as the 2008 shooting and the 2009 murder in Argentina.

It was the first day of C’s testimony at the murder trial of Cory Vallee.

Crown prosecutor Helen James told Justice Janice Dillon that C would provide “eyewitness” testimony to the May 9, 2008 murder of Jonathan Barber, an innocent stereo installer who was shot to death after being mistaken for a Bacon brother.

C is also expected to provide evidence related to the February 2009 murder of Bacon pal Kevin LeClair.

Vallee is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers over several months during 2008 and 2009, as well as first-degree murder in the LeClair slaying.

So far in court, C has not gotten to the Bacon conspiracy or the LeClair murder.

But he testified about years of violence while he was in the UN and involved in the drug trade.

He said he knew there was a plot to kill his close friend and gang associate Adam Naname (Nam) Kataoka before Kataoka was sent to Argentina by another UN member to be a drug tester.

“And at one point, he actually asked you if you thought it was a good idea for him to do down?” James asked.

“That’s correct,” C responded.

He said he was okay with the plan to kill Kataoka because his friend had “a mental breakdown.”

“He was broke, he was looking to rob people that he knew, including James (Chan) and other members or associates of our gang, which is violating every big code,” C explained.

He said Chan decided to get the hit done in Argentina “so that the heat and the problems wouldn’t be affecting us in Vancouver.”

Kataoka was found in a Buenos Aires parking lot in October 2009 lying face down, wearing latex gloves, with bullet wounds in his head, stomach and leg.

C also testified that another former UN gang member took out a hit on a North Vancouver man named Kenn Buxton, who was shot in November 2008 and survived.

C said he supplied one of the guns used in the attempted execution. 

He also described being in Victoria in 2008 and beating up a man who owed convicted UN killer Michael Newman $300,000.

The man was lured into the bathroom of a bar where C and a fellow UN gangster beat him severely.  

Cory Vallee in photos issued by police in 2011

“His eyes rolled back, blood was coming out of his nose, and he started convulsing in a seizure-like state. And it was at that point that we were concerned that we may have gone too far and actually killed him,” he testified. “We fled the bar.”

C also told Dillon that the years he spent in the drug trade “ruined” his life.

He testified about getting caught up in criminal activity as a high school student after members of the Lotus and Viet Ching gangs moved into his neighbourhood.

With his new gangster friends, he was involved in battles with teenaged rivals, including the Duhre brothers — three siblings who would go on to become notorious gangsters in their own right. 

C testified that he stole cars and was involved in armed robberies, although he did some legitimate work after he graduated from high school. But he started selling cocaine on the side, eventually giving up his day job to work full-time in the drug trade.

“It ruined my life. I could have been way more successful, with no stress,” he testified. “I would have more money. I wouldn’t have regrets. I wouldn’t have the depression, stress and worry.”   

Gurmit Dhak was shot to death in 2010 at Metrotown in Burnaby

C testified that he was in the UN gang from about 2000 to 2016, and ended up in a leadership position.

He went through pages and pages of photographs, identifying men he said were either in the gang or were its associates. Asked how he knew each, in almost every case, he said that they “sell drugs.”

Many of the names have already been heard in Vallee’s trial and in other earlier related trials.

But D also identified slain gangster Gurmit Dhak as a UN associate and Dhak’s close friend Billy Tran as a UN member.

He said Matin “Bin Laden” Pouyan, who was wounded in a 2015 shooting in Richmond, was very close to the UN and may have been presented with his UN rings.

“He was a hitman and he was also a drug dealer,” C testified of Pouyan.

The trial continues.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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The former UN gangster known as C testified that he stayed in touch with gang leader Conor D’Monte even after D’Monte fled Canada fearing he would be arrested for murder.

C said he never knew where D’Monte was, but that D’Monte would send him encrypted BlackBerry messages when he needed something done in B.C.

Back in 2011, D’Monte asked C for help getting some houses shot up and C obliged, asking an associate to shoot four houses and firebomb a camper at one of the properties.

C thought the jobs were to scare off “jackers” in the drug trade who had been following D’Monte’s friend “Vinnie.”

He learned months later that the victims were people linked to the Justice Institute and was “pissed off.”

Here’s my full story:

Conor D’Monte used encrypted BlackBerry messages to tell a former underling in the UN to target several houses for attack, according to testimony by an ex-gangster who can only be identified as C due to a sweeping publication ban.

The witness is in his second day of testimony at the murder trial of Cory Vallee.

Both Vallee and D’Monte are charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers over several months in 2008 and 2009, and with the first-degree murder of Bacon associate Kevin LeClair in February 2009.

Both accused fled B.C. several years ago, but Vallee was later arrested in Mexico and brought back to face the charges.

D’Monte has never been located.

Despite being on the lam, D’Monte still got involved in the violence back home, C told Justice Janice Dillon.

C said he received an encrypted message from D’Monte sometime in 2011. 

“He asked me if I had anyone who was willing to shoot up some houses,” C testified.

C said D’Monte explained that his drug dealer friend “Vinnie” was concerned about some “jackers” ripping him off, so wanted to send them a message.

C found someone willing to do the attacks and they agreed they would split the payments.

He said D’Monte maintained a “driver” in Metro Vancouver, who delivered guns for each shooting.

The addresses of the homes to be targeted were sent one by one, C said.

The first was in Surrey.

“We initially drove up, scoped out the house,” C said.

He sent his associate back to fire the shots in the middle of the night to lessen the chance of witnesses or casualties, he testified.

“It was just pure intimidation,” he said of the purported motive for the shootings.

C said his associate shot houses in Surrey, Richmond and near the Burnaby-Coquitlam border. They also firebombed a camper at one of the Surrey homes.

He said “Vinnie” didn’t believe the attacks were happening because there were no news reports at the time.

But C and his associate continued to get paid because D’Monte trusted they were completing the jobs.

They received $12,000 to $15,000 for each shooting and $6,000 to $8,000 for the arson, C testified.

He said he started having a bad feeling about the arrangement when he noticed the houses they were scouting appeared “normal” and not like homes of people in the drug trade.

“The alarm bells were ringing off in my head,” he said. “And then it not being in the news, the story didn’t seem quite right.”

So he told D’Monte he didn’t want to do any more of the jobs.

C said he was “pissed” when about six months later there were news stories about the attacks and he learned they were against people linked to the Justice Institute.

“I realized that we made a huge mistake getting involved in this thing, that they were targeting the Justice Institute, potentially cops, which is a huge no-no,” C testified. “You don’t go kicking the bee’s nest and shooting at cops’ house.”

D’Monte’s friend Vincent Eric Gia-Hwa Cheung was eventually charged and pleaded guilty to 18 counts for the attacks that continued from April 2011 and January 2012.

Last year, he was sentenced to 13 years in jail.

C said he had met Cheung, who was a personal friend of D’Monte’s and not a UN gang member.

C also said that while he kept in touch with D’Monte after he fled Canada, he has never known where the fugitive is hiding.

D’Monte was appointed head of the UN after the gang’s original leader Clay Roueche was arrested in the U.S. in May 2008, C testified.

But after D’Monte left Canada in 2011, there was a meeting held in Vietnam attended by C and others from B.C., including Billy Tran and Khamla Wong. 

At the meeting, C was voted in as the new leader, he testified.

People in attendance also imposed a new strict edict.

“There was a rule that basically if you rat, you die and if you run, then your parents or family dies,” C said.

Crown Helen James asked him if ratting meant testifying “much like you are doing today.”

“That’s correct,” he said.

The trial continues.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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A jury has convicted David Sadler of first-degree murder in the February 2009 shooting death of James Ward Erickson.

Sadler was sentenced to an automatic life sentence with no hope of parole for 25 years on Sunday.

Erickson, 25, was gunned down inside an apartment complex in the 13300-block of 105A Avenue in Surrey.

It had been a deadly 24 hours on the Lower Mainland with three fatal shootings.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team identified “persons of interest” in Ericsson’s murder soon afterwards, but there was not enough evidence to get charges approved.

“In May 2013, the IHIT Cold Case Team took conduct of this investigation and began a thorough and meticulous file review,” Staff Sgt. Jennifer Pound said Monday. “Six months into the file review a suspect, identified as David Sadler, was arrested and sufficient evidence was obtained to meet the threshold for charge approval.” 

She said “it is extremely rewarding for the investigators to see justice served as a result of their commitment and perseverance and there is no greater testament to this than a conviction for first-degree murder.”

For the first time since Jonathan Barber was gunned down nine years ago Tuesday, all the details of the night of his murder have been described by a man who was there.

Ex-United Nations gangster C testified at the Cory Vallee trial Monday that he, another man dubbed “B” who will testify later, Barzan Tilli-Choli and Jesse Adkins were all in Adkins’ truck as they chased the Barber vehicle down Kingsway. They thought Jamie Bacon was inside. But Barber, a stereo installer, had just picked up the Bacon Porsche to work on it.

One of the Bacons had dropped the vehicle at the McDonald’s in the 7200-block of Kingsway. Coincidentally, several of the UN members were also at the McDonald’s on a pit stop while out hunting the Bacons.

That led to the chase that ended Barber’s life.

While several UN gangsters have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, none has actually been convicted of killing Barber.

Here’s my story:

FILE PHOTO Jonathan Barber, 23, of Langley , shot and killed in Burnaby while working on a vehicle belonging to one of the Bacon brothers.

Ex-gang witness describes the murder of Jonathan Barber in Burnaby

United Nations gangster Barzan Tilli-Choli blasted an AK-47 at an SUV belonging to the Bacon brothers, mistakenly killing a stereo installer who was driving the Porsche Cayenne at the time, B.C. Supreme Court heard Monday.

A former member of the UN described in detail for the first time what happened the night Jonathan Barber was shot to death in Burnaby nine years ago Tuesday.

The man, who can only be identified as C due to publication ban, said he was in a pickup truck driven by UN member Jesse Adkins, with Tilli-Choli and a fourth man in the back, as they raced down Kingsway to catch the Cayenne.  

They believed Jamie Bacon, the youngest of the three notorious brothers, was in the SUV at the time, C told Justice Janice Dillon.  

And they believed other Bacon associates were following the Cayenne inside a Jeep Cherokee that they also targeted, C testified in his third day on the stand at the murder trial of Cory Vallee.

Vallee is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons in 2008 and 2009, as well as the murder of Bacon associate Kevin LeClair in May 2009.

C said the UN truck caught up to the Cherokee, which was right behind the Porsche.

“Barzan says to get up along side of them, asks me if the guns were loaded. I say yes,” C said.

“Barzan starts lowering the rear window, the rear driver’s side window … He starts aiming the weapon at the vehicles and he’s starting firing at the Cherokee.”

C said Tilli-Choli fired six to 10 shots before he got a glimpse into the vehicle.

“Barzan was able to see in the window and said `holy shit it’s a girl,’ indicating it is a female in the vehicle,” C testified. “Once he saw her, he stopped firing because he didn’t want to hit the girl.” 

The female turned out to be Barber’s girlfriend, who was injured in the shooting. She was following Barber in his vehicle after he picked up the Bacons’ Porsche to install a stereo.

After firing at the Cherokee, Tilli-Choli blasted another six to 10 shots at the Porsche, C said.

“At that point the Porsche lurched forward at a high rate of speed. Obviously the driver must have slumped forward onto the gas pedal. It was a turbo, so it had an incredible amount of horse power,” C explained.

The Porsche cut across the street in front of the UN truck, hit the curb and crashed into a cinder block garage.

C said he contacted UN leader Clay Roueche to tell him they had killed the youngest Bacon.

“I buzzed Clay and I told him we got number 3,” he said.

While C identified several UN members as being present both before and during the Barber shooting, he did not name Vallee has having a role in the slaying.

Tilli-Choli pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in July 2013 for hunting the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion associates.

He was sentenced to 14 years, minus almost nine years as double credit for the 4½ years he spent in pre-trial custody. In January, he was deported to his native Iraq.

C testified that he got personally involved in the war with the Bacon brothers after popular UN gang member Duane Meyer was shot to death in Abbotsford on May 8, 2008 – the day before Barber was shot.

After the murder, he and his fellow gang members got rid of the gun that was used, as well as the clothes they were wearing, he testified.

They also hid Adkins’ truck until they could retrieve it and drive it to Armstrong, where an associate dissembled it and sold the parts.

The trial continues.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Witness C, a one-time leader, of the United Nations gang, spent a fourth day on the stand at the Cory Vallee murder trial Tuesday. And there was more shocking testimony. 

He said that Vallee, who he knew was a hitman hired by UN leader Clay Roueche, confessed his role in the Kevin LeClair shooting within a week of blasting LeClair at a Langley strip mall, along with UN gangster Jesse Adkins.

They were paid $50,000, C testified.

He said the bounties on the Bacons started at $300,000 for Jamie, $200,000 for Jon and $100,000 for Jarrod. But the prices got even higher, C testified. 

“The Haney Chapter of the Hells Angels had put up $50,000 on each one of the Bacons. Versace was putting up a large amount of the money. And other various gangs that were having conflicts with the Bacons were going to chip in as well,” he testified.

He said the HA chapter was against the Bacon because they “had put a hit out on Spike’s son.”

Spike Hadden is a full-patch Haney member, as is his son Jesse. Interestingly, Hadden’s niece Leah Hadden-Watts was in the vehicle with Jon Bacon, Larry Amero and James Riach when it was shot up in August 2011, killing Bacon and paralyzing Hadden-Watts.

Here’s my full story:

A former United Nations gangster said his group discussed dropping a bomb from one of its helicopters on the Abbotsford home of the Bacon brothers in its efforts to kill the sibling trio.

And the man, who can only be identified as C due to a sweeping publication ban, testified that he also plotted to put cyanide inside steroids Jamie Bacon was getting smuggled into prison in 2013 while awaiting trial in the Surrey Six murder case.

C provided more sensational testimony Tuesday at the murder trial of Cory Vallee, who’s charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons and first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of their pal Kevin LeClair.

He told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon that he discussed the possibility of an aerial bombing with gang leader Conor D’Monte probably in late 2008.

“We had helicopter pilots at our disposal. So one thought was we build an aerial bomb and drop it from the helicopter on the Bacon’s parents’ house,” C testified.

 

They decided the aerial bomb plot would be “too difficult logistically.”

“You never know how big the bomb could be. You could damage or kill the neighbours,” said the longtime UN gangster who began cooperating with police last year.

But he and D’Monte did look into getting a rocket launcher so they could “use it to pierce one of the Bacons’ armoured vehicle.”

They were unsuccessful in buying a rocket launcher and also had trouble getting grenades, another possible tool they considered in their war with the rival Bacons and their Red Scorpion gang.

C testified that he also built a bomb that was going to be placed under a Bacon vehicle, but the idea was abandoned. 

Their plan to poison Jamie Bacon went a little further, C testified.

“An associate of Jamie Bacon’s was trying to get him some steroids and drugs to get smuggled into the prison for him,” C said.

The usual steroid dealer was out of product, so the UN saw an opening to provide the steroids, but spike them with poison first, he testified. 

“Conor at the time had some liquid cyanide. He had his driver bring it to me. But by the time he got it to me, it was too late to get it put into a steroid. The window closed.”

C also testified about being in Langley with Vallee and another UN gangster named Jesse Adkins on Feb. 6, 2009, the day of the LeClair shooting.

He left them in the early afternoon to go to Richmond to prepare an MDMA shipment to Mexico, he said.

He later got a BlackBerry message from D’Monte saying “Traitor got it,” a reference to LeClair who was a former UN associate, C said.

Within a week he met both Vallee and Adkins and they admitted they were the hit men, C said.

He said Vallee was thrilled with the way the AR-15 he used had handled that day, he told Dillon.

He said both men were “proud” of what they had done and told C how the murder went down.

“They saw him, they followed him into the lot. They ran up on the vehicle. Cory bumped into that one guy. They got up to the vehicle and Kevin was sitting in his car. I believe Cory couldn’t find the safety on the gun. So the gun safety was on. It took one second to figure it out. He unloaded it. The rate of fire on the gun was really, really fast so he unloaded the entire clip in a matter of seconds,” C said.

“Jesse was on the side of the vehicle, pulled out his gun, got one shot off and the gun jammed.”

He said both men dropped their firearms at the scene — a strip mall just off Highway 1 in Walnut Grove.

C testified that he warned both men about disclosing details of the murder to anyone else.

“This is the only and last time we will ever discuss this,” C said.

He said Vallee and Adkins split a $50,000 reward for the LeClair hit.

Both men later fled to Mexico with the help of a UN cartel connection in L.A., C testified.

He kept in touch with both men through encrypted BlackBerry messages.

The trial continues.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Since former United Nations gang members started testifying at the Cory Vallee murder trial last month, there has been dramatic evidence about a number of unsolved murders – several of them done by the gang itself.

Witness D testified that he turned against his gang after he believed gang members killed Ryan “Whitey” Richards and Sean “Smurph” Murphy – two young Abbotsford frontline traffickers. Witness C confirmed on the stand that the UN did in fact kill both, though no charges have been laid.

C went on to say the UN had also arrange the murder of Adam Naname Kataoka in Argentina, even though he was close to the gang. 

Today C described another murder – this time of Jesse “Egon” Adkins, who was suspected of being involved in the murder of Kevin LeClair along with Cory Vallee.

Here’s my full story:

UN gang had murder suspect killed in Mexico after saying `f— the crew’, trial hears

Jesse “Egon” Adkins was hiding in Mexico, along with accused killer Cory Vallee, when he started getting restless and wanting to come home, former UN gangster C testified.

“I believe he wanted to come home and see his kid,” said C, whose identity is protected by a sweeping publication ban.  

Jesse Egon Adkins in undated photo

Earlier C told Justice Janice Dillon that he, Adkins and another UN member were driving with Barzan Tilli-Choli when Tilli-Choli blasted a Porsche owned by the Bacon brothers on May 9, 2008.

Jonathan Barber, a stereo installer who had just picked up the Porsche, was killed instantly.

And C testified that Adkins and Vallee confessed to him that they were the hit men that gunned down LeClair, a Bacon associate, in a Langley plaza on Feb. 6, 2009.

Vallee is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons, as well as first-degree murder in the LeClair shooting.

C said Adkins and Vallee were smuggled into Mexico through a Los Angeles cartel contact of Khamla Wong, a respected UN gang elder now in jail in Thailand. 

But after several months, Adkins was getting edgy and making derogatory comments about the UN, C said.

He testified that he tried to tell Adkins to stay put.

“I told him — it’s not a smart idea. Give it some time. Maybe in the future after the UN 8 case is done, we’ll see what happens with that and then assess from there,” C said.

“I told him the smartest thing to do is to stay there.”

But there was concern that Adkins’ instability could lead to him flipping on the gang, C said.

“Kham discussed it with the Mexicans that Jesse might be a problem and the Mexicans said that they’re going to take care of it,” C said.

He said he understood that to mean “that Jesse would get killed.”

Asked by prosecutor Helen James how he felt about Adkins’ murder, C said:

“I had mixed emotions about it. I liked Jesse but at the same time, the way he was acting — he was seriously saying the words he was saying like `f— the crew’ and `I am coming back no matter what,’ it seemed worrisome that he may have turned into a rat,” C said.

He said he later learned from both Vallee, who was still in Mexico, and Wong that Adkins was “killed in Mexico by the Mexican cartel people.”

Adkins’ body has never been found.

After Adkins was killed, C got even closer to Vallee communicating through encrypted BlackBerry messages.

“We would talk all the time, multiple times in a week, sometimes every day. We would talk about family, kids, what we’re up to, business,” C testified.

He said Vallee told him he was getting plastic surgery to alter his face since he was “on the run.”

James asked C to look at Vallee in court and see if there was any noticeable difference in his appearance from years earlier.

“He looks pretty similar to me,” he said.

Vallee also told him about finding a good tattoo artist in Mexico and getting some work done.

“He got a Hitler tattoo down there and some other Nazi-style tattoos put on,” C said.

When Vallee was arrested in Mexico in 2014 and brought back to Canada, C put money in his canteen account at the pre-trial jail every month until last summer, he testified.

The money came from a senior UN member named Versace, who has continued to provide the cash for a number of gangsters awaiting trial or convicted.

C said the UN wanted “to take care of the guys in prison so they stay happy.”

“Unhappy people tend to turn,” he said.

C said he and other UN members were increasingly broke, having trouble making drug deals and getting less support from senior members like Versace who were out of the country.

That’s one reason he decided to cooperate with police last year after getting caught with 80,000 fentanyl pills and a gun.

“I wanted out of the life. I was sick of it,” he said. 

Cory Vallee

He said he signed a deal with the RCMP to get paid $400,000 to work as an agent in two investigations. He has received about half the money so far.

The money is not in exchange for his testimony against his former friend, C said.

But he testified that he did sign a separate immunity agreement meaning he won’t face charges for a litany of crimes committed while in the UN, as long as he testifies truthfully.

The trial continues.

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