There were more “civilian” witnesses at the trial of Jujhar Khun-Khun, Michael Jones and Jason McBride today. These are people who just happened to be near the scene of the Jonathan Bacon murder on Aug. 14, 2011 and are telling Justice Allan Betton what they saw.
I expect this phase of the trial will continue for a few more days before the Crown moves into calling police and forensic specialists.
Here’s my story:
Sisters testify at Bacon murder trial about seeing driver of suspected getaway SUV
Witness Ingrid Merkus (in tourquoise) outside the Kelowna courthouse during a break in the Jonathan Bacon murder trial.PNG
KELOWNA — Two sisters who were visiting Kelowna in August 2011 testified Tuesday about getting a glimpse of the driver of an SUV that sped away from the scene of Jonathan Bacon’s murder.
Ingrid Merkus told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allan Betton that she was just about to step onto a patio of a café about two blocks from the Delta Grand when she heard loud bangs.
“I looked toward the sounds — so, toward the hotel — and saw activity, people running,” Merkus testified.
Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones are charged with the first-degree murder of Bacon and the attempted murder of four others with him that day.
Merkus said she held her hands out to block her sister from going outside.
“Step back,” she said. “There are gunshots.”
“I witnessed a vehicle racing up the street and I just stayed put until the vehicle had passed,” Merkus said.
“It was an SUV, light-coloured. It was dented on the driver’s side as if he had been recently scraped.”
She said the driver had “short, close-cropped hair, well-manicured, close shaven. I observed an olive complexion. The hair was black.”
“I observed a light-coloured shirt, long-sleeved, maybe pushed up,” she testified.
The driver was trying to shield his face with his arm.
His build was “not slight, but not heavy. I would say muscular.”
At one point after the murder, Merkus told police the driver may have been partly South Asian, Italian or Greek.
Merkus said both the driver’s window and front passenger’s window were rolled down.
She never saw the face of the passenger, she testified.
“The person was leaning out of the window on his own side, so I did not see anything about that person,” Merkus said.
Her sister, Christina Conquergood, testified that she didn’t believe Merkus at first when she claimed to have heard gunfire.
“My sister was behaving frantically and she said, ‘I just heard gunshots, let’s get away from here.’ I just pushed passed her and said, ‘No, that’s silly. I don’t think you heard gunshots’,” Conquergood told Betton.
“As soon as I looked down the street, I saw people running and hiding behind vehicles and behind a building.”
She also saw an SUV racing toward them and away from the Delta Grand, along Cawston Avenue.
“There was an SUV driving erratically up the road toward where we were,” she said. “It was a sunny day, so there was a lot of people bicycling and walking. And it scared me because this car was so erratic.”
She had a different recollection than her sister about the driver’s side window. Conquergood said it was up, but that the passenger’s window was down.
She did get a look at the driver when he passed right in front of her, she testified.
“To me, he looked like he — I would say Caucasian — but more of an olive-type of tone … Italian or Croatian,” she said, adding that the driver was a “strong-looking man. He just looked well-put-together.”
She was later shown a photo line-up by police, but was unable to pick anyone out.
Giuseppe Guido, 42, was at the Lake City Casino on the morning of Aug. 14, 2011 for a poker tournament.
After a disappointing showing, he headed out about 2:30 p.m., he recalled Tuesday.
Like many of the others who’ve testified over the last week, Guido thought the loud bangs he heard were fireworks, but turned back to the hotel complex and saw a more nefarious scene.
“I could virtually see the gentleman with a rifle, an assault rifle, in his hands shooting at the vehicle,” he said of a white Porsche Cayenne in the hotel’s courtyard entrance.
He took cover across the street behind a lamppost and looked back towards the shooting again.
“Once the gunshots stopped firing is when the gentleman ran around the vehicle, around the front of Ford Explorer…into the fourth door on the driver’s side,” Guido testified.
He said the man was “all blacked out from a black cap to a black bandana from virtually the nose down, it appeared that they were wearing black sunglasses. Black hoodie, black pants and gloves were on.”
He saw the suspects’ SUV take off down Cawston Avenue, Guido testified.
The driver’s window was partway down, but he could not see the person clearly, he said.
Also Tuesday, defence lawyers for the accused asked Betton to impose a ban on the media using any new images or photos of the accused for their “security.”
The request was prompted by a sketch artist being in court to do drawings for a media outlet.
Betton said proper notice had not been given to the media, so he declined to impose either a permanent or an interim ban.
A retired RCMP forensic identification specialist testified Wednesday at the trial of Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones. Cora Malewski described the work she did collecting evidence over five days outside the Delta Grand.
Much of the day was somewhat dry as photographs were entered as exhibits. But Malewski’s video of the crime scene was a powerful image of the destruction the killers of Jonathan Bacon caused that day.
Video of Jonathan Bacon murder scene in Kelowna shows carnage
KELOWNA — The video of the crime scene shows the carnage.
A white Porsche Cayenne with bullet holes through every door and window, its interior soaked in the blood of its occupants.
Shell casings from three different firearms strewn across the beautiful courtyard of the Delta Grand Hotel, with lovely flowers and a fountain nearby.
Small pieces of the Porsche on the ground from a collision with the SUV driven by the killers.
The police video was played in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday at the trial of three men charged with killing gangster Jonathan Bacon on Aug. 14, 2011.
Bacon, a Red Scorpion leader, was in the front passenger seat of the Porsche when the shooting began. He died minutes later on the ground beside the SUV.
Hells Angel Larry Amero was driving and was seriously injured in the shooting.
Leah Hadden-Watts, sitting in the back middle seat, was paralyzed from a bullet through her neck. Lyndsey Black, sitting in the right rear seat, was shot through both legs.
Only Independent Soldier gangster James Riach, who was sitting behind Amero, was uninjured, surprising given the number of bullet holes visible through his door.
There was no reaction from accused killers Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones as they watched the videos on screens in front of them.
Retired Mountie Cora Malewski, then an RCMP forensic identification specialist, told Justice Allan Betton that she took the video shortly after the fatal shooting at the Delta Grand.
“I had heard over the radio that there was a shooting and I started making my way toward the Grand,” Malewski testified.
Jonathan Bacon in June 2008.RICK COLLINS / PNG
She said she was the only forensic officer on duty that Sunday afternoon.
“Once I attended to that scene, I contacted others and got them involved as well,” she said. “That same day, I also contacted experts from the firearms section in Vancouver and requested that they attend.”
The victims had already been taken away when she arrived 30 minutes after the shooting. The crime scene was taped off.
The watch commander on scene briefed her about what happened to the Porsche, which had come to a stop against the wall of a hair salon in the hotel complex.
“I saw a few traffic cones throughout the courtyard and what was explained to me was that there was a second vehicle involved which had cut this Porsche Cayenne off. Two occupants of that vehicle were firing what was believed to be automatic or semi-automatic rifles at the Cayenne,” Malewski said.
She walked the perimeter of the crime scene and began taking video footage just before 5 p.m. that day.
She also examined some of the dozens of shell casings littering the area.
“There were two different colours of rifle shell casings, so they were longer in nature. I know they came from a rifle and not a handgun,” she told Betton.
“And there were also short brass shell casings, which had 9 mm markings on them, so I knew that came from a handgun.”
The Crown said in its opening statement that two Norinco assault rifles and a 9 mm Glock were later found in some bushes less than three kilometres from the crime scene.
Malewski said the Porsche was riddled with bullet holes.
“There were holes on all four sides of the vehicle — through the doors, through the body of the Porsche,” she testified.
The Porsche hatch was open when she arrived, Malewski said, the luggage of its passengers still visible in her video.
Crown prosecutor Martin Nadon introduced a series of surveillance videos Thursday at the murder trial of Jujhar Khun-Khun, Michael Jones and Jason McBride.
They came from various security cameras around the Delta Grand complex in Kelowna starting the night before gangster Jonathan Bacon was shot to death in front of the hotel.
The most chilling was played mid-afternoon and showed two gunmen opening fire on the SUV Bacon and his associates were in. It’s grainy and you can’t see everything, but it is still clear what is going on.
There were other clips showing Bacon right before he was killed, completely oblivious to what is about to go down. It’s so disturbing to watch him and Leah Hadden-Watts, who would be paralyzed later that day.
I am back in Vancouver now and hope to get back to the Kelowna trial later on. I’m sure my colleagues up there will continue to cover this important trial.
The media is supposed to be able to get exhibits in the case, but not until after the “civilian” witnesses have done their testimony in a few weeks time. And we also must obscure every single face (victim, accused, bystander, etc.) in each photo and video, so it is going to be a challenge to use them.
Surveillance video shows gunmen firing on Bacon’s vehicle
KELOWNA — Chilling surveillance video showing two gunmen firing on a white SUV and a crowd of people running for their lives was played in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday.
The grainy video from a Delta Grand Hotel security camera first showed a reflection of the Porsche Cayenne, then parked, outside a set of hotel doors.
People can be seen getting into the car about 2:40 p.m. on Aug. 14, 2011, although it is impossible to see their faces.
Seconds later, as the Porsche starts to drive, a Ford SUV cuts it off and two gunmen can be seen shooting and running.
There is no sound on the eerie video, one of dozens played for Justice Allan Betton at the trial of three men accused of killing gangster Jonathan Bacon that day.
Jonathan Bacon in June 2008.
The Porsche can be seen rolling forward, as one person in the back appears to jump out and hide behind a car. The only Porsche passenger uninjured in the shooting was Independent Soldier James Riach.
Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones are charged with the first-degree murder of Bacon and the attempted murder of Riach, Hells Angel Larry Amero, Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black.
All five were in Amero’s Porsche leaving the courtyard of the Delta Grand when they were targeted by the gunmen.
Betton was also shown video of Bacon, Amero and Black serving themselves brunch in a hotel restaurant about two hours before the murder.
In another clip, they are seen heading out clubbing just before 10 p.m. the night before and returning a few hours later.
The Crown has said that the accused killers arrived in Kelowna in the early hours of Aug. 14 and were hunting for Bacon, Amero and Riach to kill them.
Several gang associates who are now slated to testify against the trio were part of that hunt, the trial has heard.
Three of those men, whose names are covered by a publication ban, were identified in a series of videos played in court Thursday by RCMP forensic video analyst Julianna Masson.
Masson testified that 20,000 hours of surveillance video was seized from the area after the shooting.
A team of officers then went through all of it, looking for anything suspicious that needed further analysis, Masson said.
“If anything of interest was identified on the video, it would come to me to drill down further on it,” she testified.
Masson showed video of the associates in several locations in and around the Grand Hotel starting about 2 a.m. and continuing to 4:30 a.m.
They were in and out of a pub, walking along the lakeside promenade, wandering through the main lobby, and peering into the casino.
The first few video clips Masson played showed a former gang associate named Matthew Schrader inside the Delta Grand near the front entrance.
The Crown said in its opening that Schrader had told an associate of the accused that Amero and Riach were in Kelowna that weekend.
Matt Schrader, whose name came up during murder trial of Jonathan Bacon.
A second video clip shows Schrader in the hotel’s courtyard about 9:20 p.m. on Aug. 13, 2011.
“I was also interested in this individual who was standing there at the front as well,” Masson said, pointing to the clip. “I believed him to be Matthew Schrader.”
Earlier Thursday, retired Cpl. Cora Malewski described processing 47 different bullets and shell casings found at the scene.
They found another 21 bullet fragment pieces when searching the Porsche Cayenne.
Malewski said the SUV had to be taken to a garage with equipment to cut through the muffler and other parts of the vehicle where bullet fragments were found.
The bullets also penetrated the luggage of the victims stacked in the back of the Porsche, she said.
Long after Malewski was finished with her work on the file, she was asked to examine three firearms that were located in November 2011 in some bushes about three kilometres from the shooting.
She checked all three — a Glock 9 mm handgun and two Norinco rifles — for fingerprints and DNA, but found none.
Her photos of the guns were shown in court. One of the Norincos had a hollow stock. Both of the rifles were black metal and wood. One had a lot of rust on it.
Homicide investigators are probing a targeted murder at a popular Langley restaurant.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says a man was killed and a second wounded at the Browns’ Socialhouse at 200th Avenue and the Langley Bypass near Willowbrook Mall.
Police were called to the scene just before midnight Friday.
Arun Randhawa doesn’t think its fair that he can’t get a security pass to work on the Vancouver waterfront just because his brother are convicted drug smugglers.
But the Federal Court of Canada has ruled that it was reasonable for the Minister of Transport to deny the pass to Randhawa because of his sibling association. Both his brother Alexie and Alvin are also longshoreman. When Alexie was being sentenced in California for possessing 107 kilos of cocaine in 2008, both Arun and Alvin wrote reference letters for him.
B.C. longshoreman loses court battle for security pass because of criminal brothers
A B.C. longshoreman with two brothers who have been convicted of drug smuggling in the U.S. has lost his bid to get security clearance for the Vancouver waterfront.
Arun Randhawa challenged a Transport Canada decision to deny him the special clearance because of the organized crime links of his brothers, both of whom are also longshoremen.
But the Federal Court of Canada ruled against Randhawa, saying the government’s decision to deny his security clearance was reasonable.
Judge René Leblanc said that Randhawa’s brothers, Alexie and Alvin, were involved in“serious criminal activities” that were relevant “to the security of marine transportation.”
Alexie was arrested in California in 2008 with 107 kilograms of cocaine. He served four years of a five-year sentence before returning to Canada and his job as a Vancouver longshoreman in November 2012.
And Alvin pleaded guilty in New York State last August to conspiracy to export cocaine from the U.S. from July 2010 until May 2011.
A large shipment of cocaine was seized from his Canadian drug ring on Sept. 8, 2010, his plea agreement says, after which Alvin and two others “began planning future smuggling runs from the United States to Canada” using tractor-trailers.
Alvin was supposed to be sentenced on July 5. But his hearing has been adjourned until July 26.
Arun Randhawa had argued to the Federal Court that he has had minimal contact with his brothers over the years and that he is a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record.
“He says that he did not choose his family and that there is nothing he can do, legally, to dissociate himself from his brothers,” Leblanc noted. “He adds that there is clear evidence that he is a person of impeccable character, moral judgment and trustworthiness which does not make him susceptible to subornation from a family member or anyone else.”
But Leblanc said “that because of his association to his brothers, there were reasonable grounds to suspect that there is a risk … that he be suborned to commit an act or to assist or abet any person to commit an act that might constitute a risk to marine transportation.”
In its case against Randhawa, Transport Canada referred to a police report that said his brothers were members of “an organized crime group involved in cross border narcotics smuggling” that had links with “the Hells Angels, the Japanese Mafia, and Chinese criminals.”
Randhawa argued that “he did not condone, encourage or benefit from any of their activities,” Leblanc said.
“The applicant also claimed to be committed to a pro-social life and highlighted that he had successfully completed other security clearance applications that enabled him to obtain a Nexus card as well as licenses for non-restricted firearms.”
Leblanc said that Randhawa was aware of his brothers’ criminality and that both lived in the family home with him until each was arrested on their U.S. charges.
While living together, they each had access to each other’s vehicles. The gang task force pulled over Randhawa in 2010 while he was driving one brother’s car.
“In such context, I find that the applicant’s association with his brothers provided the minister, in the totality of circumstances, with a rational basis for holding a reasonable suspicion of subornation and potential risk to marine transport security,” Leblanc ruled.
Randhawa was hired as a casual longshoreman in 2013. He can continue to work on the docks, but will not be able to access restricted areas or perform certain tasks without the security clearance.
Five years after they were convicted of first-degree murder for a series of brutal gangland slayings, members of Vernon’s notorious Greeks gang are having their appeals heard at the Vancouver Law Courts.
I sat in for part of the morning Monday. The hearing will last all week with the justices reserving their decision in the case.
The judge presiding over the trial of three men convicted in a series of brutal gang slayings in Vernon more than a decade ago improperly instructed the jury in the case, a defence lawyer argued Monday.
Mark Jette told the B.C. Court of Appeal that the key Crown witnesses against his client, Leslie Podolski, and co-accused Peter Manolakos and Sheldon O’Donnell, were extremely unsavory criminals themselves.
Jette said the defence lawyers challenged the credibility of those witnesses in opening statements and throughout the 18-month trial, which ended with convictions in November 2012.
“We did have steady and concerted and careful attack on the credibility of a series of key Crown witnesses who were at the core of the case of the Crown such that there could not have been any misunderstanding at all with respect to the purpose behind the attack in cross-examination. The purpose was to discredit the witness generally,” Jette said.
Yet in his instructions to the jury, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bill Smart told jurors that if the defence lawyers hadn’t cross-examined a witness on a significant or important point of their testimony, the jurors could choose to believe it.
Jette told Justices Mary Saunders, Daphne Smith and Lauri Ann Fenlon that Smart was wrong when he said that.
“(Jurors) were given an improper instruction that allowed them to delve into who knows what to resurrect the credibility of one or more of these witnesses,” Jette argued.
“They are being told that if this undefined significant or important point was not challenged in cross-examination, that this is something that they could use ultimately to find that the witness was believable on that point.”
Jette said it is impossible to know if the jurors convicted the three men using unreliable evidence from the criminal witnesses because of Smart’s improper instruction to them.
The jury convicted Podolski of one count of first-degree murder, O’Donnell on one count of first-degree and two counts of second-degree murder, and Peter Manolakos of first-degree murder and one count of manslaughter.
All three are serving life sentences.
The men were found to be part of a notorious drug trafficking gang operating in the North Okanagan called the Greeks, of which Manolakos was the leader.
The Greeks were linked to several murders in the region, including the vicious 2004 beating death of Dave Marniuk, a former drug runner for the gang, the deadly assault on Thomas Bryce, a rival drug trafficker, in November 2004, and the fatal shooting of Ron Thom on May 31, 2005 because Manolakos heard he may have provided information to police about the gang.
The appeal is scheduled to be heard over five days at the Vancouver Law Courts.
Homicide investigators released the identity of the man killed in Langley Friday night. He is former Campbell River resident Tyler Joseph Pastuck.
The other man injured in the shooting is Kyle Gianis, who I have written about previously. It is possibly that Gianis was the intended target of the shooting.
Here’s my story:
Langley murder victim identified as Vancouver Island criminal
Langley RCMP and IHIT investigators at the scene of a fatal overnight shooting at the Browns Social House on 200th Street in Langley, BC, Saturday, June 10, 2017. One man was killed and another taken to hospital.
Homicide investigators are looking for witnesses after the targeted murder of a Victoria man outside a Langley pub on Friday night.
Tyler Pastuck, 31, was shot to death just before midnight outside the Brown’s Socialhouse at 200th St. and the Langley Bypass, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Monday.
A second man, Kyle Gianis, was wounded in the shooting and remains in hospital.
Both men have criminal ties.
Pastuck was convicted of manslaughter in a fatal beating outside his Campbell River townhouse in February 2010. Before the slaying, he already had several assault convictions in Vancouver and Campbell River.
Gianis was convicted in 2008 of smuggling the chemical used to make methamphetamine into Washington state and sentenced to 13 years. He was transferred to a Canadian jail in June 2012 and paroled in 2013.
Jail officials told his parole hearing that Gianis had been associating in Mountain Institution with “known members and associates of the UN and Dhak-Duhre gangs.”
Sources said Gianis has maintained ties to various drug gangs and could have been the intended target of the shooting.
IHIT Cpl. Megan Foster said the two shooting victims “were known to each other and this shooting is believed to be targeted.”
Tyler Pastuck from his Facebook page
Pastuck’s family has set up a gofundme page to help cover funeral costs and other expenses.
On the page, they say Pastuck was supposed “to catch a flight to the Yukon for employment” on the night of his murder.
“Upon his arrival at the airport, Tyler was informed that his flight was cancelled until the next morning. To pass some time, Tyler decided to phone a friend and together they decided to go to a restaurant for a nice meal,” the online note says. “Little did anyone know his fate would be so tragic that night.”
The family is trying to raise $15,000.
Foster said that after the murder, police found a burning vehicle a short distance away near the intersection of 203rd St. and 63rd Ave.
“At this time, it cannot be confirmed if this vehicle was involved in the homicide. Anyone with information about this vehicle is asked to contact the police,” Foster said.
She said IHIT continues to work with the Langley RCMP, the Integrated Forensic Identification Section, and the B.C. Coroner’s Service.
“Investigators will remain in the area to conduct area canvassing as the initial evidence gathering phase is still underway,” Foster said. “This act of violence was committed in a brazen fashion, and it was a flagrant disregard for the safety of the public.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Colin Martin was first charged almost eight years ago with drug smuggling in Washington state. The U.S. then began extradition proceedings, resulting in a B.C. Supreme Court hearing in 2014. At the end of that hearing, Justice William Ehrcke issued a “committal order,” the first stage in the extradition process.
Then in February 2016, Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould ordered Martin “surrendered,” meaning he should be turned over to American authorities for prosecution. He appealed that surrender order and lost that appeal this week.
Here’s my story:
Accused B.C. drug smuggler loses appeal of extradition order
Jody Wilson-Raybould, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada.ADRIAN WYLD / CP
An accused B.C. drug smuggler has lost his appeal of a government decision to send him to the U.S. to face charges dating back a decade.
Colin Hugh Martin had argued before the B.C. Court of Appeal that the minister of justice’s decision to surrender him to U.S. authorities was wrong because the Americans had improperly handled his case. And Martin argued that his Metis heritage would not be taken into account at sentencing if he is convicted in the U.S. for his alleged role in a massive, cross-border smuggling operation.
She said the February 2016 decision by Justice Minister Jody Wilson–Raybould to send Martin to Washington state should be “accorded significant deference on review and interference is limited to exceptional cases of ‘real substance.’ ”
She said Martin’s situation was not one of those cases.
Two other appeal-court judges who heard the case, Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice Elizabeth Bennett, agreed with Dickson.
The U.S. alleges Martin was a leader of a drug-trafficking organization that was transporting the drugs ecstasy, marijuana and cocaine across the Canada-U.S. border.
“The record of the case indicates that the drug-trafficking organization used helicopters to transport MDMA and marijuana from Canada to remote locations in the United States, where it was exchanged for cocaine to be transported back to Canada,” Dickson noted in her ruling. “According to the United States, Mr. Martin’s role in the conspiracy was to supply the helicopters used to transport the drugs across the border.”
Martin had argued that his life had been endangered when U.S. authorities stated in the 2009 indictment that he had offered to co-operate and provide details of B.C. drug smugglers to them. He denied ever making those statements to American officers and said he subsequently received threats to his life because of the false U.S. claim.
Colin Hugh Martin.CBC NEWS
The Americans countered that the information was accurate and that it was included in the indictment because it was “highly probative” and “relevant to the prosecution.”
Dickson said Wilson-Raybould found that “Martin jeopardized his safety by his own actions, including engaging in drug-related crime, purportedly offering to provide information to the RCMP, as well as the DEA, and incurring drug debts to a high-profile criminal organization.”
She noted further that he had commented publicly to the press regarding his knowledge and involvement with drug trafficking. In consequence, she found, even if the statements added to the security risk he faced, it was only one of many contributing factors.
Dickson said the minister received assurances from the U.S. that Martin would be treated appropriately if surrendered for prosecution.
“In my view, it was not unreasonable for the minister to accept those representations and, taking them into account, conclude that Mr. Martin’s surrender would not be unjust, oppressive or shocking to the conscience of Canadians,” Dickson said.
During the U.S. investigation, agents seized more than 240,000 ecstasy pills, 175 kilograms of cocaine and 358 kilos of marijuana from the drug gang that Martin was allegedly aiding.
The seizures took place in Washington state, Idaho, Utah, California and Nelson. Martin and B.C. residents Sean Doak, James Gregory Cameron and Adam Christian Serrano were all charged in the case in December 2009. Another B.C. man involved, Sam Brown, hanged himself in a Spokane jail after being arrested in February 2009.
Serrano pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in June 2013 to one count of conspiracy with intent to distribute controlled substances and was sentenced to three years in prison. Doak pleaded guilty last year and was handed a seven-year term.
Like Martin, Cameron has continued to fight his extradition.
There have been so many over dose victims across the province this year. So it’s not surprising that even mid-level drug traffickers can die from the product they have been peddling.
Dustin Wadsworth, convicted just last year in a trafficking case, died Tuesday in an east Vancouver apartment.
PLEASE NOTE: I will be out of town this weekend so am closing comments until Monday morning.
Man who died in Vancouver apartment was convicted trafficker
Drugs seized during an investigation into Dustin Wadsworth’s drug connections.
When Dustin Wadsworth was sentenced last year for his role in a trafficking ring, Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Reg Harris commented on the drug trade’s “staggering” cost to society.
He handed the gang associate a term of two years minus time served, noting that he was a mid-level dealer.
But he also said Wadsworth, 34, could still be rehabilitated despite having gone to jail for the first time as a 12-year-old.
Instead, Wadsworth died of a suspected overdose Tuesday in a Vancouver apartment.
Dustin Wadsworth
Vancouver Police arrived at the building in the 4000-block of Knight St. around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, concerned about a potential “hazmat situation” and two suspicious deaths.
They determined the scene to be safe, but found the two adults dead from a “suspected drug overdose.”
Vancouver Police Const. Jason Doucette said Thursday that the B.C. Coroners Service is now investigating.
Coroners’ media officer Andy Watson said he couldn’t “publicly confirm cause or classification of death until our investigation is complete.”
“This is particularly true in the case of a suspected overdose, since we will not know conclusively if the deceased died of an overdose, and if so, from what, until all post-mortem test results are received and the investigation is finished,” he said.
Wadsworth was closely associated to members of the Wolf Pack gang alliance. And others in the group were posting their condolences on social media sites, including Hells Angel Damion Ryan.
“Since the day we met in YDC back in 93, we’ve been like brothers,” Ryan posted on Instagram. “This is some of the worst news that I’ve ever received.”
Wadsworth’s latest arrest came after a lengthy investigation by the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.
Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said Thursday that “it appears that Dustin Wadsworth, like many others associated to the often dangerous gang and drug world, has fallen victim to the same products that have claimed so many other lives.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a long-time drug dealer, a hardened gang member, or a teenager experimenting with drugs for the first time, no one is immune to their potentially deadly effects,” Houghton said, confirming that “Dustin had been associated for many years to people in what is known as the Wolf Pack.”
Another Wolf Pack gangster, Jeff Chang, died of a drug overdose in a Pitt Meadows house two years ago.
Wadsworth was arrested in October 2014 for his role in the drug ring. Officers seized 10 ounces of cocaine, two kilograms of a cutting agent, baking soda and Pyrex glassware inside his backpack — ingredients for making crack.
His East Vancouver house was searched and police found $57,000 cash in bundles, more cutting agent, drug paraphernalia and ecstasy pills.
At the time, Wadsworth was on bail on drug charges laid in Victoria several months earlier when he and associate Arash Younus were caught with $250,000 worth of drugs.
The other person who died in the Knight Street apartment Tuesday, Yasaman “Yaya” Ghanati, 29, also had two convictions for trafficking in 2014 and 2015. In both cases, she received probation.
Her friends were also expressing love and condolences on Facebook on Thursday, blaming her death on addiction.
“Too many good people taken far too soon. Heaven took another angel home today,” one commented. “You touched so many hearts without knowing it.”
Homicide cops have been called in to investigate after a man’s body was found in a burned vehicle near Squamish earlier this month.
Squamish RCMP Cpl. Sascha Banks said officers responded to a complaint of a burned vehicle on the Cheekye Forest Road just North of Squamish on June 14th.
When police arrived they located a male victim inside the vehicle and contacted the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, Banks said.
“Due to the difficulty of fire investigations and the suspicious nature of the incident IHIT was engaged from the onset,” Banks said. “It has now been determined the male’s death was a homicide and IHIT has taken conduct of the file, in conjunction with the Squamish RCMP and the B.C. Coroners Service.”
Investigators have not yet determined the identity of the man. The vehicle is a 2000 red GMC Yukon XL.
The burned out vehicle is a 2000 GMC Yukon XL similar to this.
“IHIT is requesting anyone with information about the male or the vehicle to contact them,” Banks said.
“This investigation is in the early stages and the risk to the public, if any, has yet to be determined. When more details are gathered and if there is a need to notify the public, a media release will be provided.”
Anyone with information can contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
There was a ruling handed down this week by the judge presiding over the Bacon murder trial allowing evidence obtained in connection with another investigation to be used against Jason McBride in the Bacon case.
At issue were encrypted emails obtained from the BlackBerry of United Nations gangster Amir Eghtesad after his August 2011 arrest. Eghtesad later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers.
McBride had argued that police didn’t have an appropriate warrant to search the device in connection with the charges he faces.
Justice Allan Betton disagreed.
Meanwhile, here are some recent Bacon murder trial stories from colleagues in Kelowna still covering the case:
Evidence from gangster’s phone can be used against accused Bacon killer
Evidence seized from a gangster’s BlackBerry can be used against one of the suspects charged with killing Jonathan Bacon in August 2011.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allan Betton ruled this week that police did not breach the constitutional rights of accused killer Jason McBride when they located incriminating emails on the device of another United Nations gangster.
McBride’s lawyer A.D. Gold had argued that when police searched the BlackBerry of UN member Amir Eghtesad, they were hunting for information about the location of gang fugitives Cory Vallee and Conor D’Monte.
Both men are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Bacon pal Kevin LeClair, as well as conspiracy to kill Bacon and his two brothers, Jarrod and Jamie.
Information from Eghtesad’s BlackBerry helped police find Vallee in Mexico in 2014. He is currently on trial at the Vancouver Law Courts.
Gold said the court order used to search the phone was obtained for the other investigation and that police should have gotten a second warrant to look at emails related to McBride and the Bacon murder probe, dubbed E-Nitrogen.
But Betton disagreed.
“In this case, the RCMP officers did not expand their search of the BlackBerry to find evidence relating to E-Nitrogen,” Betton said. “Rather, they searched through and analyzed evidence lawfully seized, and compiled some of that evidence for the benefit of the E-Nitrogen investigation.”
Betton did not provide details of what evidence against McBride was uncovered from the BlackBerry. An earlier ruling said that some of the encrypted emails on the device are believed to have been written by McBride and Vallee.
McBride and his co-accused, Jujhar Khun-Khun and Michael Jones, are charged with the
Shooting victim Jonathan Bacon.
first-degree murder of Bacon and the attempted murder of four of his associates on Aug. 14, 2011, outside the Kelowna Delta Grand Hotel.
Their trial is continuing at the Kelowna Law Courts.
Vallee’s trial is resuming this week in Vancouver after a three-week break.
Cory Vallee
Eghtesad was arrested on Aug. 21, 2011, and charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons. Police seized his BlackBerry, and 11 months later obtained the search warrant to examine its contents.
At the time, “the police determined that they lacked the technology to break the encryption and/or security features on the device,” Betton said.
“They were, however, able to do so with the benefit of developments in technology by the spring of 2014.”
By that point, Eghtesad had pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced to seven years in jail.
Police were able to get information about Vallee and also determined there was evidence on the BlackBerry related to McBride.
Just because the original search warrant was granted in the Bacon conspiracy investigation, doesn’t mean the evidence uncovered in the Kelowna murder case can’t be used, Betton said.
“As an analogy in a more physical context, if the police obtain a warrant to seize and search a toolbox on reasonable grounds that it will contain stolen tools, but are aware that that search may reveal evidence relating to an assault or murder investigation, for example a murder weapon, it does not follow that the search conducted for stolen tools was unauthorized,” he said.
Two men were injured in Surrey Sunday afternoon after two gunmen opened fire on their white sedan in a quiet residential neighbourhood.
The men made their way to hospital after fleeing in the scene of the shooting in the in the 15300-block of 86th Avenue , according to a news release from Surrey RCMP Staff Sgt. Dale Carr.
Carr said the shooting tool place at 3:00 pm. Officers arrived to find the street littered with shell casings.
“The area has been secured and the Surrey RCMP Serious Crime unit is investigating the incident,” he said.
“Approximately 30 minutes later Surrey RCMP received a report that two males attended a local area hospital with injuries consistent with being shot.”
He said their injuries are not life threatening.
“Investigators believe that this incident is targeted,” Carr said.
Police later found a truck on fire in Cloverdale, which police believe was the vehicle the shooters had been using earlier in the day.
“The vehicle has been seized and will be processed for evidence related to the shooting,” he said.
Surveillance video on the home of an area resident captured the shooting. You can see it in this Global News report.
“Shootings of any kind are a concern to both police and the community, however, a mid-day shooting in a quite family neighbourhood displays disrespect coupled with a complete and utter callous disregard for the safety of the community,” Carr said.
Abbotsford gang cops have made more arrests of suspects linked to the regional gang conflict.
Abbotsford Police Staff Sgt. Judy Bird said in a news release that two young men were picked up for allegedly trafficking fentanyl and other drugs on June 27 after a APD Gang Task Force traffic stop.
She said the accused, Jonathan Abel Flores, 18, and Cody Anthony McClain, 21, appeared in Abbotsford court Friday on “numerous charges.”
She said police found that pair with five cell phones, $2000 cash, a bag containing 70 pre-packaged pieces of fentanyl and cocaine.
She said the arrest is the third in two weeks of “young people connected to the Lower Mainland gang conflict.”
“The Gang Task Force continues to target their efforts on individuals involved in the Lower Mainland gang conflict and to improve public safety through this targeted enforcement,” she said.
Earlier this week, the APD arrested a 17-year-old who now faces drug charges after allegedly possessing fentanyl as well.
And earlier this month, Akshay Sachdeva, 18, was charged with several trafficking counts.
At the time, the APD said Sachdeva was also linked to gang conflict that first started as a drug turf war in the Townline Hill neighbourhood of Abbotsford.
Here is my updated story about David Giles, who was a Hells Angel for 35 years. His status in the club he loved was unclear at the time of his death Saturday in an Abbotsford hospital.
“Normand (Biff) Hamel (left) with fellow Hells Angels Maurice (Mom) Boucher and David (Gyrator) Giles in a photo taken in 1990″ – (SOURCE:”evidence filed in court” )
“Formidable” Hells Angel David Giles dies months after getting record sentence
Retired Vancouver Police biker specialist Brad Stephen remembers the first time he met Hells Angel David Giles in the mid-1990s.
Stephen pulled him over on Dundas in East Vancouver after seeing Giles “peel out” of the parking lot of the old Drake Hotel.
“I remember it vividly,” Stephen recalled Sunday. “I pulled him over and he just oozed hatred for law enforcement. You could just feel the disdain coming from his pores.”
Stephen said he was polite with the powerful biker, welcoming him to the West Coast where he had just relocated.
“I remember him opening his wallet. He wanted to make sure that I saw his platinum American Express,” Stephen said, adding that in the day, the card carried a credit limit of $100,000.
“He wouldn’t engage at all, just stared me down.”
David Giles, East End Hell’s Angels chapter member in 2005.
Giles died in an Abbotsford hospital Saturday, just three months after he was handed a record sentence for his role in a massive international cocaine conspiracy.
B.C. Justice Carol Ross gave the ailing 67-year-old biker an 18-year sentence, minus credit for time served, leaving a net term of just over 11 years.
It was the longest sentence ever given to a B.C. Hells Angel.
Ross said Giles was one of the leaders in a plot to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine into B.C. Undercover cops posing as South American drug exporters had duped Giles and his associates in a sophisticated multinational sting.
The judge rejected a call for a more lenient term from Giles’ lawyer Paul Gill, who said his client was critically ill and needed a liver transplant.
Giles had been incarcerated at the Pacific Institution, acting assistant warden Ronnie Gill said in a statement.
She said Giles’ family had been notified of his passing, as had the police and the B.C. Coroners Service.
While no cause of death was provided, Giles health appeared to decline over his months-long trial in B.C. Supreme Court. He laboured as he walked through the courtroom each morning and breathed heavily in the prisoner’s box.
Giles and associates were convicted last September. He was sentenced on March 31, 2017 after an unsuccessful fight to have the case thrown out due to the length of time it took to get to trial.
Giles had once served on the national executive of the Hells Angels and was close to Montreal HA president and convicted killer Maurice “Mom” Boucher.
He moved from the Montreal chapter to Halifax, then to Vancouver’s East End chapter, before becoming one of the first Kelowna Hells Angels when the bikers expanded with a new chapter there in 2007.
“He was a very formidable underworld figure in the Hells Angels,” Stephen said. “You know that he had influence and that he had cachet within the Hells Angels organization. He had connections back east and all over the world.”
David Giles, left, beside Hells kingpin Maurice Boucher.JOHN MAHONEY / GAZETTE
While still an East End member, Giles and several others were arrested and charged after a major police investigation during which agent Micheal Plante infiltrated the chapter.
Several bikers and associates were convicted, but Giles beat all his charges.
Plante later told Postmedia that he wore a wire into an East End meeting the night the bikers offered him a position in the Hells Angels program.
Giles jokingly said: “You are not going to, like, become a Hells Angel and then quit and write a book about us, are you?”
Giles was again the target of police in the E-Predicate investigation, resulting in his arrest on a series of charges in August 2012 and his conviction four years later.
During the investigation Giles and his associates gave police a $4-million down payment and arranged for an initial shipment of 200 kilograms of cocaine to be delivered to Burnaby warehouse on Aug. 25, 2012
“Considering the nature of this transaction, the quantity of drugs involved, the intention for it to be an ongoing venture, Mr. Giles’ role and Mr. Giles’ personal circumstances, I have concluded that the fit sentence is 18 years,” Ross said.
Ross also noted that Giles had a tough early life — born in Saint John, N.B., to an alcoholic mother who died early. He finished Grade 5 and was then “committed to a reformatory that has become notorious for abuse.”
He went on to foster care and a life of crime, though his last conviction before E-Predicate was in 1984 for trafficking.
Giles spent 35 years of his life as a Hells Angels. But his status with the club was uncertain at the time of his death.
Hells Angels spokesman Ricky Ciarniello did not respond to a Postmedia request for comment.
It is very unusual to have murder charges stayed – or dropped – in B.C. But that’s exactly what happened recently in the case of two Edmonton men who had been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of a man in Richmond almost three years ago.
NOTE: I will be out of the country for three weeks and unable to monitor the REAL SCOOP so am closing comments tonight until I’m back.
Here’s my story:
Crown stays first-degree murder charges in Richmond gang killing
In a rare move, prosecutors have stayed two first-degree murder charges against a pair of Edmonton suspects alleged to have killed a man in Richmond in 2014.
The charges against Sean Jacob Lee Jennings and David Nguyen were quietly tossed out on June 22, 2017, Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin confirmed in an email.
The two had been charged with the first-degree murder of Theoren Gregory Poitras in a gangland shooting near a Richmond elementary school on Oct. 2, 2014.
Jennings, 29, and Nguyen, 26, had been set to go to trial in B.C. Supreme Court starting June 26.
“The decision to stay the charges in this case was made after further information was recently received by the prosecutor with conduct of the file. After reviewing this information and the rest of the file materials the prosecutor concluded the charge-approval standard could no longer be met,” McLaughlin said. “Specifically that there was no longer a substantial likelihood of a conviction based on the available evidence. In these circumstances a stay of proceedings is the appropriate course of action.”
He would not say what information the prosecution received.
Jennings’ lawyer, Andrew Nelson, said Monday that he was notified by the Crown five days before the trial was set to start that the charge was being stayed.
“They haven’t told me exactly why they stayed the charges. I mean I have my theories, but I can’t really speculate on why they did what they did,” Nelson said. “I can say that from what we know of the Crown’s case, we are not all that surprised that they decided to stay the charges.”
Nelson, who’s been practising law for seven years, said more senior colleagues have stressed how unusual it is to have murder charges stayed.
“I haven’t spoken to anybody yet who has had a first-degree murder charge stayed. So yes, it is incredibly rare,” Nelson said.
Sean Jennings.
He said his client “was definitely relieved, but as I said, I don’t think he was all that surprised.”
Jennings is still facing a second-degree murder charge in Alberta, where he is represented by another lawyer, Nelson said.
McLaughlin said a charge can only go forward if “Crown counsel is satisfied there is a strong, solid case of substance to present to the court.”
He said that charges could be stayed at any stage, even on the eve of a trial.
“If, at any point, the prosecutor concludes that the evidentiary standard is no longer met or that a prosecution is no longer required in the public interest a prosecution cannot proceed,” McLaughlin said.
When charges are stayed, they can be laid again if new evidence surfaces.
But Nelson said he doesn’t expect that to happen because of the 2016 Supreme Court of Canada decision laying out time limits for trials to be concluded.
David Nguyen.
“I am quite confident this is the end of it. But of course anything can happen and you have already seen that in this case not following the normal course,” he said.
Poitras, 25, was found face down lying in his own blood near RC Talmey Elementary School after neighbours called police about hearing shots in the area.
The Edmonton man, who police said had gang links, had been living in Richmond for several months before his slaying.
Nguyen was charged with the murder in May 2016. Jennings was charged in March 2015.
But both were earlier identified by police in B.C. as “persons of interest” in a Surrey home invasion and shooting that took place in September 2014.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, which worked with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and Edmonton police on the case, did not respond to a request for comment.
Both Jennings and Nguyen were sued by a woman last summer who said she was tortured during a violent home invasion in Edmonton in July 2014.
The woman alleged that she was burned with cigarettes and nearly lost two of her toes when she was struck with an axe.
Nelson said he had read about the civil suit in the media, but did not have any information on whether the suit was ongoing.
After almost three weeks in South America, I am back at work as of today and the Real Scoop is open again for commenting.
My feature on the lack of a criminal organization conviction against the B.C. Hells Angels ran while I was away so I am posting it here in case anyone wants to comment.
The civil forfeiture trial against the Hells Angels has now been delayed until next April, which will be more than 10 years since the Nanaimo clubhouse was first raided by police in November 2007.
Lack of ‘criminal’ designation for Hells Angels in B.C. allows biker gang to flourish
On a recent Wednesday evening in Kelowna, a row of Harleys was parked outside the Hells Angels clubhouse on Ellis Street.
The biker gang was holding its weekly “church” meeting at the clubhouse, despite the fact the B.C. Civil Forfeiture office is fighting in court to get the nondescript stucco building, across from a log yard, forfeited to taxpayers.
The government case to seize the Kelowna, Nanaimo and (Vancouver) East End Hells Angels clubhouses as sites of criminal activity has been winding its way through B.C. Supreme Court for almost a decade.
VANCOUVER, BC — A Vancouver police officer keeps an eye on the East End Hells Angels clubhouse on East Georgia in Vancouver in 2012. WAYNE LEIDENFROST / VANCOUVER SUN
It started on Nov. 9, 2007, when Mounties broke down the door of the little white building on Victoria Avenue in Nanaimo that housed the Hells Angels clubhouse there.
Cops seized decorative plaques, posters, bar stools and clothing emblazoned with the infamous death’s head logo. They also took Hells Angels documents, including some related to police activities, counter-surveillance efforts and intelligence the bikers had gathered.
About 50 RCMP officers raided Nanaimo’s Hell’s Angels club house in 2007.ROBERT BARRON
A decade and counting
Thus began the legal odyssey that might finally determine whether a B.C. judge believes the Hells Angels are a criminal organization.
The civil trial was supposed to begin on May 1, but was adjourned again until April 23, 2018.
The government’s amended claim against the biker gang, filed in March, alleges that if the Hells Angels get to keep the clubhouses they will be used “to enhance the ability of a criminal organization, namely the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, to commit indictable offences.”
The Angels have filed a counter-claim, seeking to get B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Act declared unconstitutional.
Police and government officials have long held that the Hells Angels are the most powerful and sophisticated criminal organization in B.C.
Lack of success
But prosecutors have so far been unsuccessful in getting the biker gang convicted on any criminal organization charges in this province, despite four separate attempts in B.C. courts in the past decade.
Hells Angel David Giles died recently in prison.PNG
The latest misfire came last year when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross dismissed criminal organization charges against Hells Angel David Giles and several associates.
She had already ruled to limit the testimony of Jacques Lemieux, a retired Mountie whom the Crown called as an expert on outlaw motorcycle gangs to support the criminal organization charges.
Ross said Lemieux’s expertise was out-of-date and lacked supporting documentation. He retired in 2008, but was still being used in court years later.
“Mr. Lemieux was first qualified to testify as an expert witness in 2000; however, it appears that nothing changed in relation to his preparation and maintenance of a file relating to his opinion after that time,” Ross said.
She said that Lemieux would not be able to testify about his view that “the organization’s main purpose is to facilitate the criminal activities of its members” or other opinions about the club’s nefarious origins.
It was a crushing blow to the criminal organization part of the Crown’s case, despite the fact that Giles, Hells Angel Bryan Oldham and their associates were later convicted of other charges related to a large international cocaine conspiracy stemming from an undercover police probe.
Giles died on July 1, just three months after he began serving a record-long sentence handed to him by Ross in March.
Giles’ lawyer Paul Gill said in an interview that he knew there were problems with the Crown’s expert when Lemieux testified about stumbling on binders of supporting material in his garage.
“It was like he was moving boxes around and he found these binders,” Gill said. “It was dated stuff. So he had this ossified frozen-in-time canned pitch to give and the justification was, well, it has worked in the past, I have been qualified all these other times.”
He said Lemieux should have had more current experience and an up-to-date curriculum vitae.
“I think the ground has shifting in terms of what the court expects,” Gill said.
He said Giles was concerned about a possible criminal organization conviction.
“They (the Crown) treated this as one of the biggest drug cases out of their office and maybe it was. And they certainly got him good, but I was very worried that the ‘crim org’ count was going to essentially bury him alive,” Gill said a few days before his client died of liver disease.
Gill said it was clear that the focus of the Crown’s case was the Hells Angels in a sting orchestrated by the undercover cops posing as South American drug brokers.
“It was really about the Hells Angels and their role in this stuff and they worked the file with that at the forefront,” Gill said. “That was the common denominator knit through the whole thing.”
Nathalie Houle, who speaks for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said she couldn’t comment on the dismissal of the criminal organization charges in the recent case.
“The court rulings in previous cases speak for themselves in terms of the reasons for dismissal of particular charges, the limiting of testimony to be given by expert witnesses, and the elements of criminal organization offences,” she said. “It would not be appropriate … to engage in out-of-court discussion about particular individuals or entities and their status as or association with a criminal organization.”
Earlier attempts
Lemieux was also called as an expert witness a decade ago when prosecutors had three B.C. cases stemming from an earlier $10-million investigation into the Hells Angels dubbed E-Pandora.
In the first, Giles and two other associates, David Revell and Richard Rempel, were charged with trafficking and possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking in association with a criminal organization.
On March 27, 2008, Giles was acquitted on all counts, dooming the criminal organization case, though Revell and Rempel were convicted of trafficking.
In the second case, a jury heard months of evidence from E-Pandora about the criminality of the Hells Angels before convicting four bikers on a series of charges on July 13, 2009.
But the jury also acquitted the Angels quartet on all the criminal organization counts, prompting B.C. Crown counsel Mark Levitz to say at the time “it’s unfortunate the jury wasn’t able to conclude what judges in other parts of Canada found — that the Hells Angels is a criminal organization.”
In the third care, Martha Devlin, then a federal prosecutor, didn’t even get to introduce her evidence in November 2009 that two Hells Angels were part of or working for a criminal organization.
Justice Peter Leask granted a defence motion to dismiss the counts because of the jury’s ruling in the July case.
Commitment roller-coaster
To date, judges in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec have ruled the Hells Angels are a criminal organization.
Brad Stephen, a retired Vancouver police biker specialist, has no doubt that the B.C. bikers are a criminal organization.
“The Hells Angels are involved in every aspect of criminal enterprise in British Columbia, specifically the drug enterprise, because they control a good quantity of the product and they control territory and they have incredible international contacts and influence,” Stephen said in an interview.
And while many Hells Angels have been convicted of other charges in B.C. in recent years, Stephen thinks a criminal organization conviction has eluded police and prosecutors because of a failure to groom new police experts on the biker gang.
“We have not had a sustained, resourced and committed long-standing effort against the Hells Angels in B.C.,” he said. “It has been a roller-coaster ride of commitment, and of success and failure.”
Hells Angels gather outside the East End clubhouse in Vancouver in 2014.NICK PROCAYLO / PNG
He said in other Canadian jurisdictions, law enforcement agencies “have committed to sponsoring a particular police officer to educate himself to go through all the protocols in order to become an expert.”
“British Columbia has been unable to have any succession planning with regards to biker experts,” Stephen said.
He said that in order for police officers to get promoted, and thus earn more, they need a varied resumé. So they transfer to different units to gain a wider range of experience.
Officers don’t always see the benefit of staying long-term in specialty units, like the one investigating outlaw motorcycle gangs in B.C., he said.
But he believes the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a multi-police-force anti-gang unit in B.C., is now developing a new long-term strategy targeting the bikers, which he applauds.
“When you drill down to do a quality investigation, a quality prosecution, you need police that are talented in writing affidavits. You need police officers that are talented in handling informants and agents, and police officers that are technically sound in all the latest gadgetry,” Stephen said.
“In order to attract police officers to these sections, you need respectful leaders. You need leaders that are progressive, innovative, that want to really put bad guys in jail — leaders that will take risks, that won’t necessarily take the easy road. That attracts quality police officers.”
There have been a lot of changes in the Hells Angels since the Nanaimo civil forfeiture case was filed in 2007.
• Longtime Nanaimo Angel Robert (Fred) Widdifield, named in the original suit, has since been convicted of extortion and theft.
• Several defendants in the later suit filed against the Kelowna and East End chapters have also now been convicted of criminal charges. Giles, also a named defendant, is dead.
The Hells Angels lead lawyer in the forfeiture case, Joe Arvay, declined to comment for this story. The Hells Angels spokesman, Rick Ciarniello, did not respond to a request for an interview.
Phil Tawtel, the director of the B.C. Civil Forfeiture office, said in an email that he was also unable to comment.
The lack of a criminal organization designation in B.C. has meant the Hells Angels have continued to flourish here, Stephen said.
The Hells Angels have been growing in B.C., despite police efforts. This property on 8th Ave in Langley is now being rented by West Point Hells Angels.PNG
They have opened two new chapters in the past five years — the most recent, Hardside, in March. The West Point chapter, which opened in 2012, recently rented a house on acreage in south Langley, which they are using for a clubhouse, Postmedia has learned.
There are now 121 Hells Angels in B.C., up from about 100 three years ago.
“The Hells Angels know the gains to be made far outweigh what the consequences would be here in B.C. When there is an expansion, that is a slap in the face to law enforcement,” Stephen said.
He is also concerned about the increasing number of “puppet clubs” — biker gangs that also wear three-piece patches like the Hells Angels and that seek permission from the older gang before starting up.
“When you go over to the (Vancouver) Island, it is infested with outlaw motorcycle gangs. It is expanding like crazy. So why are they expanding? They see the market. The market is there. The punishment or the consequences are such that it has become a very attractive arena for bikers to thrive in.”
I have written a few stories over the last two years about a trio of longshoremen brothers. Alexis was convicted in California in 2008 of possessing 107 kilos of cocaine. When released, he got his job back at the Port of Vancouver. Youngest brother Arun, who has no criminal record, just lost his court battle to get a security clearance to work on the waterfront. Now middle brother Alvin has also been sentenced in the U.S. for cross-border smuggling.
Vancouver longshoreman sentenced to seven years in U.S. jail
Alvin Randhawa followed his elder brother Alexie onto the Vancouver waterfront where both siblings worked for years as longshoremen.
Now Alvin is following Alexie into a U.S. prison after the younger man was sentenced in Buffalo, New York, Wednesday to just over seven years in jail.
Alvin Randhawa pleaded guilty last August to conspiracy to export cocaine from the U.S. into Canada. Other charges against him were dropped.
His plea agreement at the time said he faced a minimum U.S. jail term of 10 years.
But U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny agreed Wednesday to an 87-month sentence, followed by another three years of supervised release for Randhawa.
Skretny sealed several documents related to the sentencing hearing.
The seven-year term is two years longer than the 60-month sentence handed to Alexie in 2008 after he was caught in California with 107 kilograms of cocaine linked to another cross-border smuggling operation.
Alexie served four years before returning to Canada and his job as a Vancouver dockworker.
Alvin, now 36, admitted last year that from July 2010 until May 2011, he conspired with others to possess and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine in the United States.
A large shipment of cocaine was seized from his Canadian group on Sept. 8, 2010, his plea agreement documents said, after which he and two others “began planning future smuggling runs from the United States to Canada.”
“These plans, which included retrofitting a false compartment into a tractor-trailer for the purpose of smuggling cocaine, resulted in a smuggling run in May 2011,” said the documents. “Randhawa recruited an individual from Vancouver, British Columbia, to complete the false compartment.”
The person who made the compartment is not named in the U.S. court documents and has since died.
U.S. authorities later intercepted the tractor-trailer with 26 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside to be distributed to “customers” of Alvin Randhawa and his associates.
Investigators believe the organization used several bridges, including ones in the Buffalo-Niagara area, to smuggle about 2,000 kilograms of cocaine. One conspirator had a warehouse rented in California where the cocaine was placed inside the made-in-Vancouver compartment.
The Randhawa brothers have a third sibling, Arun, who is also a longshoreman.
He lost a Federal Court battle in June over a government decision to deny him security clearance on the docks because of his siblings’ crimes.
Arun Randhawa had argued that it was unfair to deny him the special security pass simply because of his brothers’ crimes.
He said he has had minimal contact with Alvin and Alexie over the years and that he is a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record.
But Federal Court Judge René Leblanc said that his brothers’ “serious criminal activities” were relevant “to the security of marine transportation.”
“Because of his association to his brothers, there were reasonable grounds to suspect that there is a risk … that he be suborned to commit an act or to assist or abet any person to commit an act that might constitute a risk to marine transportation.”
Transport Canada filed a police report in its case against Arun which said that his brothers were members of “an organized crime group involved in cross border narcotics smuggling” that had links with “the Hells Angels, the Japanese mafia, and Chinese criminals.”
Leblanc ruled that the government had “a rational basis for holding a reasonable suspicion of subornation and potential risk to marine transport security.”
Arun Randhawa can continue to work on the docks, but will not be able to access restricted areas or perform certain tasks without the security clearance.
Kevin Kerfoot had all the advantages growing up on the Lower Mainland. But the 53-year-old Surrey man still decided on a life of crime.
And now he will spend 13 years in a U.S. prison after being sentenced Thursday in Seattle.
Interestingly, Kerfoot was identified in U.S. court documents as the likely mastermind of a targeted hit on a witness in the case, though he has never been charged in the shooting.
Fortunately the man survived and continued to cooperate with U.S. authorities.
Surrey man likely set up botched murder of witness against him: U.S. court documents
Kevin Donald Kerfoot, 53, has entered guilty pleas to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and ecstasy, just months after he was finally handed over to U.S. authorities./ PNG
A Surrey man who pleaded guilty to leading a cross-border drug smuggling operation likely arranged the attempted murder of a witness in the case, new U.S. court documents reveal.
Kevin Donald Kerfoot, 53, was sentenced in Seattle Thursday to 13 years in jail after entering a guilty plea in April following an unsuccessful 10-year fight to remain in Canada.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly said Kerfoot “was involved with a tremendous amount of drugs.”
A sentencing memo filed in the case also linked Kerfoot with the attempted murder of Reg Purdom, a key witness against Kerfoot and a former associate who was critically wounded in a shooting in Kelowna last August.
The U.S. sentencing memo says “it appears that Kerfoot decided to have (Purdom) killed in a last-ditch attempt to silence him before Kerfoot’s extradition could be completed.”
The alleged shooter, Tyrone Reynolds McGee, is facing seven charges, including attempted murder and possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm.
U.S. officials said in their sentencing memo that before the shooting, Purdom “had fallen back into drug use and drug trafficking, including with Kerfoot.”
“On August 2, 2016 — approximately two weeks after Kerfoot lost his intermediate appeal of his extradition — Kerfoot asked (Purdom) to go meet with another drug trafficker to pick up narcotics in a parking lot in British Columbia,” the documents state.
While Purdom was waiting in his vehicle “a man on a bicycle pulled up next to him and shot him seven to eight times with a semi-automatic pistol equipped with a silencer,” the documents state.
“He managed to put his vehicle in gear and run down the shooter before he could reload. The shooter also survived and is pending trial in Canada for the attempted murder. According to the RCMP, he has refused to make any statement about whom he was working for, and the investigation is ongoing.”
Purdom’s evolving role as a witness in the U.S. case against his former friend has been the subject of several court rulings in B.C.
He implicated Kerfoot in statements to U.S. agents after getting caught on Oct. 5, 2005, with a bag containing more than 24,000 ecstasy pills.
Hours earlier, Purdom drove a powerboat across the border into Washington to pick up 41 kilos of cocaine and drop off the black bag full of ecstasy.
What he didn’t know was that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had been tipped off and had already arrested another man involved, Randall Canupp, who agreed to cooperate.
Undercover agents accompanied Canupp, with the cocaine, to meet Purdom.
After Purdom’s arrest, he also agreed to co-operate, calling some of Kerfoot’s U.S. contacts to arrange cocaine deliveries while the agents listened in. He also identified Kerfoot as the mastermind of the drug smuggling operation.
Charges were laid against Kerfoot on July 20, 2006, a month before Purdom pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 54 months in jail.
After Purdom returned to Canada, he signed an affidavit recanting his statements against Kerfoot.
The U.S. sentencing memo says that after Purdom was shot, he “recanted his recantation” and “re-affirmed that Kerfoot was the leader of the smuggling operation.”
“He admitted to submitting false sworn testimony in the Canadian extradition proceeding, at Kerfoot’s request. He also confirmed that Kerfoot had offered him cash and employment opportunities (including in the drug trafficking business) after his return to Canada in return for signing the two false recantation affidavits,” the memo says.
Purdom also said “that Kerfoot made a not-so-veiled threat against him.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Vince Lombardi said in the memo that “Kerfoot repeatedly suborned perjury” in addition to “likely” ordering the hit on Purdom.
But he also said there is no direct evidence implicating Kerfoot in the shooting.
“Indeed, if there was direct evidence, either the Canadian or U.S. governments would likely have charged him for that offence,” he said.
“However, circumstantial evidence does suggest Kerfoot did order the hit.”
Lombardi said Kerfoot “appears to have had every advantage growing up,” yet still became a criminal.
“His parents, by his own account, were loving and provided for him. His brother is a wildly successful business person, who also provided Kerfoot with many opportunities to make a lawful living. Kerfoot appears to have wilfully chosen a life of crime,” Lombardi’s memo says.
His brother, Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot, declined through a spokesman to comment.
U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes said in a statement that Kevin Kerfoot couldn’t avoid justice despite his delay tactics in the case.
“This defendant tried to avoid facing the music by getting people to lie during his Canadian extradition proceedings,” she said. “Perhaps he thought he could fight a war of attrition — but this office and our law enforcement partners are committed to holding leaders of drug trafficking organizations responsible for the poison they spread both here and in Canada.”
I have written a few stories over the last few months about non-Canadians with criminal records facing deportation. Some are serious criminals who garner little public sympathy. Others have more minor criminal records or mental health issues, but are still getting picked up due to tougher rules imposed by the previous Conservative government in 2013.
This man has just won an appeal of the sentence he got for trafficking due to his immigration status.
Convicted trafficker wins sentence appeal over deportation concern
The B.C. Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence of a convicted cocaine trafficker so he won’t be automatically deported to his native Brazil.
B.C.’s highest court said the trial judge who sentenced Iury Martins De Aquino to 12 months in jail didn’t factor in “the collateral immigration consequences of imposing a sentence exceeding six months.”
And Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon said the trial judge also erred by underestimating the 10-year-period that De Aquino lived crime-free in B.C.
She set aside the year-long term and imposed a sentence of six months less a day, followed by 12 months’ probation.
When non-Canadians get sentenced to six months or more, they are subject to a removal order with few avenues of appeal.
De Aquino, a permanent resident and father of B.C.-born twins, was in a minor car accident at Victoria in July 2013.
“Just before police arrived on the scene, a bystander saw Mr. De Aquino place his hand into some nearby bushes,” Fenlon noted. “When the police checked that spot, they located 26 small bags, each containing 0.75 grams of cocaine.”
The coke had a street value of between $1,500 and $2,000.
There was no evidence presented at his trial — such as cellphones or cash — indicating that De Aquino was involved in a dial-a-dope ring. The trial judge concluded he was likely transporting or delivering the cocaine.
At the time of De Aquino’s sentencing, possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking carried a mandatory minimum sentence of a year if the offender had a similar conviction within the previous decade. The trial judge miscalculated the offence date of De Aquino’s earlier conviction for marijuana trafficking and imposed the year-long sentence.
Letters were submitted on behalf of De Aquino, calling his crime out of character and describing him as a committed family man employed full-time as a concrete finisher.
Fenlon granted De Aquino’s appeal because she said “the trial judge in the present case failed to consider two relevant circumstances: first, the almost 10-year gap since Mr. De Aquino’s last offence, and second, the collateral immigration consequences of a sentence exceeding six months.”
“In my view, the substantial period without convictions was a factor that should have been taken into account by the sentencing judge. It was a relevant circumstance both to Mr. De Aquino’s prospects for rehabilitation and the weight to be given to protection of the public,” Fenlon said. “The two errors I have identified had a material impact on the sentence imposed and have led to a sentence that is unfit in the circumstances.”
I had a chance Friday to interview new Solicitor General Mike Farnworth. He spoke about making gang violence a top priority for police and undertaking a review of all existing programs to see if changes are needed.
He said he wants to see the Surrey WRAP program expanded to other communities.
Gang violence top priority for B.C.’s new Solicitor General
B.C.’s new Solicitor General wants to review the province’s anti-gang programs to see if changes are needed to more effectively battle brazen gun violence.
Mike Farnworth, the NDP’s longtime critic of the public safety portfolio, said the public is understandably concerned by the ongoing violence.
In recent weeks, there have been several shootings in Surrey, Abbotsford and Vancouver, as well as a targeted murder in Chilliwack.
“It is a critical issue in the Lower Mainland and at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you are — whether you are in Surrey or Vancouver or Pouce Coupe or Prince Rupert — you deserve to feel safe in your home,” Farnworth told Postmedia News. “People deserve to be safe and feel safe in their communities.”
He plans to sit down with police “and look at the programs we have got in place.”
“Are they doing what we hoped they would do? Can we make them better?”
Solicitor General Mike Farnworth.HANDOUT/NDP / PNG
Farnworth also wants to look at where the previous government committed additional resources over the last year.
“I want to look at where they are going, how the police feel about what was announced. Are they the right resources?” Farnworth said.
“I will be talking to communities about the specific issues that they are facing. Are they seeing emerging gang violence in communities or emerging gang issues in communities?”
And in cities like Surrey and Vancouver where there has been gang issues for years, Farnworth said he wants to meet with municipal leaders to hear their concerns.
“Do we have enough resources in terms of policing and boots on the ground for example and are they being used in the right way?” he asked.
“I think in many ways, it is like bringing a fresh pair of eyes to the programs that are in place and the resources that are in place.”
The NDP campaigned on expanding Surrey’s WRAP program for at-risk students.
Farnworth said he would like to see the WRAP program implemented in other cities around B.C. like Abbotsford and Kelowna.
“We need to be looking at how do we deal with those who are in gangs now. The violence that is ongoing now. But we also need to look at how to break that cycle at the beginning through prevention and programs that are needed to dissuade people from getting into these gangs in the first place,” the longtime Port Coquitlam MLA said.
His new ministry will be working with the federal government on marijuana legalization, which will “get the black market out of” the pot business, he said.
Farnworth said he would like to see a more rigorous “follow the money” approach to tackling organized crime in B.C.
“Is there an opportunity to do a review focused on following the money … with the use of auditors in terms of tackling organized crime and using the tax system. That is a tool we can use. Are there are ways we can do it more effectively?”
While the street-level violence may disturb the public most, it’s critical to focus on “the bigger picture in terms of organized crime,” Farnworth said.
“They are related. There is the street level, which is causing problems, and then there is the embedded organized crime, which is just as insidious and they are evolving to take advantage of laws that change or changes in technology. Our battle against organized crime needs to evolve as well.”
Postmedia News recently reported the challenges B.C. prosecutors have faced in getting the Hells Angels designated a criminal organization in court.
“We need to get on that. We need to find ways of making that happen,” Farnworth said. “And that means sitting down with police and going OK, what do we have to do to make this happen? How do we do it?”
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