The charges are mounting against members of the Red Scorpion gang and their associates.

Delta Police announced Tuesday that seven men linked to the notorious gang are facing dozens of additional charges stemming from an investigation into a dial-a-dope operation in the city.

Some of those charged, including high-ranking Red Scorpion Kyle Latimer, were also arrested last week in a Vancouver Police Department-led investigation into several Lower Mainland gangs involved in the drug trade.

The two investigations have resulted in 186 charges in total.

Delta Police started “Project Green Planet” in March 2017 after learning about the dial-a-dope line based in Richmond, which was supplying product to South Delta and Vancouver.

Undercover Delta officers made several drug purchases and eventually identified the line managers and suppliers to be Red Scorpion gang members and associates.

“As we’ve conveyed to the community in the past, we are primarily interested in targeting the drug traffickers and not the drug users.  If we can break the illicit drug trade supply lines, even if it’s only temporarily, we can save lives and reduce connected property crime stemming from drug addiction,” Delta Staff Sgt. Heath Newton said in a news release.

Search warrants were executed last fall in Richmond and Burnaby, resulting in the seizure of $50,000 to $100,000 worth of street level drugs, including fentanyl, cocaine and heroin.

Also seized were two semi-automatic rifle, two pistols, bulletproof vest, an axe and a machete.

Four luxury vehicles, $52,000 in cash and $30,000 were also seized.

Related

• Police probe leads to dozens of charges against Red Scorpion, Kang gangsters

Latimer is facing 19 charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking, firearms offences and breach of conditions.

His fellow Red Scorpion members Jacob Angelo Pereira, 25, and Anduele Jonathon Pikeintio, 22, each face 14 new charges. Each was also charged in the VPD-led investigation last week.

Red Scorpion Khaadim Kwame Coddett, 26, is charged with 19 counts for trafficking, possession of firearms and breach of conditions.

And Red Scorpion associate Billie Onare Kim, 33, is facing 14 charges, while James Albert Souliere and Darryl Rick Whitson each face several trafficking counts.

Police are looking for Pikeintio, Kim, Souliere and Whitson.

Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord said the arrests “will have a significant impact on gangs operating in the Metro Vancouver area.”

“Yes, gangsters and their associates may reap some short-term profits. But we want the public, and those who may be considering getting involved in gangs, to know that the end is inevitable. Whether it’s by violence through a rival gang, or through the justice system, you will be held accountable for your criminal activity,” he said.

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The trial of gangster Jamie Bacon on a charge of counselling to commit murder has been delayed again.

Bacon had been set to go to trial on the charge, which dates back to New Year’s Eve 2008, next month at the Vancouver Law Courts.

But Dan McLaughlin, of the B.C. Prosecution Service, said the trial will now start on Nov. 5.

“The trial was adjourned as it became apparent that the current trial date was no longer viable as a result of ongoing pre-trial issues,” McLaughlin said.

Bacon’s trial on the charge of directing someone to shoot a former associate was originally set for April 2018, but was then adjourned to September by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge.

Bacon has been in custody since April 3, 2009, when he was arrested and charged in the Surrey Six murder case. Bacon was originally charged with plotting the murder of gang rival Corey Lal and Lal’s first-degree murder on Oct. 19, 2007 in a Surrey high-rise.

Hitmen from Bacon’s Red Scorpion gang — Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston — were convicted of forcing their way into a penthouse apartment in the Balmoral Tower and executing Lal, his brother Michael and drug dealers Ryan Bartolomeo and Eddie Narong, as well as bystanders Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg. The hit men were accompanied by a man who can only be identified as Person X.

The Surrey Six charges that Bacon faced were stayed by a judge on Dec. 1, 2017, based on information presented at a secret hearing. The Crown is appealing that ruling and will next be in court on Oct. 26.

Earlier this year, Bacon applied for bail on the counselling charge, but was denied. Reasons for the bail ruling are covered by a publication ban.

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A West Vancouver man associated with the Hells Angels has been shot to death in Mexico, Postmedia News has learned.

Guiseppe Bugge, 42, died in a hail of bullets Thursday night at a posh shopping centre in an exclusive neighbourhood of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Local news reports said three vehicles pulled up about 9:30 p.m. and between eight and 10 men jumped out and fired at Bugge, who has a long history of fraud in B.C.

More than 140 bullets were fired at him, killing him instantly and injuring one of his Mexican-American associates and two bystanders.

Jalisco prosecutor Raúl Sánchez Jiménez said at a news conference that the state government had asked the Canadian and American consulates for information about Bugge and the injured man.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said Bugge is known to police in this province.

“He is associated with the Hells Angels and involved in drug trafficking,” Winpenny said.

Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that the federal government is providing “consular services” to the victim’s family.

“We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian citizen who has been murdered in Mexico,” Brittany Fletcher said in an email.

“Consular officials are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information. Due to the provisions of the Privacy Act, no further information can be disclosed.”

The Canadian government has issued advisories warning people not to travel to several northern and western states in Mexico “due to the high levels of violence and organized crime.”

But the state of Jalisco, where the city of Guadalajara is located, is not under an advisory.

Bugge had been living in a West Vancouver house with a 2018 assessed value of more than $5 million.

In March 2018, he incorporated a company called G.S. Crypto Currency Ltd. with the B.C. corporate registry. He was listed as the sole director.

In July, Bugge and his new company sued the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce after it froze his corporate account to do an investigation of a transaction.

“As a business, Crypto exchanges currency for a digital currency known as Bitcoin,” Bugge’s suit says.

The court documents say Bugge was notified that his account was under investigation on June 4, 2018 over a $134,408 US cheque he took from a customer to buy Bitcoin.

He filed his suit days later, saying in it that “Bugge was not prepared to tolerate an indefinite block of the accounts.”

He won a default court order to release the funds on July 5 because CIBC filed no response, Bugge’s court documents state.

Bugge also has a second company called GSSK Rare Coins and Paper Money, which he started in 2013.

And he has operated a number of moving companies over the years that were the subject of many customer complaints and at least one criminal investigation.

In April, 2005, a truck belonging to Bugge’s Student Pro Movers was seized by U.S. authorities at the Blaine border crossing, where agents found 285 kilograms of marijuana stuffed inside. The driver of the truck was arrested, charged and later pled guilty to smuggling.

Around the same time, customers of Bugge’s moving company from as far away as Alaska and Texas were reporting their goods had never arrived. One customer, who finally retrieved her property from a storage facility, noticed the lining on her couch was slit.

In June 2005, Bugge was kidnapped in what police described as a drug trade-linked extortion.

He later showed up at a stranger’s door assaulted, handcuffed in plastic straps and suffering from cuts.

Three men later pled guilty to unlawful confinement, but other charges against them were dropped.

Also in 2005, Bugge was cited by the B.C. Financial Institution Commission for selling insurance to customers of his moving business without authorization and ordered to discontinue the practice.

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I got a tip about this murder in Guadalajara late Thursday of a man well-known to police on the Lower Mainland.

Guiseppe Bugge, also known as Benny, had been linked to the drug trade in B.C. for years before he was targeted in Mexico.

I don’t really know much about Bugge, except what I learned from our archives and court searches. If anyone has more information, or a photo, please email me at kbolan@postmedia.com

Here’s my story:

A young Surrey man is facing several charges after officers from B.C.’s anti-gang agency spotted a stolen car in Surrey and attempted to pull it over.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said the officers saw the vehicle on the evening of Aug. 17 and followed it into a gas station.

The man fled, driving erratically. Police contacted RCMP’s Air 1 helicopter, which tracked the vehicle to 64th Avenue and 152nd Street in Surrey.

The suspect was seen running from the area. Police dogs tracked him to a location on 62A Avenue, where he was arrested, Winpenny said in a news release.

“In an attempt to evade arrest, the male sprayed the police officer and his police dog with bear spray,” she said. “Subsequent to the arrest, members seized a quantity of a variety of alleged illegal drugs in the possession of the male.”

Adam San-Aye, 21, has been charged with assaulting a police officer, dangerous operation of a vehicle, fleeing police and possession, as well as riving while prohibited.

“This arrest shows the daily commitment to tackle gang violence of the CFSEU-BC, and successfulness of an integrated approach to working with our police partners,” Winpenny said.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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My colleague Keith Fraser covered the first day Thursday of the sentencing hearing of the young man who tried to kill a Hells Angel at Vancouver Airport in 2015.

The Crown is seeking a 12-year sentence for Knowah Ferguson, for the failed attempt on the life of Damion Ryan in the food court.

Interesting new information that came out at the hearing was that Ferguson was working for the United Nations gang, though the name of the person who hired him has not been determined. At the airport near Ryan during the attempt was Thomas Duong, who was convicted earlier this year for attempting to kill Matin Pouyan. 

Duong had apparently lured Ryan to the scene.

I am at the Ferguson sentencing hearing today, though the judge is expected to reserve her decision until a later date.

Ferguson’s lawyer Jonathan Desbarats is asking for a seven-year sentence for his client, who he said was just “17 when he embarked upon this path.”

More to come….

Here’s Keith’s story: 

The night before Matthew Navas-Rivas was shot to death in east Vancouver last month, he was enjoying himself with other members of the Brothers Keepers gang on a boat cruise around the Vancouver waterfront.

Postmedia has obtained photos of the cruise, where Navas-Rivas chatted up other gang members and guests, shirt off, tattoos visible.

While Navas-Rivas appeared to be at ease with his new associates, he had admitted to others in the preceding months that he knew he was in danger.

His murder near Nanaimo and Cambridge streets on July 25 was likely related to a dispute between gangsters incarcerated in B.C. prisons that has spilled out onto city streets, a Postmedia investigation has found.

And he is not the conflict’s only victim.

Postmedia has learned that Navas-Rivas was the target of a shooting on Jan. 13 this year that killed 15-year-old Alfred Wong.

While Navas-Rivas escaped injury that night, some of the gunshots hit Wong’s family car as he and his parents drove along Broadway. No one has yet been charged in the murder of the gifted Coquitlam student.

Alfred Wong, 15, was killed when he was struck by a stray bullet while riding in a car with his family after a night out on Jan. 13.

Vancouver police Supt. Mike Porteous said he couldn’t comment on the case because it is an ongoing investigation.

But sources have confirmed that not only was Navas-Rivas targeted last January, his close associate Troy McKinnon was murdered hours earlier in Nanaimo.

Both men were associated with the Wolf Pack coalition until a splintering in the alliance led to internal violence.

Some of that violence occurred in federal prisons, including two separate stabbings of Wolf Pack killer Dean Wiwchar.

Wiwchar was attacked in Kent Institution last November, allegedly by inmates associated with McKinnon and Navas-Rivas.

Dean Wiwchar, charged in the 2012 Sandip Duhre murder.

One of those charged with aggravated assault in the attack on Wiwchar, according to court documents, is Cody Sleigh, who was convicted in the same 2011 kidnapping case that sent McKinnon to prison.

Wiwchar, who was convicted of the first-degree murder of a Toronto man in June 2012, has also been charged with the January 2012 murder of B.C. gangster Sandip Duhre in the Sheraton Wall Centre, but has yet to go to trial in that slaying.

Wiwchar has since been transferred to a federal prison in Alberta, where he was recently stabbed again.

Porteous said any splintering that has happened in the Wolf Pack is not among the leadership.

“The higher ups are quiet. The lower you go, the more volatile you see it, and the more fracturing and the more unstable you see it,” Porteous said.

Sometimes the violence relates to incidents in prison or pretrial jail, he said. Sometimes it relates to the fact that some gang members are in custody while others are running their drug lines on the outside. And sometimes it’s just a personal beef.

“When one of their guys gets slighted or he gets threatened or he gets hot-buttered or stabbed or whatever inside jail, a threat will get made to whoever that guy thinks did it, and then you will start seeing this violence,” Porteous said.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said some lower-level gangsters get attacked in prison because rivals want to retaliate against gang leaders they can’t reach.

“You are a captive audience in there,” he said.

When some gang members are in jail, their supposed friends on the outside sometimes make power moves, leading to violence within the group, Houghton said.

“So the game of thrones is really on when those people are no longer outside to pull the strings or be the puppet masters of their crews … and it is a free-for-all to see who can take over,” he said. “It is a backstabbing, chaotic, paranoia-filled world.”

Gang violence in federal prisons and provincial jails has been an ongoing problem.

Correctional Service Canada official Esther Mailhot said in an email Friday that the department “continues to work diligently to ensure the safety and security of federal institutions.”

“Prison violence is not tolerated. Disciplinary action is taken, and in some cases criminal charges are laid against offenders involved in violent incidents,” she said.

She said institutions carefully manage “gangs, organized-crime members and affiliates, as well as incompatible offenders.”

Both McKinnon, the Nanaimo victim, and Navas-Rivas, who will be remembered at a memorial in New Brighton Park on Saturday, were identified in parole decisions as having been involved in a number of violent attacks inside federal prisons.

In McKinnon’s case, the board noted in a decision last year that he had “been segregated on six occasions for various reasons, including assaults on other inmates.”

He maintained gang affiliations while in jail and was believed to be “involved in the institutional drug sub-culture,” the parole decision said.

Because there was concern McKinnon might be hunted once released, the board decided not to place him in a halfway house both because of “the danger that would exist for staff and other residents” and because he would be easy to find “for those wanting to cause (him) harm.”

Instead, the parole board ordered him to live on his own with a curfew, an electronic monitoring bracelet and other conditions that in the end couldn’t save him.

The parole board noted that Navas-Rivas committed several serious acts of violence in the community, then continued on once he was arrested.

“Your violence has continued following incarceration. While in remand you engaged in a fight with another inmate and were suspected of being involved in assaults and coordinating assaults against other inmates,” a 2016 parole decision said. “Your behaviour did not improve following your transfer into the federal system. You have reportedly been involved in four assaults against other inmates. In two of these assaults, an edged weapon was used.”

In one of the prison attacks, he punched his victim before “later using an ice pick-style weapon to stab him multiple times,” the parole documents said. “You and your two accomplices then punched, kicked and kneed the victim even after being ordered to stop by correctional staff.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

I was working on this weekend story for a few days after learning from sources that Matthew Navas-Rivas was the target of the shooting last January that left a Coquitlam teenager caught in the crossfire dead.

Naval-Rivas knew he was targeted after he and others once part of the Wolf Pack started feuding with others in the gang alliance. At the time of his murder last month, Navas-Rivas, who was on bail on dozens of firearms charges, was with the Brothers Keepers and had been on their annual boat cruise the night before.

I hope to write more about gang violence in prisons and jails, as I ran out of time/space in this story so didn’t use all that I learned. Knowah Ferguson’s lawyer was talking Friday about the fact his client had been attacked in Surrey pre-trial because of who he tried to kill.

NOTE TO READERS: I am off for the next week and back Labour Day. I will leave comments open until tomorrow, but then will shut them down for a week.

Here’s my story:

The night before Matthew Navas-Rivas was shot to death in east Vancouver last month, he was enjoying himself with other members of the Brothers Keepers gang on a boat cruise around the Vancouver waterfront.

Postmedia has obtained photos of the cruise, where Navas-Rivas chatted up other gang members and guests, shirt off, tattoos visible.

While Navas-Rivas appeared to be at ease with his new associates, he had admitted to others in the preceding months that he knew he was in danger.

His murder near Nanaimo and Cambridge streets on July 25 was likely related to a dispute between gangsters incarcerated in B.C. prisons that has spilled out onto city streets, a Postmedia investigation has found.

And he is not the conflict’s only victim.

Postmedia has learned that Navas-Rivas was the target of a shooting on Jan. 13 this year that killed 15-year-old Alfred Wong.

While Navas-Rivas escaped injury that night, some of the gunshots hit Wong’s family car as he and his parents drove along Broadway. No one has yet been charged in the murder of the gifted Coquitlam student.

Vancouver police Supt. Mike Porteous said he couldn’t comment on the case because it is an ongoing investigation.

But sources have confirmed that not only was Navas-Rivas targeted last January, his close associate Troy McKinnon was murdered hours earlier in Nanaimo.

Both men were associated with the Wolf Pack coalition until a splintering in the alliance led to internal violence.

Some of that violence occurred in federal prisons, including two separate stabbings of Wolf Pack killer Dean Wiwchar.

Wiwchar was attacked in Kent Institution last November, allegedly by inmates associated with McKinnon and Navas-Rivas.

Dean Wiwchar

One of those charged with aggravated assault in the attack on Wiwchar, according to court documents, is Cody Sleigh, who was convicted in the same 2011 kidnapping case that sent McKinnon to prison.

Wiwchar, who was convicted of the first-degree murder of a Toronto man in June 2012, has also been charged with the January 2012 murder of B.C. gangster Sandip Duhre in the Sheraton Wall Centre, but has yet to go to trial in that slaying.

Wiwchar has since been transferred to a federal prison in Alberta, where he was recently stabbed again.

Porteous said any splintering that has happened in the Wolf Pack is not among the leadership.

“The higher ups are quiet. The lower you go, the more volatile you see it, and the more fracturing and the more unstable you see it,” Porteous said.

Sometimes the violence relates to incidents in prison or pretrial jail, he said. Sometimes it relates to the fact that some gang members are in custody while others are running their drug lines on the outside. And sometimes it’s just a personal beef.

“When one of their guys gets slighted or he gets threatened or he gets hot-buttered or stabbed or whatever inside jail, a threat will get made to whoever that guy thinks did it, and then you will start seeing this violence,” Porteous said.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said some lower-level gangsters get attacked in prison because rivals want to retaliate against gang leaders they can’t reach.

“You are a captive audience in there,” he said.

When some gang members are in jail, their supposed friends on the outside sometimes make power moves, leading to violence within the group, Houghton said.

“So the game of thrones is really on when those people are no longer outside to pull the strings or be the puppet masters of their crews … and it is a free-for-all to see who can take over,” he said. “It is a backstabbing, chaotic, paranoia-filled world.”

Gang violence in federal prisons and provincial jails has been an ongoing problem.

Correctional Service Canada official Esther Mailhot said in an email Friday that the department “continues to work diligently to ensure the safety and security of federal institutions.”

“Prison violence is not tolerated. Disciplinary action is taken, and in some cases criminal charges are laid against offenders involved in violent incidents,” she said.

She said institutions carefully manage “gangs, organized-crime members and affiliates, as well as incompatible offenders.”

Both McKinnon, the Nanaimo victim, and Navas-Rivas, who will be remembered at a memorial in New Brighton Park on Saturday, were identified in parole decisions as having been involved in a number of violent attacks inside federal prisons.

In McKinnon’s case, the board noted in a decision last year that he had “been segregated on six occasions for various reasons, including assaults on other inmates.”

He maintained gang affiliations while in jail and was believed to be “involved in the institutional drug sub-culture,” the parole decision said.

Because there was concern McKinnon might be hunted once released, the board decided not to place him in a halfway house both because of “the danger that would exist for staff and other residents” and because he would be easy to find “for those wanting to cause (him) harm.”

Instead, the parole board ordered him to live on his own with a curfew, an electronic monitoring bracelet and other conditions that in the end couldn’t save him.

The parole board noted that Navas-Rivas committed several serious acts of violence in the community, then continued on once he was arrested.

“Your violence has continued following incarceration. While in remand you engaged in a fight with another inmate and were suspected of being involved in assaults and coordinating assaults against other inmates,” a 2016 parole decision said. “Your behaviour did not improve following your transfer into the federal system. You have reportedly been involved in four assaults against other inmates. In two of these assaults, an edged weapon was used.”

In one of the prison attacks, he punched his victim before “later using an ice pick-style weapon to stab him multiple times,” the parole documents said. “You and your two accomplices then punched, kicked and kneed the victim even after being ordered to stop by correctional staff.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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twitter.com/kbolan

The B.C. government has filed civil forfeiture challenges against gangsters alleged to be involved in a violent Lower Mainland conflict.

Last month, the director of civil forfeiture filed a lawsuit again Amandeep Kang, of the Brothers Keepers, seeking to seize over $2,000 in Kang’s possession when he was stopped by Vancouver police in August 2017.

Other gangsters and drug traffickers currently facing charges have also been named in civil forfeiture cases, a review of new cases shows.

Kang was with an associate named Samroop Singh Gill when he was approached by the VPD about 11:40 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2017, as he sat in his idling 2015 BMW in the 1200-block of Hornby.

“The VPD determined the vehicle was associated to Mr. Kang,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Kang is known to the VPD and believed to be involved in violent Lower Mainland gang conflicts.”

Indeed, Kang was one of several Brothers Keepers and associates, including Matthew Navas-Rivas, recently on a charter cruise around Vancouver. Navas-Rivas was shot to death in east Vancouver the day after the cruise.

The suit says police told Kang, who was driving, that he was in violation of an anti-idling bylaw.

“The VPD observed a male passenger in the back seat of the vehicle, later identified as Mr. Gill, reach for something under his leg,” the court documents said.

“The VPD conducted a safety search of Mr. Kang and found $2,150 in Canadian currency, consisted of one bundle of $100 bills wrapped around a package of chewing gum in Mr. Kang’s front left pant pocket and one bundle of $100 and $50 bills in Mr. Gill’s rear left pant pocket.”

Gill was also searched and found to have $1,455, a folding knife and three cellphones.

Police also found marijuana and baggies containing illegal steroid pills.

Some of Kang’s money tested positive for traces of cocaine and fentanyl, the documents said.

The civil forfeiture director alleges the money is a proceed and instrument of illegal activity and should therefore be forfeited.

“The defendants did not have sufficient legitimate income to have acquired the money,” the director alleges.

Neither Kang nor Gill has filed a response to the civil forfeiture case, which was filed Aug. 7.

The Brothers Keepers has been part of a bloody conflict with rival drug traffickers — some of whom are former associates.

Brothers Keepers leader Gavinder Grewal was murdered in December in a North Vancouver penthouse apartment. His former ally, Randy Kang, was shot to death in Surrey two months earlier.

Also recently sued by the director of civil forfeiture are Inderdeep Pamma and Walta Abay.

The director wants Pamma’s 2016 Nissan Rogue forfeited after it was seized by Surrey RCMP last October.

The government’s claim, filed Aug. 28, says Pamma was in the vehicle in front of a Surrey house “known to be affiliated to illegal drug trafficking and prostitution.”

When police approached, Pamma “attempted to flee from the RCMP in the vehicle, striking the RCMP’s vehicle and a fire hydrant.” Pamma was arrested in the back yard of a home where police also found heroin, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and a blackberry. He remains before the court on several trafficking charges.

The director said the vehicle should be forfeited as the funds used to buy it “were proceeds of the unlawful activity.”

The claim against Abay is also for the forfeiture of a vehicle allegedly used in drug trafficking in Burnaby in 2015.

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 30, says Abay sold drugs to undercover police officer four times before he was arrested and the vehicle was seized.

In May 2018, Vancouver Police said Abay was part of a violent Lower Mainland gang that was contracting itself out to commit murders for larger, more-established organized crime groups.

Abay and his group’s purported leader Taqdir Gill were charged with conspiracy to commit murder, as well as possession of a loaded, restricted or prohibited firearm on Oct. 26, 2017 and being in a vehicle knowing there was a gun inside.

At the time, VPD Supt. Mike Porteous said the murder conspiracy involved “several victims” — some of whom were rival gang members.

Abay is back in B.C. Supreme Court in the conspiracy case on Sept. 14.

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The founder of a Vancouver encryption company that supplied untraceable BlackBerry devices to organized crime groups around the world has pleaded guilty to racketeering in Southern California.

Phantom Secure CEO Vincent Ramos appeared before U.S. District Court Magistrate Barbara Lynn Major in a San Diego courtroom Tuesday and admitted to leading a criminal enterprise that facilitated international drug smuggling “through the sale and service of encrypted communications devices.”

In his plea deal, Ramos admitted that he and his associates helped distribute cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine to locations in Canada, the U.S., Australia, Mexico, Thailand and Europe.

Ramos, who lived with his family in Richmond until his arrest earlier this year, maintained Phantom Secure servers in Panama and Hong Kong — hidden behind virtual proxy servers — and even remotely wiped devices seized by law enforcement.

Some of his customers included members of the notorious Sinaloa cartel of Mexico, court documents said.

Ramos and his co-conspirators would only sell devices to customers who had a personal reference from an existing client. And Ramos used digital currencies, including Bitcoin, to facilitate financial transactions for Phantom Secure to protect users’ anonymity and launder proceeds from Phantom Secure.

He admitted that at least 450 kilograms of cocaine were distributed using Phantom Secure devices.

As part of his guilty plea, Ramos agreed to a US$80 million forfeiture judgment, as well as the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in identified assets, ranging from bank accounts worldwide, to houses, to a Lamborghini, to cryptocurrency accounts and gold coins. But the plea deal also said the U.S. would not seize two Lower Mainland properties, vehicles and bank accounts used by his family.

Ramos also agreed to forfeit the server licences and over 150 domains which were being used to operate the infrastructure of the Phantom Secure network, enabling it to send and receive encrypted messages for criminals.

“The Phantom Secure encrypted communication service was designed with one purpose — to provide drug traffickers and other violent criminals with a secure means by which to communicate openly about criminal activity without fear of detection by law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said in a news release. “As a result of this investigation, Phantom Secure has been dismantled and its CEO Vincent Ramos now faces a significant prison sentence. The United States will investigate and prosecute anyone who provides support, in any form, to criminal organizations, including those who try to help criminal organizations ‘go dark’ on law enforcement.”

FBI Special Agent John Brown, who heads the San Diego field office, said Ramos’s guilty plea “is a significant strike against transnational organized crime.”

“The FBI and our international law enforcement partners have demonstrated that we will not be deterred by those who exploit encryption to benefit criminal organizations and assist in evading law enforcement,” Brown said. “With this case, we have successfully shut down the communication network of dangerous criminals who operated across the globe.”

Ramos’s co-defendants — Kim Augustus Rodd, Younes Nasri, Michael Gamboa and Christopher Poquiz — remain international fugitives.

Ramos is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 17. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, but the plea agreement states that U.S. authorities won’t oppose his transfer to a Canadian prison after he’s served at least five years south of the border.

Ramos founded Phantom Secure Communications in Vancouver in 2008. The company then branched out to the U.S., Australia, Dubai, Panama, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Born in Winnipeg in 1977, Ramos moved with his family to Richmond at age four. He attended Kwantlen for two years and studied business before embarking on a career selling Amway products, according to documents filed in court by his lawyer. He then worked for Rogers Cellular before deciding to go into business for himself.

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The mother of Red Scorpion gangster Kevin LeClair expressed her devastation at his fatal 2009 shooting in a victim impact statement read in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday.

Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Rennie read the statement to Justice Janice Dillon at the sentencing hearing of LeClair’s killer Cory Vallee, a hitman for the rival United Nations gang.

LeClair’s slaying “was just the beginning of the nightmare,” said the statement, signed only as “Kevin’s mother.”

“That day our family changed beyond repair. How can I put into words all my son meant to me and how my life since that day has changed so drastically?”

She said she had a special bond with LeClair who she saw or talked to every day before his death.

“Since the day he died, I have not been able to look at a picture of Kevin. I have put away all the family photos,” the statement said. “I have been numb and paralyzed with grief and pain.”

Her grief was compounded by the publicity surrounding the murder, which was part of a violent battle on Metro Vancouver streets between the UN gang and the Red Scorpions.

Vallee was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder on June 1.

Cory Vallee in 2011 mug shots provided by police.

While the murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no parole for at least 25 years, prosecutors are arguing that Vallee should have to serve at least half of his conspiracy sentence before being eligible for parole.

And they are arguing Vallee should get at least 22 years for the conspiracy conviction.

Normally an inmate can apply for parole after serving a third of a non-murder sentence. The issue of his parole eligibility on the conspiracy count would only come into play if Vallee successfully appeals his murder conviction.

No appeal has yet been filed.

Rennie argued that Vallee has kept in contact with UN gang members and associates since his 2014 arrest on the murder charge, including others convicted in the same conspiracy case like Barzan Tilli-Choli.

And he has written and received letters from other UN gang members also convicted of murder like Jason McBride, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the slaying of Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna in August 2011.

Kevin LeClair was shot outside the IGA in Langley’s Thunderbird Village Mall on Feb. 6, 2009.

Rennie said other letters that have arrived at Surrey Pretrial jail for Vallee have aroused suspicions of jail staff.

One purporting to me from a lawyer had glitter and sparkles covering the envelope, she said.

It was returned to sender.

Rennie also said jail records indicate no major issues with Vallee’s behaviour during his four years of pretrial custody.

“These records indicate Mr. Vallee has been relatively well-behaved,” she said, noting that he was “greeted warmly by his peers on his arrival.”

Rennie said an aggravating factor in the LeClair murder was its public nature — in front of a grocery store in a busy strip mall on a Friday afternoon in February.

Nearby cars had bullet holes in them, she said.

And the murder conspiracy that targeted the Bacon brothers and other Red Scorpions resulted in several shootings in 2008 and 2009, Rennie said.

Vallee’s defence will make their submissions Friday.

Dillon is expected to reserve her decision.

kbolan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/kbolan

Related

• Cory Vallee convicted of first-degree murder of Red Scorpion gangster
• Fatal flashpoint: Gurmit Dhak's 2010 murder ignited a gang war that's still raging
• Brutality of UN, Red Scorpion gang war highlighted in year-long trial

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Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

Thanks for your patience during the last few weeks as I have been off of work on leave.

I am now back and have some updates on a few cases I have covered previously.

For starters, Vince Ramos, who started Phantom Secure a decade ago to sell encrypted phones to criminals, has pleaded guilty in California to racketeering for aiding international drug traffickers by allowing them to communicate using his secure devices.

Amazingly, the U.S. says the Vancouver man netted $80 million US through his illicit ventures.

He faces a possible prison term of up to 20 years.

Here’s my story:

Cory Vallee was convicted of the first-degree murder of Red Scorpion Kevin LeClair last June, as well as of conspiring to kill the Bacon brothers and others in the RS. But Vallee has not yet been sentenced.

While his murder conviction will result in an automatic life sentence with no parole for a minimum of 25 years, the Crown in the case also wants Vallee to get delayed parole eligibility on the sentence he gets for the conspiracy count.

On Thursday, victim impact statements from LeClair’s mother and sibling were read in court.

Here’s my story:

The mother of Red Scorpion gangster Kevin LeClair expressed her devastation at his fatal 2009 shooting in a victim impact statement read in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday.

Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Rennie read the statement to Justice Janice Dillon at the sentencing hearing of LeClair’s killer Cory Vallee, a hitman for the rival United Nations gang.

LeClair’s slaying “was just the beginning of the nightmare,” said the statement, signed only as “Kevin’s mother.”

“That day our family changed beyond repair. How can I put into words all my son meant to me and how my life since that day has changed so drastically?”

She said she had a special bond with LeClair who she saw or talked to every day before his death.

“Since the day he died, I have not been able to look at a picture of Kevin. I have put away all the family photos,” the statement said. “I have been numb and paralyzed with grief and pain.”

Her grief was compounded by the publicity surrounding the murder, which was part of a violent battle on Metro Vancouver streets between the UN gang and the Red Scorpions.

Vallee was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder on June 1.

While the murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no parole for at least 25 years, prosecutors are arguing that Vallee should have to serve at least half of his conspiracy sentence before being eligible for parole.

And they are arguing Vallee should get at least 22 years for the conspiracy conviction.

Normally an inmate can apply for parole after serving a third of a non-murder sentence. The issue of his parole eligibility on the conspiracy count would only come into play if Vallee successfully appeals his murder conviction.

No appeal has yet been filed.

Rennie argued that Vallee has kept in contact with UN gang members and associates since his 2014 arrest on the murder charge, including others convicted in the same conspiracy case like Barzan Tilli-Choli.

And he has written and received letters from other UN gang members also convicted of murder like Jason McBride, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the slaying of Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna in August 2011.

Rennie said other letters that have arrived at Surrey Pretrial jail for Vallee have aroused suspicions of jail staff.

One purporting to me from a lawyer had glitter and sparkles covering the envelope, she said.

It was returned to sender.

Rennie also said jail records indicate no major issues with Vallee’s behaviour during his four years of pretrial custody.

“These records indicate Mr. Vallee has been relatively well-behaved,” she said, noting that he was “greeted warmly by his peers on his arrival.”

Rennie said an aggravating factor in the LeClair murder was its public nature — in front of a grocery store in a busy strip mall on a Friday afternoon in February.

Nearby cars had bullet holes in them, she said.

And the murder conspiracy that targeted the Bacon brothers and other Red Scorpions resulted in several shootings in 2008 and 2009, Rennie said.

Vallee’s defence will make their submissions Friday.

Dillon is expected to reserve her decision.

kbolan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/kbolan

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is probing two new shooting deaths in Mission and Chilliwack.

Gang-involved Varinderpal Gill, who was just 19, was shot to death Wednesday about 9 p.m. at Mission Junction Mall on London Avenue.

IHIT spokesman, Cpl. Frank Jang, said Gill was pronounced dead at the scene.

In August, Abbotsford Police issued a pubic warning about Gill, who was involved in the Lower Mainland gang conflict.

While Gill was killed in Mission, a burning SUV believed to be linked to his death was found in Abbotsford’s Bateman Park at 1:14 a.m. Thursday.

“This was a brazen shooting in a busy shopping complex and those responsible showed absolutely no regard for human life.  Fortunately, no one else was hurt from this incident,” Jang said.  “We are releasing Mr. Gill’s name in an effort to determine his activities and who he may have had contact with prior to his death.”

IHIT was also on the scene of a fatal shooting in the 46000-block of Yale Road in Chilliwack that took place Thursday afternoon.

An injured person was found at the scene and transported to hospital where they died.

Anyone with information on either death is asked to call IHIT

Anyone with information regarding either case should contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

For years, former Vancouver gangster Nabil Alkhalil fought to stay in Canada, his adopted country, after being threatened with deportation over a cocaine trafficking conviction.

Then he disappeared in 2013, after his brother Robby was charged with the Vancouver murder of a longtime rival Sandip Duhre.

Nabil Alkhalil recently resurfaced in Mexico, where he was shot to death in August in a luxury car dealership. One man has been arrested in the murder and another suspect has left the country, according to Mexican newspaper reports.

Nabil, 42, is the third brother in the notorious crime family to die violently.

Khalil Alkhalil, 19, was shot to death in Surrey in 2001 during a conflict over a $200 drug debt.

Mahmoud, 19, was killed in a gangland shoot-out in the Loft Six nightclub in Vancouver in 2003.

And while the family moved to Ottawa after the two B.C. slayings, their organized crime links to the province have continued.

“The Alkhalil family is well-known to police and has an extensive history in the gang landscape that has been well-documented,” Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said this week. “As we have seen many times in the past, it is not unusual for individuals heavily-involved in gang activity to flee the country in order to either avoid prosecution or continue their criminal activity.”

Robby Alkhalil, 30, remains in custody awaiting trial for the January 2012 murder of Duhre, the middle brother of three rival clan siblings. His next appearance in B.C. Supreme Court is Oct. 19.

Vancouver Police Supt. Mike Porteous said the feud between the teams of criminal brothers goes back two decades.

“It started as a dispute over drug trafficking lines in Surrey way back in the day. But it became much more personal with the murder of Khalil,” Porteous said Friday. “They’ve been involved in a conflict with the Duhre guys for a good 20 years and it kind of ebbed and flowed relative to different murders and struggles over drug territory.”

Khalil’s killer, Michael Naud, claimed self-defence and was acquitted of murder.

Prison records obtained by Postmedia say Matsqui guards overheard Nabil making threatening comments about Naud after the not guilty verdict in November 2002.

Rahib (Robby) Alkhalil

“I don’t f–king believe it. Wait until I get out,” Nabil told his sister and girlfriend during a visit.

Naud was later shot to death in Kelowna. No one was ever charged.

Long before Khalil was killed, Nabil stabbed a young Duhre associate in Surrey’s Holly Park. He claimed he was only trying to protect his younger brothers but was convicted in 2001 of assault with a weapon and other counts.

While on day parole in July 2002, Nabil was stopped in a rented truck by Vancouver police. Officers found a loaded .45-calibre handgun in the vehicle.

“Alkhalil told police that he thought his life was in danger,” parole documents obtained by Postmedia say. “He said he believes that the Duhre brothers have a contract on his head.”

“The Duhre brothers were involved in the incident that resulted in the death of one of (Nabil) Alkhalil’s brothers. Alkhalil retaliated at the time by beating up one of the Duhres. There has been bad blood since. The Duhre brothers are considered by police to be violent as are Alkhalil and his brother Mahmoud,” the documents say.

A year later, Mahmoud died in the Loft Six shooting. Sandip Duhre was one of several notorious gangsters in the nightclub when the violence broke out.  

The Alkhalil family — mom, dad, five brothers and two sisters — fled the violence of the Middle East in 1990 to make successful refugee claims in Canada.

But after the death of two sons, they resettled in Ottawa in 2004 to “start life afresh,” according to Federal Court documents filed for Nabil’s unsuccessful appeal of his deportation order.

He was soon in trouble with the law again, getting caught with a duffel bag containing 11 kilograms of cocaine. He was convicted of trafficking in 2008.

Porteous said the Alkhalils became more powerful in the drug trade because of close connections they had in Mexico.

“As far as drug trafficking goes, it was a little bit of a game changer for us because you had the direct importation of drugs,” Porteous said.

But the violence continued, some of it linked to the old feud and some of it linked to disputes over drug territory that continued into this decade as each side formed new alliances.

“These things go in peaks and valleys,” Porteous said.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

I was off when I heard the news in August about Nabil Alkhalil getting killed in Mexico, five years after he left Canada on a fake passport.

I know people have been asking me to do a story on his demise even though time has passed. Mexican news reports were referring to him as a Palestinian businessman and claimed the murder was over the sale of some cars. But I have heard it was a cocaine deal gone bad. One man has been arrested. A second suspect left the country, according to Mexican news reports.

Here’s my feature on the death of the third of five Alkhalil brothers:

For years, former Vancouver gangster Nabil Alkhalil fought to stay in Canada, his adopted country, after being threatened with deportation over a cocaine trafficking conviction.

Then he disappeared in 2013, after his brother Robby was charged with the Vancouver murder of a longtime rival Sandip Duhre.

Nabil Alkhalil recently resurfaced in Mexico, where he was shot to death in August in a luxury car dealership. One man has been arrested in the murder and another suspect has left the country, according to Mexican newspaper reports.

Nabil, 42, is the third brother in the notorious crime family to die violently.

Khalil Alkhalil, 19, was shot to death in Surrey in 2001 during a conflict over a $200 drug debt.

Mahmoud, 19, was killed in a gangland shoot-out in the Loft Six nightclub in Vancouver in 2003.

And while the family moved to Ottawa after the two B.C. slayings, their organized crime links to the province have continued.

“The Alkhalil family is well-known to police and has an extensive history in the gang landscape that has been well-documented,” Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said this week. “As we have seen many times in the past, it is not unusual for individuals heavily-involved in gang activity to flee the country in order to either avoid prosecution or continue their criminal activity.”

Robby Alkhalil, 30, remains in custody awaiting trial for the January 2012 murder of Duhre, the middle brother of three rival clan siblings. His next appearance in B.C. Supreme Court is Oct. 19.

Vancouver Police Supt. Mike Porteous said the feud between the teams of criminal brothers goes back two decades.

“It started as a dispute over drug trafficking lines in Surrey way back in the day. But it became much more personal with the murder of Khalil,” Porteous said Friday. “They’ve been involved in a conflict with the Duhre guys for a good 20 years and it kind of ebbed and flowed relative to different murders and struggles over drug territory.” 

Khalil’s killer, Michael Naud, claimed self-defence and was acquitted of murder.

Prison records obtained by Postmedia say Matsqui guards overheard Nabil making threatening comments about Naud after the not guilty verdict in November 2002.

“I don’t f–king believe it. Wait until I get out,” Nabil told his sister and girlfriend during a visit.

Naud was later shot to death in Kelowna. No one was ever charged.

Long before Khalil was killed, Nabil stabbed a young Duhre associate in Surrey’s Holly Park. He claimed he was only trying to protect his younger brothers but was convicted in 2001 of assault with a weapon and other counts.

While on day parole in July 2002, Nabil was stopped in a rented truck by Vancouver police. Officers found a loaded .45-calibre handgun in the vehicle.

“Alkhalil told police that he thought his life was in danger,” parole documents obtained by Postmedia say. “He said he believes that the Duhre brothers have a contract on his head.”

“The Duhre brothers were involved in the incident that resulted in the death of one of (Nabil) Alkhalil’s brothers. Alkhalil retaliated at the time by beating up one of the Duhres. There has been bad blood since. The Duhre brothers are considered by police to be violent as are Alkhalil and his brother Mahmoud,” the documents say.

A year later, Mahmoud died in the Loft Six shooting. Sandip Duhre was one of several notorious gangsters in the nightclub when the violence broke out.

The Alkhalil family — mom, dad, five brothers and two sisters — fled the violence of the Middle East in 1990 to make successful refugee claims in Canada.

But after the death of two sons, they resettled in Ottawa in 2004 to “start life afresh,” according to Federal Court documents filed for Nabil’s unsuccessful appeal of his deportation order.

He was soon in trouble with the law again, getting caught with a duffel bag containing 11 kilograms of cocaine. He was convicted of trafficking in 2008.

Porteous said the Alkhalils became more powerful in the drug trade because of close connections they had in Mexico.

“As far as drug trafficking goes, it was a little bit of a game changer for us because you had the direct importation of drugs,” Porteous said.

But the violence continued, some of it linked to the old feud and some of it linked to disputes over drug territory that continued into this decade as each side formed new alliances.

“These things go in peaks and valleys,” Porteous said.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

United Nations gang hitman Cory Vallee should get more than eight years credit for the four-plus years he has spent in pretrial custody, his defence lawyer argued at a sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Rebecca McConchie said Vallee has been held in harsh conditions at Surrey Pretrial Centre and deserves extra credit at the rate of two days for every day he spent there awaiting trial.

She told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon that inmates at the “notorious” Surrey facility, run by B.C. Corrections, are no longer allowed to have in-person visits with family even though those visits are available to inmates at the North Fraser Pretrial jail.

“Surrey Pretrial has now ended in-person visits for inmates,” McConchie said. “So accused persons who are waiting for their trial are no longer able to see or touch their loved ones in person.”

She said Vallee even requested and received a temporary transfer to North Fraser in Port Coquitlam just so he could see his mother and grandmother.

Kevin LeClair

“It has been something that has been very difficult for Mr. Vallee. He has been in Surrey Pretrial for over four years,” she said. “So this is another circumstance that has made Mr. Vallee’s time in Surrey Pretrial more onerous.”

McConchie told Dillon she didn’t know exactly when Surrey Pretrial changed the policy for in-person family visits.

Public safety ministry media officer Hope Latham told Postmedia that in-person visits at the Surrey facility ended in 2013 when the building was renovated.

“We had the opportunity to implement video technology for visitation, and incorporated this design in the new Okanagan Correctional Centre when it was built four years later,” she said in an email. “Incorporating video visitation will be considered at other centres when or if they are renovated or expanded.”

Vallee was convicted June 1 of the first-degree murder Red Scorpion gangster Kevin LeClair, as well as of conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers and other Red Scorpion members.

The brazen daylight murder at a busy Langley mall in February of 2009 was part of a bloody turf war between the UN and Red Scorpion gangs that escalated when popular UN member Duane Meyer was shot to death in Abbotsford on May 8, 2008.

While the murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no parole for at least 25 years, prosecutors are arguing that Vallee should have to serve at least half of his conspiracy sentence before being eligible for parole.

And they submitted that Vallee should get at least 22 years for the conspiracy conviction.

McConchie argued that Vallee should serve 18 years for the conspiracy count and that he should be granted double time for his pretrial custody instead of the 1.5-to-1 ratio, which is now the norm.

Also during his incarceration in Surrey, “Mr. Vallee had restricted access to certain rehabilitative facilities that he liked to use,” McConchie said.

The issue of Vallee’s parole eligibility on the conspiracy count would only come into play if he successfully appeals his murder conviction.

Vallee has been in a B.C. jail since August 2014.

Conor D’Monte.

He was arrested in Mexico where he had been hiding out since fleeing the province in late 2009.

Also charged in the LeClair murder is former UN gang leader Conor D’Monte, who also fled Canada and remains a fugitive.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan