As Real Scoop readers noted last night, there were reports out of Mexico about the brutal slaying of another Canadian. I confirmed it was former Vancouver resident Jodh Manj.

Here’s my story:

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For the third time this year, a Metro Vancouver gangster has been shot to death in Mexico.

Jodh Singh Manj, 31, was gunned down after leaving a gym in a commercial complex in the Mexico City neighbourhood of Santa Fe.

He was getting into a vehicle in the building’s parking lot with his wife when masked gunmen opened fire about 1:30 p.m. local time Wednesday.

His Colombian wife was not injured.

Manj, who grew up on Vancouver’s south slope, is a member of the United Nations gang and had been spending long periods of time in Mexico for years.

Police sources say he maintained links with Mexican cartels to broker bulk cocaine shipments to Canada that would then be sold by the gang.

He was also a suspect in the 2012 murder in Port Moody of Independent Soldier gangster Randy Naicker, although Manj was never charged. Two others linked to the UN earlier pleaded guilty to having roles in the Naicker murder conspiracy.

Police also say Manj’s violent demise in Mexico is likely an indication that B.C.’s bloody gang war between the UN and the Wolf Pack gang coalition has spilled over into that country.

The Wolf Pack was formed in 2010 by some Hells Angels, some Independent Soldiers members and some Red Scorpion gangsters.

On Aug. 24, Wolf Pack associate and former Metro Vancouver resident Nabil Alkhalil was shot to death in a luxury car dealership in a wealthy suburb of Mexico City. His brother Robby remains in pretrial custody in B.C. charged with the 2012 murder of high-profile gangster Sandip Duhre in Vancouver’s Wall Centre.

And a week earlier, on Aug. 17, West Vancouver’s Guiseppe Bugge, who police describe as a Hells Angels associate, was fatally shot in a posh shopping centre in Guadalajara.

Manj’s murder could have been in retaliation for those of Alkhalil and Bugge, both described as “targets of the UN,” Postmedia sources said Thursday.

One high-profile Hells Angel was posting gleeful comments on his Instagram Wednesday believed to be referencing Manj’s murder.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Manj’s death shows that those caught in the violent gang lifestyle can’t escape it by fleeing Canada.

“There have been multiple murders of gang members, many of them high-profile, in Mexico over the years and recently,” Winpenny said Thursday. “Gang members who think they can hide out in foreign countries are naive to think they will be able to escape the ramifications of their negative decisions and actions — whether that’s from the police or from those who want them dead.”

VPD Supt. Mike Porteous said police have been aware of Jodh Manj for more than a decade.

He said he was “always in conflicts with other gang figures, involved in violence across Greater Vancouver, the south slope, drugs, most of the gamut of any kind of gang related crime.”

Richard Walker, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said the department “is aware of the death of a Canadian citizen in Mexico. We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian citizen.”

“Consular services are being provided to the family. Canadian consular officials are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information,” he said.

Until last year, Manj was facing charges of conspiracy to import and distribute methamphetamine, ecstasy and pseudoephedrine in Oregon, California, Washington and Canada.

The U.S. attorney in Portland alleged Manj had conspired with several others to smuggle ecstasy and pseudoephedrine from Canada into the U.S., then transport methamphetamine north to the Pacific Northwest and into B.C. from 2008 to 2010.

In 2009, Manj was intercepted by U.S. agents talking on the phone to the head of a drug trafficking organization about selling him 15,000 ecstasy pills.  

According to U.S. court documents, the charges against Manj were dismissed in February 2017 because the “defendant has not been apprehended, his whereabouts are unknown, and it would be difficult to locate the witnesses and exhibits necessary for successful prosecution of this case.”

Manj had convictions in B.C. for uttering threats and violating court-ordered conditions.

He was one of several gangsters stopped by police in Vancouver’s Kensington Park in October 2010 after the funeral for slain gangster Gurmit Dhak — considered one of the major flashpoints in years of gun violence.

Police believed Manj and the others were meeting to plot a hit on a rival Wolf Pack member for Dhak’s murder. Two of Manj’s associates carried guns and were later charged and convicted.

In September, a Vancouver provincial Ccourt judge stayed a charge against Manj’s older brother Aman in connection with an assault at a Vancouver nightclub on New Year’s Eve in 2015 due to the length of time the case took to get to trial.

Aman Manj was also identified in a 2012 trial as having been hunted by gang rivals who were later caught with firearms in their vehicles and arrested by Vancouver Police.

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The mother and uncle of a young B.C. woman murdered in Punjab in 2000 have lost their last-ditch attempt to avoid extradition to India.

The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed an application from Malkit Kaur Sidhu and Surjit Singh Badesha to have an extradition order against them stayed because they claimed there was an abuse of process.

The two are alleged to have been involved in the so-called honour killing of Sidhu’s daughter Jaswinder “Jassi” Kaur, who ignored her family’s wishes and married a poor rickshaw driver while on vacation in India in 1999.

After the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously against the accused brother and sister in September 2017, the RCMP escorted Sidhu and Badesha from their B.C. jails to Toronto, where they were placed aboard a flight to India.

But the extraction was “dramatically halted” before the plane disembarked because lawyers for Sidhu and Badesha filed a last-minute court application asking for a review of Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s decision to surrender them to Indian authorities.

Appeal Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice Sunny Stromberg-Stein dismissed that request for a judicial review Tuesday.

They said the minister’s decision not to review “new” evidence provided by the defendants about conditions in Indian prisons was reasonable.

“The minister was right to express concern for an effective, expeditious extradition process and respect for the principle of finality,” the appeal court justices said in their written reasons. “It was reasonable for the Minister to conclude that it was in the interests of justice to surrender the applicants.”

Appeal Court Justice Bruce Butler agreed with his colleagues.

The ruling said the Maple Ridge residents have had seven years to present their legal arguments in Canadian courts.

“The applicants are charged with the most serious crimes and have had the opportunity to challenge their extradition over a seven-year period: their submissions implicating India’s prison system have been considered by two Ministers of Justice, this court and the Supreme Court of Canada,” Bauman and Stromberg-Stein wrote.

The judges agreed that there was an abuse of process when Badesha and Sidhu were covertly taken from their jails in September 2017 and transported to Toronto for extradition without being able to talk to their lawyers.

“They were literally at the door of the Delhi-bound plane, literally about to be handed into the custody of the Indian police officers,” Bauman and Stromberg-Stein said.

“There is a sense of palpable frustration apparently motivating the attempted covert surrendering of the applicants in an operation that would deny their ability to review this last step in the proceeding. That motivation would be understandable in a segment, perhaps a large one, of Canadian society.”

But the Canadian government must always play fair, the judges said.

The government conduct in this case has had “a very serious adverse impact on the integrity of the justice system.”

But the conduct was not so egregious as to allow a stay of proceedings.

“This is a close case but we conclude the balance favours denying the stay,” they said.

“The charges these applicants face are the most serious in our criminal justice system and the interests of India, and of our own community, in seeing them heard in court on their merits is very substantial. Indeed we suggest overwhelmingly so.”

Jassi and her husband, Sukhwinder Singh Sidhu, were travelling by scooter in Punjab on June 8, 2000 when they were attacked by a group of armed men. Sukhwinder was seriously injured. Jassi was forced into a car and later found dead on the bank of a canal. Her throat had been cut.

Eleven others in India were also charged in the murder. Seven were convicted and four were acquitted, but four of those found guilty later won on appeal.

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Federal prosecutors are delaying the return of millions seized in a money laundering investigation so that the B.C. director of civil forfeiture can file a claim against the cash, lawyer Matthew Nathanson said Wednesday.

Nathanson argued in B.C. Supreme Court that his client Caixuan Qin, who had charges against her stayed last month, was entitled to have more than $2 million returned immediately.

He told Justice Janet Winteringham that the federal Crown’s position that the money would be returned in late December is designed to aid in a civil forfeiture application.

And Nathanson argued that Qin’s Charter rights are being violated as long as the government retains money seized in October 2016 at her home and her business, Silver International Investment.

“The thrust of the issue here is that civil forfeiture has no rights here. There is no action that’s been commenced. But there certainly appears to be some foot dragging and I know that there has been communications with civil forfeiture in this case,” Nathanson said.

“What is really going on here when you cut through all the smoke is that my client’s rights are engaged now. They are seeking the return of the items now. And there should not be any delay tactics to allow some third party to come in and try and swoop in to grab these funds.”

Until Nov. 22, Qin and her former co-accused Jain Jun Zhu, as well her company, had been charged with laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime, and failing to ascertain the identity of a client.

The charges were laid in September 2017 after a massive RCMP money laundering investigation dubbed E-Pirate.

The charges were mysteriously stayed three weeks ago by a federal prosecutor in Richmond provincial court. No explanation has been given by police or prosecutors about what went wrong in the case.

Nor were any details disclosed about the stay in Wednesday’s proceedings or in a previous court appearance over the cash.

Federal prosecutor Gerry Sair noted Wednesday that during the last court appearance Nov. 27, an order was issued under section 490 of the Criminal Code to return the seized cash within 30 days.

He said the provision is the normal course by which items seized are returned at the end of a prosecution.

“In two weeks, the 30-day period will be over,” Sair said, adding that the defence lawyers were “essentially asking the court to ignore the law, to override the provision of section 490.”

Sair said the searches related to Qin, Zhu and Silver were “part of a much larger case” where there were “a number of targets.”

Zhu’s lawyer Daniel Song also argued for the immediate return of the money saying the Charter challenge was “simple, direct and clear.”

“The remedy that is sought is also a simple, direct and authoritative remedy,” Song said.

He also said that the director of civil forfeiture has had more than two years to file an application in the case if he was interested in doing so.

Lisa Martz, a lawyer representing the B.C. attorney general, said there was no alleged misconduct in the case that would warrant a remedy under the Charter.

“We submit there has been no Charter breach in this case,” she said. “My friends point to nothing peculiar about the circumstances of their clients. The applicants are in no different position than any other accused person when charges are stayed.”

Winteringham said she would rule Monday morning.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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twitter.com/kbolan

I was back at B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday to hear Charter arguments from lawyers presenting the two people formerly accused of money laundering in the massive E-Pirate investigation.

While there was a whole day of arguments from defence lawyers, a federal Crown and a lawyer representing the B.C. Attorney General about what should happen to $2 million seized in the case, there was no information about the underlying police investigation and why charges were stayed last month. Hopefully that information will be made public soon.

Here’s my story:

Lawyers for former accused in court to get millions

returned

Two young men involved in a violent Lower Mainland gang conflict were handed lengthy sentences in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday.

Taqdir Singh Gill and Walta Abay, along with five others, were arrested in October 2017 after a Vancouver Police investigation called Project Temper. Gill and Abay were originally charged with conspiracy to commit murder, as well as other counts.

But the murder conspiracy charge was stayed as part of a plea agreement reached in the case.

Gill, now 22, and the purported leader of the “Gill group” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson, conspiracy to discharge a firearm and possession of a loaded prohibited gun.

Justice William Ehrcke accepted as joint submission from Crown and defence lawyers Thursday to sentence Gill to an additional six years in prison on top of 20 months credited for his time in pre-trial custody.

Abay, 24, was handed an additional four years in jail after pleading guilty to being in a vehicle with Gill knowing there was a loaded firearm inside.

Ehrcke noted that both men were relatively young, had pleaded guilty and were remorseful for their crimes.

Family members of each were in the court for the sentencing hearings, held one after the other at the Vancouver Law Courts.

Ehrcke laid out the agreed statement of facts in Gill’s case first.

“As part of a wider effort to investigate ongoing gang conflict on the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, the Vancouver Police Department initiated Project Temper to investigate and suppress the violence being inflicted by Taqdir Gill (Gill) and his associates,” Ehrcke said.

The VPD got a court order allowing it to intercept calls between Gill and his associates starting in early October of 2017.

In the intercepts, Gill directed a youth identified as JL to burn down a Kerrisdale real estate office because “Gill believed that this person’s son owed a significant amount of money to Gill’s bosses,” Ehrcke said.

The youth recruited to do the job owed Gill money and was going to get a break on the debt for torching the business, the judge said.

In an Oct. 12, 2017 call, “Gill told JL that he needed it done tonight.” But the youth slept through his alarm, so the arson was delayed until the next night.

Just before midnight, police stopped a Ford Explorer driven by another associate with JL as a passenger “around the corner from the targeted building.”

Police found two red jerry cans filled with gasoline, a blow torch and a lighter. They let the young men go and they called Gill to advise him they “had been pulled over by the police.”

The youth tried again the next day after Gill said in a call that he needed a message sent that “he wanted the mother f–kers to pay.”

Again police stopped the would-be arsonist, who was carrying two milk jugs full of gas.

Later in October Gill directed another youth and an associate to do a drive-by shooting at a Fraser Street where some rivals lived. He told his crew “how to grab different licence plates and what to do with the rifle afterwards,” Ehrcke said.

The associates were stopped by police “with a loaded rifle” hidden in a pressure washer case in a Ford Explorer near the house to be targeted.

Later that month, Abay asked Gill in an intercepted call if he had “a small bitch” — a reference to a firearm, Ehrcke said.

“Gill responded that he had a nine.”

On Oct. 25, a GPS tracking device was placed on the vehicle of a known drug trafficker and “Abay and Gill were monitoring the movements of the GPS tracking device,” Ehrcke said.

Police removed the device and on Oct. 26, took it to Vancouver, then to Burnaby as Abay and Gill followed in a rented Mercedes.

When police tried to pull them over, the Mercedes drove past “and hit one of the police vehicles,” Ehrcke said.

“It lost control and flipped onto its side.” Gill and Abay crawled out and were arrested.

“A loaded firearm was found in the front passenger door area of the Mercedes.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

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When charges against Taqdir Gill and his associates were announced last May, Vancouver Police Supt. Mike Porteous said the young gangsters were contracting themselves out to do hits for more established gangs. And he said they had an association with the Kang brothers, two of whom faced new charges themselves this past August.

But when it came down to pleading guilty in B.C. Supreme Court this month, the conspiracy to kill charges were stayed for Gill and Walta Abay, who each admitted guilty to lesser counts. And there was no mention of the Kang brothers.

There was, however, interesting insight into how police can to a successful, relatively compressed investigation into gang violence and get some convictions – all in less than a year and a half.

Here’s my story:

Two young men involved in a violent Lower Mainland gang conflict were handed lengthy sentences in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday.

Taqdir Singh Gill and Walta Abay, along with five others, were arrested in October 2017 after a Vancouver Police investigation called Project Temper. Gill and Abay were originally charged with conspiracy to commit murder, as well as other counts.

But the murder conspiracy charge was stayed as part of a plea agreement reached in the case.

Gill, now 22, and the purported leader of the “Gill group” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson, conspiracy to discharge a firearm and possession of a loaded prohibited gun.

Justice William Ehrcke accepted as joint submission from Crown and defence lawyers Thursday to sentence Gill to an additional six years in prison on top of 20 months credited for his time in pre-trial custody.

Abay, 24, was handed an additional four years in jail after pleading guilty to being in a vehicle with Gill knowing there was a loaded firearm inside.

Ehrcke noted that both men were relatively young, had pleaded guilty and were remorseful for their crimes.

Family members of each were in the court for the sentencing hearings, held one after the other at the Vancouver Law Courts.

Ehrcke laid out the agreed statement of facts in Gill’s case first.

“As part of a wider effort to investigate ongoing gang conflict on the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, the Vancouver Police Department initiated Project Temper to investigate and suppress the violence being inflicted by Taqdir Gill (Gill) and his associates,” Ehrcke said.

The VPD got a court order allowing it to intercept calls between Gill and his associates starting in early October of 2017.

In the intercepts, Gill directed a youth identified as JL to burn down a Kerrisdale real estate office because “Gill believed that this person’s son owed a significant amount of money to Gill’s bosses,” Ehrcke said.

The youth recruited to do the job owed Gill money and was going to get a break on the debt for torching the business, the judge said.

In an Oct. 12, 2017 call, “Gill told JL that he needed it done tonight.” But the youth slept through his alarm, so the arson was delayed until the next night.

Just before midnight, police stopped a Ford Explorer driven by another associate with JL as a passenger “around the corner from the targeted building.”

Police found two red jerry cans filled with gasoline, a blow torch and a lighter. They let the young men go and they called Gill to advise him they “had been pulled over by the police.”

The youth tried again the next day after Gill said in a call that he needed a message sent that “he wanted the mother f–kers to pay.”

Again police stopped the would-be arsonist, who was carrying two milk jugs full of gas.

Later in October Gill directed another youth and an associate to do a drive-by shooting at a Fraser Street where some rivals lived. He told his crew “how to grab different licence plates and what to do with the rifle afterwards,” Ehrcke said.

The associates were stopped by police “with a loaded rifle” hidden in a pressure washer case in a Ford Explorer near the house to be targeted.

Later that month, Abay asked Gill in an intercepted call if he had “a small bitch” — a reference to a firearm, Ehrcke said.

“Gill responded that he had a nine.”

On Oct. 25, a GPS tracking device was placed on the vehicle of a known drug trafficker and “Abay and Gill were monitoring the movements of the GPS tracking device,” Ehrcke said.

Police removed the device and on Oct. 26, took it to Vancouver, then to Burnaby as Abay and Gill followed in a rented Mercedes.

When police tried to pull them over, the Mercedes drove past “and hit one of the police vehicles,” Ehrcke said.

“It lost control and flipped onto its side.” Gill and Abay crawled out and were arrested.

“A loaded firearm was found in the front passenger door area of the Mercedes.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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twitter.com/kbolan

A Burnaby man who called 911 and admitted he stabbed his wife with a machete has been found not criminally responsible for killing her because of the serious mental illness he was suffering from at the time.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mike Tammen ruled Friday that Parveen Maan had no ability to control his actions because of the powerful voices in his head telling him to kill his wife Goldie in February 2017.

“This case is both tragic and troubling — tragic because it concerns the death of the mother of two young children at the hands of her husband, the father of those children,” Tammen said.

“The most troubling aspect of the case is the fact that the accused at the time he took his wife’s life was almost certainly suffering from a serious mental illness and likely in the throes of a psychotic episode of some severity.”

Tammen noted that two psychiatrists who testified as experts for both the Crown and the defence agreed that Maan, 48, suffered from mental illness for years prior to the slaying and that he was hearing voices.

But they disagreed on whether he fully understood that what he was doing was morally wrong when he attacked Goldie in their Burnaby home and stabbed her more than 135 times.

Maan called 911 in the early afternoon asking police to come to the family home in the 7900-block of 18th Ave. His two kids were at school at the time.

When asked by the operator what had happened, he said “Ah, ah frankly, I kill my wife.”

He said that his wife was getting violent and using bad language, “So I kill.”

Tammen said that despite Maan’s apparently calm demeanour during the call and while he was taken into police custody, there was ample evidence of his mental illness dating back years.

Maan testified that he had been hospitalized in India and prescribed anti-psychotics in 1998, years before immigrating to Canada. He told a close friend in the weeks before the slaying that he was hearing voices.

“There is no doubt the accused was suffering from a mental disorder at the relevant time and had been so afflicted for many years,” Tammen said.

He said while neither expert witness had a precise diagnosis for Maan’s condition, “Mr. Maan was afflicted by a mental disorder which would fall somewhere on the continuum of schizoid disorders” and was suffering delusions or hallucinations.

Tammen said he found Maan to be honest when he testified and was not attempting to embellish his condition. Maan told the court that he believed the voices in his head, which he said spoke in both Hindi and Punjabi, were his landlord and some of his neighbours.

“I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that because of his mental condition — what was once called insanity — Mr. Maan lacked the capacity to assess the moral wrongfulness of his actions and thus lacked the capacity for rational choice,” Tammen said. “His mind and overall cognitive processes were so overwhelmed by the command voices that he felt compelled to follow them without assessing whether his actions were right or wrong.”

Tammen ordered Maan to remain in custody at the forensic psychiatric hospital for at least the next 90 days until the B.C. Review Board can assess his case.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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The B.C. Prosecution Service has stayed an aggravated assault charge laid in August against a convicted drug smuggler.

Jody Archie York had been charged following an altercation at Monte Lake, which is between Vernon and Kamloops.

At the time, the RCMP said one man was injured when he was struck with a golf club, allegedly by York, before the man’s friend hit York with a machete.

York later said he was attacked first by the machete-wielding man and was only defending himself at the time.

Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin confirmed to Postmedia this week that the charge was stayed on Nov. 22, but would not provide detailed reasons.

“The decision to stay the charges in this case was made after further information was received by the prosecutor with conduct of the file,” McLaughlin said. “After reviewing this information and the rest of the file materials, the prosecutor concluded the charge approval standard could no longer be met. In these circumstances, a stay of proceedings is the appropriate course of action.”

McLaughlin said that charge assessment guidelines dictate that “charges will only be approved or continued where Crown Counsel is satisfied that the evidence gathered by the investigative agency provides a substantial likelihood of conviction and, if so, that a prosecution is required in the public interest.”

“In this case, the prosecutor concluded the test was no longer met and directed the stay of proceedings,” McLaughlin said.

In 2011, York was sentenced in the U.S. to five years in prison as a leader of a major international drug smuggling ring who prosecutors said worked on behalf of B.C. Hells Angels.

York told a judge at his Seattle sentencing that he had already reformed and had turned away from gang life.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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I wanted to update readers about the status of the charge laid last summer against Jody York. It was stayed Nov, 22. Crown is not saying much about why.

Here’s my update:

More than 300 mourners packed a Maple Ridge church Saturday to remember slain Hells Angel Chad Wilson.

Some members of the notorious biker gang and their support clubs arrived on Harleys — many of which had temporary one-day insurance to attend the service at the Maple Ridge Alliance Church on Dewdney Trunk Road.

Others, like senior Vancouver member and sometimes spokesman Rick Ciarniello, arrived by cars or limousine.

Police from the B.C. Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, the Vancouver Police Department and various RCMP detachments were also on hand, monitoring the event and photographing those in attendance.

Wilson, 43, was a member of the Surrey-based Hardside chapter when he was found shot to death under the Golden Ears Bridge in Maple Ridge on Nov. 18.

The Integrated Homicide Team has not disclosed a motive for Wilson’s death beyond a link to his membership in a criminal organization.

Postmedia has learned that investigators are looking at the possibility his death resulted from an internal dispute within the Hells Angels. Wilson, with a long history in the drug trade, also had many others who could have wanted him dead.

While a member of the San Diego “Dago” chapter of the Hells Angels in 2006, he injured several members of the Outlaws in a shootout in South Dakota. He was later acquitted on attempted murder charges but pleaded guilty to being an alien in possession of a firearm.

Once released from jail, Wilson returned to B.C. and joined the Haney Hells Angels chapter. He was convicted in Spain several years ago of importing a tonne of cocaine into the country.

Again, he returned to B.C., later splitting from the Haney chapter and joining the new Hardside group.

His Hardside brothers handed out arm bands that said “in memory of Chad,” as well as black T-shirts with his image on the front and “forever Bumps” on the back.

B.C. Hells Angels were joined by bikers wearing HA patches from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, P.E.I. and New Brunswick.

Former B.C. resident Damion Ryan, a Hells Angel in Greece, came from Europe for the service, arriving with a scarf masking his face. Ryan wore a “Filthy Few” patch on the front of his camouflage vest — which normally indicates a biker’s role as an enforcer.

Police say Canadian Hells Angels are banned from wearing that patch.

With Ryan was another B.C. man, Andreas Terezakis, whose father Tony was convicted in 2006 of trafficking drugs in the Downtown Eastside and brutally assaulting addicts who owed him money. The younger Terezakis wore a Greek Hells Angels vest to the funeral with the bottom “rocker” patch only, indicating he is a prospective member of Ryan’s chapter.

Also at the service were members of support or puppet clubs, including the Throttle Lockers from the Okanagan, the Devil’s Army from Campbell River, the Langford Savages, the Teamsters’ Horsemen, Surrey’s Shadow Club, the Jesters and the Veterans MC.

Newer support clubs were also present, like the Street Reapers of Fort Langley, the Lynchmen and the Dirty Bikers.

One Throttle Locker member wore a sticker on his helmet that said “shoot informants, not drugs.”

Maple Ridge Alliance Church Pastor Neil Penner said he was surprised at how many people attended the service. He said the church welcomes anybody who wants to respectfully worship.

“They have great respect for the church,” he said, of those who attended Wilson’s funeral.

Asked why he would welcome the Hells Angels, Penner said: “I take any opportunity to help people.”

After the funeral, the bikers rode over the same bridge under which Wilson was found dead to attend a wake at the Hardside’s Surrey clubhouse. Again police followed to keep watch.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said officers monitored Saturday’s events because “outlaw motorcycle gangs are a priority for CFSEU.”

“The murder of Chad Wilson was significant and we expected there to be in excess of 300 bikers at his funeral,” she said.

“As we know from past investigations, some members of the Hells Angels are involved in drugs, weapons and violence-related offences. Therefore, CFSEU had a number of our uniformed gang enforcement team and other team members present to gather intelligence and assist our policing partners in ensuring public safety.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Chad Wilson was found murdered under the Golden Ears bridge four weeks ago. His biker brothers attended a church not far from that bridge Saturday to remember the long-time Hells Angel.

Heres’s my story:

Approximately 250 members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club from BC and across Canada, including members of affiliated support clubs, attend the funeral for slain HA Hardside chapter member Chad Wilson, at the Maple Ridge Alliance Church in Maple Ridge, BC Saturday, December 15, 2018. Wilson was found murdered under the Golden Ears bridge November 18, 2018. There was a heavy police presence at the church during the service.

More than 300 mourners packed a Maple Ridge church Saturday to remember slain Hells Angel Chad Wilson.

Some members of the notorious biker gang and their support clubs arrived on Harleys — many of which had temporary one-day insurance to attend the service at the Maple Ridge Alliance Church on Dewdney Trunk Road.

Others, like senior Vancouver member and sometimes spokesman Rick Ciarniello, arrived by cars or limousine.

Police from the B.C. Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, the Vancouver Police Department and various RCMP detachments were also on hand, monitoring the event and photographing those in attendance.

Wilson, 43, was a member of the Surrey-based Hardside chapter when he was found shot to death under the Golden Ears Bridge in Maple Ridge on Nov. 18.

The Integrated Homicide Team has not disclosed a motive for Wilson’s death beyond a link to his membership in a criminal organization.

Postmedia has learned that investigators are looking at the possibility his death resulted from an internal dispute within the Hells Angels. Wilson, with a long history in the drug trade, also had many others who could have wanted him dead.

While a member of the San Diego “Dago” chapter of the Hells Angels in 2006, he injured several members of the Outlaws in a shootout in South Dakota. He was later acquitted on attempted murder charges but pleaded guilty to being an alien in possession of a firearm.

Once released from jail, Wilson returned to B.C. and joined the Haney Hells Angels chapter. He was convicted in Spain several years ago of importing a tonne of cocaine into the country.

Again, he returned to B.C., later splitting from the Haney chapter and joining the new Hardside group.

His Hardside brothers handed out arm bands that said “in memory of Chad,” as well as black T-shirts with his image on the front and “forever Bumps” on the back.

B.C. Hells Angels were joined by bikers wearing HA patches from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, P.E.I. and New Brunswick.

Former B.C. resident Damion Ryan, a Hells Angel in Greece, came from Europe for the service, arriving with a scarf masking his face. Ryan wore a “Filthy Few” patch on the front of his camouflage vest — which normally indicates a biker’s role as an enforcer.

Police say Canadian Hells Angels are banned from wearing that patch.

Hells Angel Damion Ryan, who is based in Greece, wore a scarf over his face at Chad Wilson’s funeral

With Ryan was another B.C. man, Andreas Terezakis, whose father Tony was convicted in 2006 of trafficking drugs in the Downtown Eastside and brutally assaulting addicts who owed him money. The younger Terezakis wore a Greek Hells Angels vest to the funeral with the bottom “rocker” patch only, indicating he is a prospective member of Ryan’s chapter.

Also at the service were members of support or puppet clubs, including the Throttle Lockers from the Okanagan, the Devil’s Army from Campbell River, the Langford Savages, the Teamsters’ Horsemen, Surrey’s Shadow Club, the Jesters and the Veterans MC.

Newer support clubs were also present, like the Street Reapers of Fort Langley, the Lynchmen and the Dirty Bikers.

One Throttle Locker member wore a sticker on his helmet that said “shoot informants, not drugs.”

Maple Ridge Alliance Church Pastor Neil Penner said he was surprised at how many people attended the service. He said the church welcomes anybody who wants to respectfully worship.

“They have great respect for the church,” he said, of those who attended Wilson’s funeral.

Asked why he would welcome the Hells Angels, Penner said: “I take any opportunity to help people.”

After the funeral, the bikers rode over the same bridge under which Wilson was found dead to attend a wake at the Hardside’s Surrey clubhouse. Again police followed to keep watch.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said officers monitored Saturday’s events because “outlaw motorcycle gangs are a priority for CFSEU.”

“The murder of Chad Wilson was significant and we expected there to be in excess of 300 bikers at his funeral,” she said.

“As we know from past investigations, some members of the Hells Angels are involved in drugs, weapons and violence-related offences. Therefore, CFSEU had a number of our uniformed gang enforcement team and other team members present to gather intelligence and assist our policing partners in ensuring public safety.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum says he had no idea that the Hells Angels had opened a clubhouse in his city, even after a pledge from police several years ago that the biker gang would not be allowed to set up there.

McCallum, who was elected in October, said on Monday that the Hells Angels are “not welcome” in Surrey.

After a service this past Saturday service for murdered Hells Angel Chad Wilson, his fellow bikers gathered at the HA’s Hardside chapter clubhouse, which is on a small acreage near 180th St. and 96th Ave.

Officers from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, Surrey RCMP, Vancouver Police Department and other RCMP detachments monitored both the Maple Ridge funeral and the afterparty, both of which Postmedia reported on.

Wilson had moved over to the Hardside chapter when it opened on March 17, 2017. He had previously been a member of the Haney Hells Angels and the “Dago” chapter based in San Diego.

Hardside chapter of the Hells Angels, From left, Chad Wilson (formerly of the Haney chapter); Suminder Grewal (formerly of the Haney chapter); and Jamie Yochlowitz (formerly of the Vancouver chapter).

The clubhouse is believed to have opened some time in 2018 — five years after former top Surrey Mountie Bill Fordy pledged to block another Hells Angels chapter from using Surrey as its base.

McCallum echoed that sentiment in a statement to Postmedia on Monday.

“Hells Angels are not welcome in Surrey. I was unaware that a clubhouse had been set up here recently,” McCallum said. “I will be addressing this matter immediately with the officer in charge of Surrey RCMP.”

That officer, Asst. Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, said Monday that his officers are well aware of the clubhouse.

“The police and the City of Surrey were made aware of the Hells Angels intention to set up a clubhouse in 2017 and, at that time, the city and the police collectively reviewed all legal means to keep this clubhouse out of Surrey,” McDonald said in a statement Monday.

“However, the police have no legal authority to deny someone from purchasing or renting a residence.”

He said he agreed with McCallum that the Hells Angels are not welcome in Surrey “and that we will use every lawful means to ensure that their members are not participating in any criminal activity in this city.”

McDonald said both Surrey RCMP and officers with the anti-gang CFSEU “have regular contact with members of the Hardside chapter to ensure they understand our expectations regarding public safety.”

There have not been any problems at events hosted by Hardside or other outlaw motorcycle gangs in Surrey, he said.

Support sticker for new Hells Angels “Hardside” chapter

In January 2013, former head Mountie Fordy said he met with the president of the West Point Hells Angels chapter to tell him not to establish a clubhouse in Surrey. West Point started in 2012 and was expected to base itself in Surrey.

West Point waited years to open its clubhouse, which is located in a rented house on 2.25 acres in Langley, near the Canada-U.S. border.

The Hardside chapter also appears to be in a rented house, which is located on two acres of property zoned agricultural. The property, assessed this year at just $47,000 because it is farmland, is owned by a Delta couple that has no apparent association with the Hells Angels.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello did not respond to an emailed request for comment Monday.

Currently, the Hells Angels are embroiled in a long-running court case with the B.C. government over the ownership of three clubhouses in Nanaimo, Kelowna and East Vancouver. The director of civil forfeiture wants the properties turned over to the government as instruments of criminal activity. The Angels have alleged the Civil Forfeiture Act is unconstitutional. The trial resumes in February.

CFSEU Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said the Hells Angels use their club as “a place where they can have their meetings, social gatherings, parties, and store assets belonging to the club.”

The bikers also use their clubhouses to create legitimacy and public awareness of their brand. 

“Clubhouses are armed by overt surveillance and fortified to ensure security,” she said. “Clubhouses also serve as an intimidation factor in the communities where they exist.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Just a few years ago, former Surrey top cop Bill Fordy pledged to stop the Hells Angels from opening a clubhouse in that city. Yet, the bikers’ newest chapter did move into a clubhouse some time in the last year. And the new mayor didn’t know the Hells Angels were in town.  

NOTE: I AM NOT OFF UNTIL DEC. 27TH, SO AM CLOSING BLOG COMMENTS. I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT CHRISTMAS!

Here’s my story:

Surrey mayor says he was unaware of new Hells Angels

clubhouse

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum says he had no idea that the Hells Angels had opened a clubhouse in his city, even after a pledge from police several years ago that the biker gang would not be allowed to set up there.

McCallum, who was elected in October, said on Monday that the Hells Angels are “not welcome” in Surrey.

After a service this past Saturday service for murdered Hells Angel Chad Wilson, his fellow bikers gathered at the HA’s Hardside chapter clubhouse, which is on a small acreage near 180th St. and 96th Ave.

Officers from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, Surrey RCMP, Vancouver Police Department and other RCMP detachments monitored both the Maple Ridge funeral and the afterparty, both of which Postmedia reported on.

Wilson had moved over to the Hardside chapter when it opened on March 17, 2017. He had previously been a member of the Haney Hells Angels and the “Dago” chapter based in San Diego.

The clubhouse is believed to have opened some time in 2018 — five years after former top Surrey Mountie Bill Fordy pledged to block another Hells Angels chapter from using Surrey as its base.

McCallum echoed that sentiment in a statement to Postmedia on Monday.

“Hells Angels are not welcome in Surrey. I was unaware that a clubhouse had been set up here recently,” McCallum said. “I will be addressing this matter immediately with the officer in charge of Surrey RCMP.”

That officer, Asst. Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, said Monday that his officers are well aware of the clubhouse.

“The police and the City of Surrey were made aware of the Hells Angels intention to set up a clubhouse in 2017 and, at that time, the city and the police collectively reviewed all legal means to keep this clubhouse out of Surrey,” McDonald said in a statement Monday.

“However, the police have no legal authority to deny someone from purchasing or renting a residence.”He said he agreed with McCallum that the Hells Angels are not welcome in Surrey “and that we will use every lawful means to ensure that their members are not participating in any criminal activity in this city.”

McDonald said both Surrey RCMP and officers with the anti-gang CFSEU “have regular contact with members of the Hardside chapter to ensure they understand our expectations regarding public safety.”

There have not been any problems at events hosted by Hardside or other outlaw motorcycle gangs in Surrey, he said.

In January 2013, former head Mountie Fordy said he met with the president of the West Point Hells Angels chapter to tell him not to establish a clubhouse in Surrey. West Point started in 2012 and was expected to base itself in Surrey.

West Point waited years to open its clubhouse, which is located in a rented house on 2.25 acres in Langley, near the Canada-U.S. border.

The Hardside chapter also appears to be in a rented house, which is located on two acres of property zoned agricultural. The property, assessed this year at just $47,000 because it is farmland, is owned by a Delta couple that has no apparent association with the Hells Angels.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello did not respond to an emailed request for comment Monday.

Currently, the Hells Angels are embroiled in a long-running court case with the B.C. government over the ownership of three clubhouses in Nanaimo, Kelowna and East Vancouver. The director of civil forfeiture wants the properties turned over to the government as instruments of criminal activity. The Angels have alleged the Civil Forfeiture Act is unconstitutional. The trial resumes in February.

CFSEU Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said the Hells Angels use their club as “a place where they can have their meetings, social gatherings, parties, and store assets belonging to the club.”

The bikers also use their clubhouses to create legitimacy and public awareness of their brand.

“Clubhouses are armed by overt surveillance and fortified to ensure security,” she said. “Clubhouses also serve as an intimidation factor in the communities where they exist.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

United Nations gang hitman Cory Vallee was handed two life sentences Friday for conspiracy to kill rivals in the Red Scorpion gang, as well as the deadly shooting of Kevin LeClair in a Langley parking lot almost a decade ago.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon said it was necessary to send a strong message “that gang warfare on the streets of our communities will not be tolerated.”

“Vallee and other members of the UN gang engaged in an organized, highly sophisticated, technologically adept and well-armed manhunt for the Bacon brothers and their associates,” Dillon said.

“Vallee played a key role and was the only one paid full-time to hunt and kill in the conspiracy. His blameworthiness is high.”

Vallee was convicted in June of first-degree murder for LeClair’s slaying, which carries an automatic life sentence with no parole for at least 25 years.

He was also found guilty of conspiracy to kill Red Scorpion brothers Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon and their gang associates over several months in 2008 and 2009.

A sentencing hearing on the conspiracy count was held over several days in October and November, resulting in the second life sentence Friday.

Dillon said members of the public were terrified by several public shootings that were part of the conspiracy, including the Burnaby slaying of stereo installer Jonathan Barber on May 9, 2008, who was mistaken for one of the Bacons. His girlfriend Vicky King was seriously injured.

“Vallee had many opportunities to relinquish his role as a hitman, especially after the horror of the mistaken shooting of the innocents, Barber and King,” Dillon said.

“That he did not pull back is a chilling reminder of the capacity for violence in this man.”

She said that Vallee was paid by the UN for his work as a hitman, missing so many days at his regular job as a North Vancouver garbageman that he was fired in October 2008.

“He was hired by the leader of the gang solely to hunt, wreak havoc and to kill rival members.”

He opened fire on LeClair at a crowded Langley strip mall on the afternoon of Feb. 6, 2009.

“This killing was performed execution style in daylight in the parking lot of a busy shopping mall. He was the designated hitman or shooter on this mission and performed his role to the full with an automatic weapon,” Dillon said.

“These events were unbelievable, movie-like, to citizens not expecting to find themselves in a gang war zone.”

She said Vallee had no one speak up for him at his sentencing and has provided no explanation to the court about why he committed the crimes. He refused to participate in almost all inmate programming and he has continued to maintain close ties to UN gang members while in jail.

“He remained loyal to his criminal organization, requesting to have continued contact with known co-conspirators and other gang members. He did not accept responsibility for his actions and did not directly or through counsel express a scintilla of remorse,” Dillon said.

“In the face of the obvious dangerousness of this offender, his propensity to kill for money and the maintenance of contacts with the UN gang, this lack of information is troubling and suggests the need for a severe sentence, in the face of persistent potential danger to the public. There is no basis here for this court to conclude that Vallee will be any different in character if he is ultimately released from jail.”

She also ordered Vallee to have no contact with a long list of UN gang members and associates, including three men who pleaded guilty in May 2008 to murder and conspiracy to kill Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna in 2011.

Dillon said inmates connected to the UN gang have written coded letters to each other in jail and have improperly shared disclosure in their various criminal cases.

“Continuing communication between UN gang members or associates potentially perpetuates criminal activity within the UN gang culture of loyalty,” Dillon said. “Maintenance of the UN gang as a criminal organization through continued contact between members and associates is not to be fostered in the interest of public safety.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Charges have been quietly stayed in another major B.C. case allegedly linked to the international drug trade.

In October 2017, the RCMP announced two Metro Vancouver residents had been charged with importing cocaine and trafficking fentanyl after a large drug shipment sent through the Port of Vancouver was seized.

“These seizures would definitely have impacted the transnational organized crime networks involved,” RCMP Supt. Cal Chrustie said at the time.

Yan Chau “Andrew” Lam was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Sok Wai “Gertrude” Cheong was charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The RCMP seized 132 kilograms of cocaine smuggled inside a container arriving from Brazil, as well as 40,000 fentanyl pills found during a subsequent search of a Richmond apartment.

Hockey bags full of cocaine were smuggled through the Port of Vancouver

Lam, 50, and Cheong, 44, had been scheduled to go to trial in the new year in provincial court in Richmond.

But earlier this month, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada stayed the charges.

Nathalie Houle, spokeswoman for the federal agency, said in an email Friday that: “The PPSC can confirm that a stay of proceedings has been entered in this matter.”

She said the charges were stayed according to the PPSC policy.

The policy states that prosecutions are only initiated and continued if there is a reasonable prospect of conviction based on the available evidence and if they are in the public interest.

“If the answer to both questions is yes, the decision to prosecute test is met. If not, and charges have been laid, the charges should be withdrawn or a stay of proceedings entered,” Houle said.

She provided no specifics about why there was no longer a reasonable prospect of a conviction or why the prosecution was no longer in the public interest.

40,000 fentanyl pills were also seized as part to the investigation into Andrew Lam and Gertrude Cheong.

Houle gave the same answer last month when money-laundering charges were stayed in the massive E-Pirate investigation into the alleged laundering of drug money through B.C. casinos.

A Vancouver couple and their Richmond company had faced charges of laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime and failing to ascertain the identity of a client. But those charges were stayed on Nov. 22 even though a trial had been scheduled in the new year.

Just before the stay of charges, a five-week trial had been scheduled for Caixuan Qin, Jain Jun Zhu and Silver International Investments Ltd. stretching from January to April in 2019.

Both investigations were headed in B.C. by the RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime section.

RCMP Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said in an email Friday that she was “not in a position to provide any further specifics” about why the charges were laid.

“Ultimately the decision to enter a stay of proceedings lies with the Crown,” she said.

She said she had no information about whether the investigation is ongoing.

The RCMP was first alerted to the drug-smuggling scheme when U.S. agents at the Port of Los Angeles discovered three duffel bags full of cocaine inside a refrigerated container destined for the Port of Vancouver.

The Americans and the RCMP began a joint investigation to identify suspects and track the shipment as it proceeded to its destination.

Chrustie, who is now retired, also said after the charges were laid last year that police believed the drug smugglers were “tailgating,” meaning their illicit cargo was piggybacking on a legitimate shipment of goods.

kbolan@postmedia.com

vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

A Vancouver man has been acquitted of aggravated assault after striking two people with a metal post outside a downtown strip club last year.

Provincial court Judge Wilson Lee said he accepted the evidence of Joshua Aguirre, who testified that he feared for his life when he picked up the metal stanchion and began swinging it during a heated altercation.

Lee said in his ruling, released Dec. 18, that “the actions of Mr. Aguirre were objectively reasonable in the circumstances” and that the prosecutor had not disproven that the accused was acting in self-defence.

He said “Aguirre had a reasonable belief that force or threat of force (was) being used against him” and a friend who got into a dispute with other patrons as they were leaving Brandi’s strip club on Nov. 5, 2017.

Aguirre had been charged with two counts of aggravated assault for striking Willow Riley and Daniel Ackerman with the post, which was used to hold the rope barrier outside the strip club at Hornby and Dunsmuir.

And he was charged with possessing a weapon during the assaults.

Lee noted Aguirre admitted to striking both victims and that some of the incident was captured on video surveillance outside the club. But the accused insisted he was only acting in self-defence.

Aguirre and a friend, identified only as Bryce, had a drink at Brandi’s before leaving the fifth-floor club in an elevator at the same time as Riley and her group — none of whom Aguirre knew.

“Mr. Aguirre recalls that Bryce asked Ms. Riley if she worked at the club,” Lee noted. “To put this comment into context, Brandi’s Show Lounge is an adult entertainment club featuring exotic dancers. Mr. Aguirre said that Ms. Riley replied with some cheeky remark.”

Riley’s boyfriend, Sterling McElroy, “took exception to Bryce’s question,” the ruling said.

“Mr. Aguirre described Mr. McElroy as being really upset and that he was having words with Bryce.”

The verbal sparring continued in the elevator and when the two groups reached the exit.

Aguirre told the doorman on the way out “that Mr. McElroy was making threats and to watch out for him.”

The video showed Aguirre’s friend throwing a punch at McElroy, which Aguirre testified was “not cool at all.” Bryce was also fighting with Riley, and others in her group joined in.

Aguirre can be seen on the video with his hands up, palms down. He said he was trying to tell people to calm down.

“At this point, Mr. Aguirre felt he was facing four guys, saying to him they were going to ‘f–k me up.’ Mr. Aguirre said they were lunging at him and moving him backwards,” Lee said in the ruling.

Someone in Riley’s group picked up the stanchion and threw it at Aguirre, who testified that it hit his right cheek and his wrist, chipping a bone.

He said by that point the situation was “out of control” and he “feared for his life.”

“The video showed Bryce throwing the stanchion back at the oncoming group,” the judge said.

“Mr. Aguirre recalls that he then picked up the stanchion and swung it at Sterling McElroy.”

McElroy ducked out of the way. Aguirre swung it at someone else he saw approaching and hit Riley in the ear.

“He said his intent was to keep people back … he was in survival mode”.

He also struck Ackerman, who was not involved in the fight and had run over to try to help after seeing Riley get hit.

The entire altercation was over in a few minutes. Vancouver police arrived and arrested Aguirre, who had been subdued by a Brandi’s bouncer.

Lee said that while Aguirre “was reckless in using the stanchion in the way that he did,” the judge was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that his conduct was “unreasonable in the circumstances.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/kbolan

Sorry for keeping the blog shut down for an extra couple of weeks. I did work some over the holidays but didn’t post the stories on the blog, So now that I’m back at work, I will post the older stories and open up comments again. Just before Christmas UN gang hitman Cory Vallee was sentenced to TWO life terms – one for the first-degree murder of Red Scorpion gangster Kevin LeClair and the other for his role in the conspiracy to kill other Red Scorpions, including the Bacon brothers. No doubt he will appeal his conviction and sentences and I’ll update you if he does.

Here’s that story:

There has been a lot of coverage since the massive money laundering case, dubbed E-Pirate, was dropped recently. Police believe the former Richmond money exchange was laundering up tens of millions for Asian organized crime, Mexican cartels and Middle Eastern criminal organizations. There is now an on-going civil forfeiture case.

There have been several good news stories related to the charges being stayed in this cases. Here are a few done my colleagues:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/money-laundering-trial-stayed-privilege-1.4946799

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-government-files-forfeiture-claim-in-money-laundering-case

https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/major-illegal-gambling-money-laundering-investigation-now-in-hands-of-crown-counsel

Over the holidays, I learned about charges being stayed in a second major organized crime case.

Here’s that story:

Charges have been quietly stayed in another major B.C. case allegedly linked to the international drug trade.

In October 2017, the RCMP announced two Metro Vancouver residents had been charged with importing cocaine and trafficking fentanyl after a large drug shipment sent through the Port of Vancouver was seized.

“These seizures would definitely have impacted the transnational organized crime networks involved,” RCMP Supt. Cal Chrustie said at the time.

Yan Chau “Andrew” Lam was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Sok Wai “Gertrude” Cheong was charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The RCMP seized 132 kilograms of cocaine smuggled inside a container arriving from Brazil, as well as 40,000 fentanyl pills found during a subsequent search of a Richmond apartment.

Lam, 50, and Cheong, 44, had been scheduled to go to trial in the new year in provincial court in Richmond.

But earlier this month, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada stayed the charges.

Nathalie Houle, spokeswoman for the federal agency, said in an email Friday that: “The PPSC can confirm that a stay of proceedings has been entered in this matter.”

She said the charges were stayed according to the PPSC policy.

The policy states that prosecutions are only initiated and continued if there is a reasonable prospect of conviction based on the available evidence and if they are in the public interest.

“If the answer to both questions is yes, the decision to prosecute test is met. If not, and charges have been laid, the charges should be withdrawn or a stay of proceedings entered,” Houle said.

She provided no specifics about why there was no longer a reasonable prospect of a conviction or why the prosecution was no longer in the public interest.

Houle gave the same answer last month when money-laundering charges were stayed in the massive E-Pirate investigation into the alleged laundering of drug money through B.C. casinos.

A Vancouver couple and their Richmond company had faced charges of laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime and failing to ascertain the identity of a client. But those charges were stayed on Nov. 22 even though a trial had been scheduled in the new year.

Just before the stay of charges, a five-week trial had been scheduled for Caixuan Qin, Jain Jun Zhu and Silver International Investments Ltd. stretching from January to April in 2019.

Both investigations were headed in B.C. by the RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime section.

RCMP Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said in an email Friday that she was “not in a position to provide any further specifics” about why the charges were laid.

“Ultimately the decision to enter a stay of proceedings lies with the Crown,” she said.

She said she had no information about whether the investigation is ongoing.

The RCMP was first alerted to the drug-smuggling scheme when U.S. agents at the Port of Los Angeles discovered three duffel bags full of cocaine inside a refrigerated container destined for the Port of Vancouver.

The Americans and the RCMP began a joint investigation to identify suspects and track the shipment as it proceeded to its destination.

Chrustie, who is now retired, also said after the charges were laid last year that police believed the drug smugglers were “tailgating,” meaning their illicit cargo was piggybacking on a legitimate shipment of goods.

kbolan@postmedia.com

vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Devil’s Army president Richard “Ricky” Alexander has been released on $600,000 bail after being charged last year with first-degree murder.

Alexander was granted bail after a hearing in B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria. There is a ban on the submissions and evidence made at the hearing, as well as the judge’s reasons as to why Alexander convinced the court that he should be released pending trial.

He is on a number of conditions, detailed here by my colleague Louise Dickson, from the Times-Colonist, who was in the courtroom.

Alexander must live at his Lower Mainland home, is on a curfew to stay inside between 7 pm and 7 am, and cannot have any contact with any member, former member or associate of biker gangs, including the Hells Angels and his own Devils Army, which he started in Campbell River in 2009.

The 63-year-old, who has a close connection to the Hells Angels, was arrested in October and charged with the 2016 murder of John “Dillon” Brown, a promising MMA fighter and young father.

Brown was found dead inside the trunk of his grey Honda Accord on March 12, 2016, near Sayward, northwest of Campbell River. He was last seen leaving a Campbell River residence about 1 p.m. the day before.

Officers from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit executed a search warrant in connection with Brown’s death at the Devils Army clubhouse in 2017

At the time, Alexander told Postmedia that he didn’t know why police were there and wouldn’t comment until he found out.

A key government witness at the trial of Mexican Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman testified in New York this week that he met with Canadian Hells Angels on behalf of the cartel to arrange the hit of a drug dealer.

The witness, Guzman’s former right-hand man Alex Cifuentes, said the hit on the dealer was never completed, according to the New York Times and other media outlets covering the trial. Cifuentes, a Colombian, provided no details of who in the notorious biker gang he contacted.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Wednesday that the testimony about a link between Canadian Hells Angels and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel is not startling news to law enforcement.

“It is no surprise that this information is coming to light, as the arms of the Hells Angels, especially Canadian Hells Angels, are far-reaching locally, nationally, and internationally,” Winpenny said. “The scope of their criminal involvement in the drug trade and other ventures is global and, as we’ve seen time and time again, there is almost always violence associated to it.”

In his 2018 book Hunting El Chapo, former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Andrew Hogan described Guzman’s deep links to Canada and B.C. in particular.

FILE – In this Jan. 19, 2017, file photo, provided by U.S. law enforcement, authorities escort Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

Hogan said Sinaloa cocaine would be moved across the Arizona border and up to the Washington-B.C. border “where the loads would be thrown on private helicopters. The birds would jump the border and drop the coke out among the tall lodgepole pines of British Columbia.”

“Chapo’s men had connections with sophisticated Iranian organized-crime gangs in Canada,” Hogan wrote. “A network of outlaw bikers — primarily Hells Angels — were also moving his cocaine overland and selling it to retail dealers throughout the country.”

Hogan also said he and the other officers working on the special task force to capture Guzman “were caught off guard by his deep infiltration of Canada.”

He noted that Guzman had a young Sinaloa man set up as a college student in Vancouver in about 2009 “to run his drug distribution and money collection throughout Canada.”

The Vancouver Sun reported on some of Guzman’s cartel connections in B.C. in 2014. His cartel contacts in Metro Vancouver were dropping off hockey bags stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars destined for Guzman’s U.S. bank accounts. One of the B.C. men later convicted in California in the Sinaloa case was connected to Montreal’s West End gang and some B.C. Hells Angels, according to court documents obtained at the time.

Former RCMP Supt. Pat Fogarty said Wednesday that the Hells Angels had “a continuous working relationship” with other Canadian organized crime groups and with Mexican and other cartels.

Through their connections, the groups “facilitated the transport, distribution and financial requirements for cocaine distribution in Canada,” said Fogarty, now CEO of the Fathom Research Group.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello did not respond to a request for a comment on the testimony at the Guzman trial.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan