Just three months after he was sentenced for his role in a major international cocaine conspiracy, a senior member of the Hells Angels has died.

David Giles, 67, passed away Canada Day in Abbotsford Regional Hospital.

He had been an inmate at the Pacific Institution, acting assistant warden Ronnie Gill said.

Giles had been ill throughout his trial in B.C. Supreme Court for conspiracy to import and traffic cocaine.

He was convicted last September, but only sentenced on March 31, 2017 after he fought unsuccessfully to have the case thrown out due to the length of time the case took to get to trial.

Justice Carol Ross handed Giles an 18-year sentence, minus credit for time served for a net term of just over 11 years.  

Gill said Giles’ family had been notified about his death, as had the police and the B.C. Coroners’ Service.

Giles sentence was the longest-ever handed to a Hells Angel in B.C.

Ross said he played a leading role in a conspiracy to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine into B.C. after being duped by undercover police posing as South American drug exporters.

After months of negotiating and a $4-million down payment, 200 kilograms of purported cocaine were delivered to a Burnaby warehouse on Aug. 25, 2012. Police swooped in and arrested him and seven others.

Giles could be seen labouring in court during his last few appearances. 

David Giles

He looked ill and breathed heavily in the prisoner’s box as Ross read out her reasons for sentencing him.

“Considering the nature of this transaction, the quantity of drugs involved, the intention for it to be an ongoing venture, Mr. Giles’ role and Mr. Giles’ personal circumstances, I have concluded that the fit sentence is 18 years,” Ross said.

Giles’s lawyer Paul Gill had argued for a lower term saying his client is critically ill with liver disease and needed a transplant.

While Ross agreed that Giles’s health had to be considered, she rejected the argument that he was not one of the leaders of the plot.

She said Giles was an equal partner in the deal after he was recruited into it by his associate Kevin Van Kalkeren.

“Once Mr. Giles was recruited to the conspiracy, he acted as…equal partner and was treated by Mr. Van Kalkeren as such,” Ross said.  

And Giles, who was vice-president of the Hells Angels Kelowna chapter at the time, “said his target was to take 500 kilos every three months,” Ross noted.

“Mr. Giles repeatedly refers to his market, his buyers, his plans for the distribution of the cocaine.”

Giles had a tough early life – born in Saint John, N.B., to an alcoholic mother who died early. He finished Grade 5 and was then “committed to a reformatory that has become notorious for abuse,” Ross noted.

He went on to foster care and a life of crime, though his last conviction was in 1984 for trafficking.

He was acquitted after another major undercover police investigation in B.C. more than a decade ago.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Retired Vancouver Police biker specialist Brad Stephen remembers the first time he met Hells Angel David Giles in the mid-1990s.

Stephen pulled him over on Dundas in East Vancouver after seeing Giles “peel out” of the parking lot of the old Drake Hotel.

“I remember it vividly,” Stephen recalled Sunday. “I pulled him over and he just oozed hatred for law enforcement. You could just feel the disdain coming from his pores.”

Stephen said he was polite with the powerful biker, welcoming him to the West Coast where he had just relocated.

“I remember him opening his wallet. He wanted to make sure that I saw his platinum American Express,” Stephen said, adding that in the day, the card carried a credit limit of $100,000.

David Giles, East End Hell’s Angels chapter member in 2005.

“He wouldn’t engage at all, just stared me down.”

Giles died in an Abbotsford hospital Saturday, just three months after he was handed a record sentence for his role in a massive international cocaine conspiracy.

B.C. Justice Carol Ross gave the ailing 67-year-old biker an 18-year sentence, minus credit for time served, leaving a net term of just over 11 years.

It was the longest sentence ever given to a B.C. Hells Angel.

Ross said Giles was one of the leaders in a plot to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine into B.C. Undercover cops posing as South American drug exporters had duped Giles and his associates in a sophisticated multinational sting.

The judge rejected a call for a more lenient term from Giles’ lawyer Paul Gill, who said his client was critically ill and needed a liver transplant.

Giles had been incarcerated at the Pacific Institution, acting assistant warden Ronnie Gill said in a statement.

She said Giles’ family had been notified of his passing, as had the police and the B.C. Coroners Service.

While no cause of death was provided, Giles health appeared to decline over his months-long trial in B.C. Supreme Court. He laboured as he walked through the courtroom each morning and breathed heavily in the prisoner’s box.

Giles and associates were convicted last September. He was sentenced on March 31, 2017 after an unsuccessful fight to have the case thrown out due to the length of time it took to get to trial.

Giles had once served on the national executive of the Hells Angels and was close to Montreal HA president and convicted killer Maurice “Mom” Boucher.

He moved from the Montreal chapter to Halifax, then to Vancouver’s East End chapter, before becoming one of the first Kelowna Hells Angels when the bikers expanded with a new chapter there in 2007.

“He was a very formidable underworld figure in the Hells Angels,” Stephen said. “You know that he had influence and that he had cachet within the Hells Angels organization. He had connections back east and all over the world.” 

David Giles,left, beside Hells kingpin Maurice Boucher.

While still an East End member, Giles and several others were arrested and charged after a major police investigation during which agent Micheal Plante infiltrated the chapter.

Several bikers and associates were convicted, but Giles beat all his charges. 

Plante later told Postmedia that he wore a wire into an East End meeting the night the bikers offered him a position in the Hells Angels program.

Giles jokingly said: “You are not going to, like, become a Hells Angel and then quit and write a book about us, are you?”

Giles was again the target of police in the E-Predicate investigation, resulting in his arrest on a series of charges in August 2012 and his conviction four years later. 

During the investigation Giles and his associates gave police a $4-million down payment and arranged for an initial shipment of 200 kilograms of cocaine to be delivered to Burnaby warehouse on Aug. 25, 2012

“Considering the nature of this transaction, the quantity of drugs involved, the intention for it to be an ongoing venture, Mr. Giles’ role and Mr. Giles’ personal circumstances, I have concluded that the fit sentence is 18 years,” Ross said.

Ross also noted that Giles had a tough early life — born in Saint John, N.B., to an alcoholic mother who died early. He finished Grade 5 and was then “committed to a reformatory that has become notorious for abuse.”

He went on to foster care and a life of crime, though his last conviction before E-Predicate was in 1984 for trafficking.

Giles spent 35 years of his life as a Hells Angels. But his status with the club was uncertain at the time of his death.

Hells Angels spokesman Ricky Ciarniello did not respond to a Postmedia request for comment.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

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On a recent Wednesday evening in Kelowna, a row of Harleys was parked outside the Hells Angels clubhouse on Ellis Street.

The biker gang was holding its weekly “church” meeting at the clubhouse, despite the fact the B.C. Civil Forfeiture office is fighting in court to get the nondescript stucco building, across from a log yard, forfeited to taxpayers.

The government case to seize the Kelowna, Nanaimo and (Vancouver) East End Hells Angels clubhouses as sites of criminal activity has been winding its way through B.C. Supreme Court for almost a decade.

VANCOUVER, BC — A Vancouver police officer keeps an eye on the East End Hells Angels clubhouse on East Georgia in Vancouver in 2012.

It started on Nov. 9, 2007, when Mounties broke down the door of the little white building on Victoria Avenue in Nanaimo that housed the Hells Angels clubhouse there.

Cops seized decorative plaques, posters, bar stools and clothing emblazoned with the infamous death’s head logo. They also took Hells Angels documents, including some related to police activities, counter-surveillance efforts and intelligence the bikers had gathered.

About 50 RCMP officers raided Nanaimo’s Hell’s Angels club house in 2007.

A decade and counting

Thus began the legal odyssey that might finally determine whether a B.C. judge believes the Hells Angels are a criminal organization.

The civil trial was supposed to begin on May 1, but was adjourned again until April 23, 2018.

The government’s amended claim against the biker gang, filed in March, alleges that if the Hells Angels get to keep the clubhouses they will be used “to enhance the ability of a criminal organization, namely the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, to commit indictable offences.”

The Angels have filed a counter-claim, seeking to get B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Act declared unconstitutional.

Police and government officials have long held that the Hells Angels are the most powerful and sophisticated criminal organization in B.C.

Lack of success

But prosecutors have so far been unsuccessful in getting the biker gang convicted on any criminal organization charges in this province, despite four separate attempts in B.C. courts in the past decade.

Hells Angel David Giles died recently in prison.

The latest misfire came last year when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross dismissed criminal organization charges against Hells Angel David Giles and several associates.

She had already ruled to limit the testimony of Jacques Lemieux, a retired Mountie whom the Crown called as an expert on outlaw motorcycle gangs to support the criminal organization charges.

Ross said Lemieux’s expertise was out-of-date and lacked supporting documentation. He retired in 2008, but was still being used in court years later.

“Mr. Lemieux was first qualified to testify as an expert witness in 2000; however, it appears that nothing changed in relation to his preparation and maintenance of a file relating to his opinion after that time,” Ross said.

She said that Lemieux would not be able to testify about his view that “the organization’s main purpose is to facilitate the criminal activities of its members” or other opinions about the club’s nefarious origins.

Hells Angel Bryan Oldham was convicted, but the Crown failed to get a ‘criminal organization’ designation for the biker gang at his trial.

It was a crushing blow to the criminal organization part of the Crown’s case, despite the fact that Giles, Hells Angel Bryan Oldham and their associates were later convicted of other charges related to a large international cocaine conspiracy stemming from an undercover police probe.

Giles died on July 1, just three months after he began serving a record-long sentence handed to him by Ross in March.

Giles’ lawyer Paul Gill said in an interview that he knew there were problems with the Crown’s expert when Lemieux testified about stumbling on binders of supporting material in his garage.

“It was like he was moving boxes around and he found these binders,” Gill said. “It was dated stuff. So he had this ossified frozen-in-time canned pitch to give and the justification was, well, it has worked in the past, I have been qualified all these other times.”

He said Lemieux should have had more current experience and an up-to-date curriculum vitae.

“I think the ground has shifting in terms of what the court expects,” Gill said.

He said Giles was concerned about a possible criminal organization conviction.

“They (the Crown) treated this as one of the biggest drug cases out of their office and maybe it was. And they certainly got him good, but I was very worried that the ‘crim org’ count was going to essentially bury him alive,” Gill said a few days before his client died of liver disease.

Gill said it was clear that the focus of the Crown’s case was the Hells Angels in a sting orchestrated by the undercover cops posing as South American drug brokers.

“It was really about the Hells Angels and their role in this stuff and they worked the file with that at the forefront,” Gill said. “That was the common denominator knit through the whole thing.”

Nathalie Houle, who speaks for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said she couldn’t comment on the dismissal of the criminal organization charges in the recent case.

“The court rulings in previous cases speak for themselves in terms of the reasons for dismissal of particular charges, the limiting of testimony to be given by expert witnesses, and the elements of criminal organization offences,” she said. “It would not be appropriate … to engage in out-of-court discussion about particular individuals or entities and their status as or association with a criminal organization.”

Earlier attempts

Lemieux was also called as an expert witness a decade ago when prosecutors had three B.C. cases stemming from an earlier $10-million investigation into the Hells Angels dubbed E-Pandora.

In the first, Giles and two other associates, David Revell and Richard Rempel, were charged with trafficking and possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking in association with a criminal organization.

On March 27, 2008, Giles was acquitted on all counts, dooming the criminal organization case, though Revell and Rempel were convicted of trafficking.

In the second case, a jury heard months of evidence from E-Pandora about the criminality of the Hells Angels before convicting four bikers on a series of charges on July 13, 2009.

But the jury also acquitted the Angels quartet on all the criminal organization counts, prompting B.C. Crown counsel Mark Levitz to say at the time “it’s unfortunate the jury wasn’t able to conclude what judges in other parts of Canada found — that the Hells Angels is a criminal organization.”

In the third care, Martha Devlin, then a federal prosecutor, didn’t even get to introduce her evidence in November 2009 that two Hells Angels were part of or working for a criminal organization.

Justice Peter Leask granted a defence motion to dismiss the counts because of the jury’s ruling in the July case.

Commitment roller-coaster

To date, judges in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec have ruled the Hells Angels are a criminal organization.

Brad Stephen, a retired Vancouver police biker specialist, has no doubt that the B.C. bikers are a criminal organization.

“The Hells Angels are involved in every aspect of criminal enterprise in British Columbia, specifically the drug enterprise, because they control a good quantity of the product and they control territory and they have incredible international contacts and influence,” Stephen said in an interview.

And while many Hells Angels have been convicted of other charges in B.C. in recent years, Stephen thinks a criminal organization conviction has eluded police and prosecutors because of a failure to groom new police experts on the biker gang.

“We have not had a sustained, resourced and committed long-standing effort against the Hells Angels in B.C.,” he said. “It has been a roller-coaster ride of commitment, and of success and failure.”

Hells Angels gather outside the East End clubhouse in Vancouver in 2014.

He said in other Canadian jurisdictions, law enforcement agencies “have committed to sponsoring a particular police officer to educate himself to go through all the protocols in order to become an expert.”

“British Columbia has been unable to have any succession planning with regards to biker experts,” Stephen said.

He said that in order for police officers to get promoted, and thus earn more, they need a varied resumé. So they transfer to different units to gain a wider range of experience.

Officers don’t always see the benefit of staying long-term in specialty units, like the one investigating outlaw motorcycle gangs in B.C., he said.

But he believes the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a multi-police-force anti-gang unit in B.C., is now developing a new long-term strategy targeting the bikers, which he applauds.

“When you drill down to do a quality investigation, a quality prosecution, you need police that are talented in writing affidavits. You need police officers that are talented in handling informants and agents, and police officers that are technically sound in all the latest gadgetry,” Stephen said.

“In order to attract police officers to these sections, you need respectful leaders. You need leaders that are progressive, innovative, that want to really put bad guys in jail — leaders that will take risks, that won’t necessarily take the easy road. That attracts quality police officers.”

There have been a lot of changes in the Hells Angels since the Nanaimo civil forfeiture case was filed in 2007.

• Longtime Nanaimo Angel Robert (Fred) Widdifield, named in the original suit, has since been convicted of extortion and theft.

• Several defendants in the later suit filed against the Kelowna and East End chapters have also now been convicted of criminal charges. Giles, also a named defendant, is dead.

The Hells Angels lead lawyer in the forfeiture case, Joe Arvay, declined to comment for this story. The Hells Angels spokesman, Rick Ciarniello, did not respond to a request for an interview.

Phil Tawtel, the director of the B.C. Civil Forfeiture office, said in an email that he was also unable to comment.

The lack of a criminal organization designation in B.C. has meant the Hells Angels have continued to flourish here, Stephen said.

The Hells Angels have been growing in B.C., despite police efforts. This property on 8th Ave in Langley is now being rented by West Point Hells Angels.

They have opened two new chapters in the past five years — the most recent, Hardside, in March. The West Point chapter, which opened in 2012, recently rented a house on acreage in south Langley, which they are using for a clubhouse, Postmedia has learned.

There are now 121 Hells Angels in B.C., up from about 100 three years ago.

“The Hells Angels know the gains to be made far outweigh what the consequences would be here in B.C. When there is an expansion, that is a slap in the face to law enforcement,” Stephen said.

He is also concerned about the increasing number of “puppet clubs” — biker gangs that also wear three-piece patches like the Hells Angels and that seek permission from the older gang before starting up.

“When you go over to the (Vancouver) Island, it is infested with outlaw motorcycle gangs. It is expanding like crazy. So why are they expanding? They see the market. The market is there. The punishment or the consequences are such that it has become a very attractive arena for bikers to thrive in.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

After almost three weeks in South America, I am back at work as of today and the Real Scoop is open again for commenting.

My feature on the lack of a criminal organization conviction against the B.C. Hells Angels ran while I was away so I am posting it here in case anyone wants to comment.

The civil forfeiture trial against the Hells Angels has now been delayed until next April, which will be more than 10 years since the Nanaimo clubhouse was first raided by police in November 2007.

Here’s my story:

On a recent Wednesday evening in Kelowna, a row of Harleys was parked outside the Hells Angels clubhouse on Ellis Street.

The biker gang was holding its weekly “church” meeting at the clubhouse, despite the fact the B.C. Civil Forfeiture office is fighting in court to get the nondescript stucco building, across from a log yard, forfeited to taxpayers.

The government case to seize the Kelowna, Nanaimo and (Vancouver) East End Hells Angels clubhouses as sites of criminal activity has been winding its way through B.C. Supreme Court for almost a decade.

It started on Nov. 9, 2007, when Mounties broke down the door of the little white building on Victoria Avenue in Nanaimo that housed the Hells Angels clubhouse there.

Cops seized decorative plaques, posters, bar stools and clothing emblazoned with the infamous death’s head logo. They also took Hells Angels documents, including some related to police activities, counter-surveillance efforts and intelligence the bikers had gathered.

A decade and counting

Thus began the legal odyssey that might finally determine whether a B.C. judge believes the Hells Angels are a criminal organization.

The civil trial was supposed to begin on May 1, but was adjourned again until April 23, 2018.

The government’s amended claim against the biker gang, filed in March, alleges that if the Hells Angels get to keep the clubhouses they will be used “to enhance the ability of a criminal organization, namely the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, to commit indictable offences.”

The Angels have filed a counter-claim, seeking to get B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Act declared unconstitutional.

Police and government officials have long held that the Hells Angels are the most powerful and sophisticated criminal organization in B.C.

Lack of success

But prosecutors have so far been unsuccessful in getting the biker gang convicted on any criminal organization charges in this province, despite four separate attempts in B.C. courts in the past decade.

The latest misfire came last year when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross dismissed criminal organization charges against Hells Angel David Giles and several associates.

She had already ruled to limit the testimony of Jacques Lemieux, a retired Mountie whom the Crown called as an expert on outlaw motorcycle gangs to support the criminal organization charges.

Ross said Lemieux’s expertise was out-of-date and lacked supporting documentation. He retired in 2008, but was still being used in court years later.

“Mr. Lemieux was first qualified to testify as an expert witness in 2000; however, it appears that nothing changed in relation to his preparation and maintenance of a file relating to his opinion after that time,” Ross said.

She said that Lemieux would not be able to testify about his view that “the organization’s main purpose is to facilitate the criminal activities of its members” or other opinions about the club’s nefarious origins.

It was a crushing blow to the criminal organization part of the Crown’s case, despite the fact that Giles, Hells Angel Bryan Oldham and their associates were later convicted of other charges related to a large international cocaine conspiracy stemming from an undercover police probe.

Giles died on July 1, just three months after he began serving a record-long sentence handed to him by Ross in March.

Giles’ lawyer Paul Gill said in an interview that he knew there were problems with the Crown’s expert when Lemieux testified about stumbling on binders of supporting material in his garage.

“It was like he was moving boxes around and he found these binders,” Gill said. “It was dated stuff. So he had this ossified frozen-in-time canned pitch to give and the justification was, well, it has worked in the past, I have been qualified all these other times.”

He said Lemieux should have had more current experience and an up-to-date curriculum vitae.

“I think the ground has shifting in terms of what the court expects,” Gill said.

He said Giles was concerned about a possible criminal organization conviction.

“They (the Crown) treated this as one of the biggest drug cases out of their office and maybe it was. And they certainly got him good, but I was very worried that the ‘crim org’ count was going to essentially bury him alive,” Gill said a few days before his client died of liver disease.

Gill said it was clear that the focus of the Crown’s case was the Hells Angels in a sting orchestrated by the undercover cops posing as South American drug brokers.

“It was really about the Hells Angels and their role in this stuff and they worked the file with that at the forefront,” Gill said. “That was the common denominator knit through the whole thing.”

Nathalie Houle, who speaks for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said she couldn’t comment on the dismissal of the criminal organization charges in the recent case.

“The court rulings in previous cases speak for themselves in terms of the reasons for dismissal of particular charges, the limiting of testimony to be given by expert witnesses, and the elements of criminal organization offences,” she said. “It would not be appropriate … to engage in out-of-court discussion about particular individuals or entities and their status as or association with a criminal organization.”

Earlier attempts

Lemieux was also called as an expert witness a decade ago when prosecutors had three B.C. cases stemming from an earlier $10-million investigation into the Hells Angels dubbed E-Pandora.

In the first, Giles and two other associates, David Revell and Richard Rempel, were charged with trafficking and possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking in association with a criminal organization.

On March 27, 2008, Giles was acquitted on all counts, dooming the criminal organization case, though Revell and Rempel were convicted of trafficking.

In the second case, a jury heard months of evidence from E-Pandora about the criminality of the Hells Angels before convicting four bikers on a series of charges on July 13, 2009.

But the jury also acquitted the Angels quartet on all the criminal organization counts, prompting B.C. Crown counsel Mark Levitz to say at the time “it’s unfortunate the jury wasn’t able to conclude what judges in other parts of Canada found — that the Hells Angels is a criminal organization.”

In the third care, Martha Devlin, then a federal prosecutor, didn’t even get to introduce her evidence in November 2009 that two Hells Angels were part of or working for a criminal organization.

Justice Peter Leask granted a defence motion to dismiss the counts because of the jury’s ruling in the July case.

Commitment roller-coaster

To date, judges in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec have ruled the Hells Angels are a criminal organization.

Brad Stephen, a retired Vancouver police biker specialist, has no doubt that the B.C. bikers are a criminal organization.

“The Hells Angels are involved in every aspect of criminal enterprise in British Columbia, specifically the drug enterprise, because they control a good quantity of the product and they control territory and they have incredible international contacts and influence,” Stephen said in an interview.

And while many Hells Angels have been convicted of other charges in B.C. in recent years, Stephen thinks a criminal organization conviction has eluded police and prosecutors because of a failure to groom new police experts on the biker gang.

“We have not had a sustained, resourced and committed long-standing effort against the Hells Angels in B.C.,” he said. “It has been a roller-coaster ride of commitment, and of success and failure.”

He said in other Canadian jurisdictions, law enforcement agencies “have committed to sponsoring a particular police officer to educate himself to go through all the protocols in order to become an expert.”

“British Columbia has been unable to have any succession planning with regards to biker experts,” Stephen said.

He said that in order for police officers to get promoted, and thus earn more, they need a varied resumé. So they transfer to different units to gain a wider range of experience.

Officers don’t always see the benefit of staying long-term in specialty units, like the one investigating outlaw motorcycle gangs in B.C., he said.

But he believes the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a multi-police-force anti-gang unit in B.C., is now developing a new long-term strategy targeting the bikers, which he applauds.

“When you drill down to do a quality investigation, a quality prosecution, you need police that are talented in writing affidavits. You need police officers that are talented in handling informants and agents, and police officers that are technically sound in all the latest gadgetry,” Stephen said.

“In order to attract police officers to these sections, you need respectful leaders. You need leaders that are progressive, innovative, that want to really put bad guys in jail — leaders that will take risks, that won’t necessarily take the easy road. That attracts quality police officers.”

There have been a lot of changes in the Hells Angels since the Nanaimo civil forfeiture case was filed in 2007.

• Longtime Nanaimo Angel Robert (Fred) Widdifield, named in the original suit, has since been convicted of extortion and theft.

• Several defendants in the later suit filed against the Kelowna and East End chapters have also now been convicted of criminal charges. Giles, also a named defendant, is dead.

The Hells Angels lead lawyer in the forfeiture case, Joe Arvay, declined to comment for this story. The Hells Angels spokesman, Rick Ciarniello, did not respond to a request for an interview.

Phil Tawtel, the director of the B.C. Civil Forfeiture office, said in an email that he was also unable to comment.

The lack of a criminal organization designation in B.C. has meant the Hells Angels have continued to flourish here, Stephen said.

They have opened two new chapters in the past five years — the most recent, Hardside, in March. The West Point chapter, which opened in 2012, recently rented a house on acreage in south Langley, which they are using for a clubhouse, Postmedia has learned.

There are now 121 Hells Angels in B.C., up from about 100 three years ago.

“The Hells Angels know the gains to be made far outweigh what the consequences would be here in B.C. When there is an expansion, that is a slap in the face to law enforcement,” Stephen said.

He is also concerned about the increasing number of “puppet clubs” — biker gangs that also wear three-piece patches like the Hells Angels and that seek permission from the older gang before starting up.

“When you go over to the (Vancouver) Island, it is infested with outlaw motorcycle gangs. It is expanding like crazy. So why are they expanding? They see the market. The market is there. The punishment or the consequences are such that it has become a very attractive arena for bikers to thrive in.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

A Vancouver Island murder investigation from last year took an interesting turn Thursday when B.C.’s anti-gang police raided the Campbell River clubhouse of the Devils Army.

No one has been arrested yet for killing MMA fighter Dillon Brown, but the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit says the probe is heating up and they hope to find more evidence in the clubhouse of the DA, which police describe as a puppet club of the Hells Angels.

CFSEU Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said investigators do not believe Brown’s murder has any connection to the slaying earlier this year of Hells Angels prospect Mike Widner.

Here’s my story:

Dillon Brown was a promising MMA fighter with a pregnant wife and two small children when he was found murdered in his vehicle on Vancouver Island last year.

Now B.C.’s anti-gang police have raided the Campbell River clubhouse of the Devils Army biker gang as part of the investigation into Brown’s slaying on March 12, 2016.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said the raid began about 8 a.m. Thursday at 70 Petersen Rd. in Campbell River.  

UNDATED — Dillon Brown, 30, was found slain inside his car near the west side of a bridge to Sayward, about 75 kilometres north of Campbell River on March 12, 2016. PNG

Brown, 30, was found dead inside the trunk of his grey Honda Accord near Sayward, about 75 kilometres northwest of Campbell River.

Houghton said investigators believed the murder was targeted. Brown was last seen leaving a Campbell River residence a day before his body was found.

“While the investigation thus far has led us to executing a search warrant this morning at the Devils Army clubhouse, we still believe that there are people who have been reluctant to speak with us who know details about the murder of Dillon Brown,” Houghton said. “We want to speak with you and we urge you to do the right thing and contact us.”

Houghton said the investigation is proceeding quickly and that if anyone has information “now is the time to contact police.”

No one has been arrested and police were not providing details about why they are focusing on the clubhouse.

Devils Army president Richard Alexander declined Thursday to comment, in an email to Postmedia News.

“I just found out what’s up myself. No comment until I find out what’s up for real,” he said.

Alexander is listed as the owner of the clubhouse property, which was valued this year at $276,000.

The Devils Army opened in Campbell River in 2009. Police say the biker gang, which has five full-patch members and two strikers or prospects, is affiliated with the Haney chapter of the more notorious Hells Angels.

Another Devils Army chapter, which uses the number 41 for the D and A in its name, opened in Langford in 2015, prompting the city to file a civil suit against the owner of a building being used as a clubhouse there.

Campbell River Mayor Andy Adams said Thursday that “of course council is concerned” about the development in the murder investigation. But he declined to comment further and referred all calls to the RCMP.

Alexander and three others applied to trademark the helmeted skull logo that is the centre of the gang’s three-piece patch on May 22, 2009. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office finally approved the trademark in 2012, records show.

Houghton said Brown was a semi-pro MMA fighter who was the father of four children, two born after he died.

CFSEU has been working on the investigation with the Vancouver Island integrated major crime unit, Houghton said. Over 100 officers have been involved on the case over the last year, with 60 participating in the search Thursday.

He said officers expect to be at the site for several days “as they search the clubhouse and property for evidence related to Mr. Brown’s homicide.”

“The investigation into the homicide of Dillon Brown remains ongoing and there is no further information that police are able to publicly provide at this time,” Houghton said.

Brown’s friends raised $7,500 for his widow on a gofundme page last year, describing the fighter “a compassionate and dedicated father.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

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For years, friends of incarcerated Hells Angel Larry Amero have pasted “Free Larry” stickers on their Harleys to demand his release.

On Wednesday, they finally got their wish after a judge in Quebec stayed organized crime and cocaine importation charges against the prominent B.C. gangster.

Prosecutor Philippe Vallières-Roland confirmed to Postmedia News that the charges were stayed because of the length of time the case took to get to trial.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada set a 30-month time limit for prosecutions at the provincial supreme court level to be completed, except in exceptional circumstances.

Amero is the highest-profile B.C. gangster to have his case thrown out under the so-called Jordan Rule.

The 40-year-old biker has been in jail since his arrest in Montreal in November 2012 as a prime target in Québec provincial police’s Project Loquace, which resulted in more than 100 arrests.

Amero and several associates, including now convicted killer and former B.C. gangster Rabih Alkhalil, were alleged to be ringleaders in a major coalition of organized criminals trying to control cocaine distribution across Canada.  

Sticker on a Hells Angel Harley supporting the release of Larry Amero.

Police said they found documentation in the penthouse Amero shared with Alkhalil showing millions of dollars in drug transactions, some of which were here in B.C.

Amero, who grew up in Metro Vancouver, joined the Hells Angels program as a hangaround in 2002 and became a full-patch member of the White Rock chapter of the biker gang three years later.

Just months before his arrest, he joined the breakaway West Point chapter, now operating out of a rented south Langley home near the U.S. border.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Amero’s release.

Brad Stephen, a biker expert and retired Vancouver police officer, said Wednesday that Amero “is a formidable member within the Hells Angels and within the underworld in general.”

“He has managed to create alliances with different crime groups and been extremely successful and has made a lot of money in the drug trafficking business.”

If he returns to B.C. as expected, anti-gang police will be watching.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said police would take the appropriate action if Amero resumes his position in the Lower Mainland underworld.

“How he chooses to conduct himself when he gets back will obviously be on him,” Winpenny said. “We are very aware of the current gang landscape and the conflicts, and if he chooses to involve himself in that we would dedicate as many resources as possible to address that.”

When Amero was arrested in 2012, the B.C. head of CFSEU at the time said that Amero and two others charged in Quebec were “key figures” in gang violence in B.C.

Amero had formed the Wolf Pack alliance with some members of the Red Scorpion gang and some Independent Soldiers.  

Amero, Scorpion Jonathan Bacon and Independent Soldier James Riach were in a Porsche Cayenne outside Kelowna’s Delta Grand Hotel in August 2011 when it was shot up by masked gunmen.  

Paramedics tend to victim Larry Amero at the scene of Jonathan Bacon’s murder in Kelowna on Aug. 14, 2011

Bacon was killed in the shooting, while Amero was seriously injured. Riach escaped injury.

Three rival gangsters — Jujhar Khun-Khun, Michael Jones and Jason McBride — are currently on trial in Kelowna on first-degree murder charges.

After his near-death experience, Amero moved to Montreal, but would return to B.C. When he visited Vancouver in January 2012, police warned him he might be targeted again.  

While Amero is now tasting freedom for the first time in five years, his former co-accused from B.C. haven’t fared as well.

Alkhalil was sentenced in Toronto in June to life in prison for hiring a hitman to kill Johnnie Raposso in Little Italy in June 2012.

And Shane “Wheels” Maloney, a B.C. native who joined Montreal’s West End gang, pleaded guilty in the Loquace case and was sentenced in May to 10 years in jail.

Winpenny said that if Amero wants to change his ways, police are there to help.

“We would like to offer Mr. Amero the opportunity  to take advantage of the services offered by our gang exiting and outreach program,” she said. “He can contact the CFSEU-BC at 778-918-2287 if he would like help leaving his gang ties and lifestyle.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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That didn’t take long.

Just a few months after Jarrod Bacon was let out of prison on statutory release, he is back behind bars.

While statutory release is virtually automatic for inmates who serve two-thirds of their sentence, the Parole Board of Canada can impose special conditions on that release.

In Bacon’s case, he was ordered to stay away from criminals and establishments that serve liquor.

And he breached both those conditions so is back in jail.

Here’s my story:

VICTORIA — B.C.’s anti-gang unit is monitoring a new motorcycle club called the Savages operating out of the Langford clubhouse previously used by the Devil’s Army.

The Savages are believed to be a puppet club of the Nanaimo chapter of the Hells Angels, said Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, spokeswoman for B.C.’s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, which targets organized crime groups.

The Savages have set up headquarters at 2775 Spencer Rd., which was vacated by fellow Hells Angels puppet club the Devil’s Army a few months after it opened in May 2015.

Surveillance officers have spotted members of the new motorcycle club during group rides with the Hells Angels and its affiliates.

“We have seen them on the last couple of rides the Hells Angels have had on the Island,” Winpenny said. “So they are out there, they are publicly announcing themselves as being associated with the Hells Angels.”

About 100 bikers, including full-patch Hells Angels, rumbled through Langford on April 1 during a memorial ride for Mike Widner, a prospect for the motorcycle gang who was killed in March in what police believe was a targeted hit.

On April 30, bikers rode from Nanaimo to Victoria in the annual ride in memory of Michael (Zeke) Mickle, the Nanaimo Hells Angels president who disappeared in 1993 and is presumed dead.

Related

• Jarrod Bacon back behind bars after drunken strip club incident
• Bacon murder trial: Gangsters turned witnesses led to trial delays

It’s unclear how many members are in the Savages. Their patch features a muscular man who resembles a Viking sporting a long blond beard and wielding an axe.

On Tuesday, about 20 motorcycles were parked behind the clubhouse’s black fence, which was marked with signs that read “private property.”

Rick Alexander, who heads the Devil’s Army, said in an email the Savages are a “riding club,” not a motorcycle club, but did not elaborate on the difference between the two.

Alexander said his group is not connected to the Savages in any way. “I’ve been there since they moved in, but don’t really know any of them,” he said.

Winpenny said while it does not appear the public is at risk, she said it’s important for people to be aware of the new group.

“This new club is associating themselves with a criminal organization, so I think the public would want to be aware of that and understand exactly who these people are,” she said.

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit is in contact with West Shore RCMP, but Winpenny said she’s unaware of any criminal investigations initiated by the local detachment.

West Shore RCMP did not respond to a request for comment.

Langford Mayor Stew Young said the new motorcycle club is “on the RCMP’s radar.”

“The RCMP are ensuring us as a community that they are monitoring it and they will make sure that the neighbourhood is safe, and any illegal activity, just like anywhere in Langford, they will be on it,” Young said.

Young said he’s not aware of any recent incidents that have caused trouble for the neighbourhood. When the clubhouse opened in May 2015, Young said at the time he received thousands of complaints about its proximity to two schools, a daycare and a seniors’ trailer park.

kderosa@timescolonist.com

Read more Island news at timescolonist.com

A former B.C. Hells Angel was shot to death over the weekend outside a strip mall in Toronto.

James Clayton “Jamie” Holland, 43, was once a member of the elite Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels, then based in Burnaby.

He was kicked out of the B.C. biker gang in 2006, but continued to operate several companies in this province for years.

Toronto Police issued a news release Sunday confirming that Holland had been shot several times about 9:43 p.m. outside a North York plaza from which a marijuana dispensary operated.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. Some media reports said that Holland was linked to the dispensary, but the mall landlord refused to comment to Postmedia.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said Toronto homicide investigators have contacted the B.C. anti-gang agency because of Holland’s history in this province. 

Jamie Holland.

Holland was a wealthy member of the Angels, retired Vancouver Police Det. Brad Stephen said Monday.

And he continued to be a rich man even after he left the notorious motorcycle club.

“He was a wealthy individual. He owned luxury automobiles. He owned multiple high-rise downtown condominiums,” Stephen said.

Before Holland relocated to Ontario, he was often staying in the Wall Centre on Burrard Street.

It was the same hotel where Holland’s close friend Sandip Duhre was gunned down in January 2012.

The former biker and the B.C. gangster were so close that Holland loaned Duhre and his brother a customized BMW that had been made bulletproof. A gunman opened fire on the car on Kingsway in July 2005, but the bullets bounced off.

Stephen, a former Vancouver police Hells Angels specialist, said a lot of B.C. Hells Angels got rich during the period Holland was active in the club.

“Generally speaking, Hells Angels from his era that are as wealthy as him have attained their wealth through establishing effective cocaine importation and distribution networks and marijuana exportation networks,” he said.

“Holland is one of those guys that maintained his criminal enterprise and was very effective in insulating himself from the police and maintaining success for a number of years, both inside of the club and outside of the club. And there are not too many people who can say that.”

Stephen said police would “always see his Lamborghini come tearing out of that Wall Centre parkade.”

He said the Hells Angels are just like the rest of society.

“There are lower class, middle class and upper class. He was an upper-classman with a very successful criminal enterprise,” Stephen said.

Corporate records show Holland was once a director or founder of at least four different B.C. companies.

He was the president of Clayton Investments Ltd., founded in 2002 and dissolved in 2011 by the Corporate Registry for failing to file an annual report.

He was also president of a company called Voyager Market Consultants that was dissolved last year, again for failing to file annual reports, according to the B.C. Corporate Registry.

Holland continued to list Voyager on his Linked in profile, describing himself as a “tech entrepreneur and financier.”

A second numbered company that had been registered in B.C. and listed Holland as president was also dissolved in 2016.

He was also the secretary of a company called GJP Holdings Ltd., which was headed by fellow Nomad Gino Zumpano. That B.C. company was dissolved for failure to file reports in 2007.

Sources say Holland left the Hells Angels on bad terms after getting into a money dispute with a fellow biker.

Hells Angels spokesman Ricky Ciarniello did not respond to a request for a comment on Holland’s murder.

Holland was inside Vancouver’s Loft Six nightclub when a gang shootout erupted in August 2003, leaving three people dead.

He was among the dozens of people rounded up by police and taken in for questioning minutes after the shooting, but was released without charges.

Holland was convicted in 2003 of illegally possessing a restricted weapon — a loaded Combat Commander handgun that had its serial number altered – after he was stopped by Vancouver Police on the Granville Mall. He got an $8,000 fine and was prohibited from possessing guns or ammunition for five years.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Jamie Holland was a powerful and wealthy Hells Angel before he was tossed out of the gang in 2006. He continued running a number of B.C. companies before moving to Toronto a few years ago.

On Saturday he was shot to death. He was involved in the marijuana business in Ontario.

Here’s my story:

file photo

James Clayton “Jamie” Holland, 43, was once a member of the elite Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels, then based in Burnaby.

He was kicked out of the B.C. biker gang in 2006, but continued to operate several companies in this province for years.

Toronto Police issued a news release Sunday confirming that Holland had been shot several times about 9:43 p.m. outside a North York plaza from which a marijuana dispensary operated.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. Holland was a business partner in the dispensary, Postmedia News confirmed.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said Toronto homicide investigators have contacted the B.C. anti-gang agency because of Holland’s history in this province. 

Holland was a wealthy member of the Angels, retired Vancouver Police Det. Brad Stephen said Monday.

And he continued to be a rich man even after he left the notorious motorcycle club.

“He was a wealthy individual. He owned luxury automobiles. He owned multiple high-rise downtown condominiums,” Stephen said.

Before Holland relocated to Ontario, he was often staying in the Wall Centre on Burrard Street.

It was the same hotel where Holland’s close friend Sandip Duhre was gunned down in January 2012.

The former biker and the B.C. gangster were so close that Holland loaned Duhre and his brother a customized BMW that had been made bulletproof. A gunman opened fire on the car on Kingsway in July 2005, but the bullets bounced off.

Stephen, a former Vancouver police Hells Angels specialist, said a lot of B.C. Hells Angels got rich during the period Holland was active in the club.

“Generally speaking, Hells Angels from his era that are as wealthy as him have attained their wealth through establishing effective cocaine importation and distribution networks and marijuana exportation networks,” he said.

“Holland is one of those guys that maintained his criminal enterprise and was very effective in insulating himself from the police and maintaining success for a number of years, both inside of the club and outside of the club. And there are not too many people who can say that.”

Stephen said police would “always see his Lamborghini come tearing out of that Wall Centre parkade.”

He said the Hells Angels are just like the rest of society.

“There are lower class, middle class and upper class. He was an upper-classman with a very successful criminal enterprise,” Stephen said.

Corporate records show Holland was once a director or founder of at least four different B.C. companies.

He was the president of Clayton Investments Ltd., founded in 2002 and dissolved in 2011 by the Corporate Registry for failing to file an annual report.

He was also president of a company called Voyager Market Consultants that was dissolved last year, again for failing to file annual reports, according to the B.C. Corporate Registry.

Holland continued to list Voyager on his Linked in profile, describing himself as a “tech entrepreneur and financier.”

A second numbered company that had been registered in B.C. and listed Holland as president was also dissolved in 2016.

He was also the secretary of a company called GJP Holdings Ltd., which was headed by fellow Nomad Gino Zumpano. That B.C. company was dissolved for failure to file reports in 2007.

Sources say Holland left the Hells Angels on bad terms after getting into a money dispute with a fellow biker.

Hells Angels spokesman Ricky Ciarniello did not respond to a request for a comment on Holland’s murder.

Holland was inside Vancouver’s Loft Six nightclub when a gang shootout erupted in August 2003, leaving three people dead.

He was among the dozens of people rounded up by police and taken in for questioning minutes after the shooting, but was released without charges.

Holland was convicted in 2003 of illegally possessing a restricted weapon — a loaded Combat Commander handgun that had its serial number altered – after he was stopped by Vancouver Police on the Granville Mall. He got an $8,000 fine and was prohibited from possessing guns or ammunition for five years.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Accused killer Jason Wallace was supposed to have a preliminary hearing starting in Surrey provincial court this month on a second-degree murder charge in the Oct. 16, 2016 death of Hells Angel Bob Green.

Instead Wallace pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter with a firearm. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

Here’s my story so far:

A member of the 856 gang has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the fatal shooting of prominent Hells Angel Bob Green at a Langley party last year.

Jason Wallace turned himself in to police immediately after the Oct. 16, 2016 death of Green outside a building used by the 856 as a makeshift clubhouse.

On Friday, Wallace pleaded guilty to manslaughter with a firearm in Surrey Provincial Court. The second-degree murder charge he originally faced was stayed.

He was sentenced to six years in jail.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team confirmed officially for the first time Friday that the slaying and dismemberment of  Shaun Clary days after the Green murder was linked to the Hells Angels case.

Postmedia reported at the time that Clary was an 856 associate and that his murder was believed to be in retaliation for the death of Green, a member of the Mission City chapter of the notorious biker gang.

IHIT Cpl. Meghan Foster said Friday that “Green was a well-established member of an organized crime group, and investigators have identified links from his murder to the murder of Shaun Allan Clary that occurred overnight on October 24, 2016.”  

“While investigators can say that there are links between these two murders, it cannot be confirmed that they are linked to other homicides, or current gang conflict,” she said.

Foster said IHIT investigators continue to work on the Clary case, though no one has yet been charged.

“It has been just over a year since this heinous act was made a public display, and it will not be forgotten,” she said.

“There are individuals who have specific and intimate details about what happened to Mr. Clary, and investigators are urging those people to contact police.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca. 

MORE TO COME…

A member of the 856 gang has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the fatal shooting of a prominent Hells Angel, Bob Green, at a party in Langley last year.

Jason Francis Wallace, 28, turned himself in to police the day after the Oct. 16, 2016, death of Green, outside a Quonset building used by the 856 as a makeshift clubhouse in the 23700-block of 72nd Avenue.

On Friday, Wallace pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter with a firearm in provincial court in Surrey. The second-degree murder charge he originally faced was stayed.

Wallace was sentenced to six years in jail.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team also confirmed officially for the first time Friday that the slaying and dismemberment of Shaun Clary, days after the Green shooting, was linked to the case.

Postmedia reported at the time that Clary was an 856 associate and that his murder was believed to be in retaliation for the death of Green, a member of the Mission City chapter of the notorious biker gang.  

Shaun Clary, victim of “barbaric” murder on Oct. 26, 2016, in Langley.

Clary had a minor criminal record and was close to many in the 856 gang. His remains were dumped on Robertson Crescent in Langley, near the driveway of a full-patch Hells Angel with the West Point chapter and near the property of a leader of the 856.

Green’s cousin Lenny Pelletier was also involved with the 856 gang and the shooting was believed to have occurred after an all-night party.

Wallace and Pelletier were co-accused in a drug trafficking case in which Wallace pleaded guilty earlier this year.

IHIT Cpl. Meghan Foster said Friday that “Green was a well-established member of an organized crime group, and investigators have identified links from his murder to the murder of Shaun Allan Clary that occurred overnight on October 24, 2016.”   

Hell’s Angel Bob Green.

“While investigators can say that there are links between these two murders, it cannot be confirmed that they are linked to other homicides, or current gang conflict,” she said.

Foster said IHIT investigators continue to work on the Clary case, though no one has been charged.

Memorial to Hells Angel Bob Green. The photo was posted online on the first anniversary of his death.

“It has been just over a year since this heinous act was made a public display, and it will not be forgotten,” she said. “There are individuals who have specific and intimate details about what happened to Mr. Clary, and investigators are urging those people to contact police.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca. 

Green, 56, started as a bartender at the Drake Hotel on Powell Street and rose to become one of the most powerful Hells Angels in B.C.

He started with the bikers’ East End chapter, then later moving to the elite Nomads chapter. At the time of his death, he had joined the Mission City branch.

Hundreds of bikers from across Canada attended his funeral in the pounding rain, most donning the three-piece patches of their chapter or puppet club. Police watched the process of Harleys, cars, trucks and stretch limos.

kbolan@postmedia.com
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Property on 72nd Avenue where Hells Angel Bob Green was killed.

A Surrey provincial court judge says she can’t imagine how badly Jason Wallace feels after fatally shooting Hells Angel Bob Green in October 2016.

During a sentencing hearing last month, Judge Ellen Gordon accepted that Wallace, of the 856 Gang, was a “good friend” of Green’s at the time of the fatal shooting at a Langley property used by the 856 as a makeshift clubhouse.

Both men had been partying through the night when Wallace shot Green, a senior member of the Mission City Hells Angels chapter.

Wallace pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Nov. 3 and was sentenced to six years, seven months in jail after receiving pretrial credit. He was originally charged with second-degree murder.

Gordon’s brief reasons for the sentencing were released on Wednesday.

“You are before me for sentencing on a charge of manslaughter where the deceased was a good friend of yours,” Gordon said. “I cannot imagine, having read all of the circumstances and the amount of intoxicants that you consumed, the guilt that you must feel.”

She accepted that Wallace never “intended to kill your friend, you had no animosity towards your friend and yet, because of your voluntary intoxication combined with a readily available firearm, this horrific circumstance occurred.”

“Your case is also more unique in that you turned yourself in and you have admitted your responsibility throughout.  You have a well-founded fear for the well-being of your loved ones,” she said. ” I cannot imagine how difficult the last 333 days have been and how difficult the rest of your time in custody will be.”

She also commented that “Canada is not fond of the use of firearms.”

Gordon said that in her pervious career as a defence lawyer, she visited many penitentiaries.  “They are horrific places,” she said, wishing Wallace luck with changing his criminal ways. “For you, I want there to be light at the end of the tunnel, and the light at the end of the tunnel will be working with your case management team to ensure that you are back with your family as soon as possible.”

She ended her reasons by wishing Wallace luck. 

Earlier this year, Wallace pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, charges he faced along with Green’s cousin Lenny Pelletier.

Wallace has a long and violent history in B.C. 

Slain  Hells Angel Bob Green.

He pleaded guilty nine years ago to aggravated assault for stabbing a student after a high school graduation party in Langley. He got a 21-month conditional sentence.

“The attack was completely unprovoked and the victim did not know his assailant,” RCMP Cpl. Diane Blaine said at the time.

Wallace had originally been charged with attempted murder for the stabbing.

He was also charged, along with Pelletier’s son Caylen and a third man, in 2010 with trying to run over a pedestrian with a truck in a parking lot near a community police office. In that case, Wallace and Pelletier were eventually acquitted on all charges, including attempted kidnapping. Their co-accused Craig Ivan Dennis was convicted only of theft.

Hours after shooting Hells Angel Bob Green, Jason Wallace found himself alone with an unimaginable choice.

Devastated, drunk and high on drugs, the 856 gangster had driven to a spot near Harrison Lake where he had previously camped.

He called his friend Justin to talk. But someone else took over the phone.

The mystery man gave Wallace two options: He could kill himself. Or he could turn himself in to the Hells Angels and they would do it for him.

If he didn’t, his family would be executed.

It took Wallace until the next day — Oct. 17, 2016 — to make a different choice.

Just after 9:30 a.m., he placed a distraught 911 call during which he confessed to killing Green at a drug-fuelled 19-hour party in a makeshift gang clubhouse.

And he told police his family was in danger.

Wallace was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, saving himself from the biker threats to his life.

His close friend Shaun Clary, who brought to the party the gun that Wallace fired in Green’s direction, was not so lucky. Clary’s dismembered body was found on Robertson Crescent in Langley, 10 days after the high-profile Hells Angels’ slaying.

Senior B.C. Hells Angel Bob Green was shot to death.

Shocking new details about the night Green died are revealed in court documents obtained by Postmedia News from Wallace’s surprise guilty plea and sentencing hearing in November.

Surrey provincial court Judge Ellen Gordon handed the longtime criminal 6½ years for manslaughter. The original murder charge was dropped.

The documents provide the likely motive for Clary’s grisly demise — he was part of a drunken dispute that led Wallace to grab Clary’s loaded handgun and fire it, striking an intoxicated Green in the head.

On the day of Wallace’s guilty plea, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said publicly for the first time that the Clary murder and the Green shooting were linked. But IHIT provided no details about how the deaths were connected.

Postmedia has pieced together the story of that deadly day and its disturbing aftermath.

•••

It was just after 3 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2016, when Green, Wallace, his brother Taylor, Clary and several others arrived at the 856 Gang’s makeshift clubhouse, in a rented Quonset hut on a rural Langley acreage at 23788 72nd Ave.  

Shaun Clary, victim of ‘barbaric’ murder in Langley in 2016.

They were ready to party. There was booze, cocaine, GHB, MDMA, ketamine and nitrous oxide (laughing gas). They were inhaling the gas from balloons that Clary was in charge of filling from gas canisters.

Green, 56, had been associated to the 856 Gang since its formation in the mid-2000s, through his cousin Lenny Pelletier and Pelletier’s son Caylen.  

The Pelletiers were also close to Wallace, who was then 27. In fact, the elder Pelletier and Wallace were co-accused in a drug trafficking case and were out on bail the night of the fatal party.

Closed-circuit cameras fixed on the exterior of the Quonset hut showed the comings and goings over the critical 20 hours on Oct. 15 and 16.

Just before 8 p.m. on Oct. 15, Wallace, his brother, Green and two others left the hut, driving off in Green’s Chevy Suburban. They returned almost four hours later and continued inhaling from their gas balloons.

Green, meanwhile, had called his friend Mandev Johal telling him that he would need a ride home that night. Johal left Vancouver and picked up a friend in Burnaby before heading out to the 856 clubhouse to drive Green home.

Those gathered inside the two-storey Quonset hut left again, about 1 a.m., after sucking in nitrous oxide for another hour.

Green’s Suburban is seen on the surveillance footage, followed by Johal’s Tahoe, arriving back at the clubhouse just after 2 a.m.

“The males were seen hugging each other and shaking hands as they all entered the Quonset hut,” said the agreed statement of facts read at Wallace’s sentencing hearing by Crown prosecutor Dianne Wiedemann.

“Inside the Quonset hut, one of the associates of the 856 Gang, Mr. Clary, tended the bar. Clary poured drinks and filled balloons with nitrous gas, which was being inhaled by the other partygoers. Cocaine was also being used.”

Two men were seen leaving the hut at 2:37 a.m. on Oct. 16. Green, Jason Wallace, Taylor Wallace, Clary, Johal and his friend remained inside, where they continued to consume alcohol, cocaine and nitrous oxide gas.

At 6 a.m., Johal called Cover Girls Escorts and asked for two women to be sent over, the statement of facts said. Cover Girls advertises its “elite companions and exotic dancers” online for $300 an hour or $1,000 for four hours.

The women arrived at about 7:18 a.m., each dropped off by her own driver.

Half an hour later, Jason Wallace can be seen on video running out of the building with an inflated balloon of nitrous oxide. At that point, he would have been partying for almost 17 hours straight.

He bends over and stumbles as if vomiting or coughing, then walks into the woods.

“Clary runs back and forth from the Quonset hut to where Wallace had gone. At 7:56 a.m., the two embraced and then both walked back into the hut,” the document stated.

Johal told authorities that “as the drinking and gas inhalation continued inside the hut … the vibe started to change.”

“Johal felt as though the younger males, including the accused Wallace, his brother Taylor and Clary, had something against him,” the statement of facts said.

Johal said the 856 gangsters were making racial comments to him. He thought they were trying to impress Green — a 20-year Hells Angel who was with the Mission City charter when he died.

“As the party progressed, one of the younger males moved one of the compressed gas cylinders upstairs and the party moved to the second floor of the Quonset hut.”

Taylor Wallace and Johal’s Burnaby friend crashed on the lower floor of the clubhouse.

Johal felt that the demeanour of the gangsters was changing as they were doing more and more nitrous gas while still drinking.

“Johal believed the younger males were loaded and later described their judgment as ‘totally f–ked OK, they’re loaded, no control. It’s one thing to drink and be hammered, but there’s no control there obviously,’” the documents said.

Johal believed the gas made them delusional.

As tensions grew, one of the younger men there said words like ‘I’m going to get you,’ and then pulled something from the couch.

“As this happened, another one of the younger males swung at Johal. Johal blocked the punch and in one motion, got up and ran towards the exit of the Quonset hut.”

As he ran, Johal heard Green say: “Hey, what are you doing?”

Johal thought he was being chased and ran off into a field as he called 911. It was just after 10 a.m.

The two escorts remained at the party. One of them named Autumn later said that Green argued with one of the younger guys, who pulled out a gun.

“Green was challenging the male saying something to the effect of, `You cannot kill me,’ and then: ‘Shoot me if you can, shoot me if you can, you’re never gonna do it, shoot me if you can,’ ” the documents said.

Jason Wallace was so out of it, he later told police, that he didn’t think the escorts were there when the shooting happened.

“It was Wallace’s perception, admittedly compromised in large part by intoxication, that the argument was between Clary and Johal, and others were present but he cannot recall who those others were,” the documents said. “He believes there was a group that he perceived to be on the Johal side of the argument and he and Clary on another. Wallace cannot recall any actual physical altercation but cannot deny one occurred. He simply was unaware of it.”

Wallace told police that he and Clary were behind the couch where Green was seated and that Johal and others were on the other end of the couch from Green.

Jason Francis Wallace, 27, is arrested after calling 911 asking to surrender to police in 2016.

He thought some of the others were coming at him. He said he saw Clary put his hand on a gun in his waistband.

“Wallace then grabbed the gun. He worked the slide to cock it and the gun went off striking Green. Wallace then fired in the direction of the feet of the others and Green somehow fell into or was struck by the second shot which was not intended to do more than frighten others and move them away from advancing.”

“The shots were virtually one, instantly followed by the second.”

The Crown accepted Wallace’s statement that “Green was never an intended target and the gun was intended to only back away a perceived threat.”

Wallace had a gun in his vehicle, but had not taken it into the party.

“The gun used in the shooting of Green had been brought in by Clary. Wallace believes he dropped that gun immediately upon realizing his friend Green had been shot. Wallace immediately left the scene and was not involved in any clean up of the scene.”

Green was shot at 10:09 on the morning of Oct. 16.

Immediately afterwards, Wallace is seen on the video footage walking out of the Quonset hut. He had an inflated balloon. His brother is following him, also carrying a balloon and a black and blue duffel bag. Wallace fumbles as he puts on his hoodie while talking to Clary outside.

The killer then gets into his Pontiac G8 and takes off.

“Neighbours observed Wallace accelerate down the road looking anxious,” the court documents said.

Wallace’s brother leaves in another vehicle. Johal’s friend also leaves just before Clary gets into Green’s Suburban, picking up the Burnaby man on his way out. The escorts get picked up at 10:23 a.m. by two drivers.

Friends and associates of Hell Angels’ Bob Green arrive at Fraserview Hall for a memorial service in Vancouver on Oct. 29, 2016.

Almost 30 minutes after Johal called 911, police were dispatched. They picked up Johal in the 7000-block of 240th Street, then headed to the Quonset hut.

Officers arrived about 11 a.m. They found Green slouched over on the second-floor couch.

“Green was not breathing and his skin looked pale and was turning bluish. There was blood all over the couch and blood smeared on Green’s right temple. Police performed CPR on Green.”

Paramedics got there at 11:16 a.m. and took over the CPR.

But the biker had no pulse and was still not breathing.

He was pronounced dead at 11:30 a.m.

•••

Early the next morning, neighbours watched with curiosity as a woman and small children ran from a house Jason Wallace owned in Abbotsford. They left breakfast sitting on the table.

Wallace had bought the home just six months earlier for $600,000. He listed his profession as a concrete designer.

The same neighbours saw police descend on the residence later in the day after Wallace turned himself in.

During his desperate 911 call that morning, Wallace told the operator that he wanted to drive to the Surrey RCMP detachment. He said he had a gun with him in the back seat of his Pontiac and thought it was the weapon he “used to shoot his friend,” the court documents said.

Part of his call to 911 was read into the record at his sentencing hearing:

Wallace: “I’m gonna turn myself in.”

Operator: “OK.”

Wallace: “My family’s in danger.”

Operator: “OK.”

Wallace: “And I wanna make sure they’re safe.”

Operator: “You’ve turned yourself in to where? Sorry, you’re turning yourself in to where?”

Wallace: “To the Surrey RCMP.”

Operator: “And where are you right now?”

Wallace: “I’m driving down towards the jail.”

Operator: “OK. Why do you think your family is unsafe?”

Wallace: “Because my — my friend is a Hells Angels and I f–king killed him for some reason.”

Operator: “And you say — and you said your friend was killed.”

Wallace: “Yeah. Well, I think he’s dead. I don’t know. I was out of my mind on drugs and shit. I don’t even understand how it happened.”

Operator: “Where were you when this happened?”

Wallace: “We were partying and doing drugs and shit in Langley.”

Operator: “OK. Where in Langley?”

Wallace: “232nd Street and like 72nd or something like that.”

Operator: “When did this — when was that?”

Wallace: “The other night. I don’t know. I’ve been awake for a few days. I’m — I’m f–ked right up.”

Operator: “And so you said your friend died? How did he die?”

Wallace: “I’m pretty sure I f–king shot him. I don’t even know how.”

Operator: “You think you shot him?”

Wallace: “Yeah, and I don’t even understand how or why — or even why or nothing, I don’t know.”

Operator: “You don’t know what happened?”

Wallace: “I don’t even know. I was like my mind wasn’t even there. It was like I was so f–ked up.”

Wallace broke down and cried as the operator urged him to take a deep breath. He described drinking and doing drugs for days.

While still on the phone, Wallace was surrounded by Surrey RCMP and arrested. Police found a Glock handgun and a folding knife in his car. A test on the Glock indicated it was not the gun used to kill Green.

In a news release that day, IHIT congratulated itself on the quick arrest, saying it spoke to “the tenacity of all agencies involved.”

Clary’s remains were found just after 7 a.m. on Oct. 26, dumped on the side of Robertson Crescent, near 243rd Street, in Langley. Police called the indignities done to his body “barbaric.”

It seemed to be a clear message. A high-profile Hells Angel lived up the road from where Clary was dumped. An 856 leader also owned property nearby.

Details of Clary’s last days are sparse. Several friends contacted by Postmedia did not respond to requests for interviews.

At the time of his death, Clary listed his employment at Smithrite Disposal, the Coquitlam-based recycling and garbage company.

He had a minor criminal record, including convictions for assault and breach of conditions. He was also the subject of a peace bond after allegations of uttering threats.

His Facebook page is full of pictures of him wearing bandanas over his mouth, guns and associates flashing their middle fingers. He says he went to Johnston Heights Secondary in Surrey.

At Wallace’s sentencing, his lawyer Robert Claus said Wallace feels terrible about what happened to both Green and Clary.

“The victim, here, of his act, was one of his best friends and the person whose gun he took and was using at the time, was another friend who has been killed. His own family, he’s put them in danger,” Claus said. “He suffers enormous guilt and tremendous remorse.”

Wallace sold his house in Abbotsford last July for $700,000, according to land title records. The whereabouts of his family are unknown.

None of Green’s relatives, including wife Pam, showed up at Wallace’s sentencing nor submitted victim impact statements to the court.

Property records show Pam sold the family home in North Burnaby last June for $1.6 million. Her Facebook page indicates she has moved out of the country.

Postmedia obtained a copy of Green’s will and probate records. He left almost everything to his wife — their home, his 2013 Harley, the $30,000 cash in his bank accounts.

From the estate, she had to pay off a $401,000 mortgage, some miscellaneous bills and more than $31,000 for Green’s elaborate funeral, attended by hundreds of bikers from across Canada.

But the prominent Hells Angels’ other family was also acknowledged in his will, which was signed less than five months before his slaying.

Anything that Green possessed bearing the Hells Angels name or logo “including any documents, literature, photographs, negatives, clothing, jewelry, decals, embossed or embroidered items, or any other items” had to be returned to the notorious gang, the will said.

“These items are the property of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and have been loaned to me for my use and benefit for as long as I remain a member in good standing with the said club.”

While Wallace has pledged to change his life once he’s out of jail, the gang he’s been a part of for more than a decade is still around.

“The 856 have been in a bit of chaos since the Bob Green murder and subsequent murder of Clary. That’s understandable, given the significance of the murder and who was involved,” said Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.

The ripple effects of the death of a high-ranking gangster or even a significant arrest can destabilize any crime group, Houghton said.

“The 856, however, still exists and still has a presence in the drug trafficking landscape despite the murders.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Property on 72nd Avenue where Hells Angel Bob Green was murdered.

When 856 gangster Jason Wallace pleaded guilty to killing Hells Angel Bob Green, there were a lot of unanswered questions.

The Attorney General’s Criminal Justice Branch did not give the normal advance notice to media about a significant development in a high-profile murder case. So no reporters were in the courtroom in Surrey when Wallace changed his plea and admitted he shot Green, albeit unintentionally. Later in the day, there was just a brief news release and tweet from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, with no details of what happened on Oct. 16, 2016, leading to the fatal shooting.

IHIT tweet

It was as if officials didn’t want us to report on what happened. But courts are supposed to be open. So my editors at the Sun agreed that we should order a transcript from the sentencing hearing, despite the high cost of doing so. That transcript provided extraordinary information about that deadly day and was a major part of this story. I had also been digging around on the Green slaying since it happened and had gleaned details from sources, neighbours, land title records and other court documents.

NOTE: My apologies for not opening comments on the Real Scoop Tuesday as I had planned. I was scrambling to get this story finished and was not working on any daily stories that I could have posted for you.

Here is the story:

Deadly dilemma: Gangster who shot Hells Angel told kill yourself, be killed or we kill your family

 

Property on 72nd Avenue where Hells Angel Bob Green was murdered.

Hours after shooting Hells Angel Bob Green, Jason Wallace found himself alone with an unimaginable choice.

Devastated, drunk and high on drugs, the 856 gangster had driven to a spot near Harrison Lake where he had previously camped.

He called his friend Justin to talk. But someone else took over the phone.

The mystery man gave Wallace two options: He could kill himself. Or he could turn himself in to the Hells Angels and they would do it for him.

If he didn’t, his family would be executed.

It took Wallace until the next day — Oct. 17, 2016 — to make a different choice.

Just after 9:30 a.m., he placed a distraught 911 call during which he confessed to killing Green at a drug-fuelled 19-hour party in a makeshift gang clubhouse.

And he told police his family was in danger.

Wallace was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, saving himself from the biker threats to his life.

His close friend Shaun Clary, who brought to the party the gun that Wallace fired in Green’s direction, was not so lucky. Clary’s dismembered body was found on Robertson Crescent in Langley, 10 days after the high-profile Hells Angels’ slaying.

Shocking new details about the night Green died are revealed in court documents obtained by Postmedia News from Wallace’s surprise guilty plea and sentencing hearing in November.

Surrey provincial court Judge Ellen Gordon handed the longtime criminal 6½ years for manslaughter. The original murder charge was dropped.

The documents provide the likely motive for Clary’s grisly demise — he was part of a drunken dispute that led Wallace to grab Clary’s loaded handgun and fire it, striking an intoxicated Green in the head.

On the day of Wallace’s guilty plea, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said publicly for the first time that the Clary murder and the Green shooting were linked. But IHIT provided no details about how the deaths were connected.

Postmedia has pieced together the story of that deadly day and its disturbing aftermath.

•••

It was just after 3 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2016, when Green, Wallace, his brother Taylor, Clary and several others arrived at the 856 Gang’s makeshift clubhouse, in a rented Quonset hut on a rural Langley acreage at 23788 72nd Ave.  

They were ready to party. There was booze, cocaine, GHB, MDMA, ketamine and nitrous oxide (laughing gas). They were inhaling the gas from balloons that Clary was in charge of filling from gas canisters.

Green, 56, had been associated to the 856 Gang since its formation in the mid-2000s, through his cousin Lenny Pelletier and Pelletier’s son Caylen.  

The Pelletiers were also close to Wallace, who was then 27. In fact, the elder Pelletier and Wallace were co-accused in a drug trafficking case and were out on bail the night of the fatal party.

Closed-circuit cameras fixed on the exterior of the Quonset hut showed the comings and goings over the critical 20 hours on Oct. 15 and 16.

Just before 8 p.m. on Oct. 15, Wallace, his brother, Green and two others left the hut, driving off in Green’s Chevy Suburban. They returned almost four hours later and continued inhaling from their gas balloons.

Green, meanwhile, had called his friend Mandev Johal telling him that he would need a ride home that night. Johal left Vancouver and picked up a friend in Burnaby before heading out to the 856 clubhouse to drive Green home.

Those gathered inside the two-storey Quonset hut left again, about 1 a.m., after sucking in nitrous oxide for another hour.

Green’s Suburban is seen on the surveillance footage, followed by Johal’s Tahoe, arriving back at the clubhouse just after 2 a.m.

“The males were seen hugging each other and shaking hands as they all entered the Quonset hut,” said the agreed statement of facts read at Wallace’s sentencing hearing by Crown prosecutor Dianne Wiedemann.

“Inside the Quonset hut, one of the associates of the 856 Gang, Mr. Clary, tended the bar. Clary poured drinks and filled balloons with nitrous gas, which was being inhaled by the other partygoers. Cocaine was also being used.”

Two men were seen leaving the hut at 2:37 a.m. on Oct. 16. Green, Jason Wallace, Taylor Wallace, Clary, Johal and his friend remained inside, where they continued to consume alcohol, cocaine and nitrous oxide gas.

At 6 a.m., Johal called Cover Girls Escorts and asked for two women to be sent over, the statement of facts said. Cover Girls advertises its “elite companions and exotic dancers” online for $300 an hour or $1,000 for four hours.

The women arrived at about 7:18 a.m., each dropped off by her own driver.

Half an hour later, Jason Wallace can be seen on video running out of the building with an inflated balloon of nitrous oxide. At that point, he would have been partying for almost 17 hours straight.

He bends over and stumbles as if vomiting or coughing, then walks into the woods.

“Clary runs back and forth from the Quonset hut to where Wallace had gone. At 7:56 a.m., the two embraced and then both walked back into the hut,” the document stated.

Johal told authorities that “as the drinking and gas inhalation continued inside the hut … the vibe started to change.”

“Johal felt as though the younger males, including the accused Wallace, his brother Taylor and Clary, had something against him,” the statement of facts said.

Johal said the 856 gangsters were making racial comments to him. He thought they were trying to impress Green — a 20-year Hells Angel who was with the Mission City charter when he died.

“As the party progressed, one of the younger males moved one of the compressed gas cylinders upstairs and the party moved to the second floor of the Quonset hut.”

Taylor Wallace and Johal’s Burnaby friend crashed on the lower floor of the clubhouse.

Johal felt that the demeanour of the gangsters was changing as they were doing more and more nitrous gas while still drinking.

“Johal believed the younger males were loaded and later described their judgment as ‘totally f–ked OK, they’re loaded, no control. It’s one thing to drink and be hammered, but there’s no control there obviously,’” the documents said.

Johal believed the gas made them delusional.

As tensions grew, one of the younger men there said words like ‘I’m going to get you,’ and then pulled something from the couch.

“As this happened, another one of the younger males swung at Johal. Johal blocked the punch and in one motion, got up and ran towards the exit of the Quonset hut.”

As he ran, Johal heard Green say: “Hey, what are you doing?”

Johal thought he was being chased and ran off into a field as he called 911. It was just after 10 a.m.

The two escorts remained at the party. One of them named Autumn later said that Green argued with one of the younger guys, who pulled out a gun.

“Green was challenging the male saying something to the effect of, `You cannot kill me,’ and then: ‘Shoot me if you can, shoot me if you can, you’re never gonna do it, shoot me if you can,’ ” the documents said.

Jason Wallace was so out of it, he later told police, that he didn’t think the escorts were there when the shooting happened.

“It was Wallace’s perception, admittedly compromised in large part by intoxication, that the argument was between Clary and Johal, and others were present but he cannot recall who those others were,” the documents said. “He believes there was a group that he perceived to be on the Johal side of the argument and he and Clary on another. Wallace cannot recall any actual physical altercation but cannot deny one occurred. He simply was unaware of it.”

Wallace told police that he and Clary were behind the couch where Green was seated and that Johal and others were on the other end of the couch from Green.

He thought some of the others were coming at him. He said he saw Clary put his hand on a gun in his waistband.

“Wallace then grabbed the gun. He worked the slide to cock it and the gun went off striking Green. Wallace then fired in the direction of the feet of the others and Green somehow fell into or was struck by the second shot which was not intended to do more than frighten others and move them away from advancing.”

“The shots were virtually one, instantly followed by the second.”

The Crown accepted Wallace’s statement that “Green was never an intended target and the gun was intended to only back away a perceived threat.”

Wallace had a gun in his vehicle, but had not taken it into the party.

“The gun used in the shooting of Green had been brought in by Clary. Wallace believes he dropped that gun immediately upon realizing his friend Green had been shot. Wallace immediately left the scene and was not involved in any clean up of the scene.”

Green was shot at 10:09 on the morning of Oct. 16.

Immediately afterwards, Wallace is seen on the video footage walking out of the Quonset hut. He had an inflated balloon. His brother is following him, also carrying a balloon and a black and blue duffel bag. Wallace fumbles as he puts on his hoodie while talking to Clary outside.

The killer then gets into his Pontiac G8 and takes off.

“Neighbours observed Wallace accelerate down the road looking anxious,” the court documents said.

Wallace’s brother leaves in another vehicle. Johal’s friend also leaves just before Clary gets into Green’s Suburban, picking up the Burnaby man on his way out. The escorts get picked up at 10:23 a.m. by two drivers.

Almost 30 minutes after Johal called 911, police were dispatched. They picked up Johal in the 7000-block of 240th Street, then headed to the Quonset hut.

Officers arrived about 11 a.m. They found Green slouched over on the second-floor couch.

“Green was not breathing and his skin looked pale and was turning bluish. There was blood all over the couch and blood smeared on Green’s right temple. Police performed CPR on Green.”

Paramedics got there at 11:16 a.m. and took over the CPR.

But the biker had no pulse and was still not breathing.

He was pronounced dead at 11:30 a.m.

•••

Early the next morning, neighbours watched with curiosity as a woman and small children ran from a house Jason Wallace owned in Abbotsford. They left breakfast sitting on the table.

Wallace had bought the home just six months earlier for $600,000. He listed his profession as a concrete designer.

The same neighbours saw police descend on the residence later in the day after Wallace turned himself in.

During his desperate 911 call that morning, Wallace told the operator that he wanted to drive to the Surrey RCMP detachment. He said he had a gun with him in the back seat of his Pontiac and thought it was the weapon he “used to shoot his friend,” the court documents said.

Part of his call to 911 was read into the record at his sentencing hearing:

Wallace: “I’m gonna turn myself in.”

Operator: “OK.”

Wallace: “My family’s in danger.”

Operator: “OK.”

Wallace: “And I wanna make sure they’re safe.”

Operator: “You’ve turned yourself in to where? Sorry, you’re turning yourself in to where?”

Wallace: “To the Surrey RCMP.”

Operator: “And where are you right now?”

Wallace: “I’m driving down towards the jail.”

Operator: “OK. Why do you think your family is unsafe?”

Wallace: “Because my — my friend is a Hells Angels and I f–king killed him for some reason.”

Operator: “And you say — and you said your friend was killed.”

Wallace: “Yeah. Well, I think he’s dead. I don’t know. I was out of my mind on drugs and shit. I don’t even understand how it happened.”

Operator: “Where were you when this happened?”

Wallace: “We were partying and doing drugs and shit in Langley.”

Operator: “OK. Where in Langley?”

Wallace: “232nd Street and like 72nd or something like that.”

Operator: “When did this — when was that?”

Wallace: “The other night. I don’t know. I’ve been awake for a few days. I’m — I’m f–ked right up.”

Operator: “And so you said your friend died? How did he die?”

Wallace: “I’m pretty sure I f–king shot him. I don’t even know how.”

Operator: “You think you shot him?”

Wallace: “Yeah, and I don’t even understand how or why — or even why or nothing, I don’t know.”

Operator: “You don’t know what happened?”

Wallace: “I don’t even know. I was like my mind wasn’t even there. It was like I was so f–ked up.”

Wallace broke down and cried as the operator urged him to take a deep breath. He described drinking and doing drugs for days.

While still on the phone, Wallace was surrounded by Surrey RCMP and arrested. Police found a Glock handgun and a folding knife in his car. A test on the Glock indicated it was not the gun used to kill Green.

In a news release that day, IHIT congratulated itself on the quick arrest, saying it spoke to “the tenacity of all agencies involved.”

Clary’s remains were found just after 7 a.m. on Oct. 26, dumped on the side of Robertson Crescent, near 243rd Street, in Langley. Police called the indignities done to his body “barbaric.”

It seemed to be a clear message. A high-profile Hells Angel lived up the road from where Clary was dumped. An 856 leader also owned property nearby.

Details of Clary’s last days are sparse. Several friends contacted by Postmedia did not respond to requests for interviews.

At the time of his death, Clary listed his employment at Smithrite Disposal, the Coquitlam-based recycling and garbage company.

He had a minor criminal record, including convictions for assault and breach of conditions. He was also the subject of a peace bond after allegations of uttering threats.

His Facebook page is full of pictures of him wearing bandanas over his mouth, guns and associates flashing their middle fingers. He says he went to Johnston Heights Secondary in Surrey.

At Wallace’s sentencing, his lawyer Robert Claus said Wallace feels terrible about what happened to both Green and Clary.

“The victim, here, of his act, was one of his best friends and the person whose gun he took and was using at the time, was another friend who has been killed. His own family, he’s put them in danger,” Claus said. “He suffers enormous guilt and tremendous remorse.”

Wallace sold his house in Abbotsford last July for $700,000, according to land title records. The whereabouts of his family are unknown.

None of Green’s relatives, including wife Pam, showed up at Wallace’s sentencing nor submitted victim impact statements to the court.

Property records show Pam sold the family home in North Burnaby last June for $1.6 million. Her Facebook page indicates she has moved out of the country.

Postmedia obtained a copy of Green’s will and probate records. He left almost everything to his wife — their home, his 2013 Harley, the $30,000 cash in his bank accounts.

From the estate, she had to pay off a $401,000 mortgage, some miscellaneous bills and more than $31,000 for Green’s elaborate funeral, attended by hundreds of bikers from across Canada.

But the prominent Hells Angels’ other family was also acknowledged in his will, which was signed less than five months before his slaying.

Anything that Green possessed bearing the Hells Angels name or logo “including any documents, literature, photographs, negatives, clothing, jewelry, decals, embossed or embroidered items, or any other items” had to be returned to the notorious gang, the will said.

“These items are the property of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and have been loaned to me for my use and benefit for as long as I remain a member in good standing with the said club.”

While Wallace has pledged to change his life once he’s out of jail, the gang he’s been a part of for more than a decade is still around.

“The 856 have been in a bit of chaos since the Bob Green murder and subsequent murder of Clary. That’s understandable, given the significance of the murder and who was involved,” said Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.

The ripple effects of the death of a high-ranking gangster or even a significant arrest can destabilize any crime group, Houghton said.

“The 856, however, still exists and still has a presence in the drug trafficking landscape despite the murders.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

 

 

A young man shot to death in Maple Ridge last month is the son of one Hells Angel and the great-nephew of another, Postmedia has learned.

Manricco “Ricco” Sansalone, 26, died from gunshot wounds on Dec. 22, after making his way to Ridge Meadows hospital from nearby Kin Park, where the shooting is believed to have occurred at about 6 a.m.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said at the time that the victim was known to police, but did not release his name or other details about why police were familiar with him.

Cpl. Meghan Foster confirmed Friday that Sansalone was the man killed and said that his name was initially withheld by police for investigative reasons.

She said she had no comment on any connections Sansalone had to the Hells Angels.

An RCMP officer places an evidence marker at the 21800 block of 121 ave, Maple Ridge after the targeted shooting, on December 22.

IHIT media officer, Cpl. David Lee, said earlier Friday that the Sansalone “investigation is ongoing and we cannot comment on the motive to protect any future court proceedings.”

The young man had no criminal record, according to the online court database.

But his father Joseph Sansalone and great-uncle Vincenzo “Jimmy” Sansalone are both members of the notorious biker gang’s Haney chapter.

Vincenzo was convicted in Ontario several years ago of trafficking GHB after police there seized a large shipment that had been sent from B.C. to a Toronto Hells Angels prospect. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

Sansalone’s B.C. co-accused, United Nations gangster Omid Bayani disappeared in September 2011 while out on bail in the case. He was sentenced in absentia to seven years and has not resurfaced since.

Retired police biker expert Andy Richards said the Hells Angels often get involved when someone connected to them is targeted.

“Very clearly this young man had very close family ties to the Hells Angels. And given how the Hells Angels and organized crime deals with the murders of family members, there could very likely be club interest in this and you know, club related repercussions,” said Richards, now CEO of Spire Secure Logistics.

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

Sansalone’s Jan. 4 funeral attracted Hells Angels wearing their “colours” — the back leather vest emblazoned with the gang’s patch.

In his obituary last week, Sansalone’s family said that he spent last summer fighting wildfires in the B.C. interior, and he was looking forward to starting a millwright apprenticeship this year.

“We’ll forever miss Ricco’s gentle nature and his ability to light up a room with his smile and contagious laughter,” the tribute said. “Ricco loved his family and would always be willing to drop his plans to help family or friends in need.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Related

• Targeted shooting leaves one man dead in Maple Ridge
• Read Kim Bolan's The Real Scoop blog here
• Read the latest Metro Vancouver news

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I have tried to get more information on the murders that happened around Christmas when I was off. There wasn’t much of an update from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team about the Dec. 22 Gavinder Grewal murder in North Vancouver. 

Cpl. David Lee said investigators have still not determined if Grewal’s death was linked to his involvement in gangs and the drug trade. His body was found in a rented suite in the 1500-block of Fern Street about 8:30 p.m. on the Friday before Christmas. At the time he was out on bail on a manslaughter charge that is set to go to trial in New Westminster this month.

I did manage to get the identity confirmed of the young man killed in Maple Ridge.

Here’s my story:

Manricco “Ricco” Sansalone, 26, died from gunshot wounds on Dec. 22, after making his way to Ridge Meadows hospital from nearby Kin Park, where the shooting is believed to have occurred at about 6 a.m.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said at the time that the victim was known to police, but did not release his name or other details about why police were familiar with him.

Cpl. Meghan Foster confirmed Friday that Sansalone was the man killed and said that his name was initially withheld by police for investigative reasons.

She said she had no comment on any connections Sansalone had to the Hells Angels.

MAPLE RIDGE. December 22 2017. After a targeted shooting a RCMP officer places an evidence marker at the 21800 block of 121 ave, Maple Ridge, December 22 2017. Gerry Kahrmann / PNG staff photo) ( Prov / Sun News ) 

IHIT media officer, Cpl. David Lee, said earlier Friday that the Sansalone “investigation is ongoing and we cannot comment on the motive to protect any future court proceedings.”

The young man had no criminal record, according to the online court database.

But his father Joseph Sansalone and great-uncle Vincenzo “Jimmy” Sansalone are both members of the notorious biker gang’s Haney chapter.

Vincenzo was convicted in Ontario several years ago of trafficking GHB after police there seized a large shipment that had been sent from B.C. to a Toronto Hells Angels prospect. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

Sansalone’s B.C. co-accused, United Nations gangster Omid Bayani disappeared in September 2011 while out on bail in the case. He was sentenced in absentia to seven years and has not resurfaced since.

Retired police biker expert Andy Richards said the Hells Angels often get involved when someone connected to them is targeted.

“Very clearly this young man had very close family ties to the Hells Angels. And given how the Hells Angels and organized crime deals with the murders of family members, there could very likely be club interest in this and you know, club related repercussions,” said Richards, now CEO of Spire Secure Logistics.

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

Sansalone’s Jan. 4 funeral attracted Hells Angels wearing their “colours” — the back leather vest emblazoned with the gang’s patch.

In his obituary last week, Sansalone’s family said that he spent last summer fighting wildfires in the B.C. interior, and he was looking forward to starting a millwright apprenticeship this year.

“We’ll forever miss Ricco’s gentle nature and his ability to light up a room with his smile and contagious laughter,” the tribute said. “Ricco loved his family and would always be willing to drop his plans to help family or friends in need.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Notorious B.C. Hells Angel Larry Amero has been charged with conspiracy to kill gangster rivals Sandip Duhre and Sukhveer Dhak, who died months apart in targeted 2012 shootings.

Amero, 40, was arrested in Ottawa on Thursday by Vancouver police officers, with the assistance of Ottawa police and the Ontario Provincial Police biker enforcement unit.

He will be brought to B.C. to face the conspiracy charges, Vancouver police said Thursday afternoon.

Convicted gang hitman Dean Michael Wiwchar, 32, has also been charged with one count of murder in Duhre’s January 2012 assassination, as well as conspiracy to commit the murder of Dhak in November 2012.

While the Duhre murder charge against Wiwchar is new, he was identified as the suspected hitman when he was on trial in B.C. Supreme Court in 2015 on several firearms charges.

Justice Gregory Bowden said in his ruling convicting Wiwchar on the gun counts that Vancouver police had linked a getaway car used in the Duhre hit to Wiwchar and that witnesses described the shooter as having the same height and build as Wiwchar.

And police had an informant who said someone named Alkhalil had paid Wiwchar. Investigators later found $140,000 in Wiwchar‘s safe deposit box, Bowden noted.  

Postmedia has learned that Wiwchar was recently injured in a stabbing inside federal prison.

Rabih “Robby” Alkhalil, an associate of both Amero and Wiwchar, was already facing charges in the Duhre murder and has made several B.C. court appearances.

Both Wiwchar and Alkhalil were convicted last year of first-degree murder for the June 2012 execution of John Raposo in Toronto’s Little Italy. Their Ontario trial heard that Alkhalil brought Wiwchar in, describing him in a text message as the “best hitter.”

Wiwchar dressed like a construction worker with a reflective vest and dust mask and wore a wig to kill Raposo outside the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe.

Until last August, Amero was charged in Quebec as an alleged leader of an international cocaine smuggling ring. But his charges were stayed after his lawyer argued that the case had taken too long to get to trial. 

West Point chapter of the Hells Angels with Amero’s image photoshopped in on the right.

Amero, a B.C. longshoreman and member of the West Point chapter of the Hells Angels, was seriously injured in the August 2011 Kelowna shooting that left Red Scorpion leader Jonathan Bacon dead. Independent Soldiers gangster James Riach was in the targeted Porsche Cayenne with Bacon and Amero, but escaped injury.

Three men linked to the United Nations gang — Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun — are currently on trial for the 2011 shooting. Sukh Dhak is alleged to have ordered the Kelowna hit, according to evidence at their trial.

After the Bacon murder, anti-gang police issued repeated public warnings that anyone connected to the Dhak-Duhre group could be targeted in retaliation.

A few months later Duhre was shot to death in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver. The violent conflict continued and in November 2012, Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel were gunned down outside a Burnaby hotel.

Several associates on either side of the conflict were also murdered in cases that remain unsolved.

Amero was once part of the White Rock Hells Angels, but in 2012 moved over to the new West Point chapter, based in Langley. He was also part of the formation of a gang alliance called the Wolf Pack, made up of some Hells Angels, some Red Scorpions and some members of the Independent Soldiers.

After he was released from a Quebec jail last August, Amero settled in Ottawa, but had been returning to B.C. for brief visits.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

B.C. Hells Angels Larry Amero has appeared in an Ontario courtroom after being arrested by Vancouver Police in Ottawa Thursday and charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in the 2012 hits on Sandip Duhre and Sukh Dhak.

Alisia Adams, of the B.C. criminal justice branch, said Friday that Amero, 40, was remanded in custody for six days to allow for his transfer to Vancouver.

B.C. prosecutors are proceeding by direct indictment, meaning both Amero and his co-accused Dean Wiwchar, 32, will have their case heard in B.C. Supreme Court, bypassing a preliminary hearing in provincial court.

Wiwchar is already in B.C. serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in the June 2012 murder of John Raposo in Toronto. 

But he was also charged this week with murder for Duhre’s fatal shooting on Jan. 17, 2012, as well as  conspiracy to commit the Dhak murder a few months later.

Amero, Alkhalil and Wiwchar were part of the WolfPack gang alliance formed several years back in B.C.

 Supt. Mike Porteous spoke to the Vancouver media today about the significance of this arrest.

I also tried to get a comment from HA spokesman, Rick Ciarniello, but he didn’t respond to my emailed request for information.

Here’s my original story:

(L) Larry Amero of the Hells Angels and the late (R) Randy Naicker, who founded the Independent Soldiers. Naicker was shot to death in 2012 in Port Moody.

Notorious B.C. Hells Angel Larry Amero has been charged with conspiracy to kill gangster rivals Sandip Duhre and Sukhveer Dhak, who died months apart in targeted 2012 shootings.

Amero, 40, was arrested in Ottawa on Thursday by Vancouver police officers, with the assistance of Ottawa police and the Ontario Provincial Police biker enforcement unit.

He will be brought to B.C. to face the conspiracy charges, Vancouver police said Thursday afternoon.

Convicted gang hitman Dean Michael Wiwchar, 32, has also been charged with one count of murder in Duhre’s January 2012 assassination, as well as conspiracy to commit the murder of Dhak in November 2012.

While the Duhre murder charge against Wiwchar is new, he was identified as the suspected hitman when he was on trial in B.C. Supreme Court in 2015 on several firearms charges.

Justice Gregory Bowden said in his ruling convicting Wiwchar on the gun counts that Vancouver police had linked a getaway car used in the Duhre hit to Wiwchar and that witnesses described the shooter as having the same height and build as Wiwchar.

And police had an informant who said someone named Alkhalil had paid Wiwchar. Investigators later found $140,000 in Wiwchar‘s safe deposit box, Bowden noted.   

Postmedia has learned that Wiwchar was recently injured in a stabbing inside federal prison.

Rabih “Robby” Alkhalil, an associate of both Amero and Wiwchar, was already facing charges in the Duhre murder and has made several B.C. court appearances.

Both Wiwchar and Alkhalil were convicted last year of first-degree murder for the June 2012 execution of John Raposo in Toronto’s Little Italy. Their Ontario trial heard that Alkhalil brought Wiwchar in, describing him in a text message as the “best hitter.”

Wiwchar dressed like a construction worker with a reflective vest and dust mask and wore a wig to kill Raposo outside the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe.

Until last August, Amero was charged in Quebec as an alleged leader of an international cocaine smuggling ring. But his charges were stayed after his lawyer argued that the case had taken too long to get to trial. 

Amero, a B.C. longshoreman and member of the West Point chapter of the Hells Angels, was seriously injured in the August 2011 Kelowna shooting that left Red Scorpion leader Jonathan Bacon dead. Independent Soldiers gangster James Riach was in the targeted Porsche Cayenne with Bacon and Amero, but escaped injury.

Three men linked to the United Nations gang — Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun — are currently on trial for the 2011 shooting. Sukh Dhak is alleged to have ordered the Kelowna hit, according to evidence at their trial.

After the Bacon murder, anti-gang police issued repeated public warnings that anyone connected to the Dhak-Duhre group could be targeted in retaliation.

A few months later Duhre was shot to death in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver. The violent conflict continued and in November 2012, Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel were gunned down outside a Burnaby hotel. 

Several associates on either side of the conflict were also murdered in cases that remain unsolved.

Amero was once part of the White Rock Hells Angels, but in 2012 moved over to the new West Point chapter, based in Langley. He was also part of the formation of a gang alliance called the Wolf Pack, made up of some Hells Angels, some Red Scorpions and some members of the Independent Soldiers.

After he was released from a Quebec jail last August, Amero settled in Ottawa, but had been returning to B.C. for brief visits.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

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