Saturday, October 24, 2009

Who Killed Joe Bralic?


Joe Bralic wasn't a gangster, he's a casualty of war - the drug war. He didn't seem to have an affiliation. He appears to have been another body builder lured into the trap of easy money that wasn't so easy and paid for it with his life.

He's the guy that went to LA for a brief "holiday" and ended up dead. The Tyee wrote an in depth two part article about the mysterious event calling it the deal that killed Superman:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2004/05/15/The_Deal_that_Killed_Superman_Part_2/

Unbeknown to his family, the clean cut, well groomed body builder started selling pot. Innocent enough. Then he was trapped by the quick money that can be made trading B.C. Bud for cocaine in the U.S. and selling the cocaine back in Canada. This seems to be where all the huge money is made but the repercussions are deadly.

I see it as greed. Selling a little bud isn't good enough. The lust for dump hummers or expensive cars and a fast lifestyle causes people to drop their standards and sell crack. Even if it's indirectly, that is what the cocaine ends up getting sold as. Cheap and highly addictive creating addicts with broken lives that will kill their mother for five dollars for more crack. There is no honour in selling that kind of rat poison on the street.

So Joe Bralic goes to LA to make the deal. Seemingly the guy who set him up with people in LA is Anton Brad Hooites-Meursing, a local bad boy who attended the castle fun park event with the Bacon brothers and the IS.

Two other criminals Bralic befriended who actually went to LA with him were Garry Favell and Derrick Madinski. Bralic's body was dumped in an alley around 1:00 PM on a Thursday. That same morning Favell and Madinski had checked out of the same hotel into one down the street. They must have known something was up. They came back to Bralic's hotel around 3:00 PM and asked the maid for the key to his room so they could check on their "friend" who was not answering the door. Yet they left LA and returned to Canada without him and without filing a missing person report. With friends like those, who needs enemies.

It appears that Bralic met with the LA cocaine connection around noon. Some claim he was haggling over the price which is unlikely. Others claim it was a straight robbery which is more realistic. Since he had no gang affiliation, the LA drug dealers had nothing to lose by shooting him and taking all the BC bud while they keep the cocaine they were suppose to trade for it. Even more money for them. Think about it, people who sell crack have no morals. They are not trustworthy. Period.

The Tyee article explains that with a gang affiliation dealers are less likely to rob you and shoot you because your gang will retaliate. An informant for the article gave the Hells Angels as an example. Somewhat Ironic. However, Bralic didn't go to LA alone as was thought. Anton made the connection for him. If Anthon has ties to the bacon brothers and the IS maybe Bralic thought he did have the backing of a gang. Why would Anthon hook him up without a gang?

Why didn't Favell and Madinski come with Bralic to the meeting? Or did they? Why did they change hotels that morning? Why did they return to Bralic's hotel room after he was killed, gain entry and return to Canada without filing a missing person report? Why didn't his girlfriend who drove to LA with Favell and Madinski to meet him file a missing person report? Here I thought Matt the rat was bad. Seems like more birds of a feather.

The moral of the story is steroids don't make you bullet proof. Selling pot is one thing but as soon as you cross that line of trading B.C. Bud for cocaine to be sold as crack, the risk of ending up dead is dramatically increased. People who profit from the sale of crack have no morals and can not be trusted so matter what they say. Friends betray friends on a regular basis over the greed of a fast buck.

Last night they had the movie Boondock Saints on TV again. It's kind of a funny movie about two guys in Boston who end up killing two organized crime figures in self defense and go on to exterminate criminal trash who evade the law. It's funny if you look at all the murders like a non reality based western. However, as tempting as that may be, I don't support murder.

Maybe I'm just getting soft as I get older. I guess I just value human life. Murder is really serious. Life does not end at death. Committing murder isn't something we can repay or replace like stealing something from a store. Stealing a life is irreplaceable. You can't give that back and it effects parents, children and siblings forever. What we do in life, echoes in eternity.

We need to set standards and draw lines. I said draw lines not do lines. We need to stay away from the cocaine, crack and meth and we need to value human life more. Murder isn't any more glamorous then selling crack. It's cheap, dirty, senseless. We need to open our eyes and see that greed kills. It kills friendships. It kills people and it destroys lives. Buyer beware. http://www.laweekly.com/2004-04-29/news/a-kilo-full-of-kryptonite
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Think about it. Bralic goes to LA to trade B.C. Bud for cocaine. Where did he put all the B.C. Bud, in his carry on? Not likely. His girlfriend flew out to Saskatchewan to meet up with Favell and Madinski who drove there from Vancouver. They drove across the border at North Dakota and met with Bralic who had driven there from LA. That's a long drive from LA. Then they all drive to LA together, his girlfriend in his car and Favell and Madinski in the jeep.
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Do ya think that maybe the B.C. Bud was hidden in the jeep? Or at least picked up by the jeep after they walked it across and stashed it? If Bralic was trading Bud for cocaine, the Bud had to of come from somewhere. Favell and Madinski are the prime suspects. Was Joe Bralic robbed by a LA dealer or betrayed by his own people like so many others in the Vancouver drug war.
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Interesting to note that the Tyee claims the Hells Angels had tried to recruit Bralic for Ultimate fighting and attended his funeral. If the Hells Angels tried to recruit Bralic for Mixed Martial Arts and attended his funeral and if the Independent Soldiers and crew from the castle fun park meeting are linked to the Hells Angels, who realled killed Joe Bralic? People who profit from exploiting these kids are just as guilty as those that do the hit.

12 comments:

  1. Hi, I am Josip Bralic brother. I just wanted to say that my borther was NOT a small time drug dealer. He lived in an upper-middle class neighbourhood. His parents owned over ONE MILLION in REAL ESTATE and Joe Bralic himself was a successful honour student in college who had a high net worth despite his young age. If you look at his story in LA WEEKLY, it is accurate. LA WEEKLY INTERVIEWED OUR FAMILY to GET FACTUAL INFORMATION. THE AUTOR OF THIS STORY COMPLETED FABRICATED SOME EVENTS. IT FULL OF LIES. AS JOE BRALIC older brother, I know the truth. He had no need to be a "small time drug dealer"....he was making over $20 an hour working for the CITY of BURNABY teaching young childer karate; and as bouncer in his favourite bar while going to COLLEGE...he had an IQ of 138...he was NOT stupid enough to sell $10 bags of marijuana when he was making LOST OF MONEY and had a 6 DIGIT BANK ACCOUNT FIGURE. If he had $100,000 in the bank, why on earth would he do with a couple of bucks from being a "small time drug dealer".

    Unfortunately, he did get involved with the distribution of drugs but he went DIRECTLY to the big scale....he made $10,000 a trip...NEVER $10. For a kid whose parents are worth over $1000000,00 a small pathetic amount is not worth his time.

    We had NO IDEA he was doing this...we did not condone this.

    I think he just did it for the EXCITEMENT which is what LA WEEKLY wrote after GETTING OUR CONSENT AND INTERVIEWING THE FAMILY...I have a similar personality...I have NEVER done that myself, of course, but he did.

    From what I heard....my brother was just going to do this briefly until he bought a house. He already had half the amount from LEGITIMATE sources.

    He was just a bord kid from a NICE, DECENT UPPER MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY looking for excitement (and more money)....he was NEVER A TWO-BIT DRUG DEALER.

    I wish this MOSTLY FICTICOUS "STORY" would get off the web.

    This "GANGSTER" headline is FRAUD. I googled my name to see if potential EMPLOYERS are seeing anything negative about me...and I GOT this SITE....which implies MY FAMILY ARE GANG MEMBERS and SMALL TIME DRUG DEALERS.

    This SITE IS COMPLETELY SLANDEROUS and full of LIES and I am thinking about LEGAL ACTION

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  2. Thank you for your input. I don’t think I ever said Joe was a small time drug dealer. You admit he was a big player and did big drug deals so there clearly is nothing slanderous about that. The facts clearly show he was murdered.

    The media reported that several Hells Angels attended his funeral and tried to recruit him for MMA. Somewhat ironic since the Hells Angels are also as you say large scale drug dealers in British Columbia. The Gangsters out headline to the blog is referring to the people Joe got involved with and ultimately murdered him. In fact I start off by saying Joe wasn’t a gangster, he was a casualty of (the drug) war. So, where’s the beef?

    I had a heckler who thought I was Anton Brad Hooites-Meursing. They said I should write a story about Anthon and implied he was responsible for the murder of Joe. That’s how I found the article in the LA Times and the in-depth article about Joe in the Tyee. That’s when it became clear that there were other suspects as well other than Anthon.

    Any murder investigation begins with a list of suspects and finds out who had the means and who had a motive. Some speculated that he was a small time drug dealer and got in over his head. Your post refutes that and confirms he was a large scale drug dealer and smart.

    Anthon may have hooked him up with contacts in LA but what about his “friends” Garry Favell and Derrick Madinski who went to LA to meet him and came back to Canada without reporting Joe’s death? The ones he didn’t trust so he had his girlfriend drive down with them until he met them at the border and escorted them to their LA contact.

    I don’t know who killed Joe Bralic but I do know there was more than one suspect other than Anthon and if Joe was as smart as you say and a large scale drug dealer, then perhaps his ties to the Hells Angels should be investigated. Gordon Kendall and Jeffry Ivans were two nice Canadians who were brutally murdered for buying drugs for the Hells Angels in Mexico. I’m beginning to see a pattern.

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  3. Agent K - I appreciate the questions you pose regarding Joe's murder. Hopefully, with questions and interest, the truth will come out and he can rest in peace.

    Aside from who pulled the trigger, there are lots of unanswered questions? Like,

    - Why did Madinski & Favell go through Sask. Dakota Border?
    - Why did they get a separate room at the LA hotel?
    - Why did they pay for Joe's hotel when they realized he was "missing?" FYI - After, Madinski and Favell checked in to a different hotel ... Why change hotels?
    - Why did they ask housekeeping to enter his room? Where is his stuff? It was never recovered.
    - Most importantly, if they were FRIENDS, (since friends pay for friends' hotel rooms), Why did they let Joe meet who ever it is he met (that ended up killing him) ALONE??!! Seriously - WTF? If that doesn't reek "set up" I don't know what does?

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  4. I have no first hand knowledge and your questions to me sound very relevant. Perhaps others can contribute. Why did they go to the Sask border? I wondered about that. Seemingly his girlfriend crossed the border with them and he drove all the way to pick her up after they crossed the border and escort them back to LA. Although their car was searched at the border, I would assume they were the ones carrying the Bud to trade for blow. They could have walked it over and picked it up after they crossed. That still doesn’t answer why they went all the way to the Sask border crossing.

    The separate room was likely because his old girlfriend likely stayed in his room but they did stay in the same hotel. Why did they change hotels the morning before he was killed? Why did they pay for his hotel after he was missing? If they did, perhaps it was to cover up the event as to not draw suspicion. They wanted to sneak back to Canada without being interrogated. They took his belongings? Suspicious indeed. Why did they let him go alone? Did they? Maybe they were there. If not it is very suspicious indeed. These are the questions the Vancouver gang task force and the LAPD need to be asking Madinski & Favell. Let’s hope an answer will come.

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  5. Someone quoted a post allegedly made by Anton claiming that Mihaly Illes also went to LA with Joe Bralic. http://gangstersout.blogspot.com/2010/05/mihaly-illes-derrick-madinski-and-garry.html

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    1. Yeah, Illes was definitely not there. He was in jail. Had he been there he’d have most likely been shot as well. He knows who is responsible and the guy that’s responsible knows that Illes knows. But Illes will deal with it/him in his own way. Joe was like a brother to him..

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  6. yes, I saw that. It's false. Illes was not there. Also false, is Anton's rant that he and Joe were buds... more like he took advantage of a young kid (there was quite an age difference there). It's always easier to control a young person, especially of the dangling carrot is money. At that age, they don't fathom that eating the carrot can get them killed.

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  7. I notice there are fake Facebook groups and Youtube channels pretending to be me as well. Even if Illes wasn’t there Madinski was and Madinski was involved with Illes in the drug trade at that time. What gang was Madinski doing business with/for? According to the Tyee, Hells Angels did attend Joe’s funeral.

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  8. I'm Joey's cousin and all I know is that we've all done things we're not proud of. I don't fault him for what he was doing. I just wish it didn't end up costing him his life...... I guess he felt at the time that it was the only way for him to get the money he needed. Who really knows, the only person who does is him. I miss you Joey and love you cuz..... R.I.P.

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  9. Joe was a nice guy, i'm sorry his family had to go through this, i'm sorry he didn't get the chance that so many of us got to change our ways.

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  10. I was going to film school with Joe. His attendance was slipping and he took his father's death quite hard. We knew what he was getting into with the drug trade and he disappeared for weeks at a time. We came to school one morning and there was a copy of The Province on the teachers desk with the story of Joe being found on the front page. A sad, sad day. Joe was a highly talented and extremely funny guy with a heart of gold. I enjoyed getting to know him. It's such a tragic waste. These fools he got involved with should be lynched for their obvious part in his death.

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    1. I appreciate your comments about my brother. He was very funny and worked hard to get into film school. I think about about him all the time. It doesn't get any easier. The loss is intense...This was not his inteded path. He was just a kid. I still don't know exactly what happened. ... his sister.

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