Ziggy Matheson found guilty

Ziggy Matheson who was described as being involved in a top level drug bust on Vancouver Island has been found GUILTY on counts 2, 3, and 4 all for Possession for the purpose of trafficking. No sentencing date set yet.

Among the drugs seized were two kilograms of cocaine, 12.7 kilograms of marijuana, 10 litres of GHB or the “date-rape” drug, one kilogram of crystal meth and 200 ecstasy pills.

Ziggy's co accused, Ali Arash Ziaee, plead guilty to three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking related to cocaine and GHB. He received a 30 month sentence.

Oral Reasons for Sentence Re Accused Ali Arash Ziaee

[5] To briefly summarize, therefore, the police investigated individuals they suspected were involved in the trafficking of narcotics. Surveillance was conducted and the police obtained phone and text conversations between various persons involved in this operation. As the Crown has summarized, Mr. Ziaee was clearly a courier for this enterprise, a trusted employee, if you will, of the people who were above him in the drug hierarchy, and he was eventually arrested on June 6, 2013.

[6] At that time, he was in possession of two kilos of powder cocaine upon his attendance at the apartment outlined in Count 2, the so‑called stash house which was used to break down the cocaine into packages for street‑level transactions, known as a dial‑a‑dope operation. In the apartment there was approximately 10.5 grams of crack cocaine attributed to Mr. Ziaee that was found in a small safe. In addition, in his vehicle, there was 7.5 litres of GHB, the subject matter of Count 5.

Heartwarming Amazon add defines a Free Republic

I saw this wonderful commercial on TV the other day. It's an add for Amazon that shows a Muslim and a Priest forming a friendship swapping stories over a cup of tea. As they develope a friendship, they obviously confided in each other that as old age settles in they both find kneeling down to pray hard on the knees so they both get the same idea. They both order a set of knee pads for each other on Amazon. This is what a free republic really is. The freedom of religion. This is the dream that Martin Luther King marched for. That the US Constitution would be more than a nice piece of paper hanging on the wall. Martin Luther King's dream was that one day the US Constitution would actually be implemented and followed. I share that dream.

Don't fear the hijab. Get to know the person under the hijab.



From a distance we look the same.

Real IRA member shot and killed in Cork city

The Irish Times is reporting that a former chief of staff of the Real IRA named Aidan O’Driscoll aka the Beast died after he was shot three times today in Cork. We know that if he was shot in Cork, he wasn't shot by the Protestants so the UDA, UVF or the UFF are out. Looks like it was obviously internal so to speak.

The people who call themselves the real IRA are a splinter group. They're not the original IRA. They simply call themselves the Real IRA because they still oppose any kind of peace settlement the original IRA made in the Good Friday accord. At least that's what I thought.

It appears that I'm a bit out of the loop so I am. I've been back from Ireland for 26 years now. The interesting thing is that Aidan O’Driscoll and Alan Ryan from the Real IRA waged a war against drug dealers in Dublin. So here we see the Real IRA start doing what the original IRA did back in Belfast. They start shooting drug dealers dead. Aidan does time in prison because he was a member of an illegal organization. So here we have a paramilitary organization waging war with drug dealers and the government deems them an illegal organization and sends them to jail. So which side is the government really on then? Are they supporting drug dealers? This has become somewhat problematic so it has.

The Independent reported that "However senior sources say the Real IRA was simply demanding large sums of cash off criminal gangs and if they refused to pay up they became targets for the feared dissident gang who traded under the IRA name." Hmmm... That's possible too so it is. The stories I could tell. It's hard to sift out the truth between the lines so it is.

Sounds like things are heating up in the Holy land again only this time it's about drugs.

Notice the Easter rising pin on the beret. God love 'em.

There are two reasons the Irish Republicans chose the Easter Lily to commemorate the Irish Proclamation and the Easter Rising. First is the obvious in that the Easter Lily blooms at Easter and symbolizes the resurrection. The other reason is because the Easter Lily is white, green and orange just like the flag of the Irish Republic. Green represents Catholics, Orange represents Protestants and White represents peace between the two.

The Irish Proclamation declares "we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonor it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine." When I first arrived in Ireland many yeas ago I landed in Dublin right after the IRA had kidnapped a Dentist and held him for ransom. That was a criminal act. It had nothing to do with fighting for freedom. It was simply extortion. After they kidnapped him they cut off his fingers and sent them to his family with the ransom note. That was a brutal and senseless act that violated the Irish Proclamation. It was inhumane rapine.

That was Dessie O'Hare. He had been kicked out of the IRA and the INLA at the time. O'Hare had broken away from the remaining INLA leadership in Belfast and set up his own group, the Irish Revolutionary Brigade, which operated in the border region out of Castleblayney. It was described as having "a handful" of members. In 1987 O'Hare and three other INLA members kidnapped John O'Grady, a dentist from Dublin, and demanded a IR£1.5m ransom. The Dentist, John O'Grady, passed away in September of this year. So in reality Dessie O'Hare didn't represent the IRA or the INLA, he only represented himself.

The IRA stands for the Irish Republican Army. Irish Republicans are not people who believe in George Bush. They are people who believe in a free republic. I share that belief.

Police make two arrests related to Rock Machine murder

The Montreal Gazette is reporting that Richard Hunt, 38, and 28-year-old Mélanie Binette were arrested in the Vaudreuil-Dorion area and questioned about the role they may have played in the killing of Joseph Fluet & Steven Lamarsh - two men with supposed links to criminal biker gangs.

Saturday we posted that Rock Machine member Joseph "Fuego" Fluet, 45, was one of two men who were shot and killed Friday just outside Montreal. Sunday the Montreal Gazette reported that Hunt and Binette were people the police want to question not suspects.

Fluet has been identified in the past by police as a member of the Rock Machine. The Journal de Montréal reported that Fluet was born as Éric Lefebvre and was once part of a puppet gang controlled by the Hells Angels, and had his name changed sometime after 2008. In April 2001, Lefebvre told the newspaper that he had got into serious trouble with the Hells Angels. In May 2001, an expert on biker gangs with the RCMP in New Brunswick described Lefebvre as a courier who transported drugs for the Hells Angels in Quebec. This was after Lefebvre had pleaded guilty to setting a pub called Goodfella’s on fire in Moncton.

Surf's up: The New Season has Begun

Today was a magnificent day. As I was riding down King George outside Gus' shop you could see the snow on Grouse and the surrounding mountain peaks from the top of the hill. Then riding into Vancouver you could see the Lions covered in snow. The snowline was almost at the bottom of the mountain. It was like someone swept a paintbrush across the mountain and left behind a blanket of fresh snow. The season has officially begun.



I snowshoed up Hollyburn Ridge on Cypress today. It was awesome.



If you look closely you can see Lion's Gate bridge from the top of Hollyburn Ridge:

George Christie's Exile on Front Street

I finally started reading George Christie's new book Exile on Front Street. It is freaking awesome. The preface contains that quote about Outlaws I previously posted:

"People confuse the outlaw and the criminal. Some outlaws commit crimes, but the real outlaw isn’t a criminal by trade. He’s someone who refuses to live by society’s established norms of behavior. He has an internal code and answers only to his own sense of honor and right and wrong. The outlaw doesn’t conform; he rebels. He doesn’t accept; he questions. In the end, the outlaw might change and adapt, but he bends for no man and won’t let his life be defined by someone else. Jesse James was an outlaw but so was Albert Einstein. I’ve been many things - father, son, husband, leader, brother, and friend - but through it all, I was always an outlaw."

That sets the stage quite effectively. In the introduction he states "Undercover cops and informants who have written about the club paint members with one brush. In those books, we're one dimensional criminal scum. Most outlaws who write about the life are just as bad. According to them we are heroic freedom fighters living only to ride." He then explains it's not all black and white which is very true. You simply can't stereotype everyone in anything.

His book is worth reading. He is someone I can endorse. The movie he made, the Last American Outlaw was profound and has inspired me to embark on three separate adventures starting this summer. The book is helpful because he addresses the betrayal of being out out in bad after he left the club and about being falsely accused of being a police informant when he wasn't. He tries to remind us what the dream originally was. As Pink Floyd once said, take heed of the dream.

Easy Rider Update:

What I'm talking about is very simple. There is no need to overthink it or misinterpret it. I'm talking about Easy Rider not Sons of Anarchy. There were no patches in Easy Rider. Just riding free with the wind in your face leaving all the fears and concerns behind you in the dust as you ride off into the sunset. It's embracing life like a Bat outta Hell. It's Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild. It's Steppenwolf's God Dam the Pusher. It's supporting a free republic. That's what I'm talking about.

.

Be advised that this blog will move forward not backward. Lead, follow or get out of the way.

Rock Machine member shot dead in Quebec

CBC is reporting that "Quebec provincial police have identified one of the victims in a Vaudreuil-Dorion double homicide as Rock Machine member Joseph "Fuego" Fluet. Fluet, 45, was one of two men who were shot and killed yesterday afternoon in a field behind a home on Montée d'Alstonvale" just outside Montreal.

Former mayor of Laval pleads guilty to breach of trust

CBC is reporting that "the man once known as the 'King of Laval' is on his way to jail tonight. Gilles Vaillancourt, who ran Quebec's third-largest city for more than two decades, pleaded guilty Thursday to fraud, breach of trust and conspiracy to commit fraud, dating back to his time as mayor. Under an agreement reached with the Crown, Vaillancourt will voluntarily repay the city $7 million from a Swiss bank account, as well as roughly $1 million in other assets, including his condominium. He is also waiving his pension. The plea deal calls for Vaillancourt to spend six years in prison. He could be eligible to apply for parole in a year." The plea agreement resulted in the gangsterism charges against him being suspended.

What's the difference between BC and Quebec? Quebec has an anti corruption task force, BC does not. Quebec is confronting organized crime, BC is not. That's the only difference.

Vancouver Hells Angel associate shot and killed

Kim Bolan from Postmedia News is reporting that "a controversial rocker and Hells Angels associate convicted of stock fraud has died, three months after being shot in Burnaby, Postmedia News has learned. Adis (Ady) Golic passed away Nov. 22 from injuries sustained in the targeted shooting. The 41-year-old was gunned down on Aug. 22 around 8:30 p.m. in the 7700-block of 12th Avenue in Burnaby. At the time, Mounties said the shooter was a white man, dressed all in black, who hopped into a dark-coloured getaway vehicle with a roof rack."

Another white guy shooting someone in gang related violence. When Kim says rocker she means the guy was a heavy metal musician. He was with the heavy metal band Skard. John Bryce, the East Vancouver Hells Angels president appeared in some of their local videos.

Dead herring washing up on shore in Nova Scotia

The National Post is reporting that "Tens of thousands of dead herring keep washing ashore along Nova Scotia’s western coastline, a mystery for biologists trying to figure out what is killing the small, silvery fish. Craik said the fish could be succumbing to a virus, some form of pollution, parasites or a poisonous algae bloom — but lab tests have yet to determine what is going on."