Another Quebec drug raid tied to the Hells Angels

Following an early-morning series of police raids Thursday in the Monteregie region east of Montreal, at least 15 suspects were expected to appear in court later in the day to face drug- and firearms-related charges.

Sgt. Valerie Bolduc said it was as part of an effort to dismantle what she described as "a well-established, long-standing drug ring . . . believed to involve the Hells Angels" motorcycle gang. One of those detained was a man in his 50s, who police allege is the ringleader. The ring is believed to have distributed and sold cannabis, cocaine and methamphetamines, Bolduc added. Pot, cocaine and crystal meth. Imagine that.

Several marijuana grow-op sites were busted and at least one restricted firearm was seized as police conducted eight early-morning raids with a Hells Angels connection. Hells angels running grow ops? Imagine that. Having a grow op in one thing. Taking them over with violence is another. It's time to ban the bullies.

Hells Angels banned in Frankfurt‏

Another reader sent this in: Citing a history of weapons offences and violence, a German state banned two Frankfurt-based chapters of the Hells Angels on Friday and confiscated their assets. "A German State." Sounds like it was provincial legislation not federal. Now there's an idea.

"These gangs are not in any way made up only of harmless motorbike riders," Hesse state interior minister Boris Rhein said at a televised news conference. "Many members are known to the police because of violent, drug or weapon-related offences." The interior ministry said it had the authority to ban clubs when their aims or activities break the law.

I'm all for the freedom of association. Yet that charter right does not include the right to belong to a criminal organization. Obviously we have to be careful of how we approach such legislation. As long as there is a long list of documented criminal activity then a ban is clearly in order. Calling a labour activist a terrorist just so the government can spy on him without a warrant is not acceptable. Happens all the time, but it shouldn't. I oppose warranties surveillance.

Yet with the long list of documented criminal activity in Canada there is no reason the Hells Angels can't be deemed a criminal organization in Canada within the criminal code. They had a committee set up to discuss that possibility but it looks like they dropped the ball after the got their coveted majority. Now the only people that will do real time in prison are pot growers. Rapists and cocaine dealers will get a slap on the wrist. Now that is tragic.

I think it's also important to recognize how the Hells angels use a web of puppet clubs to sell their drugs for them to hide their involvement. The Zig Zag crew were caught selling crack for the Hells angels in Winnipeg and paid them dues for protection. Just like the Rockers in Quebec.

After the Zig Zag crew were busted then they started LHS which was disbanded when they shot one of their own guys to let the Ontario Hells Angels take over the drug trade in Thompson. Then they formed the Redline Support Crew to fight the Rock Machine and their puppet club Vendettas for the drug trade in Winnipeg. Then they also created the Freewheelers MC which is being pushed aside by their creation of the Heretics. These guys burn through puppet clubs fasted than an addict goes through crack pipes.

Back East after the Hells Angels were deemed a criminal organization and had their clubhouse seized, all of a sudden the Darksiders found the cash to open their own clubhouse in one "formally" owned by the Hells Angels.

Cocaine in Vernon

Speaking of cocaine in Vernon, more details from the Vernon Greeks trial made the news again today. The witness said that when he arrived at a Vernon building, he found Marnuik covered in blood. "A Vernon building" that wouldn't be the warehouse owned by Hells Angels associate Zenon Stepkowski would it?

No doubt the new cocaine bust in Vernon wasn't related to Zenon and the Vernon Greeks. However there is no doubt the original suppliers of the Vernon Greeks have simply found another mule. Case in point, the Robert Shannon conviction being replaced with the Jones Brothers implication.

On a completely unrelated matter, I understand that Joey Armand Mazzei is quite involved in the community so to speak. He is suing the organizers of the Big Iron Shootout because he was injured in an avalanche shooting up the mountain on a snowmobile which clearly is high risk of causing an avalanche. This Joey Mazzei seems to be a person of interest now. It might be worth keeping an eye on him.

Salmon Arm sure keeps resurfacing in the news. One blog reader just pointed out that Zenon Stepkowski is listed as the owner/manager of the Apple Grove Motel in Salmon Arm. People who know him describe his as lazy not having a real job. They wonder how he could afford to but a motel. Interesting question. Maybe he's in charge of Salmon Arm now and they put someone else in charge of Vernon.

Former Mountie charged with murder released on bail

A former B.C. Mountie charged with the second degree murder of his common law wife is now out on bail. His lawyer claims
“This person spent all of his life obeying the law, and half of it enforcing the law,” said Skogstad. “If he can’t get bail, who can?” Someone who hasn't been charged with murder perhaps?

Aaron Derbyshire - Five years later

This Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of Aaron Derbyshire, who has been missing since September 30, 2006. About 20 relatives joined Aaron's mother at the RCMP detachment Friday morning to ask Kelowna for help.

Derbyshire was last seen around 1:40 a.m. on Sept. 30, 2006, by friends at Level Night Club in downtown Kelowna. The friends left Derbyshire in the bar while they stepped outside to watch a fight. When they returned inside, he was gone. Too many people are missing or have been murdered.

Saskatchewan cross border drug ring

Three BC men have been charged in a cross border drug smuggling ring in Saskatchewan. 30 kilograms of cocaine, 100 Ecstasy tablets, cash and firearms were seized. Come to think if it, that's where Derrick Madinski brought the BC bud across the line to meet up with Joe Brallic.

Actually the cocaine and Ecstasy were seized in BC. They just brought it across the border in Saskatchewan. RCMP say 25-year-old Brock Ernest Palfrey from Silverstar, B.C., 50-year-old William Bruce Larsen from Coldstream, B.C. and 28-year-old Ronald Charles Learning from Golden B.C. are charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and to export ecstasy.

Silverstar and Coldsteeam. Surprise surprise. That would be Vernon. That would be the Vernon Greeks territory who work for the Hells Angels. The Vernon Greeks used ruthless violence to control the drug trade in that area. They were found with Hells angels support gear. So I wonder who is ultimately responsible for this cocaine bust?

In fact Brock Ernest Palfrey was charged in a rather large cociane bust April 22 2010. That article said he was from Vernon. Silverstar is in Vernon so to speak. At least eight law agencies in Canada, including the Vernon RCMP task force, helped in the investigation along with representatives from the U.S.

Interesting to note that a 2003 Ford Winstar was stopped, searched and seized in Salmon Arm, resulting in a third person being arrested. Salmon Arm, isn't that shocking. One of the Haney Hells Angels owns land out there doesn't he?

Destroying wonderful small towns like that. Shame on you.

Election Candy

I must admit I don't have the same animosity towards Christy Clark that I do for Gordon Campbell. Yet giving away free candy before an election is kinda cheap. Christy Clark announces a new stat Holiday in BC. This is supposed to make up for all the horrible things Campbell's Liberals did over the years? Giving away someone else's money. Small and large businesses are going to have to pay for the Holiday.

It reminds me of how Gordon Campbell gave away that BC Hydro rebate right before an election and then shafted us again after he was elected. Buyer Beware. Don't take candy from strangers.

They should take away Gordon Campbell’s ridiculous award and offensive High Commission job instead. Then we’d have something to celebrate Failing that another holiday is a bit pointless. The holiday should commemorate the day he finally resigned.

Court backlog stalls more prosecutions

Once again the Court backlog makes the front page. Kim Bolan was reporting on how the shortage of sheriffs for court was resulting in many cases getting adjourned. At the same time we also read about how the prisons in BC are over crowed to the absurd extreme where Gordo the Glutton was building prison tents in BC. I kid you not.

All this was happening before Harper's disproportionate crime bill that will now send that fragile system into absolute chaos. Realistically someone who committed murder won't have their case dropped as that would hopefully be somewhat of a priority. Yet the other prioritization has already gone astray.

According to government figures provided to The Province, as of Sept. 3, there had been 73 judicial stays of proceedings for adult criminal and youth cases in B.C. Provincial Court so far this year. In 2010, there were 58 judicial stays for the entire year. The Vancouver Province listed a few of the many cases that were dropped because of delays resulting from shortages.

Some of the cases weren't significant yet others were. In 2009, Jason James Horner and Robert Luigi Polani had their cocaine conspiracy charges stayed when a judge found their three-year-old case had taken too long to get to trial. A Crown appeal of the rulings by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask was heard last November and a decision is still awaited. Peter Leask hearing another cocaine case. God help us.

In May 2010, Provincial Court Judge Ronald Webb, in staying a charge of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking against Darren Bryan Williams of Cranbrook, said trial dates were hopelessly overbooked.

So right now we are already seeing over crowed prisons and case back logs where important charges like trafficking cocaine are being dropped. Knowing this, Harper then goes to the opposite extreme, leaving hard drugs aside, sets out on his own Don Quixote crusade against those evil pot growers by imposing mandatory minimum sentences of two years for growing pot. No wonder Mr. Harper hasn't increased mandatory minimums for crack. He must be smoking it himself.

Unlike the bleeding hearts, I most certainly don't have a problem with mandatory minimum sentences. For murder or trafficking cocaine. Not for smoking or growing pot. Especially when the courts have directed the government to fix the current problem of patients with medicinal marijuana prescriptions to have aces to filling those prescriptions.

I'm not going to say the courts are the end all and be all. I think the courts decision to keep insite open is wrong. If people want to keep insite open by a democratic referendum that is one thing. Having the courts over rule a democratically elected government and claim shooting heroine in a safe place is a charter right is absurd. But that's another topic.

Right now we have to deal with the catastrophic state of emergency Stephen Harper has now manufactured with his disproportionate crime bill. Cocaine trafficking cases are now getting dropped. That's not even including the investigations like the Western Wind the higher ups have pulled the plug on.

Throwing all the pot growers in jail for two years is going to further tax the judicial system and fill the over crowed prisons. Three to a bunk is not acceptable. Privatizing the prisons is not acceptable. Raising taxes to incarcerate nonviolent offenders is not acceptable. The California prison system is not a model we should follow. Instead we should learn from their mistakes.

Body dumped in Squamish ID'd

Sunday afternoon a group of hikers found a dead body near a hiking trail on the side of Mamquam Road in Squamish. "It appears the man was met with foul play," said spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Pound. "It does appear to be a homicide." Pound also refused to comment on media reports that the man's body was found beaten and duct-taped.

Kim Bolan has reported the identity of the body is that of William Woo from Surrey who was an associate of the East Vancouver hells angels but more recently went over to the other side. Now he's in a body bag. I wonder who the prime suspects are? If the East Vancouver chapter of the Hells angels contract a murder, that makes them a criminal organization guilty of murder. I don't know about the Duhre Daiquiris but Lotus, now there is some old school credibility right there. They are more than capable of professional payback.

Beaten and duck taped. Yeah that would imply foul play. It reminds me of two other cases in Squamish. One was a guy named Alex Larsen who was run over by a truck because he was lying in the middle of the road. It's so strange and tragic. Yes it's possible he got drunk or high and passed out. Yet we've never heard a word either way. We don't know if he was beaten and dumped there or if he was walking on the side of the road and a car hit him which was why he was lying in the middle of the road before the bus ran him over. The case comes to mind and I wish there was more pieces to that puzzle. They say he had made a decision to turn his life around. Just like Britney Irving. Tragic indeed.

Of course there's that other bizarre case in Squamish, the murder of Javan Luke Dowling. Three drug dealers were driving in a car in Vancouver. One of the drug dealers, shot one of the other drug dealers in the head and the third drug dealer watched the shooter cut off Dowling's head and dismembered his body. The two surviving drug dealers buried the body in two separate locations in Squamish. Mihaly Illes was alleged to be the shooter while Derrick Madinski helped him bury the body. Derrick Madinski went with Joe Brallic to LA where Joe was ripped off and murdered.

Meanwhile in that same original article about a new dead body being found in Squamish it later stated there was another shooting in Surrey near the corner of 111A Avenue and 146th Street at about 2: 40 a.m. on Sunday. It didn't even make it's own head line. Kinda sad. The point is violent crime is continuing and as the papers also report the court system is currently in crisis. That was before Harper's disproportionate crime bill sent the fragile system into chaos.

Man charged in Teri-Lyn Williams murder

Dustin Lee LaLonde has been charged of second-degree murder of Teri-Lyn Williams. Teri's body was found in North Surrey across from Tbarz last year. Lalonde is currently serving a four-year sentence for robbery and aggravated assault committed Aug. 17, 2010 in Kelowna.

In 2001, Lalonde was charged with possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace and obtaining transportation by fraudulent means. He has since appeared in court numerous times on charges in Kelowna, Kamloops, Vancouver and Prince George mostly for robbery, theft and fraud.