Another Metro Vancouver gangster has been deported to a country that he left as a youth. Barzan Tilli-Choli, of the UN Gang, was sent to Iraq this week after finishing his sentence for plotting to kill the Bacons. He was 17 when he came to Canada in 1999. Last year, both gang associates Jimi Sandhu and Adam Lam were ordered deported. Sandhu was just seven when he came to Canada. Lam was just a toddler. 

I hope young guys thinking of choosing this path who aren’t Canadian citizens realize the potential consequences go far beyond jail.

Here’s my story:

 A high-ranking member of the United Nations gang has been deported to his native Iraq after finishing his sentence for plotting to kill the Bacon brothers.

Postmedia has learned that Barzan Tilli-Choli, who came to Canada as a teenager in 1999, was transported to Iraq on Tuesday by officers with the Canada Border Services Agency.

On Monday, he left Kent prison in the Fraser Valley, where he was serving his term after pleading guilty in July 2013 to conspiracy to commit murder.

His deportation was not a surprise.

Two years ago, Immigration and Refugee Board member Marc Tessler told Tilli-Choli he had no choice but to order the gangster’s removal from Canada because of his serious conviction and the fact he was not a Canadian citizen.

Then last August, two Parole Board of Canada members concluded that there was no need to keep Tilli-Choli incarcerated beyond his statutory release date this month because he was going to be deported to Iraq.

They were provided with a psychologist’s report from July that said Tilli-Choli was “a low risk of re-offending if you are to be removed to your home country, although your risk would be significantly higher if you were to remain in Canada.”

Tilli-Choli also provided the parole board with support letters from relatives in Iraq. 

Barzan Tilli-Choli in undated jail photo

He was sentenced to 14 years minus almost nine years as double credit for the 4½ years he spent in pre-trial custody, for a net term of five years and three months.

Tilli-Choli was later identified in a related prosecution as the shooter who blasted an AK-47 at Jonathan Barber in Burnaby in May 2008, killing the stereo installer who had been mistaken for one of the Bacons.

When Tilli-Choli was arrested in March 2009, he had photos of the Bacons on his iPhone. He was also captured on wiretaps attempting to get a gun for an attack on a limousine the Bacons were in following a January 2009 concert in downtown Vancouver.

“The Pigs gangsters are here, man,” Tilli-Choli said in the recording. He also said that whoever was in the limo “is gonna get” shot.

A month later, Tilli-Choli and others shot up the vehicle of another Bacon associate outside T-Barz strip club in Surrey.

Tilli-Choli was born in the Kurdistan province of Iraq and came to Canada as a 17-year-old.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Tilli-Choli is just one of several gangsters living in B.C. who have recently been deported because of serious criminality.

“We have seen several people and families come to Canada in the past and they make the choice to involve themselves in gangs, organized crime, and violent lifestyles,” Houghton said. “These choices not only lead to tragic ends for many of those involved, but can also lead to those people being removed from Canada.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

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A Hells Angels associate convicted last fall in a massive cocaine conspiracy should spend 15 years in prison, federal prosecutor Chris Greenwood said Tuesday.

Greenwood told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross that James Howard played a “very significant” role in the plot to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine into Canada in 2012.

What Howard didn’t know was that the purported South American coke brokers negotiating with his gang were actually undercover cops who orchestrated a reverse sting over months.

The police received a $4-million down payment, then delivered a kilo of real cocaine and 199 kilos of fake product to a Burnaby warehouse on Aug. 25, 2012 as Howard and his co-accused were arrested.

On Sept. 30, Ross convicted Howard of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Also convicted were full-patch Hells Angels David Giles and Bryan Oldham and associate Shawn Womacks, who will be sentenced in March.

Greenwood said Howard was part of “the upper echelon of the drug trade” and a conspiracy to buy 500 kilos of cocaine “intended to be the first in a series of transactions.”

“I don’t suggest that Mr. Howard is the mastermind of this sophisticated organization, but I do say that his profession is in the business of trafficking drugs,” Greenwood said.

“He was a partner in the trafficking scheme. He was responsible for transportation, for supervising employees he described as his crew and he had an ownership interest in the product and the profits that were going to be achieved.”

Howard got involved in the plot in May 2012, months after Giles and Kevin Van Kalkeren, who earlier pleaded guilty, unwittingly met the undercover cops who would be their undoing.

Related

• B.C. Hells Angel was targeted by Ontario hitman, indictment says

Greenwood said a stiff sentence would provide appropriate deterrence and denunciation given the scale of the cocaine operation in the case

“The damage done to the community by large-scale trafficking in my submission is profound,” Greenwood said.

“The proliferation of cocaine and other hard drugs affects communities across Canada. And I would submit with respect that your ladyship doesn’t have to go far from this courtroom to see some of those problems.”

Greenwood said Howard had been involved in the drug trade for six years before the 2012 sting, but had no convictions.

At one point, “he told the undercover police officers that he was passionate about what he was doing, reflecting his level of commitment,” Greenwood said.

Howard travelled to Los Angeles after meeting the cops “to set up a structure to transport cocaine” when the plan was to pick up the drugs there.

He attended meetings with his co-conspirators, communicated in encrypted messages, assembled the team to process the cocaine, paid for their radios and provided BlackBerrys for his workers, Greenwood said.

Howard was in charge of distributing the cocaine and planned to sell it in Alberta.

He was so worried about security that he made sure not all his crew members had details of the deal “so they didn’t have to worry about anyone ratting.”

Greenwood said Howard clearly could have been successful if he’d chosen a legitimate path in life.

“You are dealing with a mature individual who possessed life skills and who was aware of the illegality and the risks involved but was committed to a course of illegal action over many weeks and that is the context in which the moral responsibility for this offence arises,” he said.

Ross adjourned Howard’s sentencing hearing to March 1.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

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The sentencing process finally began Tuesday for those convicted last September in the cocaine conspiracy case involving Kelowna Hells Angels and some of their associates. We know that Kevin Van Kalkeren, one of the masterminds of the plot, pleaded guilty last year and got sentenced to 16 years.

Crown prosecutor Chris Greenwood said today that James Howard, who as an investor with key responsibilities in the plot, should get a 15 year sentence. He’s been out of jail since shortly after his arrest in 2012, so he had no (or very little) pretrial credit earned.

His lawyer will make defence submissions on March 1.

Here’s my story:

Crown wants 15 year sentence for Hells Angel associate in B.C. cocaine conspiracy

A Hells Angels associate convicted last fall in a massive cocaine conspiracy should spend 15 years in prison, federal prosecutor Chris Greenwood said Tuesday.

Greenwood told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross that James Howard played a “very significant” role in the plot to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine into Canada in 2012.

What Howard didn’t know was that the purported South American coke brokers negotiating with his gang were actually undercover cops who orchestrated a reverse sting over months.

The police received a $4-million down payment, then delivered a kilo of real cocaine and 199 kilos of fake product to a Burnaby warehouse on Aug. 25, 2012 as Howard and his co-accused were arrested.

On Sept. 30, Ross convicted Howard of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Also convicted were full-patch Hells Angels David Giles and Bryan Oldham and associate Shawn Womacks, who will be sentenced in March.

Greenwood said Howard was part of “the upper echelon of the drug trade” and a conspiracy to buy 500 kilos of cocaine “intended to be the first in a series of transactions.”

“I don’t suggest that Mr. Howard is the mastermind of this sophisticated organization, but I do say that his profession is in the business of trafficking drugs,” Greenwood said.

“He was a partner in the trafficking scheme. He was responsible for transportation, for supervising employees he described as his crew and he had an ownership interest in the product and the profits that were going to be achieved.”

Howard got involved in the plot in May 2012, months after Giles and Kevin Van Kalkeren, who earlier pleaded guilty, unwittingly met the undercover cops who would be their undoing.

Greenwood said a stiff sentence would provide appropriate deterrence and denunciation given the scale of the cocaine operation in the case

“The damage done to the community by large-scale trafficking in my submission is profound,” Greenwood said.

“The proliferation of cocaine and other hard drugs affects communities across Canada. And I would submit with respect that your ladyship doesn’t have to go far from this courtroom to see some of those problems.”

Greenwood said Howard had been involved in the drug trade for six years before the 2012 sting, but had no convictions.

At one point, “he told the undercover police officers that he was passionate about what he was doing, reflecting his level of commitment,” Greenwood said.

Howard travelled to Los Angeles after meeting the cops “to set up a structure to transport cocaine” when the plan was to pick up the drugs there.

He attended meetings with his co-conspirators, communicated in encrypted messages, assembled the team to process the cocaine, paid for their radios and provided BlackBerrys for his workers, Greenwood said.

Howard was in charge of distributing the cocaine and planned to sell it in Alberta.

He was so worried about security that he made sure not all his crew members had details of the deal “so they didn’t have to worry about anyone ratting.”

Greenwood said Howard clearly could have been successful if he’d chosen a legitimate path in life.

“You are dealing with a mature individual who possessed life skills and who was aware of the illegality and the risks involved but was committed to a course of illegal action over many weeks and that is the context in which the moral responsibility for this offence arises,” he said.

Ross adjourned Howard’s sentencing hearing to March 1.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Abbotsford Police are investigating a shooting Tuesday evening that left two men with injuries.

Sgt. Judy Bird said in a news release that police got called about 6:20 p.m. about possible shots fired in the area of Countess Avenue and South Fraser Way.

A few minutes later, they got more calls about a two-vehicle collision at Peardonville Road and Clearborook Road.

Two men believed to have been shot and then involved in the crash were driven to hospital by a citizen who stopped to help.

“Both males remain in hospital where they are receiving treatment for their injuries,” Bird said.

 Two people in the vehicle that was struck received minor injuries and one remains in hospital for observation, she said.

 The Major Crime Unit of the Abbotsford Police Department is investigating.

The shooting comes less than 24 hours after a young man was killed in a targeted shooting in Surrey.

Karanpartap Waraich, 22, was hit as he drove in the 12900-block of 96 Avenue and crashed his vehicle into the golden arches of a McDonalds.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is now investigating.

“Mr. Waraich is known to police and evidence to this point suggests this was a targeted homicide,” S. Sgt. Jennifer Pound said. “There are many more investigative avenues that IHIT needs to concentrate on and we are looking to speak with any witnesses who may not have already come forward to police.  Thankfully, there were no other victims as a result of this brazen shooting.”

It’s been a violent couple of weeks with other shootings in Surrey, Abbotsford and south Vancouver.

Police in the Lower Mainland and into Alberta are looking for links between recent shootings and murders. There were two men shot Tuesday in Abbotsford. In that case, Abby Police are looking for a dark-coloured Ford Explorer  from the mid-2000s. And the night before gang-involved Karan Waraich was shot to death in Surrey. Waraich had survived a September 2015 shooting on the grounds of Strawberry Hill Elementary School. 

Here’s my story:

Surrey RCMP released details of another shooting Thursday – the region’s 12th so far this year.

Investigators responded to a shots fired call in the 12300-block of 91A Avenue about 9 p.m. Thursday.

^{Officers found evidence of a shooting at the scene.}

^{In a news release, Surrey Mounties said witnesses reported seeing a white pickup truck firing multiple shots at a white Mercedes sedan.}

^{“The white Mercedes has been located and had been struck multiple times. The occupant of the vehicle has been located unharmed,” the release said.}

^{The truck fled from the scene in an unknown direction of travel. Officers are canvassing the neighbourhood and talking to witnesses.}

 ^“The investigation is still in its early stages, but initial indications are that this a targeted incident.”

Anyone with information is asked to call 604-599-0502.

This is the fifth Surrey shooting this month, including Monday’s murder of Karanpartap Waraich on 96 Avenue.

The gun violence continued Friday night with a fatal shooting in Vancouver.

Vancouver Police officers were called to the Savoy Hotel, at 258 East Hastings Street, just before 10:30 p.m. where they found a man in his late 50s suffering from gunshot wounds.

He was rushed to hospital, but died a short time later, according to a release from the VPD.

The release said only that “it is very early in the investigation. No additional details are available at this time.”

If I learn more, I will post it. I am heading out of town in the morning so may not get more information for a bit.

A man was shot and killed at the hotel Friday, Jan. 27, 2017

 A Greater Victoria man convicted of drug trafficking has lost his bid to have the charges thrown out because of trial delay.

Zachary Scott Matheson, 39, was charged in February 2014 with four counts of possession of cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamines for the purpose of trafficking.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brian MacKenzie convicted him at the Victoria Law Courts on Dec. 8, 2016.

That led to an application by Matheson’s lawyer Bradley Hickford to have the charges stayed because the case ran longer than a new time limit set by a Supreme Court of Canada ruling last summer.

Canada’s highest court noted in the landmark ruling known as Jordan that cases at the provincial court level should conclude within 18 months unless there are extraordinary circumstances. Cases at the superior court level should be completed within 30 months.

Matheson’s case took about 33 months up to December’s verdict.

But MacKenzie said that once almost five months of delays caused by the defence were subtracted, the case fell within the 30-month range.

“In conclusion, I find that the defence is solely responsible for three distinct periods of delay, which total 144 days, or approximately four months and 24 days. Subtracting this number from the 1028 days that elapsed between the date of the charge and the end of the trial leaves a net delay of 884 days, or 29 months,” MacKenzie said in his Feb. 1 ruling. “This falls below the 30-month ceiling established in Jordan.”

He also said “the defence has not sought to establish, in my view realistically, that this is one of those rare, clear cases which nonetheless merits a stay of proceedings even though the net delay falls below the presumptive ceiling.”

“I thus conclude that Mr. Matheson’s right to be tried within a reasonable time under s. 11(b) of the Charter has not been infringed.”

MacKenzie said the Crown had established there were some exceptional circumstances that accounted for some of its delay in the case.

Matheson was first arrested in June 2013 after an investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.

Charges were approved against him and co-accused Ali Arash Ziaee eight months later.

At the time of their arrest, CFSEU referred to them as “high-level” Vancouver Island drug traffickers and said over $500,000 worth of drugs were seized after two search warrants were executed in the case.

“Matheson has a lengthy criminal record for property, drug, and violence-related offences and is well-known to police for his criminal associations on Vancouver Island,” CFSEU Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said at the time.

Ziaee earlier pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two and a half years in jail.

A date will now be set for Matheson’s sentencing.

Long before Seattle Judge James L. Robart became a household name Friday for blocking U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, he was well known to some B.C. criminals.

Over the last decade, Robart, of the U.S. District C0urt, has presided over the cases of several local residents caught in the U.S. for drug smuggling and other crimes.

Trump attacked Robart after the Republican-appointed judge ruled that Washington had standing to challenge Trump’s order and that the state “has met its burden in demonstrating immediate and irreparable injury.”

In December 2016, Robart sentenced B.C. grandmother Tina Howe to 80 months in jail after she pleaded guilty to smuggling tens of thousands of ecstasy pills into the U.S. in 2007.

She claimed she only drove the pills across the border to protect her son, who was indebted to B.C. drug traffickers.

Metro Vancouver woman Jasmin Klair told Robart at her 2012 sentencing hearing that she regretted that she had glamourized drug use and the money she got from trafficking.

He told her that the glamour would soon wear off when she was spending 21 months behind bars.

Klair, then 21, was caught months earlier with 11 kilograms of cocaine near Blaine’s Smuggler’s Inn after U.S. Homeland Security agents received a tip about possible smuggling activity in the area.

Her accomplices, Narinder Kaler and Gurjit Singh Sandhu, both 25, were intercepted by agents as they arrived at the inn later that day to collect the coke.They made a run for it, but were grabbed before they could cross back into Canada.

Robart sentenced Kaler to 4.5 years in jail and Sandhu to two years.

The year before, Robart called out B.C. gun smuggler Oliver King for his “pattern of lying” after he was caught with 21 firearms south of the border. King, who also went by the name Hamid Malekpour, was handed a six-years sentence.

In April 2010, Robart sentenced Langley’s Bradley Keith Bourque to a decade behind bars for smuggling ecstasy into Washington state.

Robart said that while Bouque had pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to distribute ecstasy, the hidden compartment in his pickup was proof that he had either made previous smuggling trips or planned others in the future.

And when the now famous judge sentenced cocaine conspirator Charles Lai to 13 years in June 2009, he said “if you are dealing with millions of dollars in drugs and guns, it often leads to violence.”

He also referenced Metro Vancouver’s gang war at the time, telling Lai that because of his incarceration, he would “not be dead in the next two years, which in what I have seen in Canadian drug dealing, is becoming more common.”

The Crown opened its case against accused United Nations gang killer Cory Vallee Monday. Most of the case will be admissions – including wiretaps and video surveillance. There will also be four former UN gangsters testifying against Vallee. Their identities are protected by a publication ban and they will only be known as Witnesses A, B, C and D.

You’ll recall that I covered a voir dire application in November and December in which Vallee’s lawyer was trying to get videotaped statements he made to undercover police after his August 2014 arrest thrown out. There is still no ruling on that application. 

Here’s my story on the Crown’s opening submissions:

Jamie Bacon (left) and Kevin LeClair in an undated photo.

Cory Vallee trial: Victim had quit UN gang to join Bacon brothers, prosecutor says

Before he was gunned down eight years ago Monday, Kevin LeClair had quit the United Nations to join the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion gang, a Crown prosecutor told B.C. Supreme Court on Monday.

David Jardine said in his opening submissions at the murder trial of Cory Vallee that LeClair was a target of the UN because he knew the gang’s secrets.

Jardine said two ex-UN members now co-operating with the Crown are expected to testify about how LeClair made it onto the gang’s hit list.

“I expect they will say that Kevin LeClair had been a member of the UN,” Jardine told Justice Janice Dillon. “He quit the UN and started associating himself with the Bacon brothers.”

That made LeClair “a higher risk for the UN gang … because he knew them, knew what they looked like and some of the residences or the addresses that they were associated with,” Jardine said. “So he accordingly was one of their targets.”

LeClair was fatally wounded in the parking lot of a Langley mall on Feb. 6, 2009.

Jardine said several UN gangsters were out hunting LeClair and the Bacon brothers in two vehicles that day.

“They spotted Mr. LeClair’s truck driving past them and they followed it. They followed it to the Thunderbird Village Mall where Mr. LeClair went into the Browns restaurant,” Jardine said. 

Bacon associate Kevin LeClair was shot to death on Feb. 6, 2009 in Langley. UN gangster Cory Vallee is charged with first-degree murder.

One of the UN men parked his car so he could see when LeClair left the restaurant. A van, containing one of the Crown witnesses, Vallee and a man named Jesse Adkins, was also in the mall parking lot.

“At 4 p.m., LeClair was seen exiting the restaurant and Adkins and Vallee then … exited the van and ran to shoot Mr. LeClair,” Jardine said. “You will hear witnesses this week describing two men shooting and murdering LeClair while he was trying to get away in his vehicle.”

He said the two murder weapons — a 9-millimetre and an AR-15 rapid-fire gun — were left in the parking lot.

Vallee is charged with the first-degree murder of LeClair, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers over several months in 2008 and ’09. He fled to Mexico, where police located him in August 2014 and sent him back to B.C.

Jardine also described the war between the UN and the Bacon brothers that escalated after the murder of popular UN member Duane Meyer on May 8, 2008 in Abbotsford.

“His death brought the conflict between the two groups to a head,” Jardine said.

Within 24 hours of Meyer’s murder, there were three retaliatory shootings in Burnaby by UN gangsters and associates, he said.

The violence culminated that day when stereo-installer Jonathan Barber was shot to death in the 7400-block Kingsway as he drove a vehicle belonging to one of the Bacon brothers.

Barber, who had no involvement in gang life, had met Jonathan Bacon in the parking lot of a nearby McDonald’s to pick up his Porsche Cayenne to install a new sound system.

His girlfriend was driving behind him when she was also wounded in the shooting.

Jardine said the Crown’s case would consist of admissions, audio and video surveillance, statements from witnesses at the scene of LeClair’s murder, as well as testimony from four former UN gangsters whose identities are shielded by a publication ban.

The judge-alone trial is expected to last several months at the Vancouver Law Courts building.

Already seven members and associates of the UN gang have been convicted of conspiracy to kill the Bacons. Two Calgary men are awaiting trial after being charged in the conspiracy a year ago.

And one-time UN leader Conor D’Monte is also facing murder and conspiracy charges in the case, but remains a fugitive after fleeing in 2011.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

I was back at the Cory Vallee murder trial Tuesday as Crown prosecutors read the admissions into the record that had already been agreed to by the defence. It was not the most gripping evidence – at least not until the afternoon.

That’s when prosecutors played eight clips from surveillance video inside the Brown’s Social House in the hour before Kevin LeClair was fatally shot (he died two days later in hospital.) It was very disturbing to watch LeClair with his friends, enjoying a final meal, completely oblivious to the fact that his killers were already waiting for him.

I felt sick as I watched him heading to the door of the restaurant, knowing what was about to happen. Vallee was watching the video too on a small screen in the prisoner’s box of courtroom 67.

Here’s my story:

Last hour before fatal gang shooting captured on eerie surveillance video

In gripping silent video footage of the last moments before Kevin LeClair was fatally shot, he sits with two friends at the bar of a Langley restaurant, eating, drinking and chatting.

LeClair, who was gunned down seconds after leaving Brown’s Social House on Feb. 6, 2009, first appears in the surveillance video just after 3 p.m. when he enters wearing a grey hoodie and wearing a man purse.

Prosecutors at the murder trial of accused United Nations gang killer Cory Vallee played the eerie footage Tuesday for B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon.

Eight clips from different camera angles in the restaurant show LeClair and his friends taking a seat to the right of a horseshoe-shaped bar, looking at menus and then ordering.

Two other hoodied men arrive who know one of LeClair’s companions. He waves at them as they sit down on the opposite side of the bar.

Nothing appears out of the ordinary as customers come and go and staff attend to the men’s needs.

At one point, LeClair’s friend walks over to talk to the latecomers on the other side of the bar.

Just after 4 p.m., LeClair and one of his friends get up to leave and walk out of the frame of the camera pointed at the bar.

Less than a minute later – presumably when the shots rang out – others at the bar jump up, look towards the door and hurry off-screen.

A second video angle of the same time period shows LeClair walking out the front door, as a Brown’s worker touches a computer screen behind the host’s counter.

Seconds later, that worker suddenly looks out the window and others in the restaurant rush over. All of them are peering to the right, but hovering close to the restaurant.

One of LeClair’s friends reappears in the bar video, asks the bartender for a shot and slams it down before leaving.

Kevin LeClair’s bullet-ridden truck after he was fatally shot at the Thunderbird Village Mall on Feb. 6, 2009.

Crown prosecutor David Jardine said earlier that LeClair’s pickup truck was sprayed by gunfire just after he left the restaurant. The truck ended up on the curb in front of the IGA grocery store in the Thunderbird Village mall just off 200th Street and Highway 1.   

The Crown alleges that Vallee was among several UN members hunting LeClair because he had left their gang and joined the rival Red Scorpion gang, teaming up with the notorious Bacon brothers.

Jardine said in opening submissions that Vallee and another UN gangster lay in wait for LeClair that day after seeing his truck turn into the mall.

Vallee is charged with first-degree murder, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacons and their associates over several months in 2008 and 2009.  

Cory Vallee is on trial for murder.

Vallee was charged in 2011, but hid in Mexico until police found him there in 2014.

Dillon was shown other video surveillance Tuesday taken from shops in the mall, as well as a nearby apartment building.

In one of the clips, two figures dressed in dark clothing can be seen running through the parking lot.

In other clips, two vehicles, like those the Crown alleges were used by the shooters, can be seen driving rapidly past the stores.

The judge-alone trial at the Vancouver Law Courts is expected to last until June.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

A man recalled Wednesday how he and others in a Langley grocery store eight years ago “hit the ground” when they heard the gunshots that killed gangster Kevin LeClair.

Jan Kristensen testified that he had briefly met LeClair for the first time minutes earlier at the Browns Socialhouse, just before Kristensen went over to the nearby IGA to get cash from the bank machine.

“I could just hear everybody in the IGA screaming and saying `get down, those are gunshots.’ I could hear the gunshots so my automatic reaction, like everyone else, was to hit the ground,” Kristensen told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon.

Kristensen was the first non-police witness at the murder trial of accused United Nations gang killer Cory Vallee.

Vallee is charged with the first-degree murder of LeClair on Feb. 6, 2009, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion associates over several months in 2008 and 2009.

Cory Vallee in photos issued by police in 2011

Kristensen testified that he and a colleague had gone to Browns for a Friday afternoon drink after their workweek.

He said another patron they knew only as “Johnny” waved at them as they entered to take seats at the bar.

As Kristensen went over to say hello to Johnny, he also shook hands with Johnny’s two friends, one of whom was LeClair.

Kristensen said he went outside briefly to answer his phone as Johnny also went out to smoke.

At that point Johnny made some comment that LeClair “had something to do with some of the Bacon brothers,” Kristensen said.  

Jamie Bacon (left) and Kevin LeClair in an undated photo.

He agreed with prosecutor Marko Vojvodic that the Bacon comment made him uneasy and he decided to go get his friend and leave.

“I just said I think it’s time for us to get going. I am going to go get money,” Kristensen said.

He said he remembered hearing four or five shots in rapid succession but couldn’t see the shooting from where the bank machine was located inside the IGA.

His friend came into the grocery store and called out to him.

“I just told him I was there … I had gotten up. And we just decided to leave.”

Outside the IGA door, he saw LeClair’s grey truck up on the curb, revving high, he testified.

He went over and peered into the driver’s side.

“I remember seeing the person in the truck twitching with blood on his face,” he said.

He and his friend went back to Browns to pay their bill and they left.

Kristensen identified himself, his friend and Johnny in surveillance video from inside Browns that day.

He also said of LeClair, dressed in a grey hoodie in the video: “The guy on the left, that’s the fellow that was in the truck.”  

Related

• Cory Vallee trial: Victim had quit UN gang to join Bacon brothers, alleges Crown prosecutor
• Accused UN killer brought up friendship with Clay Roueche, Crown says

Earlier Wednesday, RCMP Sgt. Joel Glen testified about seizing two firearms – an AR-15 rifle and a Sig Sauer 9 mm pistol – from the parking lot outside the IGA after the shooting.

Glen removed both firearms from paper evidence bags and showed them to the judge, along with two magazines and live rounds he said were also found at the crime scene.

The judge-alone trial is expected to continues until June the Vancouver Law Courts.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

A Langley man who was inside Browns Socialhouse right before Kevin LeClair was gunned down testified at the murder trial of Cory Vallee Wednesday.

Jan Kristensen and his friend were just having a Friday afternoon beer at the end of their workweek when things took a deadly turn.

Even eight years after the fact, Kristensen had a clear memory of that day. Others that were in the bar at the same time as LeClair are expected to testify Thursday. 

Here’s my latest story:

Witness ‘hit the ground’ when shots rang out in gang murder, trial hears

A man recalled Wednesday how he and others in a Langley grocery store eight years ago “hit the ground” when they heard the gunshots that killed gangster Kevin LeClair.

Jan Kristensen testified that he had briefly met LeClair for the first time minutes earlier at the Browns Socialhouse, just before Kristensen went over to the nearby IGA to get cash from the bank machine.

“I could just hear everybody in the IGA screaming and saying `get down, those are gunshots.’ I could hear the gunshots so my automatic reaction, like everyone else, was to hit the ground,” Kristensen told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon.

Kristensen was the first non-police witness at the murder trial of accused United Nations gang killer Cory Vallee.

Vallee is charged with the first-degree murder of LeClair on Feb. 6, 2009, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion associates over several months in 2008 and 2009.

Kristensen testified that he and a colleague had gone to Browns for a Friday afternoon drink after their workweek.

He said another patron they knew only as “Johnny” waved at them as they entered to take seats at the bar.

As Kristensen went over to say hello to Johnny, he also shook hands with Johnny’s two friends, one of whom was LeClair.

Kristensen said he went outside briefly to answer his phone as Johnny also went out to smoke.

At that point Johnny made some comment that LeClair “had something to do with some of the Bacon brothers,” Kristensen said.  

He agreed with prosecutor Marko Vojvodic that the Bacon comment made him uneasy and he decided to go get his friend and leave.

“I just said I think it’s time for us to get going. I am going to go get money,” Kristensen said.

He said he remembered hearing four or five shots in rapid succession but couldn’t see the shooting from where the bank machine was located inside the IGA.

His friend came into the grocery store and called out to him.

“I just told him I was there … I had gotten up. And we just decided to leave.”

Outside the IGA door, he saw LeClair’s grey truck up on the curb, revving high, he testified.

He went over and peered into the driver’s side.

“I remember seeing the person in the truck twitching with blood on his face,” he said.

He and his friend went back to Browns to pay their bill and they left.

Kristensen identified himself, his friend and Johnny in surveillance video from inside Browns that day.

He also said of LeClair, dressed in a grey hoodie in the video: “The guy on the left, that’s the fellow that was in the truck.”

Earlier Wednesday, RCMP Sgt. Joel Glen testified about seizing two firearms – an AR-15 rifle and a Sig Sauer 9 mm pistol – from the parking lot outside the IGA after the shooting.

Glen removed both firearms from paper evidence bags and showed them to the judge, along with two magazines and live rounds he said were also found at the crime scene.

The judge-alone trial is expected to continues until June the Vancouver Law Courts.

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A Penticton woman who says she had no choice but to drive drunk to escape her violent boyfriend has been convicted of impaired driving.

Shannon McMichael admitted she was both over the legal limit and driving while prohibited on July 31, 2015, after leaving her boyfriend’s apartment.

But she said she had only driven because her drunken boyfriend had turned violent and she feared for her safety.

Her lawyer Don Skogstad told Provincial Court Judge Gregory Koturbash that the “defence of necessity” should apply in McMichael’s case, meaning her criminal actions were justified in the circumstances.

“Necessity is recognized as a defence when breaking the law is in a sense involuntary; that is, in cases where an accused had no real choice but to break the law,” Koturbash said in a recent ruling.

He said in order for the defence to apply, the person must be in imminent danger and “have had no reasonable legal alternative to the course of action he or she undertook.”

That wasn’t the case for McMichael, Koturbash said.

He noted that McMichael arrived at her boyfriend’s apartment around 9 p.m. to find him drunk and verbally abusing her.

“Ms. McMichael had been in an abusive relationship in the past, but had never seen this side of her then current boyfriend. She described him as ‘outrageous’ and ‘wasted’,” the judge noted.

“He grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her onto the ground. A neighbour asked if she was OK and she said no. The neighbour called police.”

An officer arrived, saw that McMichael had been drinking and told her to leave. She called a friend who lived nearby and left, without taking her bag or computer.

Less than an hour later, she returned to her boyfriend’s place to get her stuff. Things escalated again and McMichael said he “pushed her against the wall” before she managed to get free and run to her car parked outside the apartment.

But Koturbash said that if McMichael had been really afraid of her boyfriend, she wouldn’t have gone back to his place a second time that night.

“I do not accept that Ms. McMichael was truly afraid of her boyfriend. Her actions of returning to the apartment are inconsistent with that fear,” he said.

And, he said, she had been “chatty and engaging” with the Mountie who responded earlier in the evening, “never once mentioning anything about being assaulted or fleeing from her boyfriend.”

“Although she would like me to believe she omitted telling the officer this because she still cared for her boyfriend and did not want to get him into trouble, I do not accept her explanation,” he said.

“Even if I had a reasonable doubt about this, which I do not, she created the situation she found herself in.”

He convicted her on three charges.

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read the full ruling

Inderjit Reyat is the only man ever convicted in Canada’s deadliest terrorist attack. And despite lying at the trial of his two co-accused and aiding in their acquittal, the Parole Board of Canada has decided Reyat no longer needs to stay in a halfway house and can move home with his family.

I have written hundreds of news stories (and a book!) about the Air India bombing over the last 31 years and eight months. Still every time I do, I hear from victims of the families still devastated by their loss and the fact that they have never received real justice.

Here’s what B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan said in 2011 when he sentenced Reyat for perjury:

“When it came time for Mr. Reyat to fulfill his obligation to testify, however, he behaved nothing like a remorseful man unwittingly implicated in mass murder. In the witness box Mr. Reyat behaved like a man still committed to a cause which treated hundreds of men, women and children expendable.”

It’s too bad that Reyat won’t finally tell the truth aboutthe worst killers our country has ever seen.

Here’s my latest story:

The only man convicted in the 1985 Air India bombing no longer has to stay in a halfway house and can now live at his family home, the Parole Board of Canada has ruled.

Inderjit Singh Reyat was released from prison a year ago, after completing two-thirds of his perjury sentence for lying at the trial of two co-accused who were later acquitted in the deadly terrorist attack.

At the time, the Parole Board of Canada imposed special conditions on Reyat, including that he must live in the halfway house in an unnamed B.C. community.

But on Jan. 27, board member Laura Hall removed that special condition after getting a recommendation from Correctional Service Canada.

She said Reyat has been abiding by all of his special conditions over the last year.

“There has been no evidence of communication with any negative associates who may hold extremist views or be involved in political activity,” Hall said in her decision. “There is no evidence that you continue to associate with your co-accused and you have indicated that you have no desire to establish contact. You now express strong views against violence. You spend time at your family home.”

Reyat’s risk to reoffend is now low, she said.

“However if there were a threat to your Sikh cause, your risk for future based group violence is high. There is no information that indicates your political cause is under threat,” Hall said.

Before Reyat’s perjury conviction, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the June 23, 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182, which killed all 329 aboard. He was sentenced to five years.

But when he was called as a Crown witness against co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, Reyat lied repeatedly, leading to his perjury charge in 2006, the year after both men were acquitted.

Ripudaman Singh Malik, circa 2001. One of the co-accused in the 1985 Air India bombing, he was acquitted in 2005.

In her parole decision, Hall also noted that Reyat was so loyal to Malik and Bagri “that you were willing to lie for them in court.”

“As a result of your committing perjury, the co-accused were not convicted of any criminal offences,” she said.

Anil Singh Hanse, an Australian whose father Narendra piloted the ill-fated flight, said he was disturbed by the news that Reyat would be free to live at home.

“I just feel like I have been kicked in the head once more by Canada and the system,” Hanse said in an e-mail. “This is a positive message for anyone wanting or plotting to do any untoward attacks. Crazy, I tell you —just crazy.”

Reyat was also found guilty of manslaughter in an earlier trial for building the bomb that exploded the same day at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, resulting in the deaths of two baggage handlers. He got a 10-year sentence.

The two bombings were plotted by B.C. Sikh separatists who targeted India’s national airline to retaliate for the Indian Army’s raid a year earlier on the Golden Temple – Sikhism’s holiest shrine — in Amritsar.

The mastermind in the plot, Babbar Khalsa leader Talwinder Parmer, was tortured and killed by Indian police in 1992 after he fled B.C.

Bombing suspect Talwinder Parmar called a martyr at Surrey temple

While Reyat will now be able to live at home, other special conditions remain in place until the end of his sentence in August 2018.

He is not allowed to participate in political activities for any organization, can’t contact his victims’ families and must stay away from criminals, extremist propaganda and anything that could be used to build an explosive device.

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Read the Judge’s reasons for sentencing Reyat in 2011

Before he was arrested on Nov. 1, 2012 in a massive Quebec drug smuggling case, Shane Maloney was looking to buy real estate here in Metro Vancouver. Anti-gang police were concerned that the former B.C. gangster appeared to be settling out here on the coast despite having lived in Montreal for years where he was in the infamous Irish West End gang.

Maloney pleaded guilty Tuesday to a number of charges, including firearms trafficking, cocaine trafficking and working for a criminal organization.

His co-accused – Larry Amero and Rabih Alkhalil – are yet to go to trial.

Here’s my story:

A B.C. gangster linked to one of the biggest arms seizures in Canadian history has pleaded guilty in Montreal to a series of drug, explosives and firearms charges.

Prosecutors said Shane “Wheels” Maloney controlled the massive weapons cache, which contained 1,475 sticks of dynamite, two pounds of C-4 explosives, remote controls for the explosives, detonators and hundreds of firearms and prohibited gun parts.

Police found the cache during raids in October 2012 as part of Project Loquace, a lengthy investigation by the Sûreté du Québec into an international drug ring importing up to 75 kilograms of cocaine per week through links to Mexican and South American cartels.

Jean Pascal Boucher, spokesman for the director of criminal prosecutions, confirmed Wednesday that Maloney pleaded guilty to trafficking 25 kg of cocaine, committing his offences for the benefit of a criminal organization, possessing explosives and three firearms charges including possession of a gun for the purpose of illegally transferring it.

Several other charges against Maloney were dropped as part of his plea deal, and he dropped his application to have his charges stayed due to court delays in the case.

The defence and prosecution are making a joint submission for a 10-year sentence minus the time Maloney has been in pre-trial custody. Maloney’s sentencing is set for March 15.

The 39-year-old was splitting his time between Vancouver and Montreal prior to his arrest on Nov. 1, 2012, along with B.C. gangsters Larry Amero, a Hells Angel, and Rabih Alkhalil, who is also charged in the Vancouver murder of rival Sandip Duhre.

Maloney, who has been in a wheelchair since a motorcycle accident 15 years ago, had filed a lawsuit against the Province of Quebec, alleging that as a paraplegic he was being discriminated against while in pre-trial custody. A judge last year ruled against the discrimination claim, but did order jail officials to review his security classification every 45 days.

Maloney is tied to the infamous Irish West End Gang in Montreal.    

More than 100 people were arrested as part of the Loquace investigation, but police in both Quebec and B.C. said at the time that Maloney, Amero and Alkhalil were kingpins of the drug operation. They said the cocaine conspiracy was hatched in B.C., then moved to Quebec.

Amero remains in jail in Quebec and is set to go to trial in July. Alkhalil’s trial is scheduled to start in January 2018. Both have also filed applications to have their cases thrown out due to the delay in getting to trial.

Amero was a leading figure in the Hells Angels White Rock chapter before joining the breakaway West Point group.  

Larry Amero

He moved to Montreal after an assassination attempt in Kelowna in August 2011 left him seriously wounded and Jonathan Bacon, his Red Scorpions friend, dead. 

Alkhalil grew up in Metro Vancouver, but moved with his family to Ottawa after two of his brothers were murdered here.

He was arrested on his Loquace charges in Greece and later extradited to Canada. He is also awaiting trial in Ontario for the targeted murder of Johnnie Raposo in Toronto’s Little Italy in June 2012.

Amero and his associates were identified as being part of a B.C. gang alliance dubbed the Wolf Pack, which was locked in a bloody conflict with rivals from what police dubbed the Dhak-Duhre group.

 

kbolan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/kbolan

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

A B.C. gangster linked to one of the biggest arms seizures in Canadian history has pleaded guilty in Montreal to a series of drug, explosives and firearms charges.

Prosecutors said Shane “Wheels” Maloney controlled the massive weapons cache, which contained 1,475 sticks of dynamite, two pounds of C-4 explosives, remote controls for the explosives, detonators and hundreds of firearms and prohibited gun parts.

Police found the cache during raids in October 2012 as part of Project Loquace, a lengthy investigation by the Sûreté du Québec into an international drug ring importing up to 75 kilograms of cocaine per week through links to Mexican and South American cartels.

Jean Pascal Boucher, spokesman for the director of criminal prosecutions, confirmed Wednesday that Maloney pleaded guilty to trafficking 25 kg of cocaine, committing his offences for the benefit of a criminal organization, possessing explosives and three firearms charges including possession of a gun for the purpose of illegally transferring it.

Several other charges against Maloney were dropped as part of his plea deal, and he dropped his application to have his charges stayed due to court delays in the case.

The defence and prosecution are making a joint submission for a 10-year sentence minus the time Maloney has been in pre-trial custody. Maloney’s sentencing is set for March 15.

Larry Amero

The 39-year-old was splitting his time between Vancouver and Montreal prior to his arrest on Nov. 1, 2012, along with B.C. gangsters Larry Amero, a Hells Angel, and Rabih Alkhalil, who is also charged in the Vancouver murder of rival Sandip Duhre.

Maloney, who has been in a wheelchair since a motorcycle accident 15 years ago, had filed a lawsuit against the Province of Quebec, alleging that as a paraplegic he was being discriminated against while in pre-trial custody. A judge last year ruled against the discrimination claim, but did order jail officials to review his security classification every 45 days.

Maloney is tied to the infamous Irish West End Gang in Montreal.

More than 100 people were arrested as part of the Loquace investigation, but police in both Quebec and B.C. said at the time that Maloney, Amero and Alkhalil were kingpins of the drug operation. They said the cocaine conspiracy was hatched in B.C., then moved to Quebec.

Rabih Alkhalil

Amero remains in jail in Quebec and is set to go to trial in July. Alkhalil’s trial is scheduled to start in January 2018. Both have also filed applications to have their cases thrown out due to the delay in getting to trial.

Amero was a leading figure in the Hells Angels White Rock chapter before joining the breakaway West Point group.

He moved to Montreal after an assassination attempt in Kelowna in August 2011 left him seriously wounded and Jonathan Bacon, his Red Scorpions friend, dead. 

Alkhalil grew up in Metro Vancouver, but moved with his family to Ottawa after two of his brothers were murdered here.

He was arrested on his Loquace charges in Greece and later extradited to Canada. He is also awaiting trial in Ontario for the targeted murder of Johnnie Raposo in Toronto’s Little Italy in June 2012.

Amero and his associates were identified as being part of a B.C. gang alliance dubbed the Wolf Pack, which was locked in a bloody conflict with rivals from what police dubbed the Dhak-Duhre group.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

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Abbotsford Police responded to a shots fired call Monday morning and found a young man fatally wounded. And minutes later they took three men into custody.

Const. Ian MacDonald said the shooting happened about 9:40 a.m. in the 30500-block of Steelhead Court.

“APD Patrol Division officers attended the scene and located an injured male in his mid-20’s who was suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Unfortunately, the victim was pronounced dead at scene prior to transport to the hospital,” MacDonald said in a news release.

“An APD officer observed a suspect vehicle fleeing the area at a high rate of speed. That officer followed the suspect vehicle and attempted to pull it over on Highway 11 and eventually into Mission. The suspect vehicle was disabled with the use of a spike belt and the assistance of the Mission RCMP. Three male suspects have been taken into custody.”

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has been called in and has tweeted out that they won’t have an update today.

Anyone with information is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448.

Meanwhile Vancouver Police is also investigating a shooting overnight.

Const. Jason Doucette said officers were called to the area of Killarney Street and Euclid Avenue just after 11 p.m. Sunday where they found a 22-year-old Burnaby man on the street suffering from gunshot wounds.

“He remains in hospital in serious, but stable condition,” Doucette said.

“Investigators from VPD’s Major Crime Section have taken over the investigation. This incident appears to be targeted, and no arrests have been made yet,” he said.

Anyone with information about the Vancouver shooting is asked to contact detectives at 604-717-2541.

It must have been quite a scene on Burnaby’s Kensington overpass almost nine years ago.

A black sports car, like the new Jaguar at the time, or a Maserati, had a guy on foot run up to it and start shooting a black gun. A trucker who witnessed the whole thing recalled what he saw that day at the murder trial of Cory Vallee. 

The Crown has said the car was in fact a Maserati being driven by Red Scorpion Michael Le who was being targeted by UN gangsters seeking revenge for the murder the day before of their gang brother Duane Meyer. The car was found a few months later in the parkade of a building associated to Le. It had been shot up.

Another big development in the case is that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon ruled against allowing into evidence the conversations Vallee had with undercover officers after his August 2014 arrest. She said his Charter rights were violated by the police tactics.

Here’s my story: