Spotlight on Prince George

One of the peanuts from the peanut gallery has repeatedly objected to my "obsession" with the Hells Angels. Well let's stop for a minute and look at the facts that we have on hand. Let's take a look at Prince George. We are told that no one sells drugs in Prince George without the Hells Angels permission.

The Hells Angels have a puppet club in Prince George called the Renegades. The Renegades were in turn in charge of the Crew who sold crack for the Hells Angels just like the Zig Zag crew did.

Only after the Crew started getting some bad press for cutting off fingers for drug debts many members of the crew crossed over to join the Independent Soldiers. Who as we know are not independent any more and are tied to Randy Naicker and Larry Amero of the Hells Angels. So in essence the crew crossing over to the Independent Soldiers was just a publicity stunt as the Hells Angles were still ultimately in charge.

It should then come as no surprise that the Crew, acting under the banner of the Independent Soldiers, have maintained their ruthless debt collecting tactics of hacking off fingers for drug debts. Yet their "rivals," the Game Tight Soldiers are also tied to the Hells Angels. Steven King, the leader of the Game Tight Soldiers was seen wearing a Renegades rocker riding with a Renegades patch member. So clearly the Hells Angels are tied to both groups and still run the drug trade in Prince George.

So when we hear of people dying in Prince George over drugs or getting their fingers cut off for drug debts or found chained in the basement of a crack house in Prince George getting tortured for drugs debts, clearly the Hells Angels are ultimately responsible and financially benefit from it.

That leads us to the nest question. If the Hells Angels run the drug trade in Prince George and are ultimately responsible for the drug related violence there, what about Dawson creek?

That's close to Prince George and we have been hearing sad tales of drug related violence there from people who claimed the Hells Angels were involved. Since the Hells Angels run the drug trade in Prince George logic would dictate they would be prime suspects for the drug trade in Dawson creek and the drug related violence there.

Then we have to ask, if the Hells Angels control the drug trade in Prince George and quite possibly Dawson creek as well, where else to they do business? We know the East Vancouver chapter are actively involved in Kelowna as that appears to be their retirement village. What about Ontario. We know the Hells Angels in Ontario were primarily involved in the drug trade. In fact their business was a violent bid to take over the drug trade in smaller towns once they were established in the larger cities.

Here's the obvious one. If the Hells Angels control the drug trade in Prince George and if the East Vancouver chapter has expanded into Kelowna, what about East Vancouver? Who runs the drug trade in East Van? If the Hells Angels are so determined to violently take over the drug trade in smaller towns, how can the East Vancouver chapter not control the drug trade in East Vancouver?

Perhaps some of the residents of Prince George will be empowered by the Gang task force's presence and their upcoming Gang Summit. Perhaps Dawson Creek will be the next stop on the tour. Hopefully some more tips start coming in so the cause of the violence can be dealt with.

By kaniamazdar with No comments

Jim Chu saves the day

We all know the police have taken a few PR shots over the last few years. The most obvious one was the RCMP taser incident at the airport. What a tragedy. Obviously it was a mistake. Personally I have a problem with police getting a guy on the ground then tasering him over and over again while they already have him down. I would deem that to be a miss use of the weapon.

Nevertheless, we know the VPD have taken a few hits as well. Beating up the wrong guy when they responded to a domestic dispute comes to mind. The young cop that was caught selling pot on duty is another yet the RCMP just caught one of theirs for possession of pot. For me the cop pushing the disabled woman to the ground was the real shocker.

So here we have Jim Chu front and centre problem solving like he does so well. In response to the provincial government's proposed model for an Independent Investigation Office he has called for a greater role by a civilian body to investigate alleged crimes by police. I agree. Any appointed body is met with cynicism. Especially the new appointment to the RCMP. I think an increased role of a civilian body would be a healthy balance and help restore or build public trust.

By kaniamazdar with No comments

No right to lawyer during interrogation

I'm going to have to process this one but it's another example of the courts interpreting the charter of rights instead of the people. The court specifically noted Canadians do not have the same rights as Americans do during interrogations.

They claim the charter right to speak with a lawyer upon arrest doesn't mean the lawyer has to be present during the entire interrogation which is sometimes a very long process. I'm not sure what my position on the matter is off hand other than the observation that it means people have more rights in America than in Canada which I'm not sure I'm comfortable with.

I guess that's why the Americans torture people on foreign soil. I guess that means Canada won't have to send people to Afghanistan or Sudan to be tortured. Now they can do it right here. Hey maybe they'll move Guantanamo Bay to Canada.

By kaniamazdar with No comments

275 Kg Cocaine Seized in Vancouver

Police seized 275 kilograms of cocaine in a recent Vancouver drug bust. Well that's more than the 9 kilograms of cocaine seized from David Giles and his associates Revell and Rempel. It's also more than the 52 kilograms of cocaine seized from Glen Hehn and his associates Ewan Lilford.

But it wasn't as much as the 2 1/2 tons of Hells Angels cocaine seized. No charges were laid in that case thanks to Richard Barszczewski.

And it wasn't as much as the ton of cocaine seized in Port Hardy. Interesting that the really large cocaine busts are never tied to a criminal organization. Much.

By kaniamazdar with No comments

Another Haney Hells Angel dead

Jose Gonzalez was a member of the Haney Hells Angels. On June 22, 1999, charges of extortion against East End member John Virgil Punko and Haney member Jose Gonzalez were dropped by the Crown after its key witness - the owner of a Richmond seafood company - refused to return from his native Japan to testify.

Gonzalez... that's a name found in El Salvador and in Honduras... In fact, that's the same last name as a guy who was charged in that recent large cocaine bust in Vancouver - Eduardo Gonzalez. No relation of course.

Well all of a sudden Jose's dead. He died a sudden death on October 1 2010. Some say it was a suicide. Others are skeptical. He's not the first Haney Hells Angel to have died a sudden death.

Ernie Ozolins, who had just left the Haney Hells Angels, was gunned down on June 2, 1997, along with girlfriend Lisa Chamberlain at Ozolins' s West Vancouver house. The murder remains unsolved.

Rick (Blackie) Burgess, Haney Hells Angel, vanished on Jan. 7, 2002. He was declared legally dead in 2004, but his disappearance has not been solved.

Ross Douglas McLellan, 59, a key member of the Hells Angels chapter in Haney, "died of natural causes" on an airline flight to Maui in December of 2006.

April 2007 Haney Hells Angel Vincenzo James Sanssalone of Maple Ridge was caught with 600 litres of GHB Date Rape Drug. Mark Figuereo, a Hells angels associate in Ontario was sentenced to 6 years in prison for selling date rape drug for the Hells Angels.

By kaniamazdar with No comments

Ashley Machiskinic's murder

Wow. Ashley Machiskinic fell to her death from a hotel room in East Vancouver on September 15 2010. Friends, relatives and advocates are calling it a murder. They claim she was pushed out the window by drug dealers to send a message to other addicts who don't pay their debts.

She landed on her back which is suspicious. One witness claims the person threw her shoes out the window after she fell which would also imply she was thrown out.

A vigil was held for her yesterday and a few protesters occupied the VPD office and wouldn't leave because the police claimed it was a suicide and weren't investigating the case further like the Pickton murders. The protesters were arrested for trespassing.

Obviously people are upset. For good reason. Finally women's groups and First Nation groups are rallying together and speaking out. "Women get their heads shaved for a $30 drug debt, they're killed for $50," said Carol Martin of the Downtown East side Women's Centre. Gee what does VANDU say about that?

That sounds an awful lot like what's happening in Prince George where people will have fingers cut off for a drug debt and have been found chained in the basement of crack houses tortured for drug debts. The article claims that Honduran and Salvadoran dealers, doing a brisk trade Thursday just after "welfare Wednesday," boast of profits as high as $15,000 a month. Their collection methods, if they front a woman drugs that she uses or loses, can be brutal. However, we have learned that in Prince George it's not the Honduran and Salvadoran dealers that are doing the same thing. It's someone else.

"There's been a few women lately thrown out of windows, at the Balmoral, the Regent, women missing fingers, wearing wigs because their heads have been shaved," said Gladys Radek, organizer of the annual Walk 4 Justice in support of missing and murdered women in Vancouver and along the Highway of Tears.

Obviously the police can't do much if people are too afraid to testify. Yet closing the file and saying it was a suicide would be premature at this point. It clearly looks like Vancouver is having similar problems as Prince George with ruthless drug dealers and the suppliers of the two cities may well be connected. Let's face it we all know who supplies the crack for East Van.

Maurice Boucher made Gregory Wooley a member of the Rockers and used him to supply cocaine to the Syndicate or the Crips in Montreal on behalf of the Hells Angels.

Growing public outcry for the mistreatment of addicts is a good thing. The response of the New York model would be to stop letting them sell crack in public at Main and Hastings at the Carnage centre. That would be the first step. Getting people to provide more information to the police as to what's really going on would be another. Arrest the dealers not the addicts.



DTES activist knows of six women thrown out windows over drug debts in East Vancouver over the last two years.

This new article admits that "MacDougall said she doesn't know who killed Machiskinic, but people in the DTES are afraid to tell police investigating her death what they know." So common sense says that if people are afraid to tell police what they know, then we can't blame the police for not making an arrest.

Activists wanting to speak with Jim Chu is a good thing but we need to be leery of activists who just want to fight with the police for any reason they can find. The police aren't perfect but we can't blame them for everything either. We need to start reporting what these drug dealers are doing so arrests can be made. Reporting an abusive drug dealer to the police is not being a rat.

By kaniamazdar with No comments

Jammin 4 Jay

Speaking of speeding and reckless driving, I met a guy with a wrecked car. He was speaking out against speeding. The car he had with him was totalled. The front end and the driver side was mangled. The driver had died in the accident. It was his son.

He has a fascinating story to tell. His son was speeding, lost control of his car on a hidden turn, scraped a pole then hit a tree. He was trapped in the car for quite some time before rescue workers were able to get him out. The father arrived at the scene and spoke with his son while they were trying to free him from the vehicle. He waited with his son at the hospital where he was bumped for emergency surgery because they wouldn't send a second anaesthesiologist and died waiting.

It is a powerful and tragic story. The father tours and speaks to high school students about the dangers of speeding. At the hospital the father asked his son if he had learned his lesson about speeding. His son said yes. He asked his son if he would come with him to speak to youth about the dangers of speeding and he said as soon as you wheel me out the front door I'll do it. Unfortunately, they wheeled him out the back door because he was dead. So the father has his sons ashes in the car when he speaks about the event. Very powerful. His sons runners are still trapped in the drivers compartment because they were unable to get them out.

Relating this to our recent event of reckless driving I'd have to say that there's a big difference between opening a motorcycle up on the freeway in a straightaway away from traffic and weaving in and out of traffic in a construction zone. The latter is just plain irresponsible because it puts others at risk. It's the kind of thing a young kid would do not a grown man. It doesn't display the wisdom and maturity of a seasoned biker. The other biker who lost his life and the life of his passenger last Saturday because he was glaring at a kid who didn't see him was also tragic. Those kinds of losses are senseless. It's not the kind of thing a grown man would brag about.

Anyways the father has a web site called Jammin4Jay and is well worth visiting. He's a powerful speaker and has an excellent presentation for schools and youth.

By kaniamazdar with No comments