Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Port Metro Vancouver cuts Police

A specialized police unit that investigates crime on the waterfront will be cut by almost a third after Port Metro Vancouver axed $400,000 a year of its funding. The cut takes effect Jan. 1, meaning the RCMP-led National Port Enforcement Team will be reduced from 13 to nine officers.

The funding cut comes just months after a Vancouver Sun investigation revealed that at least 27 Hells Angels, associates, criminals and other gangsters work as longshoremen on the Port Metro Vancouver docks. Police documents show an unaddressed organized-crime problem on the waterfront dating back more than 20 years.

Damiano Dipopolo
Police told the Sun that organized crime maintains its foothold on the waterfront for strategic purposes — so drugs and other contraband can be smuggled in some of the more than 1.5 million containers that pass through the four container terminals at Port Metro Vancouver every year.

Just over three per cent of the containers arriving are screened by the Canada Border Services Agency.
The Sun identified at least six full-patch Hells Angels who are active members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Some have worked on the docks for years, like Al DeBruyn, a senior White Rock Hells Angel who started in 1981.

Other Hells Angels joined the longshoremen more recently. Rob Alvarez of the Nomads chapter and Damiano Dipopolo started on May 24, 2012. West Point Hells Angel Ryan Sept started just last year, nominated by another full-patch member of his chapter.
The Sun documented 27 active longshoremen with gang or criminal links from various sources of information, including public records and union membership lists. That number doesn’t include the “inactive” members of the union who are also Hells Angels — East End President John Bryce, Nomads Angel Gino Zumpano, Haney member Vince Brienza, West Point member Larry Amero and former Vancouver president Norm Krogstad.

http://www.vancouversun.com/port+metro+vancouver+cuts+police+funding/11577935/story.html?__lsa=0f46-6feeSee ----->http://neer-do-well-hall-of-infamey.blogspot.ca/2015/09/the-road-to-hell-how-biker-gangs-are.html
See ----->http://neer-do-well-hall-of-infamey.blogspot.ca/2015/07/hells-angel-damiano-di-popolo-sues.html