 | A B.C. Supreme Court justice has convicted a senior member of the Hells Angels of conspiring to import and traffic cocaine following an elaborate RCMP sting operation. David Giles was one of five men on trial in Vancouver in connection with a 2012 undercover operation which saw investigators posing as organized criminals in meetings from Vancouver to Panama City. Video and audio recordings made by the police during the investigation proved Giles and his associate Kevin Van Kalkeren agreed to pay the undercover cops millions for the cocaine. |  |
 | Two other men were acquitted of conspiracy to import and conspiracy to traffic cocaine, including full patch Hells Angel Bryan Oldham. Oldham was found guilty of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. According to the ruling, Oldham showed off a Hells Angel tattoo at one of the meetings with an undercover officer, as a means of proving that he was a member of the biker gang. |  |
 | "Mr. Giles said he had had three very long meetings and approached a number of brothers to bring them to the table. They were not comfortable coming to the table, because of Canadian laws concerning conspiracy and organized crime," the ruling says. That refers to Kelowna chapter president Damiano Dipopolo. Giles and the others who were found guilty will be sentenced at a later date. |  |
 | In 2008 following an earlier undercover police investigation code-named E-Pandora, Giles was a “high priority” for the RCMP and remains a suspect in the 2001 seizure of a two-tonne shipment of cocaine headed to B.C. aboard a vessel named the Western Wind, which was intercepted by authorities in Washington state. No one was ever charged in that case. |  John “Phil” Stirling |
