Thursday, January 19, 2017

B.C. Hells Angels lose bid to toss convictions due to trial delay

In September, Hells Angels David Giles and Bryan Oldham and their associates, Shawn Womacks and James Howard, were found guilty of conspiring to import and traffic cocaine following an elaborate RCMP sting operation.

They applied to have a judicial stay of proceedings on the grounds that an unreasonable delay in their case had violated their rights. They had been charged in August 2012 and were convicted more than 49 months later.

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 500 kilos of 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. 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.

Damiano Dipopolo
"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.

The judge found that the Crown had responded promptly to all requests for disclosure and added that the defence applications were not frivolous or done to create delays.
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
Giles, who was convicted of one count of conspiracy to import cocaine, one count of conspiracy to traffic and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking, will be sentenced March 2-3. Oldham and Womacks, both found guilty of one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking, will be sentenced in March. Howard, who was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to traffic and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking, will be sentenced in January.

Kevin Van Kalkeren pleaded guilty and received 16 years in May.