Kelowna Corner
Kelowna has had such a huge increase in gang related violence I've decided to create this Kelowna Corner to keep track of some of it. It will no doubt be a work in progress. Kelowna is a beautiful place. The most recent gang shooting where Jonathon Bacon was killed and a girl was paralyzed has the community reeling in shock. The Mayor has made a plea for assistance with their gang problems and the province has promised to extend funding for the Gang Task Force. Despite the fact that Stephen Harper has cut funding for the RCMP and the Gang Task Force after he was given his coveted majority.
Despite the fact that Kelowna is a beautiful place filled with vineyards and lakeshore beaches, the Kelowna Cysts have turned parts of Kelowna into a cease pool and it is all because of crack and crystal meth. Vernon is a beautiful place too. Yet a gang calling themselves the Greeks turned parts of Vernon into the same unsightly cease pool with the help and support of the Hells Angels. Prince George and Dawson Creek have met with similar fates all because of the Hells angels violent bid to take over and promote the drug trade there. Kelowna is the Hells Angels retirement village where they like to enjoy the good life living off the cruel violence of the crack trade.
BC isn't the best place on earth but it is still Beautiful. There are still more good people than bad people living here. We can't do everything but we can do something. As we discuss solutions to the violent crime we face let's take a look at the facts we are aware of.
David Giles was caught on a police wire setting up a Hells Angels Chapter in Kelowna. David Giles is from Halifax and is part of the East Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels which was on a recent documentary coinciding with Neal Halls new book, Hell to Pay.
Another wire was played in court where David Giles admitted that Rempel made him $30,000.00 in the last few months after some cocaine went missing in a Kelowna storage locker which was seized by police. Giles' lawyer argued that only proved Rempel and Giles were in business together. It didn't prove Giles was involved with cocaine trafficking. Revel and Rempel were found guilty of cocaine trafficking but David Giles walked.
A large Hells Angels meth lab was busted in Kelowna that supplied surrounding areas with crystal meth.
The first successful application criminal organization status in BC courts involved a cocaine ring out of the Kelowna Marina. The criminal organization wasn't named but the court did hear wire tap evidence where one of the convicted was told to bring some drugs to the clubhouse then gave the address of the Kelowna Hells angels clubhouse.
Don Lyons plead guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine. He was among 18 drug dealers and Hells Angels associates arrested in late 2007 in Project Drill. Demonstrating a clear connection between the Independent Soldiers and the Hells Angels. He was a drug contact/supplier for Lester Jones, VP of the Kelowna Hells Angels. RCMP can name six out of ten founding members of the Kelowna chapter. They are: Grey Holomay, Norm Cox, Damiano Dipololo, Joseph (Bruce) Skreptak, Michael Christiansen and Lester Jones. Holomay and Jones are from the Alberta HA, the others from the Vancouver East End Chapter.
Hells Angels gear was found at a Kelowna Grow op. Another grow op was busted in a house that Joseph (Bruce) Skreptak owned but rented out. He wasn't charged because he claimed it was the renters not him even though his truck was parked outside with a Hells Angels bumper sticker on it and Hells Angel stickers were displayed at the grow op.
Joseph (Bruce) Skreptak was later caught speeding through Salmon Arms with a few associates in a car loaded with weapons including a cell phone jammer. Not long after that bust, a Salmon Arm grow op was found abandoned.
Previously, Brittany Irving who lived on a Kelowna Grow op that was busted and sold pot to pay for her oxycontin habit was murdered. Joey Verma from the Independent soldiers was charged in her murder. He was a known Hells Angels associate and friend of Donnie (Blaze) McWhirter.
Geoff Meisner is still missing and presumed dead. Geoff's father is a retired police officer who worked on the Pickton case. After Brittany Irving's body was found police announced that Geoff Meisner's death was related to the drug trade. His young family was left destitute so his wife applied to the court to have her husband deemed legally dead so she could sell some of the family assets. This was done privately in court. The media got a hold of the court documents which admitted that Geoff was an associate of the Hells Angels and the Kingpin Crew.
Kelowna Hells Angels Norm Cox and Robert Thomas as well as Norm's father Bob from the throttle Lockers were recently charged in the murder of Dain Phillips where Dain was beaten to death with baseball bats and hammers over as highschool kids feud. That was the height of the brazen depravity the group has succumbed to.
Most recently Abbottsford drug dealer Jonathan Bacon was gunned down in public in Kelowna with Hells Angel Larry Amero in the car along with two other Hells Angels relatives or associates and a long time member of the Independent soldiers. Surrey got rid of the Bacon brothers after the horrible Surrey Six murder. Surely Kelowna doesn't want these Surrey rejects in their beautiful community.
The Hells Angels and Organized Crime
Brittany Irving Geoff Meisner Tribute
