Vancouver's lethal cocaine market and covering some media buttcrack

One of the B.C. citizens who were gunned down in Mexico in 2009. Note his blood soaked Hockey Hall of Fame shirt. What the pampered people of Metro Vancouver refuse to accept is that their selfish consumption of "recreational drugs" is causing the slaughter of tens of thousands of people in Latin America, many thousands of them women and children. Every "Justin" and "Traci" living here in "The Greatest Place on Earth" who persists in dialling-for-dope from people like Jinagh Navas-Rivas, is complicit in the murders of people at the source of supply. The news media frequently report that an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people have been butchered in Mexico alone, in the wars between drug distribution networks. The narco-business is so pervasive that law enforcement and civil governments of several Mexican states have fallen under the control of the largest drug gangs.

A few hours after I asked the question "Is the RCMP being coy?" I got my answer when a spokesman for the RCMP in B.C. explained why they used a grainy snapshot of Jinagh Navas-Rivas, instead of the HQ photographs available from news media or from Mayor Robertson's VISION Campaign. The RCMP Sergeant acknowledged that the connection between Mayor Gregor Robertson and his foster son was "in the public domain" but neither RCMP or Vancouver PD were going to comment on it. Hence the reversion to the crappy photo. Good news for the bad guy, who remains at large. The story has already (as of noon today) dropped from the Vancouver Sun main page.

If you have the stamina, you can watch the full briefing by the RCMP Sergeant on the CBC Website HERE It's over ten minutes in length. He refers to the cocaine-Meth-steroid selling gang in Richmond, B.C. as a "dial-a-dope" ring, and he pronounced the suspect name Jinagh as "Jinash". Jinagh Farrouch Navis-Rivas is a curious hybrid name, typical of multicultural Vancouver region. Perhaps one birth parent is North African and the other Latino? The SUN tells us they reside in our area.

What I found more interesting was the Vancouver SUN covering it's buttcrack with a staff editorial. The SUN, which receives an enormous amount of $$$ advertising revenue from Vancouver City Hall, has published an editorial congratulating Mayor Robertson for fostering Jinagh Navas-Rivas "Opinion - Kudos to the Robertson's for taking a chance on a troubled boy" - this while the "boy" is still on the run, along with several fellow outlaws - all possibly armed, considering three handguns have already been seized by Richmond RCMP. (Jump to the SUN and read it for yourself.) Hopefully the SUN will offer equally sincere kudos to any police officer who takes a bullet in the head, fired by any such "troubled" youth.

Simpler folk read something sinister in reports of OPINION CONVERGENCE - the media - the politicians- and the police start wearing kid gloves when dealing with armed drug crews. Jinagh Navas-Rivas isn't a buck-toothed Ozark hillbilly running a little moonshine. He's a good looking, self-assured young leader (remember the dapper Bacon brothers?) who has communed with many of Vancouver's financial-political elite. The smile may fool a Crown Prosecutor next week, but it doesn't deceive those of us grown tired of the handsome young gangsters peddling drugs in our province.

The National Post covered the launch of the free-distribution of crack cocaine smoking kits in downtown Vancouver. The Dec. 30/11 story is here - $60,000 Trial Project The news got got world-wide attention. Even the DRUDGE REPORT (two million page visits per day) linked to the story, which describes efforts of the Health Department to reduce disease associated with the slovenly use of narcotic drugs.

UN Gangster and Game 7 rioter juxtaposed - Which one would make a better neighbour?

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HAPPY HOOLIGANS
At the risk of being the last person in the world to give an opinion on the Stanley Cup Riot, I will throw in a few observations of my own. Rarely do my views coincide with the "Main Stream" so I will not be repeating what's already been written. The initial riot was staged between the CBC building and the Post Office, and created countless photo opportunities as the V.P.D. dispersed the crowd harbouring small pockets of experienced thugs, who roved the downtown seeking soft targets for vandalism. Not so destructive as North American riots go, this event was rather tame, but it stings local pride because of the premium Vancouverites (and their government) place on "image".

I was born and raised in a much grittier province - New Brunswick, so I saw a few riots in my youth which were not recorded by cameras. I recall black versus white rioting, and recall the happy hell raising when this or that police union walked off the job, effectively surrendering a town to the mob. My home city of Saint John, N.B. has a history of rioting and killing (ethnic hatreds and labour clashes) which extends back to the 1840s. I was thinking of the "bad old days" as I watched on TV a pair of Vancouver policemen permitting a crowd of jubilant jerks in Canucks jerseys burn two new patrol cars. Now, we have all seen what four motivated federal troopers can do to an unarmed Polish immigrant at the YVR airport, so this surrender of authority was disheartening to say the least. Were the cops intimidated by this mob of happy hooligans? Really? NO. Something else was going on.

None of the hate inspired ugliness of historical Canadian riots can compare to the Game 7 Riot in Vancouver. This is a new phenomenon. A handsome crowd of middle and upper middle-class British Columbians trashed a downtown district for fun, and for the benefit of the media which had deployed staff to cover an eruption of emotion - win or lose, and was not to be denied. Healthy, happy and fashionably dressed, the rioters photographed themselves for hours, committing acts of vandalism, arson and theft. The media had a hot story to peddle worldwide.

SUPERLATIVES
Vancouverites are a boastful bunch, seemingly starving for attention. What were the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games if not a recklessly expensive exercise in self-promotion. What my generation fails to recognize is the latent hostility and aggression in their children, which is manifested in wasteful and destructive behaviors. The fact that so many outraged citizens sought to shame the rioters, bu outing them online, was a healthy process. It would be a powerful social trend - IF - it continued. I ask myself who ultimately is the more dangerous, a teenager ("elite athlete") who brazenly tries to ignite the gas tank of a police car in the midst of crowd of people, or a gangster cold blooded enough to shoot a rival in the parking lot of an IGA? Another question might be, "Who would you prefer as a neighbor - a teen arsonist or one of the bosses of the U.N. gang?" I would rather have the gangster next door, and the reasoning is simple. The gangster has no reason to harm me, or destroy my property. But who is safe from a brazen teen who has torched a police car in front of cameras and in front of the policemen?

I am just one of many cynics who knew the Game 7 Riot was going to take place. I know that the police prefer containment over suppression, and no doubt the Blue Wall recognized many nieces and nephews in the crowd. Still, the sight of policemen standing by as Nathan Kotylak and his buddies torched their ride, was jarring. I might have preferred one of the cops pull his pistol and warn him "Back away from the taxpayer's property, lawless youth". But they didn't. Now it is left to the general public to respond to an expensive new phenomenon - anarchy as entertainment.

Both premeditated crimes - a destructive riot and a planned murder, evidence a callous disregard for human life, so it might be hard to choose between the thugs. I watched those two police cars being torched on Live television, as did a half million others. We all knew that riot would occur, just as we know that there are still thousands of bored youths in our city who fantasize of their own opportunity to put one over on Vancouver law enforcement. With the proliferation of video and cellphone cameras, it's only a matter of time before a local TV station gets the "scoop" of broadcasting someone being stomped to death, just as we got to witness Robert Dziekanski being electrocuted by RCMP tasers.

Nathan Kotylak, wearing the uniform of the Vancouver Canucks, went downtown to wage war. We don't know all he carried in that backpack, but the old dress shirt he is stuffing into the gas tank of the police cruiser did not materialize from thin air. The "star athlete" does not smoke yet he carries tools to light up. He is wearing a hoody, standard gear for the urban anarchist, but at the Game 7 Riot he chose not to conceal his identity. [Photo scraped from the Net, but attributed to Gerry Kahrmann] Video taken at the crime scene, showing Kotylak throwing burning newspaper through the window of the $50,000 police car, is available on Youtube, as is the press conference Kotylak gave to express his regrets for his part in the riot.

Nathan Kotylak, of Maple Ridge, B.C. , is once again under parental spervision. He is shown here posing with his mother Josephine Kotylak, (a Nurse), and his father Dr. Greg Kotylak. (a Surgeon) After the teenage arsonist was "outed" by Social media, he lawyered up and contacted the Vancouver Police Department. As these are his first criminal acts of record, Kotylak will not be punished. Dr. Kotylak told a reporter that "Nathan's behavior that night does not reflect his true character."

OUTING THE OUTLAWS IN OUR MIDST
Kim Bolan is the famous Vancouver Sun reporter who specializes in local Asian criminals, violent street gangs and Sikh terrorists. Her reports are particularly interesting when she uncovers linkages to the white bread stakeholders in the drug trade - businessmen, lawyers, accountants, realtors, etc. who (witting or unwitting) provide capital or services to the outlaws. On June 21 she shared some of her knowledge of the visit to Burnaby Metrotown of Conor Vincent D'Monte, who is key figure in the UN Gang. Bolan's article is here: Real Estate Council of B.C. probes gang leader's house transactions.

In brief the story is this. A young, healthy male walks into a law office and requests the lawyer witness documents. He wants to transfer sole ownership of his valuable property (7350 Pandora Street , Burnaby) into the hands of his wife, who was said to be a "house wife". It transpired that Ms. Kong had secured employment as a licensed real estate sales person, for the firm which listed the property which D'Monte had transferred to her. The lawyer told the SUN that he did not know that he was witnessing the signature of a local man wanted for murder, and more - he wasn't curious. The SUN published the document on its web page: Had lawyer Larry Routtenburg simply Googled his client "Conor D'Monte", as I did after reading Bolan's story, he would have found on the first page of results an RCMP WANTED Bulletin, complete with colour photograph. The SUN was not implying that the legal profession should begin to 'rat out' clients to FINTRAC or the RCMP, but as a reader I was struck by one more telling juxtaposition - In the same week of saturation news coverage about a widespread effort by law abiding folks to assist their police in identifying the looters and arsonists of the Game 7 Riot, we also read of a professional man with a trained mind, who was not moved to question the motives of a couple who wanted to swap identities on a property.

Conor D'Monte, of Anglo-Indian ancestry, has a Middle Class background shared by several other UN Gang members. He was raised on the west side of Vancouver and his parents were initially involved in the purchase of the Pandora property in 2006. (Ref - Global TV webpage) It was listed In April for $1.58 million. Conor's late father Vincent D'Monte was a family therapist (registered with the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy) and his mother Therese is said to be a photographer. Clearly the D'Monte brothers chose the life of a gangster for reasons other than poverty.

AND FINALLY THIS USEFUL LINK TO GAME 7 RIOT IMAGES- A revealing set of photos taken during the Stanley Cup Game 7 Riot was published on CRYPTOME last week. It's worth a look. VANCOUVER RIOT AS PERFORMANCE ART.

BREAKING NEWS- WAS JULY 7th BURNABY ARSON RETALIATION AGAINST U.N. GANG LEADER D'MONTE ? In the early morning hours of July 7th, one or more intruders placed two propane cylinders against the wall of the Burnaby luxury home owned by UN Gang leader Conor D'Monte, and ignited them. There were two people in the home at the time of the attack. They escaped but the property was heavily damaged. Was this just retaliation in the form of an arson, or attempted murder? We'll never know. D'Monte is currently on the run, and no doubt his wife's phones are all tapped. Burning her out, won't smoke him out. The SUN story, with photo is here. A recent Metrotown arson, the penthouse blaze on Grange Street, was definitely an attempted murder by arson. I recall Blogging that fire in March. the story is HERE.

Kim Bolan exposes a dangerous ex-Mountie

Suddenly Vancouver gang reporting is less boring. I urge you to read Kim Bolan in THE VANCOUVER SUN today: "Ex-cop allegedly pretended to be IHIT member to locate Bacon brothers". We knew that local gangs had infiltrated the real estate industry, that they have lawyers, accountants and even members of the Canadian Border Service on their payroll... but here is something of greater enormity - the precedent of a turned cop begins to make the storyline of local gang wars begin to smell like the legal debacle over the AIR INDIA terrorism case. Once again there is no clear delineation between the good and the bad. Mr. Sidhu needs to get his side of the story before the public, perhaps through a lawyer, because this story has pinned him to the mat.

Ms. Bolan has so thoroughly "outed" Mr. Sidhu today, on the first strafing of her target, that it appears she believes Sidhu is guilty of darker deeds than merely breaching RCMP operational security. That is my impression but you should read the article and form your own conclusions.

This Vancouver SUN graphic accompanies Kim Bolan's hard-hitting page one article. She strips away the official secrecy surrounding the prosecution of disgraced Mountie Rapinder (Rob) Sidhu.

Rapinder (Bob) Sidhu... once an ornament of RCMP "minority hiring"... eleven years an RCMP officer... resigned from the force in July 2003 as a result of domesticate violence complaints... charged with fraud soon thereafter, and known to associate with gang figures... Bolan paints a very murky picture, and then she dismantles Sidhu's front operation - a supposed Private Investigations business called IMAX Investigational Group.

Sidhu posed as a serving officer to successfully breach RCMP security on July 31, 2007 ... was charged in January 2008.... and will finally have his case presented in court on June 17.

Ms. Bolan, while serving a generous dollop of information, including the fact that Rapinder (Rob) Sidhu "had been an undercover operator" while serving in the RCMP, leaves many pertinent questions unanswered. Did Constable Sidhu work undercover here in B.C.? Did Sidhu contribute anything of consequence to the Air India Task Force (acknowledged to be Ms. Bolan's journalistic bailiwick) and if not, what important cases does he carry in his memory? And most important, had any Vancouver Sun reporters ever been briefed by Constable Sidhu or his immediate RCMP coworkers, during those eleven years he served with the Force? Bolan knows virtually every Sikh in Vancouver who has worn a badge, or timed out, so it would be useful to know her earlier impressions of Rapinder Sidhu. Such details have a bearing on how he has been handled to date, and how he will be dealt with in court.

P.M. UPDATE : I thought to take a peak at Ms. Bolan's blog, and I note that she specifies that Sidhu worked on drug cases. Bolan also says, and this is interesting..."I tried to get Sidhu, calling his home and even driving out there Friday evening to knock on his door and leave a note requesting an interview when no one answered. I did finally get a call back from his lawyer Matt Nathanson, who said Sidhu is presumed innocent and will defend the accusations in court. I'll be watching that trial."Mr. Sidhu is now represented by lawyer Matthew Nathanson, a legal beagle frequently mentioned in Bolan crime stories.

Fear and Loathing in Vancouver

Vancouver's gang war, the UN Gang vs Red Scorpions, got boring, so I had stopped commenting on it months ago. The police chief recently admitted on camera that local politicians had been twisting his arm, demanding he not admit what all the bodies in the gutter imply... that it is a war. Many of you get your daily drip of gore from the Vancouver SUN, which gooses each edition with crime news, and links news coverage to Bolan's Blog on the same website. The SUN is now requiring its writing staff to participate in building a web-presence for the newspaper...The inevitable is just over the horizon. The expensive printing and distribution crews will get their pink slips... look for it in 2012, and the paper will go to online subscription.

This morning's SUN story on the Bacon family appearing at the courthouse, featured handsome Jarrod Bacon looking like he wanted to audition for a part in a Bond movie. His photo prompts an anecdote shared with me last week by a Grade 12 student who had just taken his Transitions Exit Interview, a process required by the B.C. curriculum. The student wanted to impress, so he bought a new suit and had his hair cut for the interview. He told me that when he walked into the room the first words out of the teacher's mouth were, "Wow, you look just like a UN gang member!"

I found his story a tad funny because it indicates an apparent shift in local perceptions of criminality. We have a whole new image of what might now be making many local women jittery. Good looking young men... those who keep themselves fit and are well groomed and well dressed, may now be deemed physically threatening.

This prompts the question, "What is the investigative profile of the man who killed Wendy Ladner-Beaudry at Pacific Spirit Park last Friday?" The brutal death of Ms. Ladner, who was a member of Vancouver's ruling elite, has shocked fellow residents of the West Side, those who have always believed that money and class insulated them from the more sordid aspects of Vancouver's social evolution. Are the police looking for some bedraggled, long haired transient, or are the looking for some buffed up young bloke, who was seen in expensive runners and designer sunglasses? Ms. Ladner's husband insists that his wife would have met any attacker with a barrage of blows. It was interesting to read that, in spite of their being overtaxed by almost daily gang killings, the V.P.D. was able to deploy 75 officers and 20 vehicles to the scene of Ms. Ladner's murder, and maintain those assignments ever since. Apparently we have more law enforcement capability than we've been told.

And what to make of the recent Paul Rogers story "FROM HEAVEN TO HELL" published in the THE INDEPENDENT ? (Many opinions held by Vancouver residents are posted online under Rogers' article. Have a read.) Rogers, a visiting scholar at SFU, bit into some tender political flesh with that story. Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell offered reporters an identical denunciation - "a cheap shot", apparently annoyed that foreign media are unwilling to fall into lockstep with the local media.

Mr. Beaudry, who is distraught and angry, told the Vancouver Courier "If there's any good in this, it's that we can't give in to terror. We can't fold. Terror is a great tool, but we can't let terror take over."

Linda Lorraine Howe (seen here in Dec. 2008 Xmas party photo) alleges that she was allowed to slip through the mesh of Canada's social safety net.

What are we to make of Linda Howe? This is the woman who recently brandished two weapons inside a nursing home at Gibson's B.C., when attendants tried to evict her from a room she was no longer entitled to. Ms. Howe's response was to barricade herself in the room. After shooting an attendant she had to be taken down by a police tactical unit. I can understand how Ms. Howe managed to conceal a small Argentinian auto pistol in her room, but how did she manage to cache a .303 Enfield Rifle?

Ms. Howe is here seen in a surveillance photo, taken inside her room at the care home.

Linda Lorraine Howe of Gibsons, B.C. was armed with a 7.65 Bersa auto pistol, which was manufactured in Argentina in the 1970s. Which of her beau's was stupid enough to give this gun to a woman with emotional problems?

Ms. Howe has been alleging for years that our "system" has let her down. Which node of the system in particular? DND, ICBC, BC Health, et al. Howe has told anyone who will listen that she is a Canadian "veteran" of the Gulf War, suffering from "post Traumatic Stress Disorder". Her family have told news media that she made up the Gulf War service but I read in today's GLOBE AND MAIL that she enrolled in a Vancouver Military Reserve Unit for a few months in 1990. On the strength of that abortive attempt to fit in, the GLOBE today dubs Ms. Howe a "Veteran". How does someone who doesn't take enough reserve training to get Trade Qualified, warrant the honour of "Veteran"? Gee whiz !

This screen capture is precious, isn't it? Ms. Howe's crimes are deemed "alleged" but the neophyte reporter confirms her supposed status as a "military veteran". (Based on a few months on the nominal roll of reserve unit.) Ouch. I guess we really did let Linda down.

DEC. 20, 2010 - we learn today that Ms. Howe was sentenced to seven years of detention.