operation would trigger a gang war with Chinese drug traffickers

Vancouver gangster set up Philippine drug ring with Mexican cartel: Investigators feared their operation would trigger a gang war with Chinese traffickers

By Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun January 17, 2014

 

James Clayton Riach (right) and Ali Memar Mortazavi Shirazi wait for their inquest proceeding at the Department of Justice in Manila, Philippines, Jan. 16, 2014.

Photograph by: Bullit Marquez , AP

Police in the Philippines believe Vancouver gangster James Riach was working directly with a Mexican cartel when he set up a major drug operation in Manila last year.
Rommell Vallejo, chief of the Anti-Organized and Transnational Crime Division of the National Bureau of Investigation, said Riach and three other Canadians have been charged with importing and manufacturing $2.25 million worth of cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamine.
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“They were in direct communication with people from Mexico,” Vallejo told The Vancouver Sun in a phone interview from the Philippines.
Riach, fellow Vancouver gangsters Barry Espadilla and Ali Shirazi and a fourth man purporting to be a Canadian, Tristan Olazo, were arrested during a pre-dawn raid on three Manila luxury apartments Wednesday.
Also taken into custody at one of the units where police found Valium was Espadilla’s partner, Tara Hadden-Watts, Vallejo confirmed.
He said she was released later that day after producing a prescription for the Valium.
“She will still be subjected to investigation,” Vallejo said. “We received information that she is actually part of the group. Even when they were still in Canada, she was an active member of the group.”
He said the group “arrived in the Philippines six or seven months ago and immediately, they established their network.”
“They imported the raw materials and even some finished product and they started their distribution of illegal drugs right away,” Vallejo said.
He said the NBI was not in contact with the RCMP before busting the Canadian gang after a two-month investigation into designer drugs being sold in Manila nightclubs.
“We didn’t have time to communicate with the Canadian police because there was a time constraint. We received information that they were transferring their base of operation from one place to the other,” he explained.
However, his agency did receive information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration about the Independent Soldiers gang that Riach and Espadilla belonged to in B.C.
“We received information that this group is on their watch list,” he said.
Riach and Espadilla have also been part of a gang coalition called the Wolf Pack, made up of some IS members, Red Scorpions and Hells Angels.
Vallejo said the drug bust was the first of its kind of a Canadian gang operating in Manila.
“In my personal experience it is the first time I’ve seen a group like this,” he said. “The usual suspects here are Chinese triads.”
Particularly concerning was information the Canadians were undercutting the drug prices of the Chinese by a large margin, which had police fearing a future gang war.
“I personally believe that if this goes unchecked, the drug cartel in Mexico can enter the market and I believe that eventually this could result in a drug war.”
Police have only located a passport for Riach so far, but are asking the other suspects to provide their documents to police, Vallejo said.
He said that while the death penalty is still in the criminal code for drug offences, it has been suspended since 2006.
“If they are convicted, they will spending the rest of their lives in jail,” Vallejo said.