| quasi | 05-26-2019 11:22 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemhg
(Post 8948999)
You'd be VERY surprised my friend.
As I said above, the longshoremen have long been tied with organized crime, if you think what's coming through the ports, Fentanyl for example, isn't related to that, you have another thing coming.
I agree, automate these assholes.
| Agreed, clipped half the article click the link for full thing. https://vancouversun.com/news/staff-...e-of-my-series Quote:
More than two dozen of the longshoremen unloading container ships on the docks of Metro Vancouver are Hells Angels, their associates, other gangsters or people with serious criminal records, a Vancouver Sun investigation has found.
The infiltration of gangsters and criminals into the port workforce is perpetuated by a longtime employment practice that allows existing union members to nominate friends, relatives and associates when new jobs become available.
Police say organized crime maintains this foothold on the waterfront for strategic purposes — so drugs and other contraband can be smuggled in some of the more than 1.5 million containers that pass through the four container terminals at Port Metro Vancouver every year.
Just over three per cent of containers arriving here are checked by the Canada Border Services Agency.
“It is a concern to us. We feel that a lot of the illegal drugs that come into this country come in through our ports,” said Det.-Staff. Sgt. Len Isnor, the country’s top law enforcement expert on the Hells Angels. Isnor, who works for the Ontario Provincial Police, has testified at several major B.C. cases involving the biker gang.
Isnor said the Hells Angels have maintained a foothold in Canada’s three largest ports — Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax — for the past 30 years.
“So as far as the ports are concerned, it’s the whole success of the Hells Angels.”
While airports have tightened security in the post-9/11 world, Metro Vancouver docks remain relatively porous, allowing people linked to organized crime, and even some convicted of international drug smuggling, to work on the waterfront.
The Sun has identified at least six full-patch Hells Angels who are active members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Some have worked on the docks for years, like Al DeBruyn, a senior White Rock Hells Angel who started in 1981 — two years before the HA was set up in B.C.
Other Hells Angels joined the longshoremen more recently. Rob Alvarez of the elite Nomads chapter and Kelowna Angel Damiano Dipopolo started on May 24, 2012. West Point Hells Angel Ryan Sept started just last year, nominated by another full-patch member of his chapter.
Bikers aren’t the only people with links to crime working on the waterfront.
Others who police have publicly identified as gangsters, like Mani Buttar and Bobby Tajinder Gill, are also longshoremen, as are some of their associates.
Buttar has been a member of Local 502, a Vancouver local of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, since 1998. The local provides hundreds of workers a day to Fraser Surrey docks and Deltaport. And Buttar, whose two brothers died in gangland shootings, is on his union’s executive committee despite a lengthy criminal history.
Gill is in jail after police issued a warrant for him several months ago on some outstanding charges.
The Sun has documented 27 active longshoremen with gang or criminal links from various sources of information, including public records and union membership lists.
That number doesn’t include the “inactive” members of the union who are also Hells Angels — East End President John Bryce, Nomads Angel Gino Zumpano, Haney member Vince Brienza, West Point member Larry Amero and former Vancouver president Norm Krogstad.
ILWU national president Mark Gordienko agreed to be interviewed for The Vancouver Sun series. But he cancelled without explanation the day before the interview. He also declined through a spokesman to answer written questions for The Sun.
The Hells Angels did not respond to emailed interview requests.
No criminal checks
Police admit there’s a serious problem when criminals and gangsters have the ability to move drugs and other contraband through Port Metro Vancouver.
A series of government and police reports about organized crime on the waterfront and obtained by the Sun show authorities have been documenting concerns for two decades.
“The presence of numerous members of organized crime groups (OCGs) as dockside employees of the Port of Vancouver, coupled with the ability to access the port by members of OCGs employed in the trucking industry creates a high-risk for smuggling at the port,” says a September 2010 internal Border Services Agency report.
The only way someone can get hired as a longshoreman in B.C. is by the ILWU putting their name forward.
Port Metro Vancouver then issues a basic port pass. A criminal record check is not required, yet the pass allows wide access to the tens of thousands of containers stacked behind locked gates in Vancouver, Surrey and Delta.
Port Metro vice-president Peter Xotta said he was unaware of how many port pass holders are Hells Angels or others with criminal links.
“We certainly don’t have that level of detail,” he said.
“My sense of it is it is much more difficult for this (criminal) activity to occur on the waterfront. That’s not to say that there aren’t elements or individuals on the waterfront and in other parts of working society in Vancouver that aren’t involved in some sort of activity that could give rise to concern.”
Andy Smith, president of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, said his agency is aware of the Hells Angels and others with gang connections on the docks.
“Yes, we are aware of who they are. They make no secret of it,” he said.
But he also said his association’s role is to ensure longshore workers are properly trained, not worry about their criminal histories.
“It is not within my mandate,” Smith said. “We are a service provider to the industry — primarily to labour relations and training and secondarily in terms of government relations and social outreach. In any of those arenas, we have yet to see a situation where someone’s criminal associations or participation in the Hells Angels, or whatever, has been an issue.”
Some of the thousands of dock workers in B.C. also possess a higher-security Transportation Security Clearance pass issued by Transport Canada that allows them inside restricted zones on the waterfront. Workers are screened for links to organized crime and criminal records before those passes, known as TSC, are issued.
But Smith said the restricted zones at the port are small compared to the areas accessed with the general pass.
“If you are talking about access of workers to long rows of containers which are in lightly populated work areas day or night, the TSC doesn’t come into it,” he said.
Guy Morgan, director of security and screening programs for Transport Canada, wouldn’t comment specifically on the Hells Angels or other criminals working on the waterfront. But he said his agency does screen several ways for links to organized crime before issuing the TSC passes.
He suggested the Hells Angels on the Sun’s list don’t have the high-security passes — though he wouldn’t say so directly or comment on any individuals.
“If Transport Canada receives any information that an existing clearance holder poses a security threat, we act on it,” Morgan said.
By contrast, airport workers who handle baggage and cargo “have to have the security clearance under the Transport Canada program,” Vancouver airport Authority spokesman Chris Devauld said.
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