OFF THE WIRE
METRO VANCOUVER - Police specialists raided large clandestine methamphetamine labs in Vancouver and Surrey Thursday believed to be linked to the Hells Angels biker gxxg.
And Sgt. Bill Whalen, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said the labs had recently been operational, producing millions of dollars worth of synthetic drugs over just a few months.
Police also raided three residential properties as part of the months-long investigation by CFSEU's Outlaw Motorcycle Gxxg Enforcement Unit. Two men have been taken into custody and police are searching for three others, Whalen said.
More than 150 police from various forces executed the search warrants simultaneously beginning at 5 a.m. Thursday, including members of the RCMP, Vancouver Police, Municipal and RCMP Emergency Response Teams and the Clandestine Laboratories Unit.
The largest lab was found in East Vancouver in a warehouse at 2659 Lillooet Street where a company named Pharmaceuticals is based. Throughout the day Thursday, firefighters, hazard materials specialists and police remained at the scene just off East Broadway and Lillooet. Half a block was behind police tape.
The B.C. Corporate registry shows that the company has a single director named Kourosh Bakhtiari, who has no criminal history in B.C.
Bakhtiari, 50, is listed as living at 103-1155 Pacific Street in Vancouver. While police would not release the names of those arrested, one of the properties searched was in the 1100-block of Pacific Street.
His company was founded in January 2004, according to corporate records, but was dissolved on July 14, 2008 for failing to file annual records in Victoria.
Ultrascience shows up on international shipping logs as having imported goods from both South Korea and China last year, including chemical mixing machine called an"ultrasonic homogenizer" and men's clothing. The shipments were sent to a Richmond address on Bridgeport Road.
Throughout the day Thursday, firefighters, hazard materials specialists and police remained at the scene just off East Broadway and Lillooet. Half a block was behind police tape.
The second major lab was found at 101-9465 189 Street in Surrey in an industrial unit owned by a company called H & A Industries. Hendrik and Agnes Du Randt are listed as the directors of the company and the owners of the unit. They did not return phone calls Thursday. Neither has any previous criminal history in B.C.
Hendrik Du Randt, 59, took over as president of the company in January 2008. There appears to be several liens registered on machines and equipment owned by Du Randt and H&A.
"Certainly we believe that both locations that we have kicked in today - the Ultrascience Pharmaceuticals and the H & A Industries location were operating meth labs in the last little while," Whalen said.
Police also searched high-rise apartments in Port Moody in the 200-block of Newport Drive and in the 400-block Capilano Road.
"We located both precursors and finished product at both of those locations," Whalen said.
Standing outside the Vancouver lab, he said an operation of that scale running for half a year would bring in "millions of dollars."
Insp. Rob Johnston, who heads CFSEU's biker unit, said the current investigation is just one his team has undertaken over the last year "and it demonstrates organized crime's continued involvement in chemical drug production."
And he said the two large-scale labs "pose a serious safety risk."
"We will continue to use every enforcement opportunity we can to pursue organized criminals who put the public in danger by the production of these drugs," Johnston said.
Police have not provided details on how the labs are linked back to the bikers under investigation. Nor did they provide details of what Hells Angels chapters or puppet clubs are believed to be involved.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Police+bust+million+dollar+meth+labs+believed+linked+Hells+Angels/5865978/story.html
