Pubdate: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Kim Bolan Note: MAP archives articles exactly as published, except that our editors may redact the names and addresses of accused persons who have not been convicted of a crime, if those named are not otherwise public figures or officials. GANG LEADER'S LIFE CAUGHT ON TAPE [name redacted] boasts of drug connections, talks of buying guns in wiretaps before his arrest The day before United Nations gang leader Clay [name redacted] was arrested as he tried to enter Mexico last year, he and an associate chatted in his Coquitlam condo about Armani, hot yoga and drug deals. Ganging up: from left, Johnny (K9) Croitoru, Lou [name3 redacted], unknown, Clay [name redacted], unknown, and Elliot (Taco) Castaneda. Croitoru is now charged in B.C. with conspiring to kill the Bacon brothers, Kawaach and Castaneda were shot to death in Mexico in July 2008. [name redacted] had already started packing for the trip, which he expected to last just "five or six days," according to a police wiretap obtained by The Vancouver Sun. He had no idea that 24 hours later, he would be sitting in a Texas cell, turned away from Mexico and facing a series of conspiracy and money laundering charges that could see him spend the next 30 years behind bars. [name redacted] sounds cocky and confident on the hours and hours of recordings filed as exhibits at the U.S. District court registry. The wiretaps provide a fascinating glimpse into the massive cross-Canada undercover operation targeting the notorious B.C. gang founded by [name redacted] in 1997. Agents from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit planted listening devices in a Montreal hotel room and inside several Lower Mainland residences, including [name redacted]'s. They bugged cellphones, land lines and cars. They monitored text messages. And they followed their targets for months, snapping photos with long lenses. The recordings provided to the U.S. Attorney for [name redacted]'s sentencing in Seattle next week show the Fraser Valley boyturned gang leader enthusiastically discussing drug deals, gun purchases, international connections, rivalries and alliances. Heboasts of connections in China, India, Mexico and South America. And he also chats about the more mundane - home decor, fashion and even growing old and whether Botox might reduce wrinkles. Talked of drug deals The Sun obtained several hours of the recordings made between late 2007 up to May 16, 2008 - the day before [name redacted]'s arrest. "I amwearing shorts today - too hot," [name redacted] told a person identified in court documents as UN associate [name2 redacted]. [name redacted], then 33, complained that his hip was killing him after a fight in Montreal the previous month. "I am falling apart. Tendonitis in the elbow, my hips f---ed up," he complained. " I am leftlegged. I used to knock people out with my left leg like all the time.. my flexibility is not the same." [name2 redacted] suggested that hot yoga might help. "WhenIwent to hot yoga, [the instructor] looked at me and said 'oh, you are a project,'" [name2 redacted] said. "I never sweated so much in my life. I can't do it again. It is too much for me. I nearly puked." They spoke of their trip, whether they needed a passport for Mexico and how much cash each was bringing to the wedding of another UN gangster from B.C. [name redacted] agreed with [name2 redacted] that Armani makes the best shirts - particularly the Vnecks. "The one I got in Montreal is pretty sick," [name redacted] said. And then they got down to business. [name2 redacted] talked about getting 55 kilograms of "kush" - slang for marijuana - and the profit he would make from it. And [name redacted] said he needed [name2 redacted] to pick up a quantity of drugs before the trip. "Pick up the eight and then pick up the 20 in the morning. The money's being dropped off for the 20 right now," [name redacted] ordered. Hegave [name2 redacted]acode to use in the transaction - 777. " You know [$ 18,500] for everything is a really good price for drugs right now," [name redacted] said. He complained to [name2 redacted], who has not been charged despite incriminating comments on the tapes, that some "Chinese guys" are holding a large shipment of his drugs. "It is f---ing bullshit. I won't deal with them. There is abunch of guys - a big crew - they're holding my shit right now. They are making up lies. They are slimy," [name redacted] said. " I just want to reach across the table and slap them." [name redacted] boasts that he can " kill anybody's price." [name redacted] repeated the UN rules in several different wiretapped conversations, talking to various associates. Sometimes he would forget one or two of the points. He never explained why the rules exist. The first rule is never to have sex with someone's wife, [name redacted] said. Rule two is "don't let anyone touch your head," [name redacted] said. "Don't walk under a clothesline. Don't drink out of someone else's glass - if you have your own it is okay. If you wash it out, you can use it." Gang members also cannot eat "dog, cat or snake," [name redacted] said, adding that pork was okay. "All those things take away the power," he said. He also said UN members could not wear a symbolic string to a funeral. " The dead bodies suck the spirit out of it." Practice shots heard The violence of the gangland world is also a common theme. [name2 redacted] mentioned a business trip back east with Ricardo Scarpino, agangster executed in downtown Vancouver in January 2008. [name redacted] told his associate that people were after [name2 redacted] on that trip and wanted to kill him because they thought he "f---ed up the market." On March 27, 2008, just after 1:30 p.m., [name redacted] welcomed a visitor to his 13th-floor condo. The unidentified man is talking to [name redacted] about a firearm he had worked on for the gang boss. The gunsmith said he had made sure his product was quiet. The clicking of practice shots can be heard, along with [name redacted] laughing. " T h a t ' s what we want," [name redacted] said of the reduced sound. "That's the whole point. There is no f---ing point to this if it doesn't work. You getabig f--ing charge-who wants that?" After [name redacted] was arrested, police found a Glock inside his condo that had been illegally smuggled from Washington state. The tapes include occasional concerns by the UN gangsters that law enforcement was on to them. [name redacted] joked with one associate that his cellphone might be bugged by police. And when he was chatting in the apartment of another associate, which was also bugged by police, they both expressed concern that a girlfriend of Lou [name3 redacted], their connection in Mexico, was an undercover operator. "They don't trust the female. They think she is maybe a possible fed from Interpol or something," [name redacted] said. "She just magically calls him on his line. She is super hot. Like very possessive. A freak in bed. Never leaves the house. Always asking questions.. She keeps trying to get him to go back up here. If he came back up here they could grab him and do whatever they wanted to him. He would be screwed. Right? They probably want him pretty bad because he has done a lot of shit." [name redacted] describes [name3 redacted] as "a ladies man," always trying to rap about his gangster life in Mexico. "We are going to take you for a ride in Guadalajara and throw you in the ditch and say sayonara," [name redacted] said, laughing. [name3 redacted] was gunned down in Guadalajara i n July 2008 along with [name4 redacted], another UN gang member from Abbotsford. Both murders remain unsolved. Despite the UN gang's reputation as a tolerant multi-ethnic crime group, [name redacted] is heard on the wiretaps using derogatory terms for blacks, Chinese and Mexicans. Gripes about young cops [name2 redacted] and [name redacted] chatted about much more than the drug business as agents listened clandestinely. When [name redacted] visited his friend's condo in February 2008, he complimented [name2 redacted] on his home improvement projects - " The kitchen looks pimped," he said. "You painted your bedroom my colour. It is a relaxing colour." [name2 redacted] agreed, " It is a relaxing colour - I love my house right now. It is f---ing beautiful." [name2 redacted] complained that cops these days were younger and younger - one he saw recently looked like "an SFU student. I never would have guessed he was a cop." [name redacted] then contemplated aging: "What are you going to do when you get old? Botox your head?" Gangsters chat about drugs, guns, money and the mob Clayton [name redacted] and his associates travelled to Montreal in April 2008 to watch an ultimate fighting championship event. He held court in room 407 of the W-Hotel with organized crime contacts stopping by. One of those was a Mafia leader, according to documents filed in the U.S. court. Spending lots of time with [name redacted], according to court documents, was Johnny (K-9) Croitoru, the professional wrestler now charged in B.C. with plotting to kill the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion associates. "There is one big crazy guy out here who f---ing thinks theMexicans and the UN are f---ing up the market," [name redacted] told the person identified in court documents as Croitoru. "They are just having meetings because the Mexicans before I was involved were just straight flooding the city." [name redacted] bragged to Croitoru that there were two Montreal " crews" that wanted to work with the UN. " And they got 70 guys out here. But they sort of stay neutral. They like to be quiet and make money," [name redacted] said. Croitoru told [name redacted] that he had his own contact who wanted to work with them. "He makes 25 keys a month of this crystal meth," Croitoru said. "We could get rich with this." Croitoru explained that his methmanhadabeef with someone and needed protection. "I'll get the f---ing money for protection and we'll get good prices for the s---," Croitoru said. [name redacted] agreed, " We can make tons." Croitoru suddenly realized that a visitor to room 407 has forgotten his man purse. " Hey dawgie, give him his pouch," he said to [name redacted], as the UN boss opened the door and yelled down the hallway. The pouch owner didn't return. "There are guns in the pouch," Croitoru said. "He's got a nice little f---ing 15 with a clip in it." "Nice," [name redacted] said, adding that he would keep it. [name redacted] said that he has been working with South American drug cartels. "I got given a big responsibility by the guys way down south, I am just hoping that it works out." Croitoru asked for a piece of the action. "Dawgie, when are you going to let me in to make big, big money? "You've got connections buddy. Let's make it happen," Croitoru said. [name redacted] complained that other traffickers had not been giving him a cut. "Ihave to makemyown moves and s---, which I've been doing. I think that one collectionI got is good, right," [name redacted] said. And he said he has another collection in the works linked to "bikers' buddies." "In the long run we'll make money. This guy has got the No. 1 flower line in L.A. CODs everything. Hebuys E," [name redacted] said. "We can get some cheap labour and everything from him. And because the other guy who owns him owes us money, we can just take it over." [name redacted] worried the mobster would be nervous if Croitoru remained in the room. "I don't want to sketch this guy out," [name redacted] said. "He doesn't want to seenobody. Heis like an oldtimer." Croitoru offered to act as [name redacted]'s bodyguard and stand outside in the hallway. "This guy controls all the import and exports, the transportation in Eastern Canada," [name redacted] said. "He gets product on an airplane in Venezuela." [name redacted] said he got some chromium, a chemical that can be used to produce illegal pharmaceuticals. "I got some s---I want to f--with," [name redacted] said. [name redacted] laughed when he told Croitoru that his associates were down in the hotel bar. "All our guys are sitting with the mob and bikers. They are sharing a table," [name redacted] said. "Hopefully it works out right." He triumphantly declared to Croitoru that he had "f---ing keys all over the city right now." [name redacted] also said that he had been in the drug trade since he was 19, but blew most of his money in the early years. "I don't know what the f---I did with all my money back then. I just spent it like a f---ing idiot. I don't know what the hell I had to show for it," [name redacted] said. "You would just go out with 30 guys and catch the bill and you would be broke." On an earlier recording, [name redacted] also reminisced about the good old days and how his associates were buying "1,000 poundsaweek" of pot from him. "They had three f---ing rental houses and we would come in with garbage bags full of this s--and they would be counting and weighing and bagging and tagging and looking and giving prices and I had all my weed guys because they were all from the valley. I knew every grower in the country." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D